SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINSTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE CLOSING CEREMONY OF THE NUS-MOTOROLA TECHNOPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGE ON FRIDAY, 26 MARCH 2004, AT 4.00 PM AT THE NUS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AUDITORIUM

Professor Shih Choon Fong, President, NUS

Mr Jeffrey Tan, President, Motorola Singapore

Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, Dean of Engineering, NUS

Professor Jacob Pang, CEO, NUS Enterprise

Honourable Judges

Students

Ladies and gentlemen

Good afternoon.

    I am very happy to be here with you today for the Closing Ceremony of the NUS-Motorola Technopreneurship Challenge.  It comes at an interesting time.

2. We are in a new phase of development as a society.  How we compete to earn a living, and how we grow our economy and create jobs, will change.

3. Some of our strengths and advantages remain relevant, and will help us compete.  A world class transport and infocomms infrastructure, an efficient financial hub, and a transparent and incorrupt government remain key advantages.  But other cities in Asia are catching up, replicating what we do and in some areas doing it better.  They may not do it with the same efficiency and transparency, but our premium is narrowing.  And they have other strengths that we do not have, like being able to draw their most energetic people from much larger populations.

4. We need to build new strengths.  The values and attributes that were shaped over our first three decades of successful growth in a highly institutionalised economy will not be enough.  Our biggest challenge is to avoid being trapped by past success.  That is how other successful cities have lost their edge and withered away in history.

5.  Some of our values, such as the preference of most university educated Singaporeans to choose the safe route, were perfectly understandable while the safe route provided good rewards.  Everyone got carried along, as long as they acquired skills, worked hard, and did an honest job.  But the risk-reward picture has changed.  High rewards will depend not just on high skills, but a willingness to do something different from the tried and tested and take calculated risks.

6. So we are seeking to inject entrepreneurship and innovation into the Singapore DNA.  It is not a project that we can complete quickly.  But we have to find every way to encourage enterprise and create a culture supportive of risk – a culture that cheers on those who fail and try again, instead of “see you no up”.  It is also a culture that sees heroes in those who break with convention and forge their own path.  That’s how we will get the diversity that we need to continue to be a successful economy, 10, 15 years from now.

7. To encourage entrepreneurship, we are reviewing and changing our policies and rules to ensure they do not inhibit start-ups and business growth.  We are also seeking to facilitate easier access to funding by small or young firms.  We are making some headway, with more new ventures and enterprises being formed each year and more SMEs being attracted to Singapore from all over the world.

8. But the critical gap that has to be closed is not in the regulatory infrastructure or funding markets, but in attitudes.  To succeed in creating an entrepreneurial and innovative social culture, we will have to be a less perfectionist society.  In the years when we were catching up with the leaders, there was a premium on efficiency and predictability.  We had to do what others had done, but faster, cheaper and more reliably.  We are no longer now catching up with the rest.  To move beyond the boundaries, to push the envelope, we have to encourage Singaporeans to experiment, and accept the risk of mistakes that comes with doing so.  From young, we have to learn to try out new ways, and accept that encountering failure is part of the path to success.  And as a nation, we have to do the same, and occasionally, open-eyed, take a chance.  And we have to accept the unpredictability and untidiness that come with pushing at the frontiers.

9. We cannot expect to throw up large numbers of entrepreneurs or technopreneurs.  There are not many entrepreneurs in any society.  Even in the US, reckoned to be among the most entrepreneurial societies, no more than about 10% of individuals are involved in owning businesses.

10. There is no easy formula to produce entrepreneurs either.  We cannot programme students to become entrepreneurs from our schools.  No one can tell who the real entrepreneurs will be when they enter the market place.  You can spot many of the outstanding scientists in their youth, but you cannot tell who the real technopreneurs will be.  But what we can do is to  provide an environment that nurtures something of the entrepreneurial spirit in everyone, starting from young.  We want our young to learn early to question assumptions, to experiment and to accept the false starts and dead ends that often come with doing so.  They should be eager to take the initiative, unafraid of trying something new, and never tiring of working to achieve their dreams.

11. Exposure to business ideas and competitions will help university students. 

Through competitions like this one, we are giving our students an opportunity to think about the commercial applications of science and technology, and to get the hang of what it takes to think like an entrepreneur.  They will learn about the many factors that determine whether a business plan eventually succeeds or fails.  They learn that there is no one formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

12. I hope that all the participants in this competition have had a rich learning experience from putting together their own business proposals and defending their ideas before the judges.  Regardless of whether you win any prizes today, I am sure that your appetite for innovation and entrepreneurship would have grown.

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