Closing speech delivered by H.E. Zainal Arif Mantaha, Singapore Ambassador to France on behalf of Mr S Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade Relations), at France-Singapore Workshop on Innovation Policy

​CLOSING SPEECH DELIVERED BY H.E. ZAINAL ARIF MANTAHA, SINGAPORE AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE ON BEHALF OF MR S ISWARAN, MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY (TRADE RELATIONS), AT FRANCE-SINGAPORE WORKSHOP ON INNOVATION POLICY ON WEDNESDAY, 23 MAY 2018, 4.30PM AT AUDITORIUM OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 

Distinguished Guests, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Good afternoon. I am pleased to join you for the closing of the France-Singapore Workshop on Innovation Policy, and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the creation of an International Associated Laboratory (LIA) in the field of systems and synthetic biology applied to a bio-inspired economy.

2. Organised in conjunction with the 2018 France-Singapore Year of Innovation, today’s seminar brings together some of our best minds in public service, academia and industry from France and Singapore, to discuss our countries’ policies for innovation and explore synergies to deepen collaborations. 

Advancing Innovation is an imperative for our Singapore and France

3. The France-Singapore Year of Innovation marks the strong bilateral relationship and close collaboration between our countries. In 2017, France was Singapore’s second largest trading partner in the EU, with bilateral trade standing at over €10 billion. To-date, we have more than 1,900 French companies in Singapore. Leading French companies, including Airbus, Total, Bolloré Group, Engie and EDF use Singapore as a gateway to access growth opportunities in Asia. 

4. Both France and Singapore recognise the importance of innovation in our economies. With rapid technological advances disrupting traditional value chains and business models across many industries, innovation is a critical strategy for enterprises and economies to unlock growth and seize new opportunities.

5. In Singapore, innovation is a cornerstone of our economic development strategies. Under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan or RIE 2020, the Singapore Government has set aside S$19 billion (or close to €12 billion) from 2016 to 2020 to strengthen Singapore’s position as a global R&D hub. This includes developing deep research capabilities in four focus areas of Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, Health and Biomedical Sciences, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, and Services and Digital Economy. We are committed to supporting the best research teams and ideas, with 40% of our public research funding set aside for competitive R&D funding. 

6. We have also sharpened our focus on value creation from our R&D investments, with additional funding allocation towards public-private research collaborations. For instance, an Industry Alignment Fund (IAF) has been in place since 2011, to encourage our public researchers and institutes to work closely with the industry, so that the solutions being developed can be commercialised and adopted by companies to improve their competitiveness.

7. To ensure that our industries are well positioned to capture opportunities from shifts such as the digitalisation of our economy, emerging industries of the future and the rise of the Asian middle class, the Singapore Government, in partnership with industry stakeholders including our Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs), research institutions, universities and labour unions, has introduced 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs). These ITMs cover 23 sectors, accounting for about 80% of our economy. Supporting the efforts for our enterprises and people to build innovation capabilities is a key thrust across our ITMs. 

8. Finally, we are constantly working to cultivate a strong core of talent in entrepreneurship, research and technology implementation, that can support our growing innovation ecosystem. This includes building up a workforce that is equipped with the relevant digital skills and capabilities to embrace innovation-driven growth, as well as being open and welcoming to global talent. To do so, we offer visa programmes such as EntrePass for foreign entrepreneurs to establish innovative businesses in Singapore, and invest in growing a strong pool of science and engineering researchers by attracting promising young scientists to conduct research in Singapore.

9. France has traditionally been a global leader in innovation. France is among the top five nations for Nobel Prize winners, with over 60 French Nobel Laureates. The world has also benefited from key French innovations as wide-ranging as aspirin to modern parachutes. France continues to provide strong government support for innovation, such as the “France Europe 2020” plan as well as President Macron’s announcement recently in March of a €1.5 billion plan to turn France into a world leader for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and innovation. 

10. Both countries are seeing encouraging results from our efforts. The Bloomberg 2018 Innovation Index ranked France and Singapore among the top 10 most innovative economies in the world. There are many areas where we can share notes and learn from each other to further grow our innovation ecosystems. 

Catalysing Collaboration and Deepening Relationship through France-Singapore Year of Innovation 

11. With the importance which both our countries place on innovation, it is no surprise that there is already a rich history of R&D cooperation in various fields such as Biomedical Sciences, Aerospace, and Consumer Care Business, as well as across institutions in both the public and private sectors. For instance, in the area of Smart Cities and Digital Health, Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) has forged longstanding research collaborations with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and several French universities through the joint Image and Pervasive Access Lab (IPAL). Companies such as L’Oreal, Servier, and Airbus have also forged multiple industry collaborations with several A*STAR Research Institutes (RIs).

12. Various Singapore institutions are also participating in the PHC-Merlion Programme, which is a joint French-Singaporean collaboration programme which has been in place since 2005. The PHC-Merlion programme facilitates scientific cooperation between France and Singapore by supporting the mobility of researchers. To date, close to 200 bilateral collaboration projects involving 1,500 French and Singapore-based researchers have been funded.

13. The France-Singapore Year of Innovation is an opportune time for us to reaffirm our deep bilateral ties, and explore new areas of collaborations to further strengthen our linkages and seize new opportunities together. Since the start of this year, our countries have been collaborating more closely in areas ranging from aviation to energy. 

14. In aviation, Thales and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in February 2018 to collaborate on developing new concepts of operations for air traffic management (ATM), as well as the next generation of ATM systems and technologies. 

15. In energy, under the French-Singaporean Network on Renewable Energy Management and Integration (SINERGIE), the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is collaborating with French universities and companies to organise a summer school in France in July this year. 

Forging Sustained Symbiotic Ecosystem Partnerships

16. In just a few moments, we will be witnessing the signing of a MOU for the creation of an international associated laboratory (LIA) in the field of systems and synthetic biology applied to a bio-inspired economy, between the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA), National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse (INSA Toulouse), NUS and A*STAR. This MOU strengthens our research collaboration in synthetic biology, and serves as another concrete step forward in our innovation collaboration journey together under the Year of Innovation and beyond. I am hopeful that more of such partnerships can develop and flourish, creating sustained and symbiotic linkages between our ecosystems that advance the frontiers in innovation.

17. I trust that you have had fruitful conversations with your counterparts during the roundtables at the seminar today, and had the opportunity to renew existing friendships and forge new ones. The connections between our people are key to sustaining the interconnectedness of our ecosystems and laying the foundations for future collaborations.  

18. To build on the connections made, we welcome our French counterparts to join us in Singapore in September for the Singapore Week of Innovation & TeCHnology (SWITCH) 2018, a leading “plug and play” platform in Asia that showcases the best ideas, technology and innovation from around the world, very similar to the positioning of VivaTech in France and Europe. I am optimistic that working together, we can pursue opportunities that capture the upside from research and technology development, and advance our shared vision as innovation-driven economies. 

19. Thank you.

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