Opening Address by Second Minister S Iswaran at ASTAR'S SME Day at Matrix Building, Breakthrough and Discovery Theatrette, Biopolis

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman A*STAR

Dr Raj Thampuran, MD A*STAR

Members of the Industry,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

1.       I am pleased to join you this morning for A*STAR’s inaugural “SME Day” – an event to recognise and celebrate the journey of transformation that many of our SMEs have embarked on in partnership with A*STAR. This is a commendable initiative. I would like to commend the management team at A*STAR for taking this initiative. We have always emphasised that technology is going to be a key driver of competitiveness and growth of our industries, and specifically our SMEs. This initiative is an opportunity not just to celebrate the collaborations we already have, but also share what are doing with many others, who can then start thinking about how they too can benefit from A*STAR’s work.

2.       Our economy and our companies are poised at an important crossroads.  The rise of Asia presents interesting opportunities for growth.  Yet we also face increasing external competition and internal factor constraints.  If we are to capture new markets and sustain competitiveness, it is important that our companies harness technology in order to innovate and differentiate themselves with new products and services.

The Government is committed to supporting SMEs for growth and competitiveness

3.       This is especially important for SMEs who are key players in our economy.  SMEs account for 99 per cent of our enterprises, employ 70 per cent of our workforce and contribute nearly half of Singapore’s GDP. By any metric, numbers, contributions to GDP or employment, SMEs collectively are a key pillar of our economy. So it is important that we put in place – and we have – a comprehensive range of measures to support our SMEs’ innovation and R&D efforts.  Key initiatives include A*STAR’s Growing Enterprises through Technology Upgrade (GET-Up) programme, and the Technology Adoption Programme (TAP).  A*STAR has also made it easier for SMEs to adopt technologies developed in its research institutes by enhancing its licensing policies.

4.       Over the past 11 years, A*STAR’s GET-Up programme has helped more than 432 companies.  Apart from providing technical advice and technology road-mapping services, A*STAR has also seconded 480 researchers to 280 SMEs.  These seconded researchers worked on innovation projects to develop new products and services, which have helped our SMEs to expand their businesses.  I am happy to note that this secondment programme (called T-Up) has been growing in popularity with our SMEs. Last year saw the highest take-up rate with 72 researchers seconded to 56 companies.  This is a good trend and we want to encourage more companies to come onboard to partner A*STAR.

T-Up Excellence Awards

5.       These researchers have made key contributions to our SMEs, and the T-up Excellence Awards were introduced in 2011 to recognise their efforts. Over the past 3 years, 13 researchers have received these awards for spurring growth in technical, innovation and R&D activities, and generating intellectual property (IP) and commercialisation opportunities.  This year’s T-Up Excellence Award winners, Ms Joanne Teoh, Dr Li Qiming and Dr Keni Wu, have made excellent contributions to their host companies.

6.       Ms Joanne Teoh, from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), was seconded to Façade Global Master, a façade design consultancy firm.  Joanne helped to develop the world’s first printed lighting on glass, quite aptly named the “Art of Wall”.  This product was named a finalist in the 2013 Red Dot Design Awards, and has been recognised as the new industry standard for façade lighting and decorative lighting architecture.  In the next two years, Façade expects the “Art of Wall” to increase its sales by ten times to reach more than S$2 million.

7.       Dr Keni Wu from the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) helped ERS Industries Pte Ltd, a manufacturer of enclosures for communication equipment, to reduce the time taken for server rack design from ten months to three months.  More importantly, with Dr Wu’s new design, ERS was able to streamline its manufacturing processes to achieve a tenfold increase in production output.  With this new product, ERS will be able to expand its overseas footprint.  Its revenue is expected to increase by S$35 million within three years in the Asia Pacific region alone and by S$100 million within five years globally. So it’s a significant topline impact as well.

8.       Our third winner, Dr Li Qiming from the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), was seconded to Clault Pte Ltd, which provides confidential document storage services.  Dr Li played an instrumental role in developing the company’s core product, the Gatekeeper, which enables secure cloud-based document collaboration.  Since its launch in 2012, close to 45 enterprises have signed up for Clault’s secure document collaboration services.  Under Dr Li’s leadership and with the introduction of a project management methodology, Clault improved its productivity by 30 per cent and tripled the size of its R&D team.

