Lam Chuan Leong, Chairman, IDA Singapore - Address NUS' School of Computing Incubation Centre Opening ...
Lam Chuan Leong, Chairman, IDA Singapore - Address
NUS' School of Computing Incubation Centre Opening
Singapore, 20 September 2001
Incubation Center - breeding grounds for innovation and creativity, enterprise building
The establishment of NUS's new incubation centre is an excellent example of how IHLs in Singapore are not only developing talent. They are also helping to develop business. The Incubation Center has a very vital role in supporting and growing our own start-ups. Besides the usual hands-on management assistance, access to financing and other technical support services, this particular center is close to NUS and the affiliated research institutes. This will add the benefit of closer interactions and collaborations amongst the people working in the centre and the staff and students of the NUS.
We are pleased that the industry has welcomed this initiative with sponsorship in kind. Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Parkard have sponsored resources like servers, web publishers, database, wireless test-bed etc.
I would like to congratulate the NUS for taking such an innovative step to establish this Incubator Centre and to thank the industrial partners for their support.
Intellectual Capital - Singapore's key to long-term competitive advantage
Today, we are plugged into a very challenging Infocomm landscape marked with rapid developments in communications technology. Technological advancements and breakthroughs do not by themselves create transformation and a powerful multiplier effect for our economy. The real mover is intellectual capital.
How can we build intellectual capital? We have to invest in our people by equipping them with the relevant skills and expertise in the latest technologies. We also need to help foster an innovative and creative mindset and a readiness to venture beyond the usual comfort zones in search of new opportunities.
IDA's Academic Exchange Programme - grooming local talents & industries and attracting overseas talents.
In this regard, I would like to take this opportunity to announce that IDA will be introducing the Academic Exchange Programme, which will provide funding of approximately S$2 millions to sponsor students, both local and overseas for work attachments.
The Academic Exchange Programme will facilitate technology and knowledge transfer and help strengthen the ties of our IHL's with top overseas universities. The programme will have two prongs.
First, local students will be given support for a stint overseas so that they acquire expertise and state of the art knowledge in the Infocomm industry.
Second, the programme will support top overseas talents to come to Singapore on exchange and to share with us new ideas and approaches that are being tried out elsewhere. During their stay in Singapore, we hope that our overseas exchange visitors will gain first-hand experience of Singapore's culture, and way of life. We also want to demonstrate how Singapore can offer them a rewarding Infocomm career.
We encourage all IHLs to use this programme to send local students overseas and to attract top overseas students here.
Role of IDA in building world-class Institutes of Higher Learning
We appreciate the critical role that our IHLs have played in training key professionals for our economy. Our IHL's are also aiming to build a world-class education for our students. IDA hopes to help our IHL's by funding a Visiting Professor Programme to attract elite overseas professors to Singapore for sabbatical, research and exchange.
We view effective partnerships between IHL and industry as a very useful form of collaboration. A good example of this is agreement between Nokia Research Center, the Nokia Group's corporate research unit, and Delft University of Technology for mutual research co-operations.
I am glad to add that the Academic Exchange Programme can also be used to sponsor top overseas students who are selected to participate in project collaborations between IHLs and industry.
Conclusion
In closing, may I wish the Centre every success in its endeavors and look forward to its contributions in grooming world-class enterprises. You can be assured of support from the IDA either through the Exchange Programme I have mentioned or in other ways as well.
Thank you.
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