Bilateral trade between Singapore and India grew at a rate of 20 percent year-on-year to reach 28.8 billion Singapore dollars (20.13 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, a Singapore official said on Wednesday.
This has made India one of Singapore's fastest growing trade partners, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education S Iswaran said at the inaugural India Invest 2009, organized by the Singapore's Indian Chamber of Commerce.
He also said that investment flows have seen exceptional growth, with Singapore's investments into India more than quadrupled since 2005.
However, notwithstanding these significant advancements, he said that there is a clear opportunity to take economic links between India and Singapore up several notches.
One avenue is for Singapore to play a complementary role linked to India's plans to develop its infrastructure, he said, as the Indian government announced plans to boost investment in infrastructure to more than 9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2014.
He said that Singapore can potentially contribute to this effort in a couple of ways, one area being the professional expertise such as urban planning, development and housing. The other area is in financing whereby Indian infrastructure projects can tap international capital sources through Singapore.
A second avenue is for Indian businesses to draw on Singapore's strengths as a gateway to the region.
A third avenue, he said, is for Singapore-based companies to collaborate with their Indian counterparts to serve the fast growing needs of the Indian domestic market, noting that India's economic surge and growing middle class are creating significant opportunities in diverse sectors and regions./.