Singapore envoy: ‘Gujarat, Haryana, UP, Assam (all good for investment)…If a state govt will continue is always on our mind’

Our company Surbana Jurong has got approval to build 15,000 housing units in four districts of Gujarat — Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat. The project having 1,000 units in Hathijan (Ahmedabad) is in phase six. These housing units are built for weaker sections of society and are priced at Rs 5.5 lakh (1 BHK, 400 square feet) where the government is giving a subsidy of Rs 3 lakh. The housing units are in 1 BHK and 2BHK formats. This project is modelled after the Singapore Public Housing project of the late 1960s. The Singapore government’s role is to look at the project costing and design, the management of the estate, and how to integrate some of the best practices from Singapore. It is to prove to the wider society that public housing is not bad housing. It is viable, you can cover some of the costs with subsidies, and can uplift people’s lives.

What is the technology used?

In the Gujarat context, in many big cities in India, it (housing) is very concrete-based. We are trying to look at the terrain — you do not need retention walls, no thick walls where water flows down because of gravity. Using natural environment to cut costs. Basic material is what is found naturally on land.

Do you also ensure there is no ghettoisation in these projects?

We try to advise based on the experience we have in Singapore, but it is ultimately the (Gujarat) government that will allot and sell those units. We will not interfere. The state has a lottery system for allocating the housing units. In Singapore, we map the ethnic composition where about 9-10 per cent are Indians, close to 20 per cent are Malays, then there are Chinese and others. But we try to match this in housing units. We kind of force different communities to stay together and once this happens, your children interact, go to school together, the friction reduces as people try to understand each other. About 40 per cent of marriages in Singapore are inter-race and inter-faith. In housing, we are present in 10 cities in India but the project in Gujarat is more successful because the government of Gujarat pays a lot of attention to the finer details — what Prime Minister Modi ji describes as ease of living.

What has been the impact of your prime minister’s remark about the Indian parliament in February?

After what my prime minister said in (the Singapore) Parliament, there were clarifications from both sides. From the Indian side, they are satisfied with what we clarified. It is part and parcel of what my prime minister has to say in Parliament. The whole speech was broadcast on YouTube and many of our Indian friends have seen the entire debate. Basically, what my prime minister had in mind was that our forefathers have set very high standard…of understanding different races, understanding of not being corrupt, the understanding of not telling lies in Parliament. It was specifically to deal with one MP who told a lie in Parliament. What my PM said is that we must maintain the standards of our forefathers. That is the context. My prime minister spoke of India, Israel and the UK. I think the episode is behind us right now. Following that episode (External Affairs Minister) S Jaishankar visited Singapore and the two prime ministers met on the sidelines of G-20.

What was your meeting at the BJP headquarters recently about?

I think because of the 42nd foundation day of the BJP, the party central leadership decided to engage with foreign diplomats based in Delhi. It wanted to explain policy to the wider diplomatic community. So, 14 of us were chosen as the first batch to meet JP Nadda and have a three-hour, closed-door, no-holds barred, you-can-ask-him-any-question discussion with him. I think the BJP wants to do it more often. We were in the first batch, so to answer the earlier question, that episode with my prime minister is over. There were three Asian countries, including Singapore, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Others were from Europe such as France, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, and Romania. I think the BJP’s purpose was that they wanted to thank some of these countries for the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine.

For Singapore, I can say it was because it is one important part of ASEAN, which is now closely working with the government and also the party. We have been a close partner of India and the number one investor for the past five to six years. During the Delta wave, Singapore was the first country to go all out in support (of India) without any conditions. I imagine this is the reason.

How do you see the world order post the Russia-Ukraine war?

A lot of people are speculating whether the world alignment will become bipolar again. Post-1989, with the dissolution of the USSR, people thought it would either be a unipolar or multipolar world. Now, people are looking at it from a Cold War lens to see if the world will be divided again into two parts. The alliances with Russia and China, and then the Western world and their allies. My prime minister made a speech recently to caution that the world is so interconnected now that if we split it again, then literally the supply chain and global economic activities will be halved.  We are going to have a lot of tussles between superpowers, but a small country like Singapore cannot afford to choose sides. It is too integrated. My prime minister just visited the US and he gave the same message to President (Joe) Biden. There are two issues here — one is aggression, which we do not condone, which we condemned in the UN. The other is the aftermath of this aggression…splits the world into two and countries have to choose sides, then it will be problematic. India itself is caught in the crossfire.

