The Singapore Research Story

Chang Chieh Hang, Teck Seng Low;Raj Thampuran

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9789814641289
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Science History
• Index: History

Ever since Singapore became independent in 1965, its leaders have invested tremendous efforts and resources to develop its economy in order to create jobs for its people and to support national development. This book describes the challenging journey of Singapore in developing a knowledge-based economy driven by research and innovation and the roles played by research institutes, universities, research manpower and appropriate collaboration between research institutes and industry.

The book traces the foundations of Singapore's research story from the time of its independence in 1965 to the present day. Through interviews with the key players and research into the records, the establishment of the key institutes and the roles of a global cast of researchers, scientists and engineers in setting up the R&D infrastructure are outlined. The impact of the concerted efforts to build up a credible and world-class research capability in Singapore over the last 25 years is discussed, as are the tremendous challenges faced by the key players in the drive to develop a knowledge-based economy and the ultimate goal of an innovation-driven economy.

Contents:

• Foreword by PM Lee Hsien Loong
• Acknowledgements
• Cover Photo Credits
• About the Contributors
• Introduction
• Setting the Stage (Hang Chang Chieh and Yeoh Keat Chuan)
• Shifting Gear into Research (Hang Chang Chieh, Low Teck Seng and Yeoh Keat Chuan)
• The Multi-Agency Approach (Hang Chang Chieh, Low Teck Seng and Raj Thampuran)
• Research in Physical Sciences and Engineering (Hang Chang Chieh and Raj Thampuran)
• The Biomedical Sciences: Research for Better Health (Raj Thampuran and Kong Hwai Loong)
• Developing Research-Intensive Universities (Barry Halliwell and Bertil Andersson)
• Partnering Multinational Corporations in R&D (Low Teck Seng, Raj Thampuran and Yeoh Keat Chuan)
• Developing R&D in Local Enterprises (Hang Chang Chieh, Raj Thampuran and Png Cheong Boon)
• Towards Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Low Teck Seng, Raj Thampuran, Tan Kai Hoe and Philip Ong)
• Appendices:
  • Singapore's Science & Technology, R&D Timeline
  • Chairmen, Executive Directors and Directors
  • Honouring Scientific Talent
  • Oral History Interviews
  • Acronyms
  • Select Bibliography
• Index

Readership: Researchers, professionals, academics, and laymen interested in all aspects of research and development.
Research;Manpower;Restructuring;Research Institutes;Innovation;Entrepreneurship;Universities;Local Enterprises;R&D;Multinational Companies

Chapter 1

Setting the Stage

Hang Chang Chieh and Yeoh Keat Chuan

Fifty years ago, the stage for the development of today’s R&D landscape was fledgling. In 1965 when Singapore became independent after a little less than three years in the Federation of Malaysia, the state of science and technology in all sectors was at very low levels. Science and engineering education was basic and limited. Statistics for 1960 show that the total enrolment in educational institutions was 352,952, of which only 8,171 were in universities and colleges, and just 1,257 in technical and commercial institutions. The tertiary institutions were English-medium University of Malaya in Singapore, Chinese-medium Nanyang University, Teachers’ Training College for training teachers and Singapore Polytechnic, the latter two set up only in 1954 when Britain began taking steps to divest itself of its Southeast Asian colonies. The University of Malaya in Singapore (later the University of Singapore) had started its Engineering Faculty in 1955 — but in Kuala Lumpur on the premise that the newly set-up campus should have at least one professional degree course given that the medical and law faculties were both in Singapore. The pre-university science classes numbered just eight and prepared students for education in medicine, science and engineering, with the majority going into medicine or science, engineering being lower down the list of desired professions. The medical school had in fact been the first institution of higher learning, starting in 1905, in part because healthcare in the Colony of Singapore was already an important concern. As an open port, Singapore saw (and still does) a constant stream of ships, sailors, migrant workers and travellers who brought diseases that spread easily in the unsanitary and poor housing conditions of those times. Public healthcare had been the spur for the setting up of a unit in the Municipal Government that identified diseases, poisons, drugs and other public health issues circa 1885, evolving subsequently into the Department of Scientific Services. This department eventually evolved into the Forensic Science Division, Singapore’s oldest scientific facility.

