79 year old Gopinath Pillai has been appointed as the special envoy to AP to speed up the building of the new capital city by the Singapore Government.

Gopinath Pillai who is the chairman of the Singapore think tank Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and an ambassador-at-large for the city-state’s government was introduced by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Singapore Minister Shanmugham at a media conference in Secretariat.

The Singapore government will be presenting the first phase’ draft master plan of the new capital by June. While AP Government and the Joint working committee of Singapore Government will continue its work Gopinath Pillai will be the voice of Singapore.

Shanmugham who invited Hyderabad team of journalists to experience the huge urban development in Singapore said that to speed up the project Gopinath Pillai will interact with both the Governments and the private sector.

He added that there are similarities between Singapore and Andhra Pradesh in democracy, work practices, culture and geography; Also that they are glad to be amongst an environment of competition, transparent in AP said Shanmugham.