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India’s calibrated liberalisation is bringing investors: Temasek chair Teo Chee Hean
India brings significant scale, capability and momentum in several key areas of economic activity, including the use of finance and technology to keep trade open, building inter-operable digital systems and advancing credible sustainability pathways, Temasek Holdings chairman Teo Chee Hean said on Tuesday
India brings significant scale, capability and momentum in several key areas of economic activity, including the use of finance and technology to keep trade open, building inter-operable digital systems and advancing credible sustainability pathways, Temasek Holdings chairman Teo Chee Hean said on Tuesday.
Teo, a senior advisor to the prime minister of Singapore and a former deputy prime minister, said while delivering the annual Atal Bihari Vajpayee Memorial Lecture that India’s vision for a changing world emphasises strategic autonomy and resilient and trusted supply chains.
Speaking on the theme of “Enduring Partnerships in a Changing World” to an audience that included external affairs minister S Jaishankar, Teo said India is leveraging its demographic dividend of a young and skilled workforce to meet global demand across diverse industries at a time when many countries are ageing.
“For Singapore, partnerships are how we put principles into practice. They allow a small open economy to achieve scale and impact. We pool strengths across market access, finance, technology and talent to keep trade open, build inter-operable digital systems and advance credible sustainability pathways that strengthen supply chains and, important for all of us, create good jobs for our people,” he said.
“And in each of these areas, India is a partner that brings significant scale, capability and momentum,” he added.
India, the world’s most populous country and the fourth largest economy, has “risen to the challenges of a turbulent era with remarkable strategic clarity”, Teo said. In addition to reforms at scale, India’s vision for a changing world “emphasises strategic autonomy, resilient and trusted supply chains, open connectivity and technology-enabled inclusion”. These efforts, he said, have made India increasingly attractive for investment.
Teo referred to the linkage between India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow and said this enables the movement of money instantly at low cost and in a reliable and trusted manner. “India is working on an instant cross-border retail payments platform with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines that is expected to be operational by next year,” he said.
Teo also noted that India’s policy of multi-alignment has served it well as it works with different partners on different issues. “It bridges east and west, north and south, engaging in the G20, Brics and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and participating in the Quad,” he said.
India’s approach of adopting a more open and calibrated approach to economic liberalisation has also drawn the attention of long-term global investors, he said.
Ahead of the lecture, Teo met Jaishankar. “Pleased to meet Chairman of Temasek Holdings Teo Chee Hean and his team today in New Delhi. Discussed the investment opportunities unlocked in India by recent reforms,” Jaishankar said on social media.
Teo Chee Hean also met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
According to post on X by finance ministry, Hean appreciated the various reform initiatives undertaken by the Government of India in the last decade.
“During the course of the meeting, the two leaders discussed potential investment opportunities across various sectors and across the length and breadth of the country,” the finance ministry said.
