Sunday, August 21 2005 14:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), signed by the two countries in June, is expected to lead to substantial jump in two-way trade and investments, a senior government official said yesterday (August 20, 2005).

"Singapore's total outward investments are to the tune of 275 billion dollar and India's share is a miniscule 0.6 per cent at 1.6 billion dollar. The CECA would result in greater FDI flow to India," Director in the Commerce Ministry Krishna Gupta said at a Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) seminar.

Singapore is the 11th largest foreign investor in India with majority of the investments coming into telecom, financial services, fuels, electrical equipment and transport sectors and the CECA would open new avenues for investments from the Asian powerhouse, he said.

Bilateral trade is also set to go up with the agreement, he said, adding India's share in Singapore's total imports at present is much below potential. Singapore's total global imports are 162 billion dollars and India's share is just about 2 per cent at 4.7 billion dollar.

India's exports to Singapore have risen substantially during the past three years when negotiations on CECA began. Indian exports grew from 2.5 billion dollar in 2003 to 4.7 billion dollar a year later and 3.3 billion dollar in the first half of 2005.

Bilateral trade has grown over 76 per cent since 2000, Gupta said, adding the CECA would further boost trade between the two countries.