Singapore, which has drawn a roadmap to expand economic co-operation with India, has identified healthcare and education as two areas for widening its presence in India.
“Healthcare, particularly hospital management, would be a thrust area for co-operation besides education,” Singapore Economic Development Board’s Managing Director, Beh Swan Gin, told reporters here today.
Singapore which spends four per cent of its GDP on healthcare has tremendous experience in hospital management and can help India in improving healthcare delivery in urban areas, he said.
Though it would not look at primary healthcare centres as that requires a different approach and Singapore could offer its expertise on hospital management and the like as India already has a vast pool of doctors, he said.
On education, of course, it would not be in areas like IITs and other premier institutions but co-operation could be more on graduate training programmes, Gin said.
Several Indian IT companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra Satyam and HCL, among others, have already set up their shop in Singapore, he said.
TCS’ world-class data-centre set up at a cost of $180 million in Singapore would result in more companies routing and hosting their data in the island republic, he added.
