The Government will continue to invest in Centres of Innovation at Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and research institutes, and to support companies in innovation as outlined in this weeks 2019 Budget speech.
New Centres of Innovation
Mr Heng Swee Keat announced that Enterprise Singapore is collaborating with industry partners to establish a Centre of Innovation in Aquaculture at Temasek Polytechnic to promote aquaculture. This Centre will bring together aquaculture firms to improve food resilience.
Enterprise Singapore will also launch a Centre of Innovation in Energy at NTU, building on earlier investments at the Energy Research Institute at NTU (ERI@N). The centre will collaborate with the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore to drive industry-led innovation in areas such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, and electric mobility. We will share more about these exciting new research initiatives at the Research, Innovation, and Enterprise Council meeting next month.
The Finance Minister said “The spirit of entrepreneurship is critical for all these endeavours – having a vision of the future, and taking practical actions, day-in, day-out, to explore a range of possibilities and solve a myriad of problems. It is the grit and determination of our entrepreneurs that make a difference.”
Government gives higher learning students global exposure
As well as investment in Research, Innovation, and Enterprise, the minister said that moving forward to make Singapore a Global-Asia node will bring new opportunities for Singaporeans across the globe.
The government is preparing and developing citizens to make full use of this node. They are partnering with firms to invest in people, with focus on young Singaporeans, to provide them with opportunities to gain working experience abroad.
For students who are currently in IHLs, we will combine the current local and overseas internship programmes into a single Global Ready Talent Programme. It will have enhanced funding support for our students interning overseas with Singapore firms.
The programme also supports high-growth Singapore firms to send Singaporeans with up to three years of working experience, for postings in key markets such as Southeast Asia, China, and India.
More information regarding the new research initiatives will be made available at the Research, Innovation, and Enterprise Council meeting next month.