India and Singapore strengthened their ties on Thursday with the exchange of four significant Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the island nation. The MoUs cover collaboration in digital technologies, the semiconductor sector, health and medicine, and education and skills development.
The agreements were signed at Singapore’s Parliament House by India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in the presence of Prime Ministers Modi and Lawrence Wong.
The first MoU, signed between India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information, focuses on cooperation in digital technologies. This includes digital public infrastructure, cyber-security, 5G, super-computing, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and upskilling workers in the digital domain.
The second MoU establishes a partnership for the India-Singapore semiconductor ecosystem, facilitating cooperation in semiconductor cluster development and talent cultivation. Singaporean companies, integral to the global semiconductor value chain, are keen to invest in India, and the dialogue mechanisms under this MoU will facilitate these investments.
The third MoU between the health ministries of both nations focuses on cooperation in health and medicine, promoting joint research, innovation, and human resource development in healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
The final MoU, signed between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India and Singapore’s Ministry of Education, aims to enhance collaboration in technical and vocational education, complementing ongoing skill development initiatives between the two countries.
Prime Minister Modi and Lawrence Wong also visited the semiconductor facility of AEM Holdings Ltd in Singapore, where they explored synergies in semiconductor manufacturing.
PM Modi’s visit to the facility underscores the significance of trade opportunities in this sector, where India’s abundant land and skilled labor can complement Singapore’s developed semiconductor industry.
Singapore’s semiconductor industry spans the entire value chain, including IC design (MediaTek, Qualcomm, AMD), assembly and testing (ASE Group, UTAC), wafer fabrication (GlobalFoundries, Micron), and equipment manufacturing (Soitec, Applied Materials). The visit highlights India’s potential role in expanding this industry, with opportunities in talent development, knowledge sharing, and potential investment by Singaporean companies in India.
(With ANI inputs)