SG60: Running Singapore on innovation – brains, bytes, and billion-dollar growth engines

As at mid-2025, Singapore secured more than 40 AI centres of excellence, attracting both digital-native and industrial firms to research and develop various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions here, including those related to proprietary generative AI (GenAI).

GenAI is a type of AI that can create new content – such as text, images, audio, and video – based on the data it has been trained on.

Last year, Singapore also launched three new accelerators that nurtured more than 50 promising locally based ventures.

This is attributable to Digital Industry Singapore, a joint office formed in 2019 by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), and Infocomm Media Development Authority.

The government has been working with industry players to set up sectoral-based centres of excellence to look at use cases that can be applied widely and build domain-specific capabilities in key economic sectors.

For instance, the Sectoral AI Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing, which was launched in September 2024, supports industry partners and companies in the adoption of GenAI and machine learning in areas such as quality assurance and predictive maintenance. This is to enhance the manufacturing value chain.

AI is just one aspect of Singapore’s economic evolution.

EDB chairman Png Cheong Boon said EDB will continue to attract investments that are knowledge and innovation-intensive, aligned with the Republic’s transition to a low-carbon economy, and that have high growth potential.

“We are targeting high-value investments that create good jobs requiring deep capabilities and that entail regional or global responsibilities; and where companies have a strong focus on the training and development of employees,” he noted.

These would include manufacturing and services projects in sectors such as aerospace, semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals, medical technology, and specialty chemicals, besides new growth areas such as precision medicine, AI, and sustainable products and services.  

With sustainability being a priority, global companies see it as a plus that Singapore partners them in their low-carbon transition, added Png. These range from adopting renewable energy to increasing energy efficiencies in existing processes.

Today, there are more than 150 carbon services and trading firms – double the number from 2021.

Besides renewable energy services and the bio-economy, an area that Singapore is actively looking at is low-carbon technologies.

The Republic is home to the world’s largest sustainable aviation fuel production facility by capacity, operated by Neste, and is developing a cross-border carbon capture and storage hub led by ExxonMobil and Shell to support domestic decarbonisation.
 

Brains behind the economy’s transformation

A walk through history will find that EDB has been a catalyst for Singapore’s competitiveness for decades.

It cultivated labour-intensive industries such as manufacturing in the 1960s to address high unemployment and jump-start the economy, before shifting in the 1970s to skills-intensive industries such as precision engineering and electronics.

In the 1980s, EDB turned towards capital-intensive and higher-technology industries including computers, machinery, and pharmaceuticals. For example, the Republic welcomed its first semiconductor wafer fabrication plant and the first petrochemical complex in Asia at this time.

By the 1990s, Singapore was on its way to becoming a knowledge-based economy as EDB laid the groundwork for the transition through innovation, research and development (R&D), and technopreneurship.

Along with manufacturing, EDB invested in services as a second growth engine, and developed the biomedical sciences, aerospace, and modern services sectors, so that workers had the relevant skills and experience.

The transformation signalled the reimagining of the traditional petrochemicals sector and a move to develop infrastructure such as Jurong Island and industrial estates, to support heavy shipping and manufacturing industries.

A key theme that can be found across different industries is the push to innovate and conduct R&D. In the past five years, Singapore has invested about S$28 billion or 1 per cent of its gross domestic product annually to strengthen its research ecosystem and encourage more companies to deepen their innovation footprint here.

Png explained that EDB’s role goes far beyond just helping businesses set up here. It guides companies through their entire growth journey in the region – from facilitating collaborations with local companies and suppliers in Singapore to connecting them with the right partners to explore regional expansion.

“As the firms achieve critical mass, EDB encourages them to deepen their presence by establishing regional headquarters and centres of excellence, so that high-value activities are embedded in Singapore, in turn creating higher-value jobs,” he added.

Indeed, the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) labour market second-quarter report released in September 2024 showed that about 20 per cent of firms here are foreign-owned, yet they employ 60 per cent of Singapore residents in high-earning jobs.

