Piyush Goyal heads to Singapore for ministerial and business roundtables
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal begins a three-day Singapore visit with a 70-member Indian business delegation to deepen trade, investment, technology and economic cooperation.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal
NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal left for Singapore on Wednesday for a three-day visit focused on strengthening India-Singapore trade, investment and business ties, with an Indian delegation of around 70 senior business leaders accompanying him.
The visit, from August 19 to 21, comes ahead of the 4th India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) and the 4th India-Singapore Business Roundtable (ISBR), scheduled for August 20. The meetings are part of the broader India-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The business delegation represents sectors including technology, software and artificial intelligence, manufacturing and engineering, infrastructure, sustainability, financial services and fintech, healthcare, life sciences, food and agriculture, logistics, maritime and professional services.
The delegation is expected to hold business-to-business, government-to-business and institutional engagements covering investment, market access, technology partnerships and talent development. It will also interact with Centres of Excellence and visit skilling institutions in Singapore.
Goyal will participate in the ministerial roundtable alongside Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The Indian ministers will engage with their Singaporean counterparts and senior government leaders.
Goyal is also scheduled to call on Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the Istana.
The Commerce Minister will hold separate government-to-business meetings with senior representatives of the Global Finance & Technology Network, YPO Global, Milken Institute, Keppel Infrastructure, Temasek Holdings, IHH Healthcare, the Singapore Business Federation, Turner & Townsend and STT GDC. A Family Office Roundtable is also scheduled as part of the programme.
A key focus of the visit will be expanding India’s agricultural exports. Goyal will jointly visit an APEDA-FairPrice initiative at City Square Mall with Singapore Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade & Industry Gan Siow Huang. The initiative seeks to increase the presence of Indian agri-food products in Singapore’s retail market.
Goyal will also participate in the India-Singapore Business Forum organised by FICCI at the INSEAD Asia Campus. He is scheduled to take part in a fireside chat on “India in the New Global Growth Equation: Growth and Opportunity for Businesses in Asia and the World”, followed by a networking dinner with Indian and Singaporean business representatives.
The visit will conclude with Goyal delivering a keynote address at the ICAI ASEAN Conference 2026 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.
Singapore is currently India’s largest source of foreign direct investment. India received USD 19.8 billion in FDI from Singapore in FY 2025-26, while cumulative FDI inflows from the city-state reached USD 194.68 billion between April 2000 and March 2026, accounting for 24.72% of India’s total FDI inflows.
Singapore is also India’s largest trading partner within ASEAN. Bilateral trade has grown significantly since the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement came into effect, rising from USD 6.7 billion in FY 2004-05 to USD 36.1 billion in FY 2025-26.
The Singapore visit is aimed at further expanding this economic relationship, with particular emphasis on investment, advanced manufacturing, digitalisation, skills development, agricultural exports and the green economy.
