S'pore's bet on science and technology set to bear fruit: Ong Ye Kung
It has led to growth of start-ups in a range of areas
Singapore's economic strategy of boosting the science and technology sector and driving innovation is on the cusp of a new wave of results, with start-ups growing and making their mark overseas.
Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said this at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) Scholarship Awards Ceremony yesterday.
"Some are doing very well. They are in a range of areas, such as consumer services, fintech and biomedical, and we are seeing them creating employment, raising funds, venturing overseas and setting up overseas operations," he told the 112 scholarship recipients.
He said the development was the outcome of decades of effort to drive progress in the field.
Mr Ong explained that the National Science and Technology Board was started in 1991 and changed its name to A*Star in 2002, before a change in strategy four years later saw the launch of the first Research, Innovation and Enterprise plan.
The 2006 move coincided with local universities becoming autonomous, allowing them to retain their own research agenda and invest in their own research. This has seen them climb the global rankings in the past few years.
"Rankings are not everything, but they are indicative of the kind of research effort that has been going into our universities, especially in the Stem area," said Mr Ong. Stem refers to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
He said the results are showing, with Singapore able to attract big names, such as Rolls-Royce, Alibaba and Google, to set up corporate labs and innovation centres here.
"To do well and be creative and be innovative, Stem people need to know humanities, and humanities people must understand technology," he said.
"It is at the intersections of disciplines that we have innovation and creativity."
Mr Ong also talked about how receiving a scholarship led him on a path to where he is today. He took a Public Service Commission scholarship to study econometrics and mathematical economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, completing his degree in 1991.
He said while he left for the private sector for a period, he returned to the public service as it is where he feels "most fulfilled doing what I feel makes a difference to Singapore".
Among the award recipients was Mr Muzammil Arif Din Abdul Jabbar, 18, who will study medicine at Cambridge University on a National Science Scholarship.
He said: "From an economic perspective, Singapore can't increase its productivity through manpower, so we have to rely on advancements in technology."
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