Mr Lee Yi Shyan at the LEAP Ceremony 2006

SPEECH BY MR LEE YI SHYAN, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY, AT THE LEAP CEREMONY 2006, 1 NOVEMBER 2006, 2PM, SUNTECCITYCONVENTION CENTER

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Good afternoon.

I am delighted to be here with you today to mark the third anniversary of the Locally-based Enterprise Advancement Programme, or LEAP for short.

Singapore a compelling global hub for business and investment

Singapore is today home to some 7,000 multi-national companies, with more than 4,000 of them having headquarters functions here.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2007 Report, released during the recent Singapore IMF-Word Bank Group Boards of Governors Annual Meetings, Singapore is also the world’s easiest economy to do business in.

I believe that a lot of Singapore’s prosperity and success can be attributed to our efficiency, connectedness and the availability of talents you can find here.

Global Entrepolis is in many ways a classic example of this. Now in its 4th year, it is expected to connect some 10,000 visitors through its 55 conferences, seminars, workshop and many interactive opportunities.

At the fringe of Global Entropolis, several leading companies will also be holding their own hospitality suites to network and get connected. For instance, Procter and Gamble is using this year’s GES platform to tap on a network of global enterprises for their “connect plus develop” initiative, inviting enterprises to explore “in- and out- licensing” with P&G.

In April this year, Hewlett Packard announced that it would set up its Asia Pacific IP Licensing Centre here. Microsoft has also opened its Microsoft Innovation Centre in Singapore. These moves all underscore a strong confidence in Singapore’s strong IP protection regime, competency in IP creation, and human talents.

Public-private partnership (PPP) works effectively in multiplying enterprise development

While we are happy that many businesses find Singapore a good place to do business in, we still continually try to enhance our business environment to make it even better for businesses. In doing so, the government works very much closely with the private sector. One of our key public-private sector partnership initiatives has been the LEAP program, for which we are today celebrating its third anniversary.

The LEAP program, which stands for the Locally-based Enterprise Advancement Program, aims to co-fund the operations of private sector organizations that play the roles of multipliers. These multipliers help nurture Singapore-based enterprises, by attracting foreign enterprises from abroad, and by developing new and existing industries. LEAP also encourages and supports these multipliers in developing their capabilities and to carry out new activities that can generate substantial economic spin-offs for Singapore.

This year, we welcome 17 new LEAP partners into the fold, bringing the total number of partners to 47.These 47 multipliers come from a wide-range of industries, including multi-media, assistive technology and disruptive technologies. In addition, we see for the first time, multipliers from Italy, Korea, and Europe. Collectively, these 47 LEAP multipliers support more than 700 enterprises in Singapore.

To perhaps give you a better idea of what these multipliers are, let me quote a few examples:

a. ACE Nexus Pte Ltd is a boutique venture accelerator that provides mergers & acquisitions (M&A) facilitation and fundraising services to promising medium-sized and innovative companies to maximize their business potential. As EDB’s LEAP Partner, ACE Nexus will serve as a catalyst in accelerating the growth of even more businesses in Singapore by way of M&A.

b. ODM Innovations Pte Ltd is an incubator focused on enterprises commercializing product innovations. The company provides services from IP protection, design and prototyping through to sales and marketing, including representation at international trade fairs.

c. Inno sight Asia Pte Ltd creates and builds disruptive businesses. The Company’s core business is to form disruptive business model joint ventures with like-minded entrepreneurs and build standalone disruptive businesses for multi-national companies. These activities serve to help companies to develop and build capabilities in the area of disruptive innovations.

To further enrich this strong base, it is also my great pleasure to announce that Singapore will soon be playing a major role in attracting and developing Russian science and technology-based enterprises for the international market. At the conclusion of Global Entrepolis, we expect a landmark agreement to be signed primarily between the Economic Development Board and the Federal Agency for Management of Special Economic Zones of Russia to establish a new Centre that would serve to encourage the internationalization and commercialization of Russian technology companies, as well as to promote Russia’s strong research and development capabilities through Singapore.

This important collaboration has sprung from Singapore’s on-going cooperation with Russia on the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and will serve to provide a window to connect and channel high-potential technologies developed from Russian Innovation Zones to the global marketplace through Singapore.

On this happy note, I would like to thank you for joining us at today’s LEAP ceremony. With the private sector driving the economy, and government providing our support, we hope to create an even pro-business environment for our businesses and for you.

Thank you.