Finance Minister’s visit to Singapore: Will hold bilateral talks with global investors; Discussion on big investments in semiconductor, gift city and capital market

Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has arrived in Singapore on a high-level official visit with the aim of establishing India as a global manufacturing, supply chain and financial hub. The main objective of this strategic visit is to accelerate the flow of long-term Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) to India from Singapore, the largest financial center in the ASEAN region. During the visit, the Finance Minister will hold a series of roundtables and one-on-one meetings with global institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds (such as Temasek and GIC), leading pension funds, fintech companies and technology industrialists.

Considering Singapore’s established technical expertise in the global chip supply chain, the primary focus of the visit will be on deepening cooperation under the ‘India Semiconductor Mission’ (ISM).

• Chip Assembly and Testing (ATMP/OSAT): India will offer 50% of the financial subsidies and favorable ecosystem available in India to major chip manufacturers in Singapore for setting up semiconductor packaging, testing and wafer fabrication units.

• Electronics Ecosystem: There will be detailed discussions with industry representatives on skill development, technology transfer and strengthening of component supply chains under the semiconductor partnership signed between India and Singapore.

Singapore has been the largest source of foreign portfolio and institutional capital into India. The Finance Ministry will introduce policy reforms to further facilitate direct participation of foreign investors in the Indian capital market:

• Gift Nifty and Cross-Border Trading: The progress of NSE IX-SGX (NSE IX-SGX GIFT Connect) operated in Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (GIFT City IFSC) will be reviewed. Investors will be informed about the tax incentives for setting up funds in India’s only International Financial Services Center (IFSC).

• Sovereign Green Bonds and Infrastructure Funds: Discussions will be held on raising long-term capital from Singapore’s sovereign funds for India’s National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), railways, ports and renewable energy projects.

• Investing in Corporate Bond Market: The inclusion of Indian Government Securities (G-Secs) in global bond indices (such as the JP Morgan Bond Index) will highlight new opportunities in India’s debt market for Singapore institutional investors.

Following the successful integration of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow, both the countries have emerged as leading partners in digital financial innovations.

• Talks will move forward between the central banks and financial institutions of the two countries on cross-border instant payments, low-cost remittances and possible cross-border trials of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

• There will also be discussions on providing platforms to Indian fintech startups to expand into Singapore and South-East Asian markets and regulatory coordination.

India’s strong GDP growth rate, controlled inflation and strong foreign exchange reserves will position investors as a safe and high-yield destination amid ongoing global economic uncertainties and geopolitical turmoil. The Finance Minister will also meet the top leadership of the Government of Singapore and the Deputy Prime Minister to review bilateral economic, trade and strategic priorities.