Powering Innovation –5G And Beyond: Mr Gan Kim Yong’s speech highlights confidence in Singapore’s abilities to be an economy that corporations and business leaders in the Semicon Industry could trust and depend on for growth opportunities that lie ahead.
SEMICON in Southeast Asia has become an important platform globally for businesses and industry experts to congregate and exchange insights into the latest developments and innovations of the semiconductor industry. It has been the region’s premier event for the global electronics manufacturing supply chain for the past 28 years.
This year, guest of honour Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Trade and Industry, graced the event,’ Powering Innovation- 5G and Beyond’ and shares about Singapore’s 5G infrastructure as well as attracting and retaining investments in the manufacturing sector.
Some Of The Key Takeaways From His Speech
1. Singapore to leverage on the 5G network’s capabilities and potential to position as a leading digital economy:
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- Singapore’s plans to deploy 5G standalone outdoor coverage across half of Singapore by end-2022, and nationwide by end-2025.
- Trials on 5G applications are also underway, including at PSA Singapore to improve port operations, and at Razer and Singtel to deliver high-quality cloud gaming experiences to consumers.
2. The semiconductor industry is both a major driver and beneficiary of the rollout of 5G:
- The value of the global semiconductor industry was estimated at around US$440 billion last year and is expected to grow to half a trillion dollars this year.1
- Singapore is home to the wafer fabrication facilities for 5 of the top 12 semiconductor companies globally; and 2 of the top 3 pure play foundries have fabs here in Singapore.
- For instance, Infineon’s Microcontroller units, which feature in 1 out of every 2 cars produced worldwide, are designed and tested here in Singapore. These capabilities extend beyond product R&D and into manufacturing R&D; with Singapore being home to STMicroelectronics’ first Silicon Carbide line outside of Europe.
3. