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SINGAPORE: Singapore is on track to increase its expenditure on research and development (R&D) to hit its target of three per cent of GDP by 2010, according to R&D funding body, the National Research Foundation (NRF).
The NRF launched a research facility on Tuesday that aims to become a hub for new ideas and innovation.
Construction of the S$360 million Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) is expected to be completed by 2010.
And the first tenant at CREATE is the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, also known as the SMART Centre.
SMART Centre is MIT's first research institute outside of its home campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The centre of environmental sensing and modelling is one of the three inter-disciplinary research groups set up by the SMART Centre. CREATE hopes its research centres can help Singapore move towards a more knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy.
The other two inter-disciplinary research groups are infectious diseases, and bioystems and micromechanics.
The SMART Centre will move out of its temporary research labs at National University of Singapore (NUS) and into its new home at CREATE by 2010.
The research facility with a capacity of 1,000 researchers will also work with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in the area of regenerative medicine.
CREATE is part of Singapore's growing investment in R&D. The country's overall expenditure on R&D grew by an unprecedented 26.5 per cent to S$6.3 billion in 2007, or more than 2.5 per cent of its GDP.
Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister, Teo Chee Hean, who has been appointed as NRF deputy chairman, said that if this trend continues, it will allow Singapore to be more competitive globally.
He said: "We're well on our way to reach our target of three per cent of the GDP being spent on R&D, which is where the developed countries are. R&D will be able to bring many benefits to Singapore. There is an economic angle, to develop new products, new ideas, and spawn new industries.
"It is also important that we bring in our connections with the rest of the world, other top research centres. And this is another way in which we can build up economy that is based on knowledge in Singapore. So this will help us to transcend the present economy that we have, and move to the new phase of development."
NRF also said that Dr Tony Tan has been reappointed chairman of its board, while Education Minister Ng Eng Hen, and Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew are newly-appointed members. There are also four other newly-appointed members.
- CNA/yt
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