Speech at the Triple Helix Roundtable
Speech by the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen, at the Triple Helix Roundtable, Singapore, 23 January 2013
Ladies and gentlemen,
It’s an honour to be here.
I look forward to the discussion later on.
But please allow me to share some introductory thoughts with you first.
In 1960, ladies and gentlemen,
a Dutch civil servant came to Singapore on a United Nations economic mission.
His name was Albert Winsemius.
Mr Winsemius became friends with Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
And he served as an economic advisor to the Singaporean government until 1986.
Together, these two men witnessed the unprecedented rise of Singapore.
Side by side, a Singaporean and a Dutchmen, watching history in the making.
This is the origin of the strong ties between Singapore and the Netherlands.
Strong ties that still exist today.
Now, fifty-three years later, our nations have an important thing in common:
we’re both gateways.
The Netherlands is a gateway to Europe; Singapore is a gateway to Asia.
This makes us natural partners.
The closer the ties between global hubs,
the better the position of each separate hub.
In recent decades, our countries have built a strong economic relationship.
The Netherlands is now the second largest investor in Singapore, after the US.
And we’re one of your most important trade partners within the EU.
But this is not a reason to sit back and relax.
International competition is growing,
the world’s power balance is shifting and
the global share of our traditional EU trade partners is diminishing.
So we have to stay on our toes.
Yes, the Netherlands ranks fifth in the latest Global Competitiveness Report.
Yes, we have strong technological clusters like agri-food, life sciences and high tech.
And yes, only Switzerland and the United States have a better scientific impact rating.
But — at the same time — we have some issues to work on.
Our private R&D figure is relatively low,
mainly because our services sector is so big.
And our science and engineering education may be good,
but it doesn’t attract enough Dutch students to keep us going.
In short, ladies and gentlemen: we already have an extensive knowledge economy.
One of our main goals now is to sharpen our focus and transform it into a knowledge-intensive economy.
Innovation is the Dutch and the Singaporean way to generate sustainable growth.
Here’s our plan to achieve that.
Our new innovation policy rests on two pillars.
First: more scope for entrepreneurs through fiscal measures.
About two billion euros will be made available for tax relief on R&D labour costs, investment in equipment and profits from patenting.
The second pillar is our top-sector approach.
By 2015, two billion euros will be available for nine top sectors.
All of these sectors are knowledge driven.
And they have specific regulation,
a strong export orientation and
high potential to meet our societal challenges.
In Singapore, ladies and gentlemen, the focus is on four of our top sectors.
- First: life sciences.
- Second: high tech.
- Third: water.
- And fourth: agri-food, which includes food and nutrition.
Of course, these four were not chosen at random.
We focus on life sciences because Singapore has become a strong biomedical hub.
On high tech, because Singapore is a smart city, always in search of technological innovations.
Water, because Singapore is interested in Dutch expertise on deltas and drinking water.
And food and nutrition, because here in Singapore this sector is growing at an incredible rate.
Think of the Centre of Excellence in Nutrition,
the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight and
of course the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre.
Several Dutch food companies have already established production and research sites here.
I hope that many others will follow in their footsteps in the near future.
Not only in the field of food and nutrition, but in other areas as well.
Public-private partnerships, ladies and gentlemen, are key to a sound top-sector approach.
Government, companies and knowledge funds are all equally important for success.
So cooperation is crucial.
Our innovation policy is demand driven. Companies have a lot of say.
It includes a shared human capital agenda for science and technology.
It concentrates the financial resources of government, companies and knowledge funds.
And it brings government ministries together on innovation, investment and trade.
This Triple Helix of government, business and knowledge works well.
It has brought us great collaborative projects like:
- a diagnostic test for leukaemia
- a new foil to keep fruit and vegetables fresh longer
- and a platform for intelligent traffic systems that helps us tackle traffic congestion.
But, ladies and gentlemen,
there’s always something to wish for.
The next big step is to internationalise our innovation policies.
And not only within the European Union.
We need strong international partners as well.
To compete on international markets and to face our societal challenges.
Singapore is the kind of strong partner we need.
So I hope that we will be able to create more partnerships in the future.
Especially in the fields of life sciences, high tech, water and agri-food.
Let’s start creating these partnerships today.
Just like Mr Winsemius and Mr Lee did, back in 1960.
Thank you.