Singapore’s manufacturing activity improves in March

As much a part of the modern global economy as any other nation in the world (and some would even say a cornerstone as far as business innovation and government friendliness towards business is concerned), it’s nice to see that the manufacturing base in Singapore has improved dramatically in the early quarter of 2016.

Though Singapore has made great leaps forward to try and modernize their workforce, to focus on developing new technology and new innovations that allow people to pursue careers and business opportunities in the “knowledge worker” industries, manufacturing is still a critical backbone of every national economy.
Singapore has been dealing with a little bit of contraction as far as national manufacturing is concerned, which is why its growth in March has been so well received!

New PMI shows a 0.9 increase in 30 days

As we mentioned above, the Singapore economy (at least as far as manufacturing is concerned) has been contracting a bit as of late – receding down to 48.5 Purchasing Managers Index, representing a new low point and a downward trend that had been continuing for nine straight months. However, the new research published regarding the PMI in March shows a 49.4 – the 0.9 increase that we had mentioned above.

Even though a reading that hovers below 50 indicates a manufacturing base that is still contracting (and anything over 50 shows that the manufacturing base is expanding), the new number – 49.4 – is close enough to 50, the neutral position that shows that the manufacturing base is staying steady.

Employment growth is still a relatively stagnant, though it isn’t contracting

Not all is sunshine and roses when it comes to the recent improvement in the manufacturing activity of Singapore, however.

Employment growth in this sector is still relatively stagnant. Manufacturing jobs are opening up but not at the kind of rate that the Singapore government would have liked to have seen by now, though the nine straight months of contraction has definitely played a part in this stagnation.

At the same time, the manufacturing sector isn’t losing jobs – it just isn’t creating as many new positions as economists in Singapore would have liked to have seen by now. This is putting Singaporean a better position than some of the other more manufacturing heavy economies around the world, and shows the Singapore investments in new technology, a new training, and in infrastructure are paying dividends.

It would be nice to see an explosion in growth as far as the manufacturing economy in Singapore is concerned, but that may still be a ways away.
New partnerships with the government of India will go a long way towards improving that economic base, and they are our conferences occurring all throughout Southeast Asia (and the rest of the world) with the express purpose of improving the manufacturing climate for all nations involved.

For the time being, it looks as though the manufacturing industries in Singapore are growing slowly – the only time will tell exactly how long term this turnaround really is.

Govt commits S$19b to new 5-year plan for R&D

The government in Singapore is getting very, very serious about improving their economic footprint in their general economic base by investing heavily in here own infrastructure and their own innovation.

Just recently (January 2016) the Prime Minister of Singapore went so far as to announce a five-year investment of close to $20 billion that would help fund a tremendous amount of innovation and research designed specifically to help Singapore-based businesses compete on an international level.

Representing an 18% jump from the previous investment made in research and development from the Singapore government, the $19 billion that will be funneled into these projects will be used to help create new jobs, help support major national initiatives, and provide for an incredible amount of growth in the economy of Singapore.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is very serious about making sure that the future of Singapore is just as bright and shining as the last two or three decades have been

Over that 30 year period of time, Singapore has established itself as a tremendous force in the international business community and the real gem of Southeast Asia.
Certainly one of the most technologically advanced and business friendly countries on the planet, Singapore has been able to leverage its business focused government initiatives to attract business from all over the world and convince them to invest heavily in this Southeast Asian country.

At the same time, the people of Singapore understand better than most that the world is changing rapidly and that a heavy investment in technology and infrastructure is absolutely essential.

Already one of the most connected countries on the planet, the infrastructure in Singapore will be upgraded significantly through this kind of investment.

Distributed over a five-year chunk of time, these funds could grow considerably depending upon the return on investment

A big push behind this major investment of $19 billion is the fact that Singapore has just recently begun to notice their economy slowdown in just the last two or three years.

Even though they are dealing with anywhere near the economic crisis that many countries around the world dealt with in your lead to mid to thousands (and they are about as far away from Greece as humanly possible), the economy has slowed by between 1% and 3% – and the Singapore government just isn’t satisfied with this kind of trend.

The Prime Minister has been pretty upfront and honest about doing absolutely everything in his power and the government’s power to grow the economic base of Singapore in the next 10 years, and he has alluded to the fact that this 19 billion-dollar investment may grow considerably over the next five years. This will depend upon the returns that the business community and the economy enjoy, obviously.

It wouldn’t at all be unreasonable to imagine this investment to grow exponentially in the future and become a main “injection point” in the Singapore economy. After all, we are talking about one of the most business friendly countries and governments on the planet!

Singapore ranks sixth in intellectual property environment index

According to information published by the US Chamber of Commerce, Singapore is one of the highest ranked nations in the world (certainly one of the highest -ranked countries in all of Southeast Asia) when it comes to the intellectual property environment index.

This index is designed to illustrate how advanced a country is as far as respecting intellectual property rights are concerned on in international level. With the modern economy revolving more and more around “knowledge workers” as opposed to manufacturing and more traditional business models, nations have had to get more and more involved when it comes to intellectual property rights – though some have adapted to the modern economy much faster than others.

Singapore ranks sixth out of the 38 economies that were studied

Though the raw data has yet to be released by the US Chamber of Commerce, the final report has been introduced to the international community and it has Singapore ranked sixth out of the 38 different economies and nations around the world that were studied.

Ranking just behind the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, and Germany the nation of Singapore – constantly regarded as one of the smaller economies (yet growing quickly) – has been adapting to the modern international economy much faster than many other nations around the planet.

It’s a government has always been incredibly friendly to businesses established by its citizens as well as those established by citizens of the world, and many of the laws, rules, and regulations of this country have been established specifically to foster commerce, to help grow businesses, and to provide companies all over the world the opportunity to expand their operations globally with as little headache and hassle as possible.

At the exact same time, Singapore has worked to establish a tremendous infrastructure and invested heavily in their modern connectivity technology so that they are able to leverage everything that the Internet has to offer as far as business is concerned.
This is especially important when speaking about intellectual property, as a significant portion IP ends up being licensed or sold online these days.

There are still issues in Singapore preventing them from climbing higher

Even though Singapore was able to score quite highly when it came to having an advanced a national intellectual property protection framework already in place, a patent enforcement legal framework that has been applied fantastically, and an infrastructure that allows them to effortlessly support intellectual property holders, they still have relatively high rates of intellectual property crime and piracy.

Most developed nations that have the majority of their citizenry connected to the Internet are dealing with high rates of intellectual property crime and piracy however, and this trend doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon.

There will need to be major innovations as far as IP protection and new business models that fight piracy before any of the top 10 countries in this ranking see the piracy levels drop by a measurable amount, and it’s impossible to know when (or even if) those kinds of changes will be made.