NEW DELHI, Nov 8 — In a determined effort to give greater impetus to India’s “look East” policy, President K.R. Narayanan leaves here tomorrow on a four-day state visit to Singapore accompanied by a high-powered delegation, including the NASSCOM president, Mr Dewang Mehta.

This is the first time in nearly three decades that an Indian Head of State is paying an official trip to Singapore.

After an inexplicable hiatus in the ties between India and Singapore in the first half of the 90s when New Delhi began liberalising its economy, interaction at the highest level got a boost in the later part of 1998 when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met his Singaporean counterpart Goh Chok Tong on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Durban, South Africa.

That set the ball rolling for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government in taking the cue that India as a major power in the region should vigorously pursue a “look East” policy.

Policy makers in New Delhi realised the true import of evolving its “look East” policy. Mr Goh visited India earlier this year in January as well as in 1994 and 1995 when India fever was running high in South-East Asia, especially in Singapore.

During his stay in Singapore, Mr Narayanan will hold wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues with his host President S.R. Nathan, the city state’s senior minister Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Goh and others besides exchanging views with intellectuals.

Briefing mediapersons about the President’s visit to Singapore, the Secretary of Economic Relations in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr S.T. Deware, emphasised the two countries shared a great deal of commonality. The two sides enjoy what he described as “close and intimate” exchanges in the political and economic fields. India-Singapore ties are expanding in key sectors like information technology, telecom, power, oil refineries, electronics, transportation and hotels.