Singapore, Malaysia to jointly develop special economic zone
Singapore and Malaysia agreed on Thursday to jointly develop a special economic zone (SEZ) in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, aiming to attract investments and free up movement of goods and people.
The Southeast Asian neighbours will work towards a full-fledged pact, aiming to co-operate on renewable energy and smoothing procedures from business approvals to border clearance, they said in a joint statement.
Singapore was Johor's second-largest foreign investor from January to June 2022, and contributed about 70% of Johor's total foreign direct investment in manufacturing, according to the statement.
World’s most powerful passports: Singapore shares top spot with 5 other countries
The Republic no longer holds sole claim to having the world’s most powerful passport, sharing the distinction in 2024 with five other nations, according to the latest ranking published by the Henley Passport Index on Jan 10.
The six countries – France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain – have visa-free entry to 194 out of 227 travel destinations.
In 2023, Singapore took the top spot with visa-free access to 192 destinations. Germany, Italy and Spain were second, with 190.
Singapore passes new investment screening law
Singapore has passed a new foreign investment bill that allows the government to probe transactions from any business that has previously acted against the city-state’s national interest.
Paytm, SBI and others go live on India-Singapore cross-border UPI-based payments
The cross-border linkage between India’s unified payments interface and Singapore’s PayNow is live on BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money), PhonePe and Paytm, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a press release on Thursday.
The feature will help the Indian diaspora in Singapore to send funds into Indian bank accounts directly through UPI (unified payments interface). Axis Bank, DBS Bank India, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and State Bank of India are offering this service through their respective banking applications too, NPCI said.