Mr S Iswaran at the Opening of Procter and Gamble's Purifier of Water Manufacturing Plant

SPEECH BY MR. S ISWARAN, MINISTER, PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE AND SECOND MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS AND TRADE & INDUSTRY AT THE OPENING OF P&G’S PURIFIER OF WATER MANUFACTURING PLANT, THURSDAY, 29 NOVEMBER 2012, 10.30AM

Mr. Hatsunori Kiriyama, President for Asia, Procter & Gamble (P&G),

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

Introduction

I am pleased to join you this morning to mark the opening of P&G’s Purifier of Water manufacturing plant.  When fully operational, this facility will produce close to 90 per cent of P&G’s water purifying sachets, to provide safe and affordable drinking water to markets in Asia and beyond.  This marks yet another milestone in P&G’s long-standing partnership with Singapore, and demonstrates the critical role that consumer goods companies play in Singapore’s innovation-driven economy.

Asia’s growth brings both market opportunities and social challenges

Four years ago, I officiated at the opening of P&G’s Perfumes Plant in Singapore, which was established to support the growing demand for personal care products in Asia.

Today, Asia is not just the low-cost producer supplying the world, but also a market with strong and growing consumer demand.  In 2009, the 525 million people making up the Asian middle class accounted for almost US$5 trillion, or 23 per cent of the global spending by middle class consumers.¹

The market for consumer goods is expected to continue to grow significantly in Asia.  The OECD projects that, by 2030, the global middle class will grow almost threefold, with 85 per cent of this growth expected to come from Asia.  Asia is expected to be home to 3 billion middle class consumers, or approximately two-thirds of the global middle class1.

While the Asian growth story is promising, Asia faces pressing social challenges as well.  Almost half of Asia’s population continues to live on less than US$2 a day.² Many are still deprived of clean drinking water, especially during natural disasters.

Singapore, a trusted location to help companies meet business needs and address social challenges

Nearly a decade ago, P&G began providing clean drinking water in developing countries through its Purifier of Water technology.  I am heartened to note that P&G had just provided its fifth billion litre of clean drinking water in September this year.  Moving forward, Singapore is proud to be P&G’s key manufacturing site for these water purifying sachets.

Over the past decades, Singapore has built key capabilities and areas of expertise which make us a globally competitive manufacturing hub.  Attributes such as our robust intellectual property infrastructure, world-class science and technology capabilities, and strong connectivity make Singapore a natural location for the manufacturing of the Purifier of Water sachets.

The sachets are developed using patented water clarification and disinfectant technologies, and therefore require a manufacturing location like Singapore that values strong intellectual property protection.  The plant itself utilises innovative technologies such as a vertical manufacturing process that is land-efficient, and an efficient dehumidification system that reduces the plant’s energy footprint by 40 per cent.  These are the types of sustainable manufacturing processes that Singapore seeks to support.

After production, the sachets will be distributed worldwide, sometimes as part of disaster recovery efforts where timeliness and reliability are critical.  In this regard, Singapore’s excellent connectivity to the rest of Asia and beyond becomes important.  Beyond physical connectivity, P&G can also work with more than 130 International Non-Profit Organisations (INPOs) based in Singapore, to better understand and reach out to regions that need clean drinking water.  In fact, P&G is already working with organisations such as World Vision, and I am confident of more knowledge connections between P&G and other International Non-Profit Organisations.

The Singapore-P&G partnership has progressed in tandem with the growth of Singapore’s consumer goods industry

The opening of this Purifier of Water manufacturing plant also marks another milestone in the Singapore-P&G partnership - one that began in 1987 when P&G first established a 150-man sales office.  This year is P&G’s 25th anniversary in Singapore, and I congratulate P&G on reaching this milestone.

Over the past 25 years, the Singapore-P&G partnership has grown from strength to strength.  Led by Kiriyama-san, Singapore serves as P&G’s Asia-Pacific headquarters today, as well as the global headquarters for its Baby Care and Prestige Global Business Units.  Singapore also hosts P&G’s regional consumer insights and design teams, as well as its Asia Leadership Development Centre.  In all, P&G employs more than 1,600 people in Singapore, many of them in regional roles.

Singapore’s consumer goods industry has also grown in tandem over the past decade.  Today, we see a strong base of household care, personal care, as well as food and nutrition companies, undertaking not only shared services activities such as finance, IT and HR, but also increasingly strategic functions such as brand management and innovation from Singapore.  Likewise, we have also spent a considerable amount of effort to build a supporting ecosystem of consumer insights, R&D, communication services and design agencies to support these companies.

For instance, in recognition of companies’ need to better understand pan-Asian consumers, EDB has built up a vibrant ecosystem of global research agencies such as Nielsen, Kantar, Ipsos and Flamingo based in Singapore.  In March this year, the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight was also launched to help companies gain a nuanced understanding of the similarities and differences of consumers in this region.

In the area of R&D, we have ensured that consumer products companies are able to tap on the extensive engineering and biomedical research expertise that we have built up over the years.  I understand that P&G is leveraging these capabilities in an integrated manner, through a Master Research Collaboration Agreement that it signed with all 14 A*STAR research institutes in 2010.  This agreement has resulted in more than 10 new research collaborations.  Another significant milestone in the Singapore-P&G partnership will come next year when P&G opens its 500-man Singapore Innovation Centre in Biopolis.

Conclusion

I would like to thank P&G for its continued confidence in Singapore.  Singapore and P&G have forged a long-term partnership over the years, and I am confident that we will continue to strengthen this partnership in the years to come.

I would also like to wish Kiriyama-san and his team at the Purifier of Water manufacturing plant every success in their effort to “save one life every hour” with the water purifying sachets.

Thank you.

¹ Source: OECD, “The Emerging Middle Class in Developing Countries”, January 2010

² Source: Asian Development Bank, Inclusive Business at the Base of the Pyramid, 2011