Sitharaman, Jaishankar, Goyal head to Singapore for 4th India-Singapore roundtable

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday embarked on an official visit to Singapore to participate in the fourth India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR), as the two countries seek to deepen economic and commercial ties.

Sitharaman is leading a ministerial delegation comprising External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Electronics and IT and Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada.

The ISMR, scheduled for August 19-20, is a high-level economic mechanism between India and Singapore and provides a platform to review progress and explore new areas of cooperation.

Established in 2022, the roundtable covers advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation, healthcare and medicine, skills development, and sustainability.

"The 4th ISMR will build on the progress made under these pillars and explore new opportunities to further strengthen the India-Singapore economic partnership," the Finance Ministry said in a post on X.

Goyal is visiting Singapore from August 19-21 and will participate in the fourth ISMR on August 20 alongside the other ministers.

The ministerial roundtable will be held alongside the fourth India-Singapore Business Roundtable (ISBR), followed by an MoU signing ceremony and a lunch hosted by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister for the ISMR and ISBR delegates.

Goyal will also call on Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the Istana.

An Indian business delegation of around 70 senior business leaders is accompanying Goyal.

The delegation includes representatives from technology, software and artificial intelligence, manufacturing, infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, food and agriculture, logistics, maritime and professional services.

The delegation will hold business-to-business, government-to-business and institutional engagements focusing on partnerships, investment, market access, technology cooperation and talent development.

Goyal is also scheduled to hold government-to-business meetings with senior representatives of Singapore-based and global institutions, including Temasek Holdings, Keppel Infrastructure and IHH Healthcare, among others.

He will jointly visit an APEDA-FairPrice initiative at City Square Mall with Singapore's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry Gan Siow Huang. The initiative seeks to promote Indian agri-food exports in Singapore's retail market.

Goyal will also participate in the India-Singapore Business Forum organised by FICCI at the INSEAD Asia Campus and deliver a keynote address at the ICAI ASEAN Conference 2026.

Singapore was the largest source of foreign direct investment into India in 2025-26, with inflows of $19.8 billion.

Cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore stood at $194.68 billion between April 2000 and March 2026, accounting for 24.72% of India's total FDI inflows, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Bilateral trade has also expanded substantially since the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, rising from $6.7 billion in 2004-05 to $36.1 billion in 2025-26.

Singapore is India's largest trading partner within ASEAN and a major source of external commercial borrowings and foreign portfolio investment.