Bangladesh national women's football team achieved victory against Singapore in an international friendly match at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur on Monday (December 4). The hosts took a 3-0 lead in the first-half. Tahura Khatun, Ritu Porna Chakma scored braces, while Sanjida Akter, Sabina Khatun, Sumaya Matsushima, and Shasunnahar Jr got one goal each. The women in red and green won the first of the two matches 3-0 at the same venue on December 1. Besides, Sabina Khatun showed a more devastating form in the second and last match of the series.

Forward Tohura Khatun scored a brace as Bangladesh blanked Singapore by 3-0 goals in their first match of the two-match FIFA tier-1 Int'l Women's Friendly football held at Birshreshtha Shaheed Sepoy Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Stadium in the city's Kamalapur on Friday. It was Bangladesh's first international match victory after fourteen months. Sabina and Co. did not win any match after the SAFF Women's Championship final held in September 2022 in Kathmandu. The girls in red and green finally broke the jinx on their sixth match this year. Bangladesh had a chance to take the lead in the first minute of the match, but Tahura missed the scoring opportunity. Bangladesh however took the lead in the 3rd minute when defender Afeida Khandakar sent the ball home with a brilliant header which found the net after hitting the crossbar, before skipper Sabina Khatun did the spade work giving a small cross to Afeida from the close range. Coach Saiful Bari Titu's girls did not take long to double the lead. In the 16th minute, Maria Manda, after running down from the mid field, provided a pass to Tohura Khatun who sent the ball home with a perfect finish. Bangladesh got another chance in the 26th minute but captain Sabina Khatun's shot from the vantage position sailed harmlessly over the crossbar. After the resumption, Tohura completed the tally scoring her second and third goal for Bangladesh in the 60th minute with a perfect placing shot capitalizing on a long pass from Mashura. Singapore is twelve steps ahead than Bangladesh in ranking, but in the day's match they were found off-coloured in field performance. Bangladesh were clearly ahead in ball possession and attack. Earlier, Singapore beat Bangladesh back in 2017. Six years later, Bangladesh took sweet revenge by defeating Singapore at their home ground. The second and ultimate match of the series will be held on Monday (Dec 4) at the same venue at 3 pm. Source: BSS

Two frontline warships of the Indian Navy arrived in Singapore on Monday to participate in the inaugural edition of the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise, officials said. The harbour phase of the exercise is scheduled to be held at the Changi Naval Base from May 2 to 4, while the sea phase will be conducted from May 7 to 8 in the South China Sea. The South China Sea has been witnessing major military assertiveness by China in the last few years. The two Indian naval ships that arrived in Singapore are INS Satpura and INS Delhi. The ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise (AIME-2023) will provide an opportunity to the Indian Navy and ASEAN navies to work closely with each other and conduct seamless operations in the maritime domain, the defence ministry said. INS Delhi is India's first indigenously-built guided missile destroyer, while INS Satpura is an indigenously-built guided missile stealth frigate. Both the ships are part of the navy's Eastern Fleet based in Visakhapatnam.The ships are fitted with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors. The ships, during their port call at Singapore, will also participate in the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX-23) and the International Maritime Security Conference (IMSC) being hosted by Singapore, the ministry said in a statement. Source: NDTV

The week-long drills (May 2-8, 2023) aimed at “enhancing interoperability and exchange of best practices among participating navies” is expected to be inaugurated by Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar.  Amidst the growing presence of the Chinese Navy’s presence in the Indian Ocean, the first ever ASEAN-India maritime exercise (AIME-2023) will start from Tuesday.  The week-long drills (May 2-8, 2023) aimed at “enhancing interoperability and exchange of best practices among participating navies” is expected to be inaugurated by Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar. New Delhi’s move to increase its maritime security cooperation with the ASEAN region comes amidst China’s growing belligerence not only on land in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control but also in the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, east China sea, Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific Region. With AIME-2023 India becomes the 4th ASEAN dialogue partner, after Russia, China and the US to hold the ASEAN+1 maritime exercise in which navies of the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Brunei, will be participating. The maiden exercise will be conducted off the coast of Singapore and will feature harbour and at-sea events off the coast of Singapore. INS Satpura and INS Delhi with RAdm Gurcharan Singh, the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet embarked onboard has reached Singapore to take part in the inaugural AIME-2023. From May 2-4 the Harbour Phase of the exercise will be conducted at Changi Naval Base and followed by the Sea Phase to be conducted from May 7-8, in the South China Sea. According to an official statement the AIME 2023 will provide an opportunity for the Indian Navy and ASEAN navies to conduct seamless operations in the maritime domain and to work closely. More about the participating ships INS Delhi is India’s first indigenously-built guided missile destroyer and INS Satpura, is also indigenously built guided missile stealth frigate and are fitted with state-of-the art weapons and sensors. According to the Indian Navy both are part of the Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam and under the operational command of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command. During their port call at Singapore the ships of the Indian Navy will participate in the International Maritime Security Conference (IMSC) and also International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX-23). These two events being hosted by Singapore will provide a platform for the maritime and defence sectors to showcase latest innovations and further foster engagements. For the inaugural Asean-India Maritime Exercise, the Philippine Navy has deployed its missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna (FF-151) with a 140-man contingent of Naval Task Group 80.5 onboard. Background The Indian Navy is keeping a close watch on the movement and increasing presence of the Chinese PLA Navy vessels in the Indian Ocean region and docking of its ships at the ports of Pakistan. Source: The Financial Express

