Manufacturing Investments reached a new high!

Nov 13, 2007

Manufacturing investments set to reach another high
Projects worth $20b already clinched this year, trouncing old mark of $9.2b

STRONG COMMITMENT: The Government is fully committed to keeping manufacturing a key pillar of the economy, said PM Lee at the opening ceremony of Global Entrepolis

MANUFACTURING investments into Singapore are poised to soar to a new high this year - more than twice the previous record. Nine projects, each worth at least $1 billion, have been announced in the past 18 months.

Of these, five - worth about $20 billion in total - were clinched this year, trouncing the previous record of $9.2 billion achieved in 2000 and again in 2001.

'The Government is fully committed to keeping manufacturing a key pillar of the economy,' Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday at the opening ceremony of Global Entrepolis @ Singapore, a four-day business networking event that some 10,000 people are expected to attend.

'The EDB (Economic Development Board) expects to end this year with manufacturing investment commitments in Singapore reaching a record high,' he told 700 business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs, as he kicked off the annual event at the Suntec City ballroom.

The eye-popping figure underscores the successful transformation of the industrial sector, which has had to progress to more complex activities as low-value production moves to cheaper locations like China.

The new wave of mega investments has been going into the production of high-value goods, such as cutting-edge, cancer-fighting drugs and memory chips found in Apple's hugely popular iPod music players.

Oil giant ExxonMobil is building a petrochemical plant that is believed to cost at least US$4 billion (S$5.8 billion), while Norway's Renewable Energy Corp is setting up a three billion euro (S$6.3 billion) facility that will be the world's biggest integrated solar panel factory.

All these have come as a result of sustained efforts to invest in local talent, upgrade capabilities and keep borders open to foreign talents, said Mr Lee.

He went on to announce a new scholarship for the hot growth area of clean energy.
'We need to nurture a pool of industry and technology leaders,' said Mr Lee.

The programme will fund 130 master's and doctorate students over the next five years for study and research in relevant fields.

Mr Lee said Singapore will continue to maintain a bias towards science and technology in tertiary education, even as a fourth publicly-funded university is being set up.

'This will help to create a workforce capable of keeping up with the demands of new growth industries with high technology requirements.'

In the near term, however, Mr Lee said there is some economic uncertainty caused by global financial turbulence, although 'it does not alter the picture of a dynamic and resilient Asia'.