India-Singapore Economic & Energy Cooperation

Singapore, May 15 (PTI) Singapore and India have a multifaceted economic partnership that is anchored by strong bilateral trade and investment links, a Singaporean minister said Friday.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Gan Siow Huang also asserted that energy transition solutions cannot come from a single sector alone as she discussed the future of the two countries' partnerships at the 2nd India-Singapore Futures Forum here.

"Our governments have also established partnerships to support economic cooperation. The India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) is a type of platform that allows high-level, ministerial discussion on areas that we believe will help us strengthen the trade and investment between both countries," Gan noted in her keynote address at the forum.

The event was organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank of the National University of Singapore.

Gan highlighted that the two countries possess complementary strengths and, together, they are well-positioned to do more in areas such as digitalisation, sustainability, advanced manufacturing, healthcare & medicine, skills development, and connectivity.

She also called for international cooperation to accelerate the transition towards low-carbon energy systems while balancing sustainability, energy security and affordability. "No country can successfully tackle climate change or navigate the energy transition alone. Partnerships enable us to share expertise, develop common standards and also to scale solutions that would be difficult to achieve in isolation," Gan elaborated.


In his address to the forum, the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore Dr Shilpak Ambule said considerable progress has been made on several fronts through the India-Singapore Roadmap for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP).

Quoting how Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC announced fresh round of investment in Indian space startup, Skyroot, last week which led to its valuation raising to around USD1.1 billion, Ambule said, "Such investments signal the high level of comfort that Singaporean investors have with India and potential that they see in the India growth story."

Both sides are working on implementing the agreement of establishing Green and Digital Shipping Corridors -- signed by prime ministers of the two countries in September 2025 in New Delhi -- between Indian ports and Singapore, he said and listed the sectors such as AI, semiconductors, skilling, investments, defence and maritime connectivity etc that India has worked with Singapore over the last one year.

The Singapore minister also said the two countries are also exploring cooperation to support emissions reduction projects and facilitate the development of high-quality carbon credits, the minister informed the Forum delegates.

"The energy transition is not only a technological challenge, but also an economic one that we are all faced with. Platforms like today's forum matter because solutions usually do not come from a single sector alone," she said.

The minister cited the example of a Singaporean company supporting India's decarbonisation efforts through renewable energy investments across 13 Indian states, with a renewables portfolio of about 7.6 GW.

She also gave an example of another of the Singapore-India Green and Digital Shipping Corridor under which Singapore and India will work with industry partners to support the maritime sector's transition to zero or near-zero emission fuels while strengthening digitalisation across supply chains.