SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said Asia is growing in importance, and Singaporeans need to understand the region and its complex connections better.
He said the "Genius of India" offered by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology is welcome in this regard.
Mr Tharman said this to IIT alumni gathered in Singapore at the Suntec Convention Centre on Saturday.
Since 2002, IIT alumni have gathered alternately in India and the United States, where there are about 40,000 IITians.
The
number of IITians in Singapore has been growing over the years. This
growth, a result of the growing economic and strategic importance of
Asia Pacific, is one reason why the IIT alumni decided to meet in
Singapore this year.
The Indian Institute of Technology - also
known as the MIT of India - is seen as a pinnacle of its education
system and helps foster India's relationships with the world.
Deputy
Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said Singapore needs to engage
India more, so as to play a useful role in helping others in the region.
"From
a fairly young age, people need to understand Asia and other parts of
Asia besides their own country. This is extremely important for
Singapore. We have always had strong relationships with the immediate
regions around us. We have fairly strong relationships with China and
East Asia and we have relatively weak linkages with India in education
until the last five or six years, when it has been growing rapidly,"
said Mr Tharman.
Mr Tharman said some 15 per cent of Singapore secondary schools already have tie-ups with India, but more can be done.
Mr Tharman said Singapore could help India with urban solutions, like clean water and the environment.
"The
challenge in India, in this regard, is to develop urban solutions that
provide a standard of living that is acceptable to a broad mass of
people and can spur economic growth both in manufacturing and services.
There is a whole range of urban solutions that cities like Singapore
have had longer experience in," he said.
Mr Tharman also spoke of Singapore's need to have a diversified economy.
"We
are a city as well a country, you need the diversity of economic
options, work options for your population both in order to maximise
their strengths and their natural talents and abilities... You can't
depend purely on services... For us it is part and parcel of our
economic thinking - preserving manufacturing and moving it upstream," he
said.
The PanIIT Summit is the first to be held outside India
and the US, and many see it as a way to further promote and deepen
Singapore-India ties.
- CNA/cc
I think Singaporeans need to understand their own country is controlled by peranakans first.
Your own country also don't understand, want to understand other countries.
I used to listen to what the leaders speak.
Now, they are just sprouting stuff that they cannot understand and did not lead by example.
No body even understand what they sprouting.
With all the stuff they sprouting, when it is time for them to say something, they are no where to be seen.
I dun see any one of them saying anything for the peasants over the cheap labour that have caused a few accidents on the road recently.
why dont we sponsor their inadquately schooled citizens for scholarships here?
if we are to lose money, i dont see why we have to make extra effort to lose it by travelling there
We are already sponsoring them and kids around the region to study here and at their homeland.
Please do not deny the boss from going there to eat wind every year.
Or else what reason do he have to go over India ?