MOM said foreign-owned firms employ an outsized share of those who earn a gross monthly income of above S$12,500 and fall into the top 10 per cent of income distribution.
 

Strengthening Singapore’s core

The foresight in the early years meant that Singapore’s manufacturing and services sectors had time to become sophisticated, supported by excellent infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and a conducive business climate. It is how and why the city-state now accounts for 10 per cent of global chips output and roughly 20 per cent of global semiconductor equipment output.

In the healthcare space, eight out of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies conduct manufacturing or R&D here.
 

EDB is now responsible for more than 35 per cent of Singapore’s annual GDP in the manufacturing and tradeable services sectors. Manufacturing alone makes up nearly one-fifth of the country’s GDP.

Under Singapore’s Manufacturing 2030 plan, the sector’s value-add is to be raised by 50 per cent from 2020 to 2030. The goal is to ensure a diverse range of manufacturing activities and attract companies with specialised capabilities that will allow the country to remain an essential part of global value chains.

Singapore has five best-in-class advanced manufacturing facilities that are part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, including those by Coca-Cola and Infineon Technologies.

In aerospace, major players such as Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney have deepened their operations here. Singapore is now a leading aerospace hub in the Asia-Pacific region with more than 130 aerospace companies that contribute to 10 per cent of global maintenance, repair, and overhaul output.

Efforts to turn the Republic into a hub for the region have also paid off.

Earlier this year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and German speciality chemicals firm Munzing opened their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore with plans to grow the software engineering team and invest in local R&D, respectively.

In May, the Republic took the fourth spot out of 118 countries in the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Index by research platform StartupBlink, behind Israel, Britain, and the US.

“We want to attract activities that ensure we remain a critical part of global value chains which play to Singapore’s strengths, that would be hard for others to replicate and would continue to be relevant to the global economy in future. 

“Riding on fast-growing sectors and those with high growth potential enables Singapore to plug into global economic growth and the growth potential of the immediate region,” said Png, who added that EDB is also encouraging experienced founders to scale their next ventures from Singapore, through the Global Founder Programme.

To stay ahead, EDB is cognisant that the local workforce must also be able to keep up with the needs of businesses.

Besides the national programme that funds upskilling, EDB has also rolled out various targeted training programmes to help workers.

In 2024, EDB partnered Oracle to upskill up to 10,000 local workers and tertiary students in GenAI by 2027. There is also AWS’ flagship AI programme, AWS AI Spring, where it will collaborate with universities, polytechnics, and the Institute of Technical Education on AI learning. The aim is to train 5,000 individuals over three years, from 2024 to 2026.

EDB, Oracle, AWS and Databricks have also rolled out digital training schemes in areas such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, and data management. 

In addition, EDB invests in leadership development – through programmes such as the Global Business Leaders Programme and Singapore Leaders Network – to better support Singaporeans to take on leadership roles in key companies.
 

Building a resilient and connected ecosystem

In today’s volatile and fragmented world, it is important to ensure that the Republic’s supply chain ecosystem and regional connectivity deliver unmatched value to global businesses.

Therefore, initiatives such as the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone can not only help strengthen ties with neighbouring economies, but also complement the city-state’s extensive global network of 28 free trade agreements.

These efforts will go a long way in ensuring the Republic’s supply chain resilience and seamless regional integration, so that Singapore is an indispensable hub for multinational corporations (MNCs) navigating geopolitical uncertainties.

Beyond that, EDB is also committed to reinforcing Singapore’s supportive business ecosystem.

For instance, it works with JTC to provide the right infrastructure to companies. To spur greater collaboration between MNCs and local enterprises, EDB and EnterpriseSG have the Partnerships for Capability Transformation scheme that provides funding support for capability training, internationalisation, corporate venturing, supplier development, and co-innovation.

“These are win-win partnerships that strengthen supply chain resilience for global businesses while helping our local companies build new capabilities,” said Png. He added that, over time, this would make businesses here more competitive and improve Singapore’s economy.
 

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.