S'pore to help J&K in water mgmt, riverfront, skill dev

JAMMU: Focusing on capacity building, particularly in three key areas of skill development, river-front and water management, the state government has managed to get support of Singapore government, thus making Minister for Finance Haseeb Drabu's three-day visit to the country fruitful.
Drabu, who returned to state, from his official visit revealed that the Singapore government has offered technical support to state in these key areas.
Drabu said during his visit, he held extensive deliberations with the ministers, government officials and experts in Singapore on how best the expertise of that country could be utilised for capacity building in some critical areas in J&K.
He said the three key areas identified for collaboration include skill development, riverfront development and water management for which the Singapore government will be extending technical expertise to the state.
The state finance minister said after follow-up discussions at the official level, Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) would be signed between the concerned authorities in Singapore and the Jammu and Kashmir government to kick start the collaborative mechanism in the identified areas.
He said the Singapore government has already established a skill development centre in Assam and has also signed an MoU with the Odisha government in this regard.
"A similar collaboration between the J&K Government and Singapore will certainly step up the quality of our skilled youth," Drabu said and added that as the state government is in the process of developing human and social capital for enhancing the capabilities of its youth, this partnership will go a long way in fulfilling this objective.
He said similarly Singapore has made he strides in riverfront development and water management under the country's waterfront rejuvenation programme and replication of such a programme could help the state in speedy restoration and revival of its waterfronts.
"Singapore has a separate master plan for water-based activities in the country and a similar concept could be implemented in J&K for rejuvenation of waterways and water resources," he said.