• A Key Node for Electronics
• Asian Demand is Powering Ahead
• World Class Electronics Hub
• Backbone of Singapore’s economy
• End-to-End Manufacturing Capabilities
• Pro-Business Environment
• Capability Development Schemes

Pick any electronics gadget today – a mobile phone, computer, video game console or a car navigation system. There's a good chance that part of it was designed or made in Singapore.  Electronics is the bedrock of the Singapore manufacturing sector.  From its modest beginning as the only TV assembly plant in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, Singapore's electronics industry has grown to become a vital node in the global electronics market.  

With the continuous shift of the industry's centre of gravity to Asia, Singapore's strong fundamentals in electronics makes it a choice location for companies to create and manage new markets, products and processes, technologies and applications for the region and beyond.  From research and development, manufacturing, integrated circuit (IC) design, supply-chain management, logistics and distribution, to HQ activities, Singapore offers a total solutions environment of shared services for players in the electronics industry.

Our vision is for Singapore to be a dynamic electronics capital that extends and expands the frontiers of high technology.  We aim to transform Singapore into a world class innovation-driven electronics hub, providing technology, manufacturing and business solutions; and enabling the development of new growth areas. Today, about 1 out of 10 wafer starts and 40% of the world's hard disk media come from Singapore.

Electronics is the major industry underpinning Singapore's economic growth, and contributes 33% of the city-state's manufacturing value-added.  Of S$12.9 billion in fixed asset investments in 2010, electronics accounted for almost 45% of the total investments. Employment for the industry stands at 80,000, which is 19% of total manufacturing jobs. In addition, the manufacturing of finished electronics products creates many spin-offs to other segments of the economy, such as precision component manufacturers, chemicals and materials suppliers, electronic manufacturing systems companies and logistics service providers.

Singapore is the choice location for electronics companies to create and manage new markets.  Today Singapore is home to:

 

• 14 silicon wafer fabrication plants including the world's top three wafer foundries
• 20 semiconductor assembly and test operations including three of the world’s top six outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies
• About 40 integrated circuit design centres
• Nine of the world's top 10 fabless semiconductor companies
• The world's top three hard disk drive manufacturers
• 4 of the world’s top 5 Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers

Singapore has a full suite of activities to meet business requirements; from R&D to development, manufacturing, supply chain management, logistics and regional and global headquarters functions.

Singapore provides a business environment with respect for intellectual property, integrity, productivity and reliability. The human capital that Singapore provides is a ready pool of global talent, achieved by encouraging qualified personnel of all nationalities to work here. We welcome talents from all over the world to live, work, study and visit Singapore. Today, Singapore has built up a base of high quality engineering talent to cater to investors' needs.  Our electronics sector is also constantly upgrading its workforce and anticipating future demand.  In 2010, more than a quarter of all research scientists & engineers in Singapore were involved in Electrical & Electronics Engineering research. Electronics also accounted for 63% of Singapore's manufacturing research and development expenditure in the same year. 

Recognizing that talent is an important driver of economic growth, we have put in place a comprehensive set of capability development schemes to address the electronics industry's talent needs. In Jun 09, EDB announced that it would invest In Oct 2010, EDB and the Nanyang Technological University ("NTU") officially opened VIRTUS, a new IC Design Centre of Excellence. VIRTUS targets to train at least 50 MEng and PhD postgraduate students in analog and mixed signal design over the next 5 years, and to develop key technologies in new growth areas such as low power management and energy harvesting. In addition, EDB has been actively co-funding scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate electronics studies in specializations such as wafer fabrication and IC design.