Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stronger public and private partnership will help innovation hubs flourish

SAN FRANCISCO – There should be stronger partnership between the public and private sectors in order to create a conducive environment for start-ups to thrive in Singapore, said Minister of State (Trade and Industry) Koh Poh Koon.

Dr Koh Poh Koon with other ASEAN economic ministers at Prospect Silicon Valley. Photo: Saifulbahri Ismail/Channel NewsAsia

Dr Koh Poh Koon with other ASEAN economic ministers at Prospect Silicon Valley. Photo: Saifulbahri Ismail/Channel NewsAsia

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SAN FRANCISCO – There should be stronger partnership between the public and private sectors in order to create a conducive environment for start-ups to thrive in Singapore, said Minister of State (Trade and Industry) Koh Poh Koon.

Speaking to reporters at an innovation hub in Silicon Valley this week, Dr Koh said that Government efforts alone will not be able to create successful innovation hubs that support startup companies.

“For startups and entrepreneurship, a lot also depends on the ecosystem around it. One of the things is to see how the private sector – corporates as well as venture capitalists – can help us catalyse this process,” he said. “They (the private sector) have an eye for what technology can be successful. They know more about what the market place is.”

He said that while the Government is willing to give funding and provide impetus for startups to take off, what is important is to engage the community of startup entrepreneurs, especially those who have succeeded.

“They can give us better insights and to work together (with the Government) to create an ecosystem of success,” he said.

Dr Koh was participating in a roadshow for Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade ministers in the Silicon Valley at the invitation of the United States government.

As part of the itinerary, Dr Koh and his counterparts visited ProspectSV, a non-profit innovation hub that works with industry and government innovators to launch smarter, cleaner solutions in energy, transportation and the built environment. ProspectSV is currently working with around 14 startups to help them grow their business.

Dr Koh noted that some of the best practices in the Silicon Valley have already been implemented in Singapore. He said that JTC LaunchPad @ one-north is a similar set up to ProspectSV, where technology startups are given a test bed for their solutions, so that they can interact with other innovation accelerators and venture capitalists to take the startups forward.

“I think we are largely on the right track but there are several things which are unique to Silicon Valley which we can consider for improving the situation back home,” said Dr Koh, who is also Minister of State (National Development). He said that this will fit into the Committee on the Future Economy exercise, launched last month to set the direction for Singapore’s future economic development.

Reflecting on the lessons learnt during his trip, Dr Koh said that a mindset change may be needed in Singapore so that people accept failure as an ingredient for future success.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who visited the Silicon Valley earlier this month before attending the Special ASEAN-US Summit in Sunnylands, had told reporters this week that engineers should be valued and not be regarded as people who merely provide “support function” or help fix computer problems. He added that the Government hoped to attract Silicon Valley-based Singaporeans to return home to launch new projects or initiatives in Singapore.

Dr Koh said that more can be done to develop a stronger cohort of software engineers in Singapore. “The issue is not a straight forward one. First of all at the education level we have to continue to make sure that the syllabus we teach is relevant to the needs of the future especially in software engineering,” he said.

“The second thing is to highlight success that have already taken place so that people can see there is prospect to undertaking the career (of a software engineer).

Commenting on how the Silicon Valley can feature in advancing ASEAN-US cooperation – an issue that was discussed between the leaders in California, Dr Koh noted that while “the Silicon Valley has highlighted some of the ingredients for success for the US, each of the (ASEAN) countries need to look at their own individual context and see how the ingredients of success here can be modified or applied in their home settings”.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.