Speech by Minister Gan Kim Yong at the Official Opening of HIVE by Stellar Lifestyle

Mr Seah Moon Ming, Chairman of SMRT,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. Good morning. It is my pleasure to join you here today for the opening of HIVE by Stellar Lifestyle.

2. We are living in a very exciting world full of possibilities and opportunities as well as challenges. It is important for us to continue to work together to address some of these challenges and help our businesses and people. I am happy to see SMRT playing a part in helping our enterprises, workers and Singaporeans.

3. Earlier this year, we announced our Enterprise 2030 vision of building and sustaining a vibrant ecosystem of Singapore enterprises that are future-ready and possess deep capabilities to compete globally. Towards this end, the Government will accelerate our investments in new capabilities. We will strengthen the digital capabilities of our businesses, push for innovation across the economy, and strengthen our local enterprise ecosystem.

HIVE by Stellar Lifestyle

4. HIVE by Stellar Lifestyle plays a unique role not just in connecting people and places with a world-class transport system, but also in building “Communities in Station” with new retail and F&B experiences, and new capabilities for our SMEs. Communities in Station aims to nurture a sense of community within the transit network and create vibrancy in stations, through a series of activations that include SMEs, social enterprises, multi-generation care, education, arts and heritage.

5. The retail innovation centre will serve as a curated platform for retail startups and SMEs to test out and validate new business concepts, and encourage digital transformation of retailers. Startups can also utilise the retail innovation centre to test bed their innovations, enabling them to garner direct feedback from customers and accelerate their journey towards commercialisation. We will learn more about the local startups housed in the centre during the showcase later.

Partnerships between local corporates and startups

6. HIVE by Stellar Lifestyle also enables local enterprises in traditional sectors to tap on these startups as potential innovation partners. Collaborations have included companies such as SingPost, TikTok, startups like Pickupp, and Singapore’s first SFA-certified food incubator, Incubaker.

7. Startups are an important driver of innovation and enterprise in our economy. As we embark on the next stage of economic growth, I would like to encourage more local players to explore innovation partnership and opportunities with startups. Singapore is well-positioned as the Global node of Technology, Innovation and Enterprise in Asia.

8. Startups should also leverage these opportunities to develop their processes, deepen their capabilities and accelerate their growth towards commercialisation. These partnerships could lead to a win-win outcome for both parties, and we hope to see more of such partnerships in time to come. A similar programme startups can explore is the Open Innovation Network set up by Enterprise Singapore and the Infocomm Media Development Authority, where startups, innovators and enterprises can seek out opportunities for co-development, test-bedding and market validation with local and overseas companies.

Closing

9. Finally, my heartiest congratulations to Stellar Lifestyle on the opening of HIVE. I look forward to the HIVE playing a key role in forging meaningful collaborations between SMEs and startups, and I wish you every success in the journey ahead.

10. Thank you.