Article Posted on : - Oct 27, 2014

A file photo.

SINGAPORE (PTI): Singapore and India should consider exploring the untapped potential of cooperation in naval ship building, an expert from an Indian naval think-tank said here on Friday.

There are excellent opportunities for the two countries to jointly build warships in India, given Singapore's technological and design expertise and the low production costs in India, particularly in terms of labour and raw-material, said Captain Gurpreet S Khurana, who is the Executive Director of the National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi.

"India has lately offered several incentives to foreign firms to undertake joint-research and co-development of defence hardware," he said.

"These include New Delhi's new 'mantra' of 'Make in India', the attendant facilitation of overseas investments, and the raising of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap on defence from 26 per cent to 49 per cent," he added.

Khurana spoke at the conference "The Merlion and the Ashoka: Singapore-India Strategic and Defence Ties", which was organised by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies of Singapore.

He pointed out that the private sector in India was now being encouraged to participate in the defence industry, which was hitherto driven largely by state-controlled or public-sector enterprises.

He noted the strengthening defence cooperation between Singapore and India.

However, Khurana pointed out that defence-technology was conceived by the Singapore leaders as a facet of cooperation more than a decade ago during the signing of the bilateral Defence MoU in 2003.