Commonly called the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), the India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement was signed by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong on June 29, 2005. The objective of this agreement was to strengthen and enhance the economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries. CECA was primarily signed for unhindered access and collaboration between financial institutions, eliminating tariff barriers and such at their end. In return, they have heavily invested in Indian airports, ports and Special Economic Zones as well as IT Parks.
This, in turn, had established a consistent flow of professionals particularly in the IT sector to Singapore. The current percentage of Indians in Singapore is approximately 9 per cent. The second review of the agreement was signed on June 1, 2018, between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Loong.
With the rapid growth of the digital economy, demand for IT professions increased which resulted in a large pool of Indians going there to find jobs. From 14 per cent in 2005, the numbers have doubled in terms of Indians holding an Employment Pass (EP) which gives them a permit to work there.
Over the last few months, the netizens of Singapore had voiced their opinions on a statement made by Progress Singapore Party that alleged that Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and CECA have led to the unfettered flow of Indian professionals. This led to various websites and social media channels like the SG Opposition group on Facebook being filled with disturbingly xenophobic posts on Indian immigrants. This later turned into verbal and physical assaults before the issues were finally discussed in parliament earlier this week.
Emphasising the need to embrace globalisation, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung spoke at the parliament on July 6, 2021. Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, he said he believed FTAs and CECA have been made political scapegoats to discredit the policy of the PAP government. He also said that their FTAs in general and CECA, in particular, are not the causes of the challenges the PMEs (Professionals, Managers and Executives) face; if anything, they are part of the solution. The trade, in fact, is triple the GDP of Singapore, jumping from S$890 billion to S$1.5 trillion since 2005. "All foreign PMEs have to meet our work pass conditions to work here. The listing shows the types of Indian professionals who may apply to work in Singapore. It does not mean we must approve them," he added.
One of the reasons why Singapore rose to prominence despite any natural resource, is its positioning. Tan See Leng, who is with the Ministry of Manpower, said the unrest is similar to the happenings in the 2000s where there was anxiety over the number of Chinese nationals working in Singapore. Tan reminded that government has zero tolerance towards discriminatory hiring practices, and all employers were to adhere to the Fair Consideration Framework. Companies must first advertise vacancies on the MyCareersFuture job portal for Singaporeans before they can hire foreigners, he added.
Bringing in foreign talent is one way to ensure that there is growth in the economy, but that is also part of accepting the world culture. Over the years, there have been many prominent Indians in the history of Singapore, starting with the late Chengara Veetil Devan Nair who was the third president from 1981–1985 and late Sellapan Ramanathan who served as the sixth president from 1999–2011. Then there was Alex Abisheganaden who was called "the father of the guitar in Singapore" and his daughter Jacintha, who is a well-known singer, actress, and theatre practitioner. Alex’s older brother Paul Abisheganaden was dubbed "the doyen of orchestral music in Singapore".
There are famous dancers, too, like Santha Bhaskar, Madhavi Krishnan, Neila Sathyalingam, Usha Rani Maniam. Meanwhile, in literature, there are Tamil writers like M. Balakrishnan, Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani, or Kosa as he was also known, Gopal Baratham, English language novelist (and neurosurgeon), and Edwin Thumboo, English language poet and literature professor.
Singapore is a country whose backbone is entrepreneurship and Indians have made a mark in uplifting the economy. People like J.Y. Pillay, who pioneered in building the Singapore economy after it separated from Malaysia, also made a significant contribution in building the Singapore Airlines, and so did Sanjeev Sanyal, the economist, bestselling writer, environmentalist, and urban theorist.
In the last few decades, the world has embraced the global village philosophy in the hope that the countries will mutually uplift one another. All these FTAs and other mutual agreements between the countries follow a natural course of action which always seem like two sides of a coin. But, at the end of the day, one side is just as important as the other.