President M Abdul Hamid today left Dhaka for Singapore for a medical checkup. A VVIP aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, carrying the President took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 4:50 pm. During his eight-day visit, Abdul Hamid is scheduled to have his health checkup at Mount Elizabeth Hospital and eye treatment at Singapore National Eye Centre. The President is expected to return home on April 5.  Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abul Momen, dean of the diplomatic corps, cabinet secretary, chiefs of the three services and senior civil and military officials concerned saw him off at the airport. The president's spouse Rashida Khanam and officials concerned to the Bangabhaban are accompanying the Head of the State during the tour.

India and Singapore underlined their commitment to counter-terrorism cooperation while condemning terrorism in all its forms, besides stressing the importance of bolstering international collaboration to combat terror. During the 4th meeting of the India-Singapore Joint Working Group (JWG) on Combating Terrorism and Transnational Crime which was held in Singapore from May 18 to May 19, both nations strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. “As strategic partners, India and Singapore strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms including cross border terrorism and stressed the need to enhance international cooperation to combat terrorism in a comprehensive manner,” read a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Mahaveer Singhvi, joint secretary for counter-terrorism at the Ministry of External Affairs of India and Puah Kok Keong, the Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs of Singapore co-chaired the meeting. The JWG also emphasised that all countries must take immediate and sustained action to ensure that no territory under their control is used for terrorist attacks on others and agreed on the need to expeditiously bring perpetrators of such terror attacks to justice. Both sides discussed issues pertaining to challenges faced by counter-terrorism, including cross border movement of terrorists, fighting against the financing of terrorism, countering radicalisation, and preventing the exploitation of the internet for terrorism. Discussions were also held regarding terrorism threats in national, regional, and global spheres, cybercrime, drug trafficking, and the nexus between terrorism and transnational organised crime. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to work closely together to respond to these challenges and discussed ways to deepen engagement between their respective agencies, especially in the field of sharing of information and best practices, law enforcement and capacity building to counter-terrorism and transnational crimes. The JWG also exchanged views on deepening cooperation in multilateral fora such as the UN, ASEAN and FATF. (ANI) Source: The Print

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today (Saturday) said Japan and Singapore would like to take skilled manpower with communication skills from Bangladesh. He made the remark while speaking at a fresher reception of nursing staffers at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College and Hospital in Sylhet. The foreign minister underlined the need for increasing communication skills of nurses as there is huge demand of skilled nursing staffers and caregivers in the developed world. Dr Momen urged the concerned authority to expedite the land acquisition process at the city's East Shahi Eidgah area to set up the second unit of Osmani Medical College Hospital.   He also underscored the need for increasing number of physicians and nurses at all hospitals in the country to ensure quality medical treatment for all. The minister also urged wealthy people of Sylhet to increase investment in the medical sector of the district so that people don't need to go abroad for undertaking treatment. Sylhet Medical University vice chancellor Professor Dr Morshed Ahmed Chowdhury spoke as the keynote speaker while Health Directorate Sylhet divisional director Himangshu Laal Roy spoke as the special guest.   Awami League Sylhet city president valiant freedom fighter Masuk Uddin Ahmed, district acting president former lawmaker Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury and city general secretary Zakir Hossain also spoke on the occasion.  Bangladesh Nursing Association (BNA) Sylhet branch president Shamima Nasrin presided over the function that was moderated by BNA general secretary Israil Ali Sadek.   Source: BSS AH

