"Being an integrator between the various segments of the Indian business community": Speech by President Tharman at SICCI Centennial Celebration

Minister Ong Ye Kung,

Minister of State Associate Professor Faishal Ibrahim,

Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua,

Mr Neil Parekh, Chairman of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) and your fellow Board Directors, 

Past Advisors and Emeritus Chairpersons of SICCI,

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Business Leaders and Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy to join you today, with my wife, to celebrate SICCI’s hundred years.

It is particularly gratifying to see several past leaders of SICCI and many longstanding members here with us. I am also pleased to see the leaders of our other local business chambers and trade associations joining us this evening.

SICCI’s roles have evolved quite dramatically over the years. Its beginnings were in very different times, when flows of produce, people and cultures, back and forth around Asia, defined much of Singapore’s role as a colonial trading station. India was always a significant source and destination of those flows, in fact going back much earlier than a century ago.

With Singapore’s independence, and the development of a multiracial national identity and a diverse and internationalised economy, you have had to adapt in major ways. SICCI has progressed to serve the Indian business community in a broad range of sectors, well beyond the trading community. It is playing an especially important role in helping businesses to embrace the opportunities of a digital and sustainable economy, and to invest and operate abroad.

And together with our other local Chambers, SICCI thinks nationally, and represents the interests of the wider business community. Equally,  as key representatives of the business sector, our business chambers are responsible for advancing the collective good of all our citizens.

But I should highlight too, another important role of SICCI that has always been relevant: bringing together all segments of the Indian business community in Singapore - those with roots and networks in different parts of India, and both those long established in Singapore and newer enterprises including those which have arrived in Singapore in more recent years.

That role as an integrator between old and new, between businesses from different Indian ethnicities, must always be in your minds, and on your agenda as a Chamber.

It is worth recalling that it did not start that way.

When the Indian Merchants’ Association (IMA) was set up in 1924, almost all of its 35 members were Bombay traders. Merchants from other parts of India were reluctant to join.

Largely through the efforts of Mr R Jumabhoy, the IMA held a membership drive in 1935 and expanded to better represent the Indian business community.

Mr P Govindasamy Pillai was another leader, indeed a giant among our pioneer business leaders,  who sought to advance the collective interests of the wider community.

You must also continue to actively promote opportunities for collaboration with non-Indian businesses in Singapore, including in venturing abroad to India and elsewhere in the region. That must be the case for all our other local business chambers and trade associations. Seeking common cause with each other, and helping businesses with different traditional backgrounds to collaborate fruitfully in expanding Singapore’s presence abroad.

Singapore’s relations with India have been growing in depth and breadth. I need not talk at length about the opportunities that India presents. Suffice to say that it is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and is widely expected to remain so for several years to come.

Increased trade and business linkages between Singapore and India are in both countries’ interests.

In the digital space, Singapore has been the first to tie up with India in fast retail payments (the PayNow-UPI linkage), and there is opportunity to go further to connect our digital economies.

In sustainability, where India has immense potential as a renewable energy power.

 In India’s emerging semiconductor sector, where Singapore’s ecosystem, from chip fabrication to financing and capacity building in smart manufacturing space can add value.

I encourage more of our Singapore companies to visit India, and in particular to explore different Indian states in more depth.

SICCI has been active in promoting these opportunities for our businesses. The business delegations who participated in the investment summits in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat in January this year are a good example. At these summits, Singapore companies announced a total of nearly SGD 10 billion in committed investments into both states across sectors such as sustainability, infrastructure, and technology.

There are success stories not only among our large enterprises, but among our growth companies:

LionsBot, a Singapore developer and supplier of autonomous industrial cleaning robots, established its first overseas technology development centre in Chennai in 2022. LionsBot intends to partner top universities in Tamil Nadu to set up training laboratories as well as design hardware and software courses.

We have to promote an awareness of opportunities in India among more Singaporeans. The awareness is not widespread. We must build it up. Build up the spirit of adventure. Not only among Indian Singaporeans but Singaporeans of all ethnicities.

An inspiring example is Andy Lim, who has been based in Chennai for the past 17 years. He was a fresh engineering graduate from Singapore polytechnic when he decided to begin his career in India. He was assigned to build up the sales portfolio of Pro-Pack Materials, a Singapore company manufacturing clean room and electrostatic products. In fact, he based himself in Ambattur, an hour’s drive from Chennai and far from the creature comforts he was used to. He learnt quickly, did well and eventually set up his own firm in India, with several offices. For good measure, Andy speaks conversational Tamil - his workers rate him 8 upon 10 - and a sprinkling of Hindi.

I commend leaders of the Chamber, past and present, for their contributions to Singapore’s development. I am also encouraged by SICCI’s efforts to work with its members to groom the next generation of business leaders.

Never forget though that your ultimate responsibility is to the Singapore community. I am glad you are working with SINDA, the Singapore Indian Education Trust, Sree Narayana Mission Singapore, and other bodies to serve those in need and develop opportunity for all.

That was the instinct among our pioneer business leaders. They saw themselves as serving the wider community. And wanted the benefits of growth to be not just kept by businesses and their owners, but to flow into the wider community.

I am reminded of something that Rabindranath Tagore said: “I slept, and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted, and behold, service was joy.”  

Congratulations once again on your centenary, and wishing you many more years of growth, and collaboration for the greater good.