Singapore comes clean on R&D

In the light of China's announced increase in R&D spending, and tax credits for corporate spending, we thought it would be worth backtracking a bit and noting Singapore's earlier announcement that in its third National Technology Plan the country will "commit $7.5 billion over the next five years to sustain innovation-driven growth through economic-oriented Research & Development (R&D) which supports our key industry clusters".

 

The news comes from the Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) which also talks of encouraging companies to do R&D in Singapore. The target is to get Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) "to 3% of GDP within the next five years" and to "increase private sector R&D to two-thirds of GERD in the longer term".

 

The country has made a sustained effort to increase its technical smarts. The report announcing the new programme tells us that "Over the three national S&T plans, our Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP has increased from 0.85% in 1990 to 2.25% in 2004. The number of Research Scientists and Engineers in Singapore has grown significantly, from 28 in 1990 to 87 per 10,000 labour force in 2004."

 

The report makes much of Singapore's regime for protecting IPR. "Singapore’s excellent IP regime has contributed to its attractiveness as an investment location and IP hub, and supported its efforts to increase the level of R&D in Singapore."