Innovation in Singapore Inc – Oxymoronic?

Why are Singaporeans so uncreative? This article tosses a strong critique towards the government and sets out to explain the very recent emphasis on creativity and entreprise in Singapore.

Introduction

Some Singapore History

In the initial period after Singapore gained independence in 1965, there was a need for the government to provide its citizens with the bare necessities such as

supplies and infrastructure. As a trading port and later as industrialization began to accelerate, there was no room for creativity in the workplace.

Why Creativity was Frown Upon in Singapore

The government took a heavy-handed approach towards building Singapore, and with this methodical approach came an implied reluctance to venture into new industries, let alone to invest in research and development. Being a fledgling nation at that point of time, Singapore chose to grow their economic power by emulating developed industrial economies such as the United Kingdom[1]. Consequently, as Singapore developed its manufacturing sector, its citizens came to accept that efforts would be rewarded linearly, and that these rewards would be sufficient to sustain an acceptable lifestyle.

Rise of the Current Innovation System in Singapore

The Raise of the High-Tech Manufacturing Industry

While Singapore’s rapid growth in the period following its independence had propelled it to the forefront amongst other Southeast Asian countries, land and population constraints eventually limited the manufacturing costs that Singapore could offer to its foreign investors. Then PM Lee Kuan Yew was quick to identify a new direction for the country, and opted to develop the workforce towards competing in the high-tech manufacturing industry.

For a brief moment, this strategy worked – her wafer plants and Hard Disk Drive factories epitomizing this success. However, it was not long before countries such as Taiwan and Korea caught up and eventually surpassed Singapore in this industry[2].

Furthermore, with the Asian Financial Crisis and conformity to global trends hitting hard, the Singapore Government made bold policy changes to bolster innovation following the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998 due to two factors.

Impact of the 1998 Finacial Crisis to Singapore’s Manufacturing Sector

Firstly, the Crisis exposed the Singapore’s dependency on its regional neighbours’ economies for growth. To minimise this dependence, the Singapore Government set its sights on becoming a more significant player in global markets. By becoming involved in a greater number of overseas economies, Singapore’s economy might become more stable. To attain such a goal, Singapore would have to develop home-grown, innovative organizations that would be able to compete on that scale.

Even More Competition

Secondly, the devaluation of currencies of Singapore’s regional neighbours meant that post-Crisis recovery would see more cost-competition for Singapore. It became increasingly important that Singapore held a strong innovative edge to indirectly counter the increased competition in the region.

As its low-level manufacturing sector was expected to lose more ground to its increasingly competitive neighbours, Singapore had to work towards becoming a knowledge-based economy, in order to attract investors of high-level manufacturing. To accelerate the transformation, the Government encouraged widespread use of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs). We could at least pride ourselves on having the most skilled workforce in the region.

Why Singapore ‘copy’ Silicon Valley

Observing global trends, Singapore’s political leaders decided to emulate the success of Silicon Valley, whose innovative edge has led to its having more NASDAQ listed companies than any other country. To that end, a decision was made to create more incubator facilities and joint-institutional efforts in the likeliness of that model. Competitive and dynamic home grown firms in the model of Creative Technologies became the envisaged landscape of Singapore’s economy in the future.

With the knowledge-based economy jump-started and the plethora of ICTs, a wealth of perspectives was afforded not only within, but also across the institutions of government, industry and university. This interconnectivity perfectly complemented joint-institutional efforts that were inspired by Silicon Valley, et al. These growing networks and new network nodes (joint ventures) culminated into a highly interactive innovation system that is constantly evolving to strike the right balance between cooperation and competition — the Triple Helix[3].

Conclusion – Is Singapore Finally Moving in the Right Direction?

Being unable to compete with its Asian neighbours in terms of labor costs, it would appear that the most feasible solution is for Singapore to nurture home grown companies that can compete in the global market.

To that end, while the government has successfully identified the existing education system as one of the limiting factors in producing an innovative workforce. It must be lauded that they have set about implementing, albeit in a systematic fashion, a series of curriculum and syllabus changes to encourage creativity and innovativeness in the education system. Up to now, it is still too early to decide if we are sucessful and despite the fact that we are moving towards high tech industry, a large portion of our GDP is still in maunfacturing.

Personal Views – What the Singapore Government Can Do Better

However, creativity and innovativeness to be more than a program or a process; it is a form of culture and cultural change can take a long time to happen. Quoting Foucault, creativity is an “incurable curiosity”, “extreme tolerance for uncertainty” and “perseverance amidst adversity”.

Singapore needs to realise that creativity in all its permutations should be encouraged, not just only in selected areas where ideas that are deemed to be able to make money. Initiatives taken have to go beyond the superficial and change has to start from within. It is time we re-evaluated our ideals of meritocracy and pragmatism and give it a new spin in this new age of innovation and creativity before we are left behind in the stupor of our rigidity.

[1]: Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan, Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas, What’s wrong with the Singapore worker, Singapore Press Holdings Press, 1998.
[2]: J. Mathews and D.S. Cho, Tiger Technology: The creation of Semiconductor Industry in East Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
[3]: Loet Leydesdorff, The triple helix: an evolutionary model of innovations, Research Policy, Vol 29, 2000: 243 – 255.

- This article is extracted and edited from a paper written by Lai Weichang, Dao Tien Dung, Goh Hsu Hua, Mah Chern Wei, Dillon Ng, Stewart Peh & Mark Tan and may not reflect the views of SgEntrepreneurs as a whole.

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