Singapore has appointed seasoned diplomat and Ambassador-at-large Gopinath Pillai as a special envoy to Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on February 26, 2015. This is a major step as part of Singapore’s initiatives to help the state develop a new capital city.
Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has announced that the new capital will be set up at a cost of around $16.5 billion. Andhra Pradesh has selected Singapore to help conceptualise the mega city. The need to create a new captial arose as a separate state of Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh last year. The two states will share the present capital of Hyderabad for 10 years according to a law passed by Indian Parliament.
Singapore’s trade promotion agency, International Enterprise, or IE Singapore, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government to prepare a master plan for the new capital.
Singapore cabinet has given approval to work on the new capital project with Andhra Pradesh, according to the country’s Foreign Minister, K Shanmugam.
The Ministry for Trade and Industry is also involved in the project and the minister K Iswaran has linked up with the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He visited Andhra Pradesh a few weeks ago and is fully involved with the project. A joint working group regarding the project is working very well, Shanmugam said during a visit to Andhra Pradesh this week where he met Naidu.
Naidu welcomed the appointment of Ambassador Gopinath and remarked that he was deeply impressed with Singapore’s honest and clear approach towards doing business, which he said was an example for India to emulate.
Pillai highlighted the challenge of planning a new capital city, which is expected to be 10 times the size of Singapore.
“We will try and see how the two sides can come together, bottle resources available, both within Singapore, or from those belonging to other countries but residing in Singapore,” said Pillai, who is also a veteran businessman with investments in India.
