Despite having no farming at all, the island of Singapore is spending billions to become a world leader in biotechnology.
Singapore's population of 3.9 million is the same as New Zealand's, and until 14 years ago it had no biologically based research centres equivalent to New Zealand's long-established farm research sector.
Yet it is now systematically wooing the world's leading biotech companies to come to the island, or at least to do collaborative projects with its research laboratories.
It is also recruiting top biotechnologists, including New Zealanders.
Graeme Guy, a former Hamilton pharmacist who joined Singapore's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology the year after it opened in 1987, said a majority of the institute's 250 researchers were non-Singaporean. "Singapore is one of the few places that treats academics with any reverence," he said.
When he joined, Singapore paid US academic salaries. Although US salaries have since pulled ahead, he still finds Singapore a good place to work because the institute is well funded and scientists do not have to spend half their time applying for grants, as in the US.
"They pay education fees for kids, and generous housing allowances."
And it's an exciting place to work. Its partnerships with the world's leading medical companies go back to 1989, when Glaxo agreed to pay $50 million over 15 years towards research on degenerative brain diseases, in exchange for the commercial rights to the results.
Since then, deals have been signed with Pfizer and others from the United States, Boehringer Mannheim from Germany and companies from Canada and Asia.
Bernadette Murugasu-Oei, of the institute's technology transfer division, said: "The Economic Development Board brings a lot of companies from overseas here to talk to us." Life sciences are one of four industry groups the board aims to attract to Singapore, along with electronics, engineering and chemicals.
"In each one we look for the areas of high growth, high technology, high knowledge content," said board official Koh Buck Song. "Then we systematically woo the global leaders in each of those areas and attract them to Singapore.
"If there is any area lacking any key part of the jigsaw, then more effort will be spent trying to attract a company working in that area."
He said biotech was chosen as one of the four priorities because it was a knowledge-intensive field in which Singapore had a chance to become one of the global players from the beginning.
Planning starts with the schools. Tan Yap Kwang, educational technology director in the Education Ministry, said that meant encouraging primary school pupils to take an interest in science, and equipping high schools with biotech laboratories.
"We are going to give equipment to schools to allow them to learn some of the techniques of life sciences - DNA fingerprinting, some simple cloning experiments - encourage more people to take biology, make sure they have the vocab ... It becomes a common language for them, and we hope some of them will take this further."
From there, it's up to business. Last June, the Singapore Government launched a $S1 billion ($1.35 billion) venture capital fund to invest in biotech businesses.
It set up an international biomedical advisory council of 12 experts, chaired by Glaxo chairman Sir Richard Sykes.
When this body met in San Francisco in February, the Government announced plans for a new Bioinformatics Institute, to be headed by an expatriate Malaysian working at Cambridge University, Gunaretnam Rajagopal.
A Chinese-American scientist at the United States National Cancer Institute, Edison Liu, has been lured to head the $62 million Singapore Genomics Programme, with a brief to hire 250 to 300 researchers.
A broader $US1 billion ($2.5 billion) Technopreneurship Investment Fund was set up in 1999 to invest in high-tech businesses generally. In its first year it helped seed investments of $US5.4 billion through 25 partnerships.
Technology incubators for new businesses have been established in partnership with three Singaporean companies, including Plan-B Technologies, which has invested in New Zealand's Deep Video Imaging.
A similar incubator called connect@sg has been opened in Silicon Valley for high-tech Singaporean companies breaking into the US.
"The country is run like a business," Dr Guy said. "I'd prefer to work in New Zealand or Australia as far as setting up a home goes, but the opportunities in science are not there.
"Your chances of getting back to New Zealand are almost zero."
Links
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Singapore Economic Development Board
Our turn
Send us your feedback:
Simon Collins
Letters to the editor (newspaper)
Other stories in this feature
Related features:
The jobs challenge
Common core values
href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57032">The knowledge society
Official website:
Catching the Knowledge Wave
<i>Our turn:</i> Nurturing a brain gain
Despite having no farming at all, the island of Singapore is spending billions to become a world leader in biotechnology.
Singapore's population of 3.9 million is the same as New Zealand's, and until 14 years ago it had no biologically based research centres equivalent to New Zealand's long-established farm research sector.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