An open port that has thrived on free trade since the founding of modern Singapore in 1819, Singapore’s economic prosperity up to the 1960s during the colonial period was primarily dependent on entrepot trade. In 1959 when Singapore became self-governing, the new government applied to the United Nations for assistance to develop a new economic model for the colonial economy. In 1961, Dr Albert Winsemius, a Dutch economist who had had a hand in reshaping the post-war Dutch economic recovery, led the UN team to advise Singapore on industrialisation. Dr Winsemius would be among the first foreign experts to play a critical role in the development of the new nation and who would remain a consultant to the Singapore Government long after his initial UN assignment was over.

On top of entrepot trade, Singapore in the 1950s had some ongoing manufacturing. In 1960 when Singapore conducted the first-ever comprehensive census of industries employing 10 and more persons, among its findings was that the production/processing of rubber products made up the biggest sector, followed by food industries. Processing of primary products such as copra, tin and timber also contributed to the manufacturing sector. Such a basic level of industrialisation could not absorb the tens of thousands of post-war baby boomers already streaming out of schools by the end of the 1950s. The economic model proposed by the UN team was industrialisation aimed at the expansion and establishment of industries manufacturing goods for the Federation of Malaya and thereafter for export to the world. The Economic Development Board (EDB) started as a department within the Ministry of Finance under Dr Goh Keng Swee. Ngiam Tong Dow who was one of the pioneer EDB officers said in his book, A Mandarin and the Making of Public Policy: Reflections: “In the first 10 years of economic development, 1960 to 1970, labour-intensive industries, garments, hair wigs, transistor radio assembly, and ship breaking, saw us through. The label “high tech, low tech” never entered our vocabulary. Any “tech”, which could provide our young school-leavers with jobs, would do.”

The EDB’s job was to attract foreign investors to Singapore and to develop local industries. Once Singapore became part of Malaysia in 1963, this tiny trickle of investors was dammed up by the Malaysian Finance Ministry in Kuala Lumpur. This problem disappeared after Singapore independence on August 9, 1965, but so did the potential of an enlarged domestic base to absorb factory output. One of the attractions of the proposed Federation of Malaysia had been the mooting of a Malaysian Common Market. Thus, Singapore’s economic rationale for industrialisation by first relying on the market in the Federation of Malaysia before exporting to the world was no longer valid. Now the world was going to be Singapore’s immediate market. However, producing for the world meant products of higher standards and of better quality. They had to be the best they could be to match the quality of the established industrialised nations. Singapore had none of the resources to produce world-class products. The challenges that the nation faced were multifaceted: investors had to be drawn in, appropriate manpower developed, the education system revamped as part of the bigger picture of manpower development, and infrastructure put in place. Thus, as the lead change agent, EDB started out doing everything from investment promotion to financing (Development Bank of Singapore better known today as DBS Bank) to building infrastructure (Jurong Town Corporation better known today as JTC Corporation) to raising industrial standards and handling industry-linked R&D (Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research, today known as SPRING Singapore).

