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18 November 2002
Speech by Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Economic Development Board, at the Enterprise 50 Award Presentation Ceremony on 18 November 2002 at 11.00 am at Raffles City Convention Centre
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
A very good morning to all of you.
- I am most delighted to be here this morning to present the Enterprise 50 awards to Singapore's most enterprising companies.
One-third of E50 are in Manufacturing
- I am also glad to note that about a third of the winners have manufacturing as their core business. This is yet another reinforcement of manufacturing as a key pillar of Singapore's economy, which contributes to more than 20% of our GDP.
- Today must be one of the proudest moments for the people gathered here from the E50 winning companies. And they have good reasons to be. They have put in years of sweat and hard work to build their company to what it is today. They have gone through hard times, streaks of good fortune and bad, they must have surely made some mistakes, but they have held on; they have been tenacious. And they are well on the road to success.
- Singapore should enthusiastically cheer these E50 companies on to scale new heights. These E50 companies and other high-growth startup and emerging enterprises (SUEs) are indeed the seeds of our future global champions. These SUEs will also be a key booster to propel Singapores next phase of economic growth in the innovation-driven economy. Allow me to elaborate on the crucial role that SUEs play in our economic development.
Sources of Innovation
- High-growth SUEs have been a major source of innovation in many industries, especially in the last 50 years. Being small and nimble, these entrepreneurial enterprises are able to spot opportunities, catch on fast and capitalize on them. Not only have they created groundbreaking innovations, these SUEs have the passion and tenacity to turn their innovations into remarkable products and spectacular market success.
- While doing all these, the entrepreneurs have built great enterprises. In fact, many of these innovations have created whole new industries or radically changed existing ones, and even changed the way we live. Examples of disruptive innovations by SUEs in the IT area alone such as the PC, sound card, internet browser, internet portal, e-commerce and spreadsheets were all brought to the market by small companies, not MNCs. Singapore will need to nurture a strong pool of high-growth SUEs to produce winning innovations and world class companies to compete in the global knowledge economy.
New technology industries
- The rapid advance in technological developments is creating many potential new industries. Examples include biotechnology, nanotechnology and photonics. Some of them will emerge as huge industries of the future. However, during the nascent stage of these new technology sectors, they are typically dominated by high-growth SUEs and less from MNCs. These SUEs have been spun out from academia and larger companies or are new startups driven by passionate entrepreneurs with big appetite for risk taking. For Singapore to be a major player in these future growth industries, we need to groom a strong base of high-growth SUEs in these emerging sectors now.
Future Global Champions
- Among our SUEs today will emerge a handful of highly successful ones that will become Singapore-based global champions of tomorrow. We need to create more world winners like Creative Technology. We will have to develop as large a pool as possible of high-growth SUEs today, so that we have a higher chance of producing more global champions tomorrow.
Vibrant Enterprise Ecosystem
- A large and active pool of high-growth SUEs will greatly enhance our enterprise ecosystem in Singapore. For example, small enterprises can ride on the marketing and organizational prowess of large companies to expand while large companies can tap on the innovative energies of small enterprises for new ideas and products.
- These kinds of synergistic relationships among companies of various sizes will make Singapore an even more compelling hub for business and investment, which will in turn draw more enterprises, both big and small, from around the world to Singapore, as they too want to plug into and benefit from our vibrant enterprise ecosystem.
- To summarise, SUEs have a crucial role to play in developing our innovation-driven economy. They bring innovations to the marketplace, seed new growth industries of the future, enhance the vibrancy of our enterprise ecosystem and have the potential to grow into Singapore-based global champions.
Focus on IP
- The E50 winners here today have achieved impressive results to date. Looking ahead, intellectual property (IP) will be the currency of the innovation-driven economy which Singapore is entering into. For our local companies to succeed, IP will increasingly be their defining competitive advantage. To sustain growth, local companies must differentiate by having better IP such as better products, processes, technologies and branding. Otherwise, many of them could fall by the wayside or stagnate when they reach a certain size.
- Therefore, local enterprises will need to build up their IP in their next step forward. However, they may lack the resources to do so effectively, especially in the area of technology expertise and R&D funding. One solution is for local enterprises to leverage on the tremendous capability of our research institutes to create and build up their IP portfolio. A*Star, with the support of agencies such as EDB, has recently launched a scheme called T-Up. Under the scheme, research scientists and engineers (RSEs) can be seconded to local enterprises to work with their staff to develop new IP through R&D, product development and commercialization. The EDB will co-fund the cost of these RSEs for qualified local enterprises. In fact, we will fund up to 70% of the cost during the period of secondment. I strongly urge the E50 winners and other local enterprises to take full advantage of T-Up to build up their IP in order to strengthen their competitiveness for sustainable growth.
- Once again, I would like to congratulate the winners of this year's E50 awards and I wish you all every success in your business.
Thank you.
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