SINGAPORE - AN INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR MARITIME R&D
Your Excellency, Ms Karla Peijs, Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management, The Netherlands;
Mr Wim van Sluis, Alderman, City of Rotterdam;
Mr Pieter Struijs, Senior Executive Vice-President, Port of Rotterdam;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen.
A very good morning to you, especially to our friends who have travelled from far and wide to participate in this landmark conference. I am very happy to be able to join you here today and I would like to thank Minister Peijs for taking the time off her very busy schedule to grace this occasion.
As leading maritime nations, both the Netherlands and Singapore recognise the importance of promoting R&D and stimulating innovations in the maritime field. This is critical to enable our maritime industries to stay competitive and meet the challenges of globalisation. With this in mind, the Port of Rotterdam and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore came together in September 2003 and established a MOU framework to jointly organise this conference, which will be held every two years, alternating between Rotterdam and Singapore. Today marks the inauguration of the International Conference on Port-Maritime Development and Innovation in Rotterdam. It also represents another step forward in the long-standing and close maritime co-operation between the Netherlands and Singapore.
This conference provides a unique platform for the global maritime community and research institutions to gather to exchange ideas and expertise on port and maritime research and technologies. I would therefore take this opportunity to invite you to the next conference to be held in 2007 in Singapore.
International Maritime Centre
Singapore is a global, cosmopolitan city with a vibrant maritime industry that has 4,400 maritime establishments, including port and logistics services, marine engineering, ship repairs and conversions, shipping and maritime ancillary services. The maritime industry is a key pillar of the Singapore economy, employing more than 100,000 people and contributes some seven per cent to the Singapore GDP.
To meet the challenges of increasing global maritime competition, we have begun to move up the value-chain to develop Singapore as an International Maritime Centre or IMC. We have identified three key thrusts in our overall strategy in developing Singapore as an IMC. These three thrusts are the development of maritime manpower, maritime ancillary services and a dynamic maritime R&D cluster that will eventually establish Singapore as an international centre for maritime R&D. I will briefly touch on the development of maritime manpower and maritime ancillary services, and elaborate more on maritime R&D.
Maritime Manpower Development and Ancillary Services
On maritime manpower development, we place great emphasis on building a skilled workforce that is able to serve the needs of maritime companies in Singapore. We have put in place a training infrastructure to ensure that our maritime workforce remains relevant and attuned to the needs of the industry. This includes a whole variety of manpower training options offered by both public and private service providers and associations, ranging from short courses and executive seminars to diploma, undergraduate and graduate programmes. A number of these courses involve international participation, such as those from universities in Rotterdam and other parts of the world. This investment in building up the training infrastructure, we believe, will raise the quality, productivity and professionalism of our maritime workforce.
An efficient port would need to be complemented by a whole range of maritime ancillary services to support the maritime industry. We have had a head start in some areas such as bunkering, ship chandling and ship agency and have made some progress in ship financing and maritime legal services. We will continue to capitalise on our strengths as a shipping hub to further build up the range of maritime ancillary services available here. This will help to ensure more sustainable growth and better positioning for Singapore's maritime industry.
Maritime R&D
We place strong emphasis on maritime R&D as it is an important driving force behind our IMC vision. However, for R&D to take off, there must be a right combination of factors. These factors are present in Singapore. I will share with you three key factors that make Singapore an ideal location for maritime R&D.
The first key factor is the presence of strong government support for R&D in general. In a recent speech, Singapore's Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, pointed to innovation and enterprise, and R&D as two new growth engines that will power the Singapore economy ahead in the years to come. To drive these two engines, the Prime Minister himself will chair a committee called the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council, or RIEC, which will advise the Government on research, as well as innovation and enterprise strategies. Supporting this committee will be a new National Research Foundation to implement the strategies developed by the RIEC and to fund long term research projects in strategic areas. Public and private sectors' resources for R&D and Innovation will be increased to at least 3% of GDP within the next five years from 2.15% of GDP in 2003. As a part of this, Singapore's public sector budget for R&D will more than double from just under US$3 billion for 2001-2005, to almost US$7.2 billion for 2006-2010.
Specifically for the maritime sector, the MPA had set up a US$60 million Maritime Innovation and Technology or MINT Fund1in 2003 to support maritime R&D over 10 years. A wide range of programmes are available under the MINT Fund for various purposes, ranging from encouraging university students to take up maritime R&D, supporting R&D projects and R&D prototype test-bedding, to supporting start-up maritime technology companies.
The second key factor is the R&D infrastructure and expertise in Singapore and a conducive environment for conducting R&D. Universities in Singapore, such as the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University, as well as the various research institutes under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have the capabilities and facilities to carry out research in many areas, including computational science, environmental science, offshore research, manufacturing technology and info-communications technology, that can be applied to the maritime industry.
To increase the breadth and depth of our maritime R&D capabilities, the universities and research institutes in Singapore have and are further encouraged to have international collaboration in R&D with renown overseas universities and research organizations, some of which I am happy to note are from the Netherlands.
The third key factor is Singapore's strategic location and thriving maritime industry. Singapore is the world's busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage, the world's top container transshipment port and a top bunkering port. Currently, its offshore sector has secured more than 80% of the world's jack-up rig orders and has 70% market share in the conversion of Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSOs) units world-wide.
The combination of global hub port, a thriving IMC and a leading global offshore and ship repair centre make cosmopolitan multi-cultural Singapore an ideal maritime R&D location offering ample opportunities for R&D, test-bedding and commercialisation of R&D.
CONCLUSION
I hope I have given you a useful insight into the maritime R&D environment in Singapore, and why Singapore would make an ideal maritime R&D partner. With this, I would like to wish you all a very fruitful conference, and I look forward to seeing all of you in Singapore in 2007.
Thank you.
