Telangana woos Singaporean investors

Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao today met officials of various companies in Singapore and urged them to invest in the state. Rao is on a visit to Singapore to woo investors and showcase the state as an attractive investment destination. He met representatives of A Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), a leading company in the field of science and technology in Singapore. They expressed willingness to work with the Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), a state government release said here. RICH is a government agency which links research institutes, academia and industry to venture capitalists, angel investors and incubation funds. RICH and A Star have agreed to a bilateral agreement through which both will cooperate in the field of innovation, incubation, research and commerce, it said. The minister also met Teo Eng Cheong, CEO of Surbana Jurong, a state-owned urban planning consultancy, which looks after the housing programme in Singapore and provides infrastructure and public services. "Rao briefed Cheong about the massive housing programme being taken up in Telangana. He requested him to take up a multi-storied building project in Hyderabad in view of vast experience of the company in infrastructure sector. He assured to provide land for the project," it said. Rao asked the company to do a study on the roads, electricity, drinking water and other infrastructure in Hyderabad and Cheong responded positively, adding that a team would be sent to the city shortly. Rao also met Indian High Commissioner Vijay Thakur Singh. Both of them discussed the visit of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to the city-state in 2014 and Singh appreciated the "priority" given by the Telangana government to Singapore, the release said. At a business session organised by CII and Indian High Commission, the minister met heads of 18 companies, it added.