The Singapore government plans to spend S$16.1 billion over the next 5 years from 2011-2015 on research, innovation and enterprise.

This was announced on Friday by the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), chaired by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and also comprising several cabinet ministers as well as international leaders in science and technology.

The new allocation is a 20 per cent increase over the S$13.55 billion which was committed from 2006 to 2010.

The council said this reflected the growing importance of research and development (R&D) in Singapore’s development as a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy.

Singapore’s emphasis on R&D is already paying off with some of the leading names in the biomedical industry like Swiss healthcare firm Roche setting up here.

And the country aims to increase gross expenditure on R&D to 3.5 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product by 2015.

Giving details at a news conference, Mr Lee said Singapore’s long term aim is to be among the most research intensive and entrepreneurial economy in the world in order to create high value jobs for Singaporeans.

Mr Lee said: “We hope that these R&D investments will create high quality jobs and prosperity for Singaporeans.

“A large part of the R&D money will be awarded competitively to support the best proposals and at the same time we will promote closer collaboration between industry and research institutions.”

He said research and innovation underpin the competitiveness of industries, catalyse new growth areas and transform the economy.

Companies like Lucasfilm have set up here.

And members of the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) noted that there has been substantial progress made in strategic research programmes like the interactive digital media (IDM).

“When the IDM programme was first announced, I was sceptical because I wasn’t sure whether Singaporeans were diverse, creative and weird enough for the world of interactive media. Having spent time last summer here, and seeing the fruits both economically and technologically produced, let me say Singaporeans are weird enough,” said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network.

The challenge now is to be prepared for what Mr Lee calls the white space.

PM Lee said: “Because we cannot tell what we will need to do, and which way the science will go, and where the new opportunities will be all in advance. (But) it doesn’t mean scientists get a blank cheque, they have to be held to account. But at the same time, we need to have enough scope and room for creative work and in the long term, to deliver results.”

A major new thrust in R&D is to look for complex national challenges for Singapore. The National Research Foundation aims to make life better for Singaporeans and also create business opportunities which can be exploited abroad.

And for this, the National Innovation Challenge will be launched. Its first project will look into areas like tapping into the power of solar energy and developing cost-competitive energy solutions.

- This article was taken from Channel News Asia Online. The link to the original article can be found here.

- The Straits Times also reported this news and included the following information