One of the first units formed in the EDB in 1963 was the Industrial Research Unit (IRU) which would be renamed the Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR) in 1969 and which remained part of the EDB until 1973 when SISIR became an autonomous statutory board. Started up with Colombo Plan aid from New Zealand, IRU was backed by engineers and scientists from the Singapore Polytechnic and the University of Singapore who undertook research and product development at the specific requests of local industrialists. The EDB’s budget of $100 million included provisions for technical and financial assistance to local entrepreneurs. While the IRU was tasked with helping local industries to upgrade and improve their products, another unit, Light Industries Services (LIS), handled a different aspect of manufacturing technology, with both units attached to the Singapore Polytechnic. The differences between the two units were delineated by Finance Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee when he spoke at its 1964 opening at the Singapore Polytechnic: “Briefly, the purpose of the Light Industries Services (LIS) is to help the 2,000 or more light industries in Singapore to expand and to achieve greater efficiency. LIS can help them in five ways, namely through the extension of loans and hire-purchase arrangements for the acquisition of better equipment, through advice on layout, production technique, product designing and standardisation; through management training including training in simple accounting, costing, stores management, guidance in advertising, packaging and marketing, and assistance in getting new sites where needed. However, for more complicated technological problems the LIS has recourse to the Industrial Research Unit (IRU) which is located in this same building. The IRU also has facilities to repair instruments and to carry out tests on products and raw materials.” This section of the IRU would in 1972 become the Instrumentation Systems Centre and one day evolve into the National Metrology Centre. EDB chairman Hon Sui Sen who also spoke at the same opening said: “The Light Industries Services will be working hand in hand with the Industrial Research Unit. They are dedicated not only to serve the existing small industries, but also to help small investors in establishing new ones.” The services supplied by IRU included industrial engineering such as plant maintenance, production management and materials handling, general engineering such as plant layout, electrical supply layout and installation, advice on machinery and tools, and industrial design. The unit relied on expertise from international organisations such as International Labour Organisation as well as the academics in Singapore.

Like all Singapore agencies then and now, IRU strove for international recognition as a way of benchmarking performance. In 1966, IRU became a full member of the International Organisation for Standardisation and that same year, it issued its first standard, Singapore Standard on Timber and Primers, an indication of the importance of commodities processing in the industrial landscape. The next year, IRU awarded the first few Quality Certificates to local industrialists whose products met set standards. In 1973 when SISIR became an autonomous statutory board, its founding chairman Dr Lee Kum Tatt said of SISIR: “Its strength lies in the highly trained, experienced professional men and women who provide a corps of technological and managerial expertise from which the Institute provides practical solutions to problems confronting our industries.” By 1983, SISIR had issued over 350 standards for industrial and consumer products made in Singapore. Starting by tapping science and engineering staff at Singapore Polytechnic and University of Singapore, it built up its own core of science and engineering manpower to become Singapore’s pioneer mission-oriented research institute doing industry-linked research and technology transfer.

Local industrialists known today as Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) needed a lot of assistance to improve their products and productivity. The questions that EDB and SISIR dealt with regularly in the 1960s were simple ones as to which standards, which specifications, which properties, what production processes, what properties of raw materials or where to buy production equipment. Although Singapore was the recipient of international standards established by the international organisations, technology transfer, science and technology (S&T) education and training, and dissemination of information were still at rudimentary levels. This was not helped by the fact that the first generation of local entrepreneurs and industry managers were street smart but only minimally educated. Many if not most were family-run enterprises. There was a clearly felt need to promote the importance of S&T in industry but also in education. So enthused was the scientific community about raising public awareness of the importance of S&T in national advancement that several scientific associations were formed in the immediate years following independence: National Academy of Sciences, Science Teachers’ Association, and even a National Academy of Chemistry. The key body was the Science Council.

Science Council and its Activities

As early as 1967 the Science Council had been created to push for the national advancement of S&T and to build up human resources in scientific R&D. As defined by the Science Council Act of 1967, the function of the Council was to make reports and recommendations to the Minister on:

• Scientific and technological research and development;
• The effective training and utilisation of scientific and technological manpower in Singapore; and
• The establishment of official relations with other scientific organisations.