The Government of India, in partnership with the Government of Australia and the Government of Singapore, conducted an international workshop on combating marine pollution focusing on marine plastic debris on February 14-15, the Ministry of Earth Science informed on Tuesday. The workshop, held virtually, bought together with the world's leading experts, scientists, government officials with policy expertise, and representatives from industry, innovation and informal sectors, Earth Science said in a press release. It aimed to discuss research interventions toward monitoring and assessing marine litter and plausible sustainable solutions to address the global marine plastic pollution issue. The workshop had four major sessions; the magnitude of the marine litter problem-monitoring program and research on plastic debris in the Indo-Pacific Region; best practices and technologies; solutions to prevent plastic pollution; and polymers and plastics: technology and innovations and opportunities for regional collaboration to remediate or stop plastic pollution. The sessions involved panel discussions and interactive break-out sessions to encourage discussion amongst participants from East Asia Summit countries. The East Asia Summit (EAS) is the premier forum for discussions on important strategic issues in the Indo-Pacific and a leading confidence-building mechanism. Since its inception in 2005, the EAS has been advocating regional peace, security, closer regional cooperation and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region. The EAS is uniquely placed to share expertise and lessons learned between regions and sub-regions faced with interlinked and similar challenges to develop sustainable transboundary solutions. EAS countries recognise the coastal and marine plastic pollution challenge. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the agenda of promoting maritime cooperation in the wider Indo-Pacific region at the 14th EAS held in Bangkok in November 2019. India, Singapore, and Australia are committed to implementing the EAS decisions. This workshop provided an impetus to EAS countries for exploring and informing each other about the challenges, questions, and solutions to marine litter - especially plastic research, use, design, disposal, recycling, and future collaborations for a plastic-free and healthy ocean for sustainable development through knowledge partners - the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai, an attached office of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), the Government of Singapore and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia. Dr M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, delivered the keynote address at the workshop. He suggested considering the application of technological tools such as remote sensing, artificial intelligence and machine learning to map the distribution of marine plastics and developing models to understand the dynamics of plastics in the Indian ocean. He also emphasized that a well-designed and tailor-made management strategy considering regional distinctiveness will significantly reduce plastics in the environment. Source: ANI  

Last week, the Indian government announced an INR 760 billion (USD 10 billion) incentive plan to attract global semiconductor and display makers to its shores. Among those said to be interested in setting up manufacturing facilities in India, based on a Reuters report, are Israel's Tower Semiconductor, Taiwan's Foxconn and a consortium from Singapore. Diversified natural resources group, Vedanta Limited was also said to be keen to set up a display plant. The statement also added that, "The program will usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design." This new scheme is in support of Prime Minister Modi's "Make in India" plan which sets a target of making the manufacturing share of GDP reach 25 per cent by 2025. According to McKinsey & Co., manufacturing accounted for 17.4 per cent of GDP in fiscal year 2020. It is estimated that services, which has been the mainstay of India's economy, contributes over 50 per cent of GDP. An increase in manufacturing activity will not only help broaden the base of economy, it will create more good quality jobs, make India less reliant on imports and even out the ebbs and flows of the economic cycle. The massive loss of jobs in the services sector during the COVID lockdowns attests to the need for more varied employment options. This new initiative signals India's ongoing efforts to climb the electronics value chain. It also coincides with attempts by global manufacturers to lower their dependence on China due to the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing. Singapore has been one such beneficiary of the trade war. In June this year, the world's third-largest contract chipmaker in the world, Global Foundries, announced that it is investing USD4 billion to build a new production facility in Singapore. The plant which is scheduled to begin production in 2023 will primarily serve automotive, 5G mobility, and secure device industries. Global Foundries is already making 40 per cent of its chips here. The investment is the latest bid by a leader in the semiconductor industry to ease the chip shortage impacting automakers and electronics manufacturers worldwide. Singapore with its favorable tax and regulatory environment, pool of highly skilled workers, ease of connectivity and well-developed semiconductor ecosystem, has long been an attractive destination for investment in high value-added manufacturing. Outside of the "big 4" in Asia - Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan - Singapore has the largest semiconductor manufacturing industry in the region. Back in 2000, Singapore produced SGD 84 billion (USD 61.5 billion based on current conversion rate) worth of computer, electronic, and optical products, including semiconductors. This represented 52.7 per cent of Singapore's manufacturing output that year. However, following the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s and amidst fierce competition from its North Asian neighbors and in particular Taiwan, on both the technological and cost fronts, its market share declined dramatically in the following years. It took until 2014 for the sector to again produced SGD 84 billion worth of goods, but as other parts of Singapore's economy have grown, this amount translated to a smaller share of overall manufacturing of about 29 per cent. By 2018, Singaporean manufacturers were producing SGD 139.6 billion worth of computer and electronic parts, and by 2020 the sector had grown to 46.3 per cent of total manufacturing output. Based on Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry, today, Singapore accounts for about five percent of global wafer fabrication capacity and 19 per cent of the global semiconductor equipment market share. The semiconductor industry in Singapore consists of both foreign-owned chip makers as well as local contract manufacturers who support the chip-making industry. Besides Global Foundries, well-known chip makers like Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron and Qualcomm have a presence in the city-state. Local companies include UMS Holdings which has been in the business for over 20 years. UMS specializes in precision engineering and focuses on manufacturing high-precision front-end semiconductor components and performs complex electromechanical assembly and final testing services. Another notable Singapore based semiconductor company is test solutions provider AEM Holding. Recently, government investment firm Temasek Holdings raised its stake in AEM to almost 10 per cent. ASTI Holdings is another Singapore headquartered semiconductor manufacturing service provider offering IC programming and packaging solutions to its customers. India has in recent years boosted its capabilities in the electronics manufacturing sector. It is the world's second-biggest smart phone maker behind China. Leading Apple contract manufacturers like Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron have factories in India. So has Apple's rival Samsung. Samsung has established large handset manufacturing plants in Noida and Sriperumbudur. The former which has a capacity 120 million, is said to be the world's largest mobile phone factory. Managing director of Indian contract manufacturer Optiemus Electronics, A. Gururaj, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the new initiative to attract semiconductor investments will help cut expensive tech imports. "The government's plan will help bring advanced technology, more employment and bigger investments into India," he continued. The government said it expected the just announced scheme to create about 35,000 high-quality positions, 100,000 indirect jobs and attract investment worth INR 1.67 trillion (USD 22 billion). Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a news briefing the plan would help develop "the complete semiconductor ecosystem - from the design of semiconductor chips to their fabrication, packing and testing in the country". Source: ANI

