Singapore's senior minister Goh Chok Tong told visiting President APJ Abdul Kalam here yesterday afternoon his country was seriously considering the SEZ in India, Secretary (East) Rajiv Sikri told reporters here.

The SEZ issue had come up during Goh's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last month and the subject once again came up during Wednesday's meeting where the senior Singapore minister outlined the city state's plan in this regard.

Kalam held substantive talks with Singapore President SR Nathan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Boong besides Goh after a ceremonial reception at the Presidential Palace on the first day of his three-day visit.

The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), signed six months ago, was a "landmark" deal and lays the foundation for further development of bilateral trade, Sikri said. Given the importance of timeline for implementation of CECA, it was agreed that the two countries stick to the deadline of one year which is August this year, the Secretary said.

Reflecting the seriousness of India and Singapore in operationalising the CECA, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath will visit this country next month to review the progress in steps taken to realise the deal, according to Sikri.

He said efforts were on to work out the remaining modalities, including setting up of branches of India and Singapore banks in each other's country, to implement the agreement.