Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, Chairman, A*STAR

 

Distinguished guests,

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Introduction

 

1. Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to join you today at SME Tech Day 2024. I am thrilled to see many of our SME leaders here, representing the spirit of innovation and resilience that drives Singapore forward.

 

2. Today’s theme, Innovate for a Deep Tech Future, reflects the importance of forward-looking innovation in positioning Singapore’s SMEs for long-term business growth and success.

 

Benefits and Challenges of Adopting Deep Tech

 

3. Some of you may wonder how applicable deep tech is to your business. In this day and age, embracing innovation and technology is not a choice, but a necessity. The winners of the future economy will very likely be those who embrace deep tech innovation. And this can be in various domains, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and advanced manufacturing. Our businesses have to be well equipped to innovate, to transform and to seize opportunities in all of these areas.

 

4. Advanced technologies can streamline existing operations, improve efficiency and enhance productivity.

 

i. Companies like Boston Dynamics are classic success stories – they develop advanced robots to perform tasks in environments which are too dangerous or repetitive for humans, greatly improving productivity in the process.

 

ii. A local startup, Cosmos Innovation, is also using AI to create new products – it is building perovskite silicon tandem solar cells, that are more cost effective and efficient compared to mainstream silicon solar technologies out there.

 

5. But even if we are convinced of the technologies’ prospects, the numbers must make sense. Upfront investments for deep tech solutions are substantial, creating a barrier for many businesses. In addition, deep tech innovations often involve complex and specialised technologies, and businesses may not have in-house expertise to develop or implement them.

 

6. This is why our agencies have put in place schemes to help enterprises cross this hurdle so that more of our SMEs can successfully reap the benefits of technology. We do so through two key ways – first, by amassing the right R&D talent and second, by tamping down the costs and risks of innovation.

 

Amass and cultivate R&D talent

 

7. My first point is on amassing the right R&D talent to foster R&D excellence in our businesses. Wearing my Manpower Minister hat, I fully understand when business leaders tell me that skilled manpower is hard to come by. We need many talents and skilled manpower, especially when it comes to technology.

 

8. And this is where A*STAR’s T-Up programme can come in. The T-Up Programme supports local enterprises by seconding A*STAR’s scientists and research engineers to help them build up their R&D and technological capabilities. Thus far, we have seconded more than 1,000 A*STAR research scientists and engineers to over 1,000 SMEs.

 

i. An example is Albatroz Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on developing treatments for cancer and arthritis. Through T-Up, Albatroz Therapeutics was able to boost its R&D capabilities, resulting in the development of two new patents for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and accelerated their product pipeline. A key contributor to this success was Anh Tuan Nguyen, a T-Up Excellence Award recipient seconded from A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), whose expertise refined the technology and supported the company’s efforts to advance these novel treatments.

 

ii. Albatroz Therapeutics also received the Amgen x NSG Biolabs Golden Ticket award last year.

 

9. I look forward to seeing them grow and scale greater heights to become a leader in the biotech space.

 

10. As part of a tie-up between A*STAR and the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), A*STAR has also brought on board students and researchers from SIT, to support impactful T-Up projects through the Integrated Work Study Programme.

 

i. One such project is with JM VisTec, a leader in machine vision technologies. JM VisTec worked with T-Up Eagles Award Winner Sunny Tan from SIT, and Alvin Tan from A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech). By synergising Sunny and Alvin’s engineering expertise with JM VisTec’s industry knowledge, they developed a 3D vision solution, enhancing robotics capabilities for warehousing and manufacturing. This partnership strengthened the company’s technological capabilities and further solidified JM VisTec’s position in advanced machine vision solutions.

 

11. I cited these examples to demonstrate and emphasise how we need a good pipeline of R&D talent to spark off great ideas. Developing and retaining talent and expertise is crucial in enabling Singapore to continue to capture opportunities and strengthen our deep tech ecosystem.

 

12. Singapore is small, but this is why it is all the more important for us to work together and learn from the best, and in the process, build up our talent pool to anchor R&D excellence. By doing so, we are not only helping individual companies grow, but also strengthening Singapore’s entire deep tech  ecosystem.

 

Reducing risks and cost of innovation

 

13. Next, on reducing the cost and risks of adopting innovative technology. Even as we try to build up our talent pool, we also need to ensure that our businesses have access to the technology and resources that they can utilise to help transform their operations. Many businesses face challenges committing high upfront investments because of the lack of economies of scale.

 

14. It is in this vein that we launched the Sectoral AI Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing. A collaboration between A*STAR and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Centre was launched last month as a pilot initiative designed to accelerate the adoption of AI in manufacturing.

 

i. The Centre will focus on key areas like quality assurance, operations optimisation, predictive maintenance, and industrial automation.

 

ii. It will also partner companies in the manufacturing sector to pool together meaningful use cases and develop common AI solutions that can be shared across the sector.

 

15. The launch of this Centre is timely and telling of our focus on innovation and AI. Our hope is that our local enterprises can be equipped with the right resources and cutting-edge technologies to help them to adopt deep tech solutions. This will go far in helping to reduce the costs of adoption and risks to accelerate innovation.

 

16. I hope our SMEs will take the opportunity to tap on such facilities to pivot your businesses and operations.

 

Conclusion

 

17. Ladies and Gentlemen, in closing, I want to conclude that innovation is not just about technology – it is about the mindset, the people, the partnerships, and the future we create together. The Government will always be committed to supporting businesses and local enterprises to grow and build capabilities, to stay competitive in a deep tech future, and to ensure that Singapore remains a vibrant hub of global enterprises. Let us continue to accelerate tech innovation, cultivate the talent of tomorrow, and team up to make a meaningful impact on Singapore’s economy.

 

18. Thank you, and I hope everyone will have an engaging and fruitful session today.