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Multi-dimensional Singapore exhibition shines the spotlight on India

SINGAPORE: Designed to capitalise on the Singapore-India “inter-connectivity” and to celebrate “the new, optimistic India,” a multi-dimensional exhibition was inaugurated here on Wednesday.

As a five-day show, the “Source from India” exhibition is being organised to shine the spotlight on Indian firms, products, and services. The expo heralds a series of events planned here over the next several days to present India as the “focus of the world.” Dotting this calendar are a two-day “conclave” under the title “Opportunity India,” a cultural festival, a business “carnival” to stimulate “creative abilities,” and a food festival, besides the expo itself. The entire programme is being held under the auspices of the India-based Zak Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd.

Inaugurating the exhibition, the Singapore Minister of State for Trade and Industry, S. Iswaran, hailed the “increasing inter-connectivity” between India and the City-State. Trade and corporate interactions were now becoming “a very important element” of the Singapore-India equation that was already defined by “cultural, historical, and people-to-people links” as well, Mr. Iswaran noted.

“Critical” to the newly evolving and “value-enhancing” bonhomie was the “flow of people and ideas.” In this context, the expo would “enhance the level of mutual awareness” about the capabilities of the two sides and the vistas of opportunities open to them in the economic domain.

Mr. Iswaran emphasised the importance of Singapore as “a gateway to the regional markets of the Association of South East Asian Nations.” Now estimated to number over 2,500, the Indian companies here accounted for the “fastest-growing contingent of foreign companies in Singapore.” Firms of the City-State, too, could “collaborate with Indian capabilities in third country markets.”

Citing tourism as a growing dimension of the India-Singapore interactions, the Minister said: “The important thing is to be able to jointly position” themselves for meeting the felt needs of travellers from northeast Asia. Buddhism-related tourism in India was an obvious opportunity in this regard.

Commending the Zak Group for setting up an office in Singapore, the Minister portrayed this as an aspect of the “deepening” ties between the two countries.

On the timing of the expo, India’s High Commissioner to Singapore, S. Jaishankar, said: “If you associate optimism, confidence, self-assurance as qualities of youth, then India is starting to get young” even as it turned 60.

Emphasising the importance of Singapore to India in this post-modern milieu, Dr. Jaishankar said: “The real credit for discovering this new, optimistic India goes to Singapore. Singapore responded to the first signs of change in India in a way which no other country did. The result of which is that our relationship has really taken off.”

Noting that “the fundamentals of the relationship are in place,” he said, “what we need to do is to bring to Singapore a full flavour of everything that is India.”

Felicitating the Zak Group, Chairman of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, M. Rajaram, said the trade between the two countries stood at more than 20 billion Singapore dollars at the end of 2006. Hailing the boom in the Indian corporate presence in Singapore, Mr. Rajaram said the Indian tourist arrivals here last year were also of the order of 8,00,000. And the Indian tourists constituted “the highest spending group” among all visitors to Singapore.

Chairman and Managing Director of the Zak Group, Syed Zakir Ahmed, said the expo was “the largest-ever ‘Source from India’ exhibition outside India under one roof.” Over 200 Indian companies from 12 diverse sectors were represented.

Suhasini Maniratnam, who will present an English play and the Indian cultural festival as part of the series of planned events, introduced the speakers at the inaugural function.

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