Helping SMEs to access new technology capabilities and solutions

9.       Besides helping SMEs to upgrade their in-house technological capabilities, we are also helping our SMEs to access technology developed elsewhere more easily with the $51 million Technology Adoption Programme (TAP) that I announced last year.  A unique feature of this programme is the introduction of intermediaries – individuals who can bridge the gaps between companies and both public and private sector technology solution providers. The programme was piloted in six sectors – construction, food manufacturing, precision engineering, marine, aerospace and retail – in 2013 and has seen encouraging results.  Within nine months, TAP has reached out to 2,300 SMEs and has benefitted about 200 companies.  As announced at this year’s Budget, TAP will be expanded to four new sectors in 2014 – infocomm & media, healthcare, logistics and food services.  This will help more SMEs leverage on technology to realise new business opportunities.

TAP signs agreement with Jurong Point

10.     Today, TAP will be signing an agreement with Jurong Point Shopping Mall for Jurong Point to integrate Snap2Tell, an image recognition technology developed by A*STAR’s I2R, into its mobile app. The agreement will benefit all 450 tenants in Jurong Point, most of which are SMEs, by enhancing tenants’ advertising efforts, creating new sale channels, and increasing the level of customer interactions.  I am encouraged by the efforts of forward looking asset owners like Jurong Point who are helping their tenants reap the benefits of technology. Indeed, this is an important area in retail where we need to continue record significant effort in order to enhance productivity and competitiveness.

New Ready-to-Go (RTG) technology packages

11.     A*STAR has developed Ready-to-Go (RTG) platforms that can be easily adopted by our SMEs, and will be rolling out more of these packages today.  You will be able to find out more about these platforms as you walk around the exhibition hall later.  Let me highlight two particularly interesting technologies.

Augmented Reality

12.     The “Augmented Reality” (AR) platform developed by A*STAR, known as “Virtual Try-on”, will enable retail SMEs to enrich their customers’ in-store experience. Virtual Try-on is an interactive fashion display, which allows shoppers to see the clothes projected onto real-time images of themselves instead of having to physically try on the clothing items in fitting rooms.  This means a better retail experience for customers; they can see what the item looks like on them before deciding to use the fitting room.  For the retailers, it is a more productive use of their resources, and they can use the data gathered about the items selected, and the time spent on each piece, to refine their marketing and fashion design efforts.   That’s significant information for retailers to work with.

FITPRISE Enterprise Management System (FITPRISE EMS)

13.     Another example is the FITPRISE Enterprise Management System (EMS) RTG that is based on a technology co-developed by A*STAR’s SIMTech and Enhanzcom Pte Ltd.  EMS enables SMEs to improve their end-to-end business workflows by providing features such as electronic quotation management and revenue report generation.  More than 35 SMEs have seen productivity improvements from using the EMS since its launch last year.  One of the beneficiaries is logistics company, Aequitas Global, which has been able to manage customers’ inventory items more efficiently, resulting in up to 80 per cent time savings.

Strengthening support for SMEs in other aspects

14.     A*STAR will continue to strengthen its support for SMEs in other aspects.  As announced in MTI’s COS this year, A*STAR has launched a new “Headstart” programme that allows all local SMEs to enjoy 18 months of royalty-free and exclusive IP licenses arising from their collaborations with A*STAR.  This programme was developed in response to feedback received through the SME Committee, and provides SMEs with more time to translate R&D outcomes into commercially relevant products and services.  We all know that time-to-market is a key factor and having that period of exclusivity to work with A*STAR will make a difference with SMEs keen to collaborate.

15.     Beyond “Headstart”, A*STAR has enhanced its licensing policies to be even more business-friendly and accessible to SMEs. A*STAR has recently launched schemes to simplify licensing agreements and accelerate licensing negotiations for a range of adoption-ready A*STAR technologies.  Licensing agreements are now drafted using simpler language and shortened to 2-3 pages from 15-17 pages. More than 150 SMEs have benefitted from these schemes since the soft-launch in July last year.

Conclusion

16.     The success of our SMEs in adapting to today’s economic realities hinges on their ability to successfully harness technology and innovation to develop new growth models and raise productivity.  The T-Up Excellence Awards and TAP case studies are excellent examples of how SMEs can capitalise on A*STAR’s capabilities and programmes to do so.  I urge you to continue partnering A*STAR and to fully benefit from these programmes that have been designed for you to chart your own success stories.

17.     I wish you a productive day ahead.  Thank you.