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Speech at The 7th Bluesky Festival “Embracing Innovation, Redefining Your Enterprise”

Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower, The Grand Copthorne Waterfront

Skills, training and development
Members of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE)
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning. 

Introduction

  1. I am delighted to see the enthusiastic participation of many entrepreneurs and business leaders at today's 7th BlueSky Festival. First and foremost, my heartiest congratulations to ACE on your achievements and contribution to Singapore's entrepreneurship landscape.

    Building an Entrepreneurial & Innovative Nation
  2. It is heartening to note from ACRA records that there has been an upward trend of people starting their own businesses in Singapore. The number of business formed grew by more than a third from 37,000 in 2000 to over 50,000 last year.
  3. To achieve sustainable economic growth, Singapore must continue to nurture and invest in innovation. Innovation is a key driver of productivity, which will enable us to sharpen our global competitiveness. According to the latest Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, Singapore is ranked among the top countries in the world in terms of overall competitiveness and innovation. We have also been ranked first as the world’s Easiest Place to Do Business by the World Bank Report for 5 consecutive years.
  4. I believe we can do even better as we continue to build on existing efforts to foster, create and nurture an innovative environment to drive the next lap of our economic growth. Let me briefly share with you some of the key initiatives.

    Fostering Innovation Talent
  5. First, we will continue to nurture entrepreneurial talent. The Government has introduced measures at various levels to nurture and groom homegrown entrepreneurs. Our school curriculum has moved away from rote learning to encourage creative learning so as to cultivate an innovative and enterprising mindset in our young. Innovation and enterprise are diffused throughout the learning curriculum with activities such as the MOE Young Inventors Fair to showcase innovative products invented by students. SPRING Singapore also launched the YES! School programme in 2008 to put in place a comprehensive learning programme for students to embark on entrepreneurial projects and create innovative products. For instance, students from Broadrick Secondary developed a metal hand-grip that can be installed on the seats of motorcycles for pillion riders to hold on to for safety. The YES! programme has benefited 8,500 students.
  6. We immerse our students in entrepreneurial centres like Silicon Valley through internships with innovative start-ups. Our aspiring entrepreneurs are also engaged and challenged through various competitions and offered mentorship to hone their skills.
  7. This emphasis on innovation continues into adult life as a lifelong process. We will build more linkages between the formal education and our Continuous Education and Training (CET) systems to ensure our adult training remains relevant to the manpower needs of fast-changing operating environments.

    Creating an Innovative Environment
  8. Second, to grow our research and innovation capabilities and encourage more innovative activities amongst enterprises, the Government has announced that it will be stepping up its R&D expenditure by 20% to $16 billion over the next 5 years on research, innovation and enterprise. This underlines our sustained commitment to our vision of building an innovation nation.
  9. Besides developing local talent, we must also attract innovators worldwide to come to Singapore. We are happy that some of the world's most innovative companies such as Hewlett Packard and Procter & Gamble have established their innovation centres here. P&G, for example, has entered into a research partnership with A*STAR to develop Transformative Platform Technologies (TPT). They are also establishing an independent research centre at the Singapore Polytechnic to focus on the baby boomer market.
  10. Such innovation centres provide a platform for innovators and SMEs in Singapore to tap the global network of MNCs to bring their innovations to the international markets. I look forward to more of such collaborations which would provide the much needed boost to help our SMEs to achieve a quantum leap in innovative developments.

    Nurturing Innovative Enterprises
  11. In addition, there are also many assistance schemes offered by the government to help companies innovate and improve their productivity. I strongly encourage companies to tap on these schemes to build up their capabilities. For instance, under the Innovation Voucher Scheme (IVS), local enterprises can tap on the resources of our academic and research institutes to develop their innovative ideas into commercially viable products. Since 2009, almost 300 projects have benefited from the IVS.
  12. One example is Jumain Sataysfaction, a satay supplier that worked with the Food Innovation Resource Centre at Singapore Polytechnic to develop three varieties of vegetarian satay using soy protein as its base. This innovative venture has enabled the company to capitalise on the growing vegetarian market not just in Singapore but worldwide.
  13. Another assistance scheme is SPRING SEEDS, which provides start-ups with equity investments to fuel their growth into global companies. One of these SEEDS companies, Tencube, a mobile phone security company, was acquired by McAfee recently. Tencube’s achievement proves that opportunities abound for innovative start-ups, and if they set their sights on becoming globally competitive and work hard at it, international success is within reach.
  14. Companies should also leverage on the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) Scheme to enhance their business sophistication and accelerate productivity. Under PIC, which has an estimated annual budget of $480 million, businesses can benefit from significant tax deductions of 250% for their expenditures on a broad range of activities along the innovation value chain over the next 5 years. These include investments in automation equipment, training of employees, research and development, acquisition and registration of intellectual property rights, and design projects.
  15. The PIC is complemented by the National Productivity Fund (NPF) which supports productivity and innovation-related initiatives in all sectors across our economy, with an initial focus on sectors that require additional assistance. The aim of all these assistance schemes is to foster a spirit of innovation and continuous productivity improvement, which is critical for our enterprises to sharpen their edge in the increasingly competitive global market.

    Importance of Innovation for Global Competitiveness
  16. While the government has put in place the support infrastructure and created a conducive environment for enterprises to innovate and thrive in, we need entrepreneurs and business leaders to constantly reinvent their businesses, engage their markets, and tap new opportunities to stay competitive. One such company is BIONET, which not only rode on first-mover advantage to establish itself as a market leader in stem-cell applications, their products have also consistently broken new grounds. Another company, Eversendai raised the bar for the construction industry by devising out-of-the box solutions to build iconic structures.
  17. Our local companies have also innovated constantly, which enabled them to stay resilient during the recent recession. For example, Olam International's rapid growth can be attributed to its successful business model innovation in a traditional industry. Nanyang Optical captured international markets with its unique designs. Qian Hu improved its processes to develop innovative new products and services, and create value for its stakeholders. We look forward to have these successful innovators and speakers share their inspiring stories with us later.

    Conclusion
  18. I hope our entrepreneurs will learn from them and apply the insights and lessons to their own companies. Our collective effort at pushing frontiers and exploring new horizons will intensify Singapore’s endeavours in developing a knowledge-based economy, building an innovation nation, and growing more globally competitive companies.
  19. Our efforts in helping the business community have not gone unnoticed. Delegates at the World Entrepreneurship Forum held in France last year, were impressed with Singapore’s economic success and the strong government support towards entrepreneurship to create a business friendly environment. I am pleased to announce that Singapore will be hosting the 4th World Entrepreneurship Forum in 2011, which will bring together thought leaders from more than 50 countries to discuss and promote entrepreneurship around the world. This will be the first time that this global event is held outside of France.
  20. On this note, let me wish all of you a productive and enjoyable conference. Thank you.