After Singapore banned arrivals from India and other South Asian countries due to fears of an explosive Covid-19 outbreak, the country is now facing an increasing coronavirus-induced labour shortage – spraining its economic model. Foreign nationals comprise about a third of the total workforce in Singapore, where construction and shipbuilding sectors rely heavily on low-cost labour especially from India and Bangladesh, says Kentaro Iwamoto in the Nikkei Asia. Even before Singapore stopped entries from India and other South Asian nations, departures and tighter travel rules were already keeping foreign workers away from the country. According to Iwamoto, the crunch has led to delays of construction projects by as much as a year, resulting in a surge of 30 per cent in the price of labour and sparking worries over excessive workloads. “Some workers have even told us that they have been forced to work double shifts, each shift eight hours, for at least half the week since last year,” Nikkei Asia quoted Desiree Leong, casework manager at the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics, a local rights group. The number of migrant workers in Singaporean building sites, shipyards and factories plunged by 16 per cent in 2020 to 311,000, according to government statistics. The total number of international workers also decreased by 14 per cent. Meanwhile, the bans on short-term travelers and long-term pass holders from South Asia, which remain in place even though India’s second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has eased. Although the government last week maintained its annual growth outlook for this year at 4 per cent to 6 per cent, it warned the recovery’s speed would be uneven across industries and flagged the manpower shortage as a drag on construction, reported Nikkei Asia. “Recent border restrictions on the entry of foreign workers from South Asia will exacerbate ongoing severe labor shortages at construction worksites and shipyards,” the Ministry of Trade and Industry said. Singapore’s construction sector shrank by 36 per cent in 2020, while COVID-19 clusters in crowded worker dormitories shut down work sites. Despite the situation stabilising, the industry’s decline continued in the first quarter of 2021, with a 23 per cent year-on-year fall. Project delays in Singapore risk slower real estate sales, stalled facility openings and, potentially, weaker consumption. Thus, industry groups of the country are urging the government to reopen the border for South Asian workers. They argue housing, hospital and transit line projects will be “badly disrupted” if the entry ban continues. Apart from Singapore, Vietnam’s plans to send 500,000 workers abroad in the five years through 2025 have been cast in fresh doubt, partly due to border restrictions in key destinations like Japan, Iwamoto writes. Regarding long hours of work, the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics says some migrants have been reported working 14 to 16 hours a day and six days a week. On May 17, nine construction-related industry organisations warned that the current workforce is “already working at maximum capacity, increasing the risks of workplace incidents.” Source: ANI AH