Journey to India

1. I am flying this evening to attend a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in Bangalore. I will be giving a luncheon talk on the future of India-Singapore relations and taking part in a panel discussion on a provocative topic: Does the 21st Century Belong To Asia? There is a touch of hubris in that question. Bangalore is where we have a very successful IT Park. It was established in 1994. I did the groundbreaking for Phase 2 in November 2000. It is now an icon of India-Singapore bilateral cooperation.

2. After Bangalore, I'll be visiting Calcutta. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya visited Singapore last year, impressing everyone he met with his progressive vision for the state. Do not be misled by the fact that West Bengal has been governed by the Communist Party for years. It has become one of the fastest growing states in India and keen to attract foreign investments. The Bengalis are an intelligent and articulate people and you can be sure that they'll interpret Marx in the right way. It was from Calcutta that Raffles founded Singapore. The Straits Settlements including Singapore were governed from Calcutta till 1867. During the Second World War, the Bengali nationalist, Subhas Chandra Bose or Netaji, established the Indian National Army in Singapore. There is a memorial to him near the Esplanade.

3. Then to Delhi to meet the new Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and others. Over ten years ago, I met Shri Mukherjee when he was the Commerce Minister. No Indian Minister has his range of experience having covered many portfolios in the course of his political career.

4. Instead of flying home from Delhi, I have decided to spend a day in Amritsar to catch the SIA flight home from there. The Chief Minister of the Punjab, Captain Amerinder Singh, was also in Singapore last year to promote stronger bilateral ties. The Punjab economy is flourishing. I've been told that the Golden Temple receives more visitors every year than the Taj Mahal.

George Yeo

Comments

[fab]

Hi Minister
while most media reports are bullish on both China and India, I've noticed that a significant number of journalists have started to focus on the weakness in infrastructure in India (caused by lower spending on infrastructure compared to countries like China). My friend recently traveled through the major cities and regions of India, and he observes the same. He said it took 5 hours to cover 300km, while on the Autobahn that would take barely over 2 hours. Are the India "bears" pessimistic or just stating the facts?