MOE Speech - SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE UCLA-NUS EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAMME

SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE UCLA-NUS EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAMME ON THURSDAY, 28 AUGUST 2003, AT 6.00 PM AT RAFFLES HOTEL

I am happy to be here with you this evening at the inauguration of the UCLA-NUS Executive MBA Programme, launched by The Anderson School at the University of California at Los Angeles and the National University of Singapore Business School. We are naturally very encouraged by this latest trans-Pacific collaboration, between two institutions of high international standing. I would like to warmly welcome UCLA into the fraternity of world-class universities operating in Singapore.

2 The business of higher education is changing. Global perspectives are now a staple in any leading university. And teaching and research are themselves becoming globally-distributed activities, no longer confined to a single unified campus. Joint programmes between centres of excellence in the US, Asia and Europe, especially in graduate and executive education, are gaining importance.

3 Business schools are at the forefront of this effort to exploit the opportunities of a global education. There is no surprise in this. Business education, more than any other university discipline, seeks to provide organisations and individuals with the knowledge and capabilities needed to manage change. And the most important changes in the business environment are coming out of globalisation itself - the globalisation of competition, outsourcing, supply chains, technology development and marketing.

4 Asia remains the big theme in globalisation, and the biggest positive in the world economy. China, India and the ASEAN region are opening up and growing faster than any other regions in the world. The continuing emergence of China and India, even with the periodic disruptions that they will likely see, will transform the Asian and global economy over the next 10-30 years. The rest of Asia, and indeed the rest of the world, will want to plug into and maximise our complementarities and linkages with these two continental scale economies. That way, the ripples of prosperity will continue to flow in all directions, not just into China and India.

5 We are already seeing the rapid growth of new networks across Asia, driven by both consumers and producers. ASEAN's exports to China are growing by 40% per year, even at a time when global demand is dull. Factories producing components in Southeast Asia are part of an integrated chain with producers in the coastal cities in China. East Asia's interactions with India are also burgeoning, led by the IT services sector. And Indian PM Vajpayee's visit to China earlier this year has ushered in a new phase in relations, which will see an escalation of trade and investments between the two.

6 It is in some respects the re-emergence of the old Asian network, between China, India and Southeast Asia, which was the major source of wealth creation in the world for centuries. The synergies are now modern, driven by a manufacturing supply chain between ASEAN and China and a services supply chain between East Asia and India.

7 It will remain an open network, wired into the US and Europe, not an Asia-only network. The US in particular will remain a major source of ideas, technology and investment, and a major market, for much of Asia. But the fastest growing linkages, the fastest growing traffic of students, tourists and entrepreneurs, are happening within Asia itself.

8 Business schools will keep track of this evolving Asian landscape, make sense of it, and help individuals and companies take advantage of it. They will also reflect another emerging fact, which is becoming integral to the knowledge-based economy - and that is its intensely collaborative nature. First, collaboration between universities and industry is critical to developing innovation capabilities, anywhere in the world. Second, while innovation systems have strong national characteristics, success now depends critically on openness and linkages with innovation systems in other countries. Go it alone strategies are no longer viable. The cutting edge research and advances in knowledge are now taking place in partnerships of universities and research institutions spread across the world. Successful national innovation systems depend on the global connectedness of local research activities and industry clusters.

9 The UCLA-NUS partnership launched today is a good example of this growing global phenomenon of collaboration and synergy between knowledge professionals. The UCLA-NUS EMBA programme is also the newest arrival on the Singapore education landscape. Its participants will be immersed in the distinctive intellectual and business cultures of Los Angeles and Singapore, as well as Shanghai. Each is cosmopolitan and thriving, and with its signature flavour. The exposure and experience acquired through the programme will give the participants a good sense of the dynamism of these cities and of the markets that they serve. They will be well-placed to take advantage of the connections they gain during the programme, and to promote business partnerships that cut across the Asia-Pacific region.

10 As the hub for several thousand international companies in Asia, Singapore will provide a window to the region for participants in the programme. Singapore is positioning itself for the new wave of trade, investment and wealth creation in Asia. Our FTA networks, including the recent US-Singapore FTA, will give us advantage. It accentuates our role as a leading Asian centre for high value manufacturing, logistics, finance and HQ operations.

11 But there is also a deeper advantage, arising from being a multicultural society, with a knowledge and intuitive understanding of China, India and Southeast Asia. Our cultural proximity to these three growth poles of Asia is opening up new corridors of economic opportunity. It is what leads to numerous students from China, India and the region coming to Singapore. It is also one of the reasons why over 1000 Indian companies have now incorporated in Singapore, and the number is growing. And why many Chinese companies are likewise setting up here.

12 The knowledge-based economy will involve more contacts, more need to absorb ideas from outside, more understanding of the flux of human development around the world. It is intrinsically about human corridors and human interaction. That is why we will keep Singapore open to human capital from across the world, and keep ourselves open to their cultures. We must keep our value as a cipher for the great Asian civilisations, and as an interface between Asia and the West. It will give us great advantage.

13 I congratulate NUS and UCLA and their business schools on their vision in forging this strategic alliance. I am also confident that Singapore will be a strategic location from which UCLA can reach out to the wider Asian market. May the UCLA-NUS Executive MBA programme enjoy every success.