The Council was inaugurated on 30th October 1967 in the conference room of the Prime Minister’s Office and presided by Dr Toh Chin Chye, then Deputy Prime Minister. Dr Toh was the one member of the Cabinet with a PhD in science and he would become the first Minister for Science and Technology in 1968. In its first annual report for that year, the Science Council reported: “Dr Toh explained that he had tried to make the Council as representative as possible, and had included persons with wide and extensive practical experience. The other six members, who would make up the full council, would be appointed in six months’ time so that all areas of scientific interest would be covered.” Its inaugural chairman was Dr Lee Kum Tatt who had been one of the first PhDs of the University of Malaya in Singapore, receiving his doctorate in chemistry in 1955. Dr Lee had a very early involvement with scientific services starting with the Department of Scientific Services. Dr Toh pointed out that with limited funds at its disposal, the Council should not be over-ambitious in its programmes at the start but should look into problems which were of immediate and practical value to Singapore. He stressed that the Council should take care that it did not unnecessarily duplicate or interfere with the research or developmental activities of certain departments of the Government, although it was desirable for the Council to help integrate certain of these activities wherever possible.

The Council’s basic policy outlined in its first annual report was to confine its attention to “purely practical and utilitarian problems for the next few years although fundamental research especially at institutions of higher learning would not be discouraged”. Aware of the high costs of research and to avoid duplication, the Council being made up of men of science saw the “urgent need for better coordination and collaboration of the activities of different scientific bodies in Singapore”. The report said: “In this connection, the Council will continue to have a close working relationship with the Economic Development Division of the Ministry of Finance (later to become the Ministry of Trade and Industry), the Economic Development Board as well as other authorities which are planning the social and economic development in the Republic.” The Council hoped, too, to get “cooperation between industries and the Government and training institutes in planning an integrated approach to problems relating to scientific, technical and technological education”. Plans were drawn up to highlight the importance of S&T, one of which was the creation of a new ministry to achieve better coordination of various S&T programmes. The Council was housed temporarily in the Marine Survey Division offices in Fullerton Building, then given a government bungalow at 23 Nassim Road for its secretariat. It had a full-time secretariat consisting of a secretary and four full-time staff members, all seconded from the civil service. The scientists helming the Council were all part-timers. The Council would relocate to the Science Centre when this building was completed in 1977, and finally to Science Park in Kent Ridge in the 1980s in the last few years of its existence.

Given the general lack of statistical information on a whole range of economic sectors — the first census of industry had been conducted in 1960 — the lack of information on S&T was expected. The Council had noted in its 1967 inaugural annual report: “It is recognised that only after some accurate data are obtained that any projections of future needs can be made with significance.” It lamented the difficulty of compiling such information: “The present system of collecting information by questionnaires and correspondence have not been successful. Personal interviews have produced better results and the Council hopes to set up soon a liaison section with full-time staff of its own.” The report also lamented its lack of laboratory facilities and its dependence on the laboratories of various government departments. It then proposed the creation of a Ministry of Science and Technology to provide the proper infrastructure to coordinate all the scientific activities in the Republic.

In 1967 the Council took one of the first steps to get the big picture by inviting a UNESCO team consisting of Dr Kurt Billig and D. Merrill to spend six weeks in Singapore to look into the needs and potential for technological research facilities, to give advice on training of technological personnel in the field of metrology and the use of existing equipment, to develop the needs of metrology and the machine tools at the metrology lab of the Singapore Polytechnic, and to look into the possibility of a Technical University of Singapore and the possible establishment of a Technical Documentation Centre. The need for information on what was going on elsewhere and to disseminate such information being considered critical, the Council asked UNESCO for the assistance of a documentation expert, Dr Hans Bauer, to look into the setting up of a scientific-technical documentation centre in Singapore. Dr Bauer’s 1969 report, Proposals for the Setting Up of a Scientific-Technical Information Centre in Singapore, gives interesting insight into local industry at this time: “In most cases these [local] companies produce products which are sold in the local market. There is seldom any quality control along the production line nor any guaranteed standards of the final product. In order to be able to produce goods which can compete with those from overseas in local or foreign markets, quality control and standards guarantee are essential. Furthermore, in my opinion it will be necessary that these companies must in future start their own technical development in order to improve their products and to keep them up-to-date with regards to design and technical layout. To be able to carry out these aims information is necessary in the form of notification of papers published in periodicals or technical reports, describing new technical processes, new materials, new equipment, new designs, for the specialised industrial branches. If the information is very important, copies of the papers should be made available. In the course of my discussions carried out at many industrial concerns these needs are felt by the young engineers more than the responsible management personnel.” This was not surprising given the level of education of the early local entrepreneurs and managers of industry then.