For Singapore, which sectors in India are the most attractive for investment?

Since 1995, our stock of FDI in India is close to $120 billion. We have investments in the traditional areas of developing industrial parks and commercial buildings. We are looking at new areas — green energy in particular, data storage centres, fintech, investing in current and future unicorns of India. The new area where we are interested is space technology. We have held talks with ISRO. We are interested in the commercial aspects of space, satellite delivery systems, and satellite technologies because we feel there must be an integration of evidence-based climate change data that can only be obtained with nano satellite technology. We are looking at low-cost nano satellites that can observe and record climate change. We are also exploring space for 6G and 7G technologies. India is among the top five space tech countries in the world. We are also waiting for legislation to pass on space law.

How are the investments coming up in GIFT City?

In October last year, SGX opened its office in GIFT City. Our plan is to begin seamless trading between NSE and SGX by July this year. As of now, we are doing all the tests. If you look at the trade volume right now with NSE-SGX in NIFTY, it is about $6 billion. We want to make the tunnel bigger and move towards larger trade. In our discussion with IFSCA (International Financial Services Centres Authority) and GIFT City authorities, we want to pump this trade volume to about $18-20 billion. Our partner is TCS, which is helping us build the seamless tunnel. Our Singapore Arbitration Centre has already set up a branch in GIFT City and we are now waiting for trade to happen.

How do you see the pace of development in GIFT City?

The ambition of GIFT City is to be on par with international standards and India has the carrying capacity to become a leading financial centre in this region. If we want to maximise on laws to catch illegal transactions or black money, normal trade will be discouraged because the laws are too complicated. So (you have to choose whether) you want to maximise protection or randomly pick on the black money. If you want to go into the spectrum of focusing on black money not escaping then it will be very difficult to compete with other international financial centres. Because the by-laws will be very tough.

It is difficult to build a financial centre. It takes decades to come up where we are. Some feel GIFT City’s development has been slow. However, in reality, you  have to build the hardware and software to attract people to come organically. You cannot force people to come. If no profit is made, nobody will come. Once the metro station linking Gandhinagar and GIFT City is built, then commuting will be easy. Two things will make the financial centre — one, the by-laws must be easy to deal with and second is the carrying capacity. You must allow foreign companies to make profit and not see profit as a sin.

What is it like for Singaporeans to live in GIFT City?

Hard. It is buzzing in the daytime but quite a ghost town after working hours. So, if you want to make it a very liveable city you need amenities to come in, you need a supermarket. Of course schools are coming up already. But it is (about) the ease of living.

Which are the best states to invest in India?

We have invested in all southern states of India, mainly because of natural ties. It all boils down to the state government, how friendly they are towards foreign companies. The southern states have hosted more foreign companies, their teams are very professional. The new state coming up is Gujarat because of the strong push of Prime Minister Modi when he was the CM. The ease of doing business in Gujarat is very high. We are also looking at northern states that are business-friendly, like Haryana. The up and coming one is Uttar Pradesh. CM Yogi (Adityanath) is in his second term and his new team is very pro-business. Beyond this, there are north-eastern states, like Assam, that are aggressive in getting foreign investments. But always in our mind is whether the government in a state will continue or not. Because a change in government can change the policies as we have experienced in Andhra Pradesh.

Does it matter to a foreign investor that harmony is disturbed because of comments politicians make or stand they take?

Of course it matters because foreign investors, when we put money in, it is hard-earned money. We do not want our factories to suddenly be burnt. We want some form of state government protection if we are in a problem. For example, in the civilian government of Myanmar we were the number one investor under Madam (Aung San) Suu Kyi but suddenly there was a regime change and many investors had to pull out because of the situation. Sri Lanka we are watching very closely because we have investments there and suddenly it becomes like this. Sudden changes will shift investment confidence. So far, India is by and large peaceful.