SINGAPORE — Creating an environment for innovation and creativity to flourish involves mechanisms and processes for them to take place, and it is not as simple as advocating a culture where people argue with one another, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said.
“I think what happens behind (the) culture (of creativity and innovation) is a way of thinking and a way of doing things, a way of connecting the different parts of a system together”, he said at a leadership forum on Friday attended by some 1,200 people. The two-day event held at Marina Bay Sands, called IIMPACT 2016, is organized by the alumni of the Indian Institutes of Management, a group of 19 institutes of management education and research in India.
Mr. Heng elaborated that in the most innovative places around the world, there are mechanisms for entrepreneurs to come together, for venture capital to fund good ideas, and for research knowledge in universities to be taken to market. There is also a deep understanding of the needs of the marketplace.
Then, the education system needs to have a balance between teaching content and skills, catering not only to society’s brightest students but to everyone, so that innovation can eventually permeate an organization, he said.
And instead of front-loading education during the first 20 years or so of one’s life, there should be lifelong learning, including from one’s failures, Mr. Heng said during a dialogue with DBS Group’s chief executive Piyush Gupta.
“It’s a complex phenomenon. If it was that simple, many regions in the world and many countries in the world will all be innovative,” he said.
Singapore is not in the position to pick “winners” in the form of industries that could anchor the future economy, but it could “create an enabling environment for winners to emerge”, he said.
The Government has identified four strategic technology domains, such as health and biomedical sciences, in its Research Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan, and has set aside funds for “white space”, or new and emerging areas of research.
Asked by Mr. Gupta and some members of the audience if Singapore would be as embracing of talent from abroad, Mr. Heng said Singapore would remain open and globally connected, but every society and every government has to ensure “first and foremost” that it can provide for its people, and policies have to be seen to bring benefits to a country’s people.
What Singapore’s Manpower Ministry would need to do, he said, is to make sure companies do not discriminate against Singaporeans in particular jobs, which has provoked very strong reactions.
“So my message is that we’re open, we welcome people from around the world, whether it’s in research, entrepreneurship or professional areas but, at the same time, I think it’s important for us to create that sense of togetherness.”
In his speech before the dialogue, Mr. Heng had said that even as Singapore transforms and innovates, it must hold fast to what has worked by retaining values such as integrity, reinforcing its strengths, and re-affirming its purpose.
“Why do we work hard to boost innovation, create jobs, and invest in skills? … It is only in an environment where people feel they have hope and opportunity, that they will be motivated to stay, to contribute, to work hard, innovate, and to create more opportunities for themselves and others. And this is the virtuous cycle we hope to strengthen,” he said.
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