Innovation Blog

Competing for ‘Clean’: Singapore Leads the Way

By Shlomo Maital

Goh Chee Kiong


A global business and technology race is underway, and has been for some time — to achieve leadership in clean technology.   As has happened before, a rather latecomer with many disadvantages has entered the race and is now taking many of the spoils.

The entrant is Singapore.  The question is:  How has it succeeded?

According to the Global New York Times, Singapore has singlemindedly and determinedly made itself attractive for global investment in CleanTech, just as it did in semiconductor production and in biotechnology.  [1] Singapore just won a global contest for a $1.85 b. plant, largest of its kind, for making solar wafers, cells and panels, by REC Renewable Energy Corp. of Norway.  REC received over 140 proposals from around the world.  Why did it choose Singapore, a nation with only some 700 sq. km. of land, distant from everywhere?

The head of clean technology at Singapore’s Economic Development Board, Goh Chee Kiong, says simply, “Asia is going to be a huge market for clean-tech products and solutions, and we want to make sure Singapore is plugged into this entire marketplace”.  Singapore offered REC skilled labor, tax incentives, government support and a favorable investment environment.  Singapore has set aside a fund worth $700 m. for R&D on cleantech.  It has also created a solar research institute and a clean-tech park.  Other top countries drawn to Singapore include Vesta, world’s top wind turbine marker, which will spend $500 m. in Singapore over the next decade to build a major R&D center. Singapore has everything needed to attract clean-tech people and money —  great living conditions, legal, banking and accounting firms, and other services support.  It is a Southeast Asia hub.

Singapore’s government wants Singapore to be a testing ground for new technologies — electric vehicles, smart microgrids, solar panels, etc.  “Our next step is to make Singapore a living laboratory,”  Goh says, ”  …a site of first adoption, demonstration, test-bedding.  This is a key selling point.”

Keep in mind that with GDP per capita of some $35,000, Singapore is a high-wage country. Despite this, it is a clean-tech site of choice of investment and production.  Let no country ever again site its high wages as an excuse for losing the clean-tech race.

[1] “Singapore aims to become a hub for clean technology,” by David Fogarty, Reuters, Global NYT May 31, 2010, p. 18.