Update on Industry Transformation Maps and Global Innovation Alliance

22 Ms Sun Xueling asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) whether he can provide a progress update on the Industry Transformation Maps and the Global Innovation Alliance.

Mr S Iswaran: The Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) and Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) were two key initiatives proposed by the Committee on the Future Economy. We are making good progress on both of these.

Through the ITMs, lead agencies and their partners are putting in place industry-specific transformation strategies for 23 industries that make up 80% of our economy. Thirteen ITMs have been launched so far, and the remainder will be rolled out by the end of this financial year. Each ITM consists of a growth and competitiveness plan, supported by four pillars – productivity, jobs and skills, innovation, and trade and internationalisation. Each ITM also addresses the Government’s role in enabling industry upgrading, for example, through conducive regulations. Alongside the ITMs, we have also launched Skills Frameworks to support the jobs and skills pillar, which provide information on career pathways, job roles, skills needs and relevant training programmes.

Implementation of the strategies and plans in the ITMs has started. For example, as part of the Precision Engineering ITM, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) recently launched a model factory, which allows small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to experience and experiment with advanced manufacturing technologies in a real-life production environment. Leveraging their collaboration with SIMTech, SMEs, such as JEP Aerospace and Feinmetall, have started the digital transformation journey in their own factories.

Another recently launched example is the "hive" trade facilitation platform developed by Singapore Logistics Association to build trade connectivity as part of the Wholesale Trade ITM. It enables businesses to quickly and efficiently meet cross-border trade compliance requirements for more than 50 customs authorities worldwide, increasing productivity.

The objective of GIA is to establish networks to create more opportunities for Singaporean students, entrepreneurs and business owners to gain overseas experience, connect and collaborate with overseas partners. Since the announcement in Budget 2017, the Economic Development (EDB) has set up the GIA Programme Office (GIA PO) to coordinate the initiative. EDB, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (SPRING) Singapore and the Ministry of Education have been engaging various in-market Operating Partners to set up GIA networks in the four focus cities under GIA Phase 1 (San Francisco, Beijing, Jakarta, Bangkok).

For instance, building on the successful establishment of BLOCK71 in San Francisco, we launched "BLOCK71 Jakarta" in July this year to provide a co-working space that aims to catalyse mutually beneficial partnerships between Indonesian and Singaporean startups. For Bangkok and Beijing, IE Singapore has signed memoranda of understanding with tech partners to help Singapore startups better understand these markets, test-bed their products and work with overseas players to implement solutions. For access to Thailand, this includes partnerships with tech community builders C ASEAN and Hubba; for access to China, this includes partnerships with startup accelerator AIRMaker, NTUitive (the innovation and enterprise arm of Nanyang Technological University) and Chinese media platform 36Kr.

We will continue to work with suitable partners and strengthen our GIA networks.

Initiatives, like ITMs and GIA, will support our growth and transformation efforts and position Singapore well for the future.