Export Potential of Singapore’s Water Recycling and Management Capabilities and Support for Water Technology Firms to Compete Globally

5 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether the Government has assessed the export potential of Singapore’s water recycling and integrated water management capabilities, particularly in regions facing rising industrial and digital infrastructure demand; and (b) whether there are plans to develop a coordinated strategy to position Singapore firms as global leaders in this sector.

6 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether existing financing and risk-sharing mechanisms are sufficient for Singapore-based water-technology firms to compete internationally with state-backed competitors in large-scale overseas projects; and (b) whether further enhancements are planned to strengthen Singapore’s global competitiveness and support local firms in securing international desalination and recycling contracts.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to answer oral Questions Nos 5 and 6 in today’s Order Paper together, as they both relate to the international competitiveness of Singapore’s water technology firms?

Mr Speaker: Please proceed.

Mr Alvin Tan: Thank you, Sir. Sir, water supply is an existential issue for Singapore. Therefore, the Government has been promoting the water industry and investing in the research and development (R&D) of water technologies under Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE). Today, Singapore is globally recognised for our integrated water management and our know-how also creates opportunities for our companies to meet the needs of other countries.

Enterprise Singapore, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) and the Singapore Water Association work together to support Singapore-based companies such as Keppel and Sembcorp as they build capabilities and pursue opportunities overseas.

Our biennial Singapore International Water Week has become one of the world’s leading conferences for public utilities and the water industry since its establishment in 2008. It comprises flagship events that gather suppliers and customers of innovative water, coastal and flood solutions. Co-organised by PUB, the event culminates in the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize. Events like these help Singapore-based companies and startups gain visibility and access to potential investors, partners and customers.

Our agencies also regularly organise business missions to and facilitate engagements with stakeholders in key regional markets.

These efforts have been particularly helpful for smaller companies. Hydroleap, a watertech company specialising in electrochemical separation, piloted its water recycling systems with Amazon Web Services (AWS) at a data centre facility in Singapore. It has since expanded to markets like Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.

SG Enviro, another Singapore startup focused on advanced water purification treatment using nano-bubble technology, has been working on water reclamation and wastewater treatment projects with palm oil refineries in Malaysia.

Watertech companies like Hydroleap and SG Enviro have and can tap the Enterprise Development Grant to upgrade, innovate and access new markets and our Market Readiness Assistance grant to defray the costs of overseas market promotion. They can also use those grants for development of their businesses and to set up their businesses overseas.

Companies which need financing for overseas expansion can also tap the Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS). Under EFS, Government offers risk sharing with participating Financial Institutions, such as for fixed asset loans for construction or the acquisition of plants and equipment. They also can access trade loans for the buying and selling of goods. We announced enhancements to some of these schemes at this year's Budget and the Ministry of Trade and Industry's Committee of Supply (MTI COS) session.

I want to ensure the Member that the Government will continue to support our local water tech companies, to strengthen their global competitiveness and better position them to pursue market opportunities abroad.

Mr Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for his answers. I have different supplementary questions for Question Nos 5 and 6 respectively.

For Question No 5, I would like to ask the Minister of State, will the Government consider a circular economy export office to specifically bundle our water recycling and waste to energy technologies, like Tuas Nexus, as a single high value export for the growing cities in ASEAN and beyond in Asia?

Second supplementary question, for Question No 5. Is MTI actively marketing Singapore's integrated cooling plus water recycling solutions to regional digital hubs like Johor and Batam, to ensure our firms capture the spillover infrastructure demand from Singapore's own land constraint?

Finally, for the third supplementary question, given that water is often a sovereign municipal issue overseas, will the Government use more Government-to-Government platforms to pre-qualify or support Singapore water technologies in emerging markets?

For Question No 6, Mr Speaker, my supplementary questions are as follows. One, will MTI introduce a sovereign project bond or risk sharing mechanism that allows Singapore water firms to bid for larger scale overseas desalination projects with the financial backing of a, so called, Team Singapore guarantee?

Second supplementary question, will the Government allow for more export oriented test bedding within PUB facilities where the primary goal is not just local water security, but providing the firms with a globally recognised reference track to win overseas tenders?

Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, I thank Mr Dennis Tan for his supplementary questions for both Question Nos 5 and 6. Let me try to answer them as comprehensively as possible.

With regard to the circular economy export office and the market integrated cooling solutions, there are no immediate plans to do so.

With regard to supporting Singapore water tech companies and to use our know-how to tap onto the opportunities outside of Singapore, I think those are very useful suggestions and important ones. Allow me to put that into context; because I have two questions. I can go a little bit into detail to answer Mr Dennis Tan's questions.

First of all, maybe I start with the export test bedding and talk about PUB's support. PUB, in fact, has opened up its water insulation for test bedding. For example, they have this Living Lab fund which provides R&D funding. So, if you are a local company, for example, Hydroleap or SG Enviro, you are able to use some of these funds to test bed some of these innovative solutions, which if it works, then you can potentially use it in Singapore and then potentially export to different markets.

PUB also has support schemes for companies and research institutions to then pilot and to validate these new tech, which could be applied for both industrial as well as municipal water needs.

What I thought is also very important, because the Member is asking about how Singapore water tech companies can better expand into the overseas markets, is this. Since 2006, Government has invested about $800 million from RIE on water tech. And since, then the water tech industry has grown quite significantly. In fact, we have now moved from 50 to about 400 companies and increased job opportunities. So, now, it is about over 20,000 jobs.

For the schemes, at MTI COS, we have enhanced some of these schemes to help these companies, not just water tech companies, but companies who want to expand overseas. For example, we enhanced the Market Readiness Assistance grant. So, even if you are already in the market, you can continue to use that grant.

We have enhanced the Double Tax Deduction for Internationalisation grant, and we have also enhanced the EFS.

All of these, put together, enables our companies to expand overseas. I give a quick example to illustrate this point. Hydroleap, for example. Because of the support from Enterprise Singapore and MTI, it is now able to use the Enterprise Development Grant funding to upgrade its water technologies, which I mentioned earlier on. It is now expanded to Australia. It is expanded to Thailand, for example, partnering with the Bangkok Industrial Gas, to provide smart water treatment solutions in PepsiCo Thailand.

So, I thank the Member for his questions. We are indeed looking at water as a strategic imperative, not just as an existential issue for Singapore, but also supporting our water tech companies to test bed, to validate their ideas to grow and then to expand beyond our shores.