Manufacturing to remain key pillar of Singapore economy

Manufacturing will remain a key pillar of the Singapore economy, as it creates good jobs, integrates well with services and innovation and helps broaden the economic base of the city state, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday. Speaking at the celebration of a pharmaceutical and healthcare company, Lee said Singapore will continue to maintain a pro- business environment by providing good infrastructure, keeping taxes low and staying open to foreign talent. The manufacturing sector currently accounts for roughly 20 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), with the biomedical and the electronics sectors among the largest contributors. Lee said Singapore will continue to invest in promoting the biomedical sciences sector, a high value and knowledge-intensive industry that help Singapore overcome the constraints of size. "The products may be small in size, but many many many years of research and work, and fine tuning and engineering, and organization has gone into that. And that's why it commands high premiums and requires good individual skills, tight system discipline, as well as rigorous IPR (intellectual property rights) regimes," he said. The biomedical sector accounts for nearly 5 percent of Singapore's GDP and provides 18,000 good jobs, 70 percent of which are held by Singaporean workers.