SPEECH by Mr S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State FOR Trade & Industry AND EDUCATION, at the GET-UP 2011 CEREMONY AT BIOPOLIS ON TUESDAY, 12 APRIL 2011, AT 1430 HRS 

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman A*STAR,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Afternoon.

Introduction

I am pleased to join you this afternoon to witness the ceremonial send-off for research scientists and engineers who have been seconded to their respective companies under the T-Up Programme.

During the tenure of their secondment, these 38 individuals will advance research projects, impart technical know-how to colleagues, drive innovation, and upgrade the capabilities of SMEs. They are our envoys who will help translate Singapore’s excellent R&D into tangible commercial outcomes.

Singapore as Asia’s Innovation Capital

The aim of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2015 planis to support scientific excellence, nurture talent, and render enhanced support to our researchers, industries and entrepreneurs, through programmes like T-Up.

Under the RIE 2015 plan, the government will invest $16.1 billion to drive R&D over the next 5 years, from 2011 to 2015.This is an increase of 20 per cent over the previous five-year plan. The allocation to innovation and enterprise will be doubled to $1 billion, to enable researchers and entrepreneurs to take more ideas from research to commercialisation.Our target is to achieve gross expenditure on R&D of 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2015.This will put Singapore in the league of some of the most research-intensive countries in the world, and position us as Asia’s innovation capital.

The RIE 2015 plan was announced by our Prime Minister last year, but our efforts to establish deep research capabilities to support key industry clusters dates back 20 years. The thriving R&D ecosystem in One-North has encouraged MNCs such as Hewlett-Packard, Huawei and Western Digital to move their research operations here. Most recently, Western Digital set up a new R&D centre for the development of advanced hard drive technologies, and will invest S$500 million in Singapore over the next five years.

Our local enterprises also benefit as the industry sectors mature. Through various collaborative platforms and consortia, local enterprises will gain from the dialogue with key players in the industry.

Singapore company CEI Contract Manufacturing Limited is a member of the A*STAR-led consortium in clean energy.This enabled CEI to enter into a strategic R&D partnership with A*STAR and major companies such as Rolls Royce, Vestas and SP PowerGrid.As a member of such a consortium, CEI is able to exploit the growth potential in green and clean technologies, and seize the opportunities that lie in the green market. The company has now begun to explore the possibility of developing applications for smart grids.

 Get-UP – An innovation platform

CEI has also participated in several T-Up schemes since 2004, under the GET-Up programme. By rendering assistance to enterprises such as CEI to leverage technological advancements and product innovations, GET-Up aims to improve the technical capabilities of local enterprises and enhance their competitiveness in the global arena.

One A*STAR secondee has helped CEI create a new line of engineering service in optics and photonics. Another has provided extensive life sciences and instruments training for CEI’s engineers that will enable the company to better serve customers in the MedTech sector.In fact, CEI is pursuing its 5th T-Up deal this year.

Since its inception 9 years ago, the GET-Up programme has expanded in both scale and scope. It now offers a suite of innovation platforms that SMEs can choose to leverage on in order to upgrade themselves. SMEs can draw upon the technical expertise of A*STAR’s senior research staff through the Technical Advisory Support scheme, or second researchers to their companies for up to two years with the T-Up scheme. The Operation and Technology Roadmapping scheme assists SMEs to strategically acquire or develop technologies to meet their business needs. Today, a total of 333 companies have benefitted from the GET-Up programme and 296 researchers have been T-Up to 183 companies.

Another company that has participated in the scheme is Seidensha Singapore Pte. Ltd. In 2001, Seidensha was manufacturing testing equipment for CRT or Cathode Ray Tubes, at a time when the display industry was undergoing a radical change to adopt Liquid Crystal Display technology.The sudden transition caught the company by surprise, and led to a period of low sales.

Dr An Chengwu, a scientist from A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute, was seconded to Seidensha that year. He led a four-man research team to develop new testing systems for Perpendicular Magnetic recording hard disk media, which was a revolutionary technology at the time. The systems went on to net Seidensha more than ten million dollars in sales.Seidensha’s management credits Dr An’s research expertise as well as his knowledge of the market, for opening new doors for the company. For this reason, Seidensha has nominated Dr An for the inaugural T-Up Excellence Awards.

Conclusion

I would like to extend my congratulations to the winners of the T-Up Excellence award. Aside from Dr An, other winners are Mr Raymond Lim, formerly from the Institute of Microelectronics, and Dr Ronnie Teo from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology. They exemplify a quality that is desirable in our research talent – an eagerness to not only achieve excellence in their respective fields, but a willingness to share their expertise, so that others might benefit from it.They, and others like them, exemplify the virtuous exchange of talent and knowledge between our research institutions and commercial enterprises, that we seek to catalyse.

The participants in this year’s T-Up programme, who are about to embark on their secondments, are the newest cohort of such catalytic agents.As you help companies traverse the innovation spectrum, from R&D to commercialisation, you also contribute to Singapore’s evolution into Asia’s Innovation Capital.I am confident that each of you will play a significant role in your respective organisations, and make substantive contributions.I wish you every success in your assignments. Thank you.