Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Mr Tharman Shanmugratnam opened this year’s 8th Russia-Singapore Business Forum (RSBF) this morning at Suntec City. The RSBF, he said, has come to play an important role for businesses in both countries and he made some observations on bilateral links such as bilateral trade has tripled over the last five years. There are now more than 400 Russian companies in Singapore. Opportunities abound in Russia which has 140 million increasingly affluent people. He also highlighted how. “Overall relations with Russia have become much broader and deeper in scope.” Singapore today is now active in a wider array of business sectors in Russia and engaging the country at the regional level. Delegations from the Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Sverdlovsk regions are also standing the Forum.
During the opening ceremony, the President of the Republic of Tatrstan, Mr Rustam Minnikhanov spoke on Tatarstan’s Singapore Experience. Singapore’s Senior Minister of State, Minister of Trade & Industry, Mr Lee Yi Shyan was also present to witness the signing of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) R&D joint project with Sportmaster, Russia’s leading sports retail giant. The S$5 million Sportmaster Group Innovation Centre aims to pioneer breakthroughs in sports technology that can be used in developing a full range of innovative sports apparel and equipment for sale in Sportmaster’s retail chain of 368 outlets in over 80 cities worldwide.
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