Dr Bauer proposed that the main functions of the proposed information centre would be to provide and disseminate scientific-technical information, assist in solving special technical problems, act as an industrial liaison with manufacturers abroad, and establish close contact with technical organisations, institutions and research centres abroad. Dr Bauer observed at the end of his report: “In my survey under the given terms of reference I have observed that there is a definite lack of scientific-technical information facilities in Singapore. Industries, especially the smaller and indigenous ones and government bodies have expressed the urgent need for scientific-technical information.” Dr Bauer’s recommendations saw the light of day not in the Science Council but rather in SISIR which was already carrying out some of the proposed functions such as building up its collection of standards as well as assisting local industrialists with their technical problems.

Another step that the Science Council took was the creation of four standing sub-committees: Engineering, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Natural Resources and their Utilisation. The committees were told that their activities “should relate the needs to the interests of the nation so that the research would be purposeful and largely applied in nature. Even more specifically the ultimate aim should be to direct the efforts towards sound development planning through objective knowledge and understanding”. Membership of these different standing committees was made up of academics from the tertiary institutions as well as from industry. Thus, the committees were platforms for interaction between industry players and the scientific community. Interaction and building links with the international scientific community being considered important, Dr Lee was included in EDB trade missions to find out for himself what the industrialised countries were doing in the field of S&T. When he became chairman of SISIR, the benefits of such exposure flowed back into SISIR. Among Singapore’s earliest interactions with the international scientific community, one was with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thus, one of Singapore’s first scientific conferences was on nuclear energy. In 1968, Singapore was elected to the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and for many years, there was a unit in the Science Council that dealt with atomic energy matters. This early involvement with atomic energy stemmed from the rapid growth in energy needs in the late 1960s and early 1970s due to rapid industrialisation, prompting the consideration of the nuclear energy option.

In 1968, the Council brought together more than 200 local scientists, technologists, industrialists and economic planners for a National Conference on Scientific and Technical Co-operation between Industries and Government Bodies to identify areas of mutual interests and to consider ways and means to foster cooperation. This important conference produced wide-ranging recommendations, among them a national standards authority to prepare and promote Singapore standards, a Research and Development Agency, industrial training for students, interchange of personnel between government bodies and industries to promote better understanding and communication and for optimum deployment of existing manpower. One recommendation that educational institutions orientate their students to industries’ needs and that industries provide industrial training and experience for students led to the establishment of the Industrial Training Board to promote and encourage practical training in industrial establishments for students. With support from the Asia Foundation and companies, the Science Council made a quick start by setting up an industrial training fund for about 30 students from tertiary institutions that paid trainees an allowance of about $120 a month. In the first year, some 40 students took part in the industrial orientation scheme during the long vacation in early 1969. The next year, some 550 students took part. With about 100 staff members from the tertiary institutions offering to supervise the attachments, the scheme also gave academic staff an opportunity for a closer interaction with indust...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Title
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Cover Photo Credits
• About the Contributors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Setting the Stage
• Chapter 2 Shifting Gear into Research
• Chapter 3 The Multi-Agency Approach
• Chapter 4 Research in Physical Sciences and Engineering
• Chapter 5 The Biomedical Sciences: Research for Better Health
• Chapter 6 Developing Research-Intensive Universities
• Chapter 7 Partnering Multinational Corporations in R&D
• Chapter 8 Developing R&D in Local Enterprises
• Chapter 9 Towards Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Appendices
• Singapore’s Science & Technology, R&D Timeline
• Chairmen, Executive Directors and Directors
• Honouring Scientific Talent
• Oral History Interviews
• Acronyms
• Select Bibliography
• Index