DPM Teo Chee Hean at book launch of The Singapore Research Story on 15 April 2016

Writing the Next Chapter of The Singapore Research Story

Chairman of World Scientific Publishing
Editors of and Contributors to The Singapore Research Story
Friends
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning. It’s nice to see many familiar faces here today, at the launch of “The Singapore Research Story”, a book documenting Singapore’s 50 years of progress in science and technology.  

Singapore’s S&T Progress

Our science and technology journey started from a low base. In 1967, when we set up our first scientific advisory board, the Science Council, our science education was rudimentary and lacked rigour. We were short of engineers and technical workers in the 1970s.  

But our founding leaders saw science and technology as a way to create jobs for, and improve the lives of, Singaporeans. So we invested in good education and in raising our scientific capabilities, right from the start. Mathematics, Science and Technology, were important parts of our core school curriculum, which every student took. The best students in each cohort chose to study Medicine, Engineering and Science.  

This provided a broad and strong foundation in our education system. We were good users of science and technology and this allowed our nation to progress. But research was pursued only very selectively.

But we realised that to take our country and our industrialisation efforts forward, we had to invest in research and development and knowledge. Our early investments in research began in a major way in the mid-1980s with the expansion of our universities and the creation of new research centres, notably the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. 

Some 50 years later, as a nation, our commitment to science and technology has borne fruit. Today, researchers in our universities, research institutes, healthcare institutions and companies collaborate to produce best-in-class research. We now have a growing pool of Research, Scientists and Engineers, with good jobs in Singapore. We also maintained a pipeline in our schools, through specialised programmes and the setting up of NUS High School for Mathematics and Science.

The recollections in this book provide an opportunity to reflect on our development in science and technology, and to spur us on as we write the next chapter of the Singapore Research Story.

The Next Chapter

In January this year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan, with a budget of S$19 billion from 2016 to 2020. This is about 1% of our GDP, which is what small, developed, research-intensive countries invest in public sector funded R&D. 

We see investing in R&D as a way to secure Singapore’s future. We expect our investments in research, innovation and enterprise to transform our economy, by raising productivity and catalysing new growth areas. This will in turn create good jobs and more opportunities for Singaporeans. We also want to improve healthcare for our population, especially our seniors, and transform our urban landscape for greater liveability and sustainability. We will continue to groom researchers, scientists, and engineers, who can develop innovative solutions to benefit Singapore and the world. 

The nature of scientific endeavour today is that it is collaborative and increasingly global. We have benefited from international collaborations and will continue to strengthen them. Besides working with overseas institutions both in Singapore and abroad, we have also had prominent Singaporean scientists return after many years of overseas experience. They have taken up key positions in our institutions, carrying out cutting-edge research, and training the next generation of researchers, scientists and engineers. 

Conclusion

I congratulate the editors and contributors of this book, who were personally involved in Singapore’s science and technology journey at different junctures and from different perspectives. It required bold ideas, vision, and sometimes big egos who were prepared to work towards the goal of raising the level of research in science, technology and engineering in Singapore. Thank you to everyone here for your contributions to science and technology in Singapore.

I hope to see more Singaporeans building on this strong foundation, and helping to write the next chapter of our Singapore Research Story. May we be inspired by the determination and courage of those who have gone before us, and continue to pursue excellence in research and development for the betterment of Singapore and Singaporeans.  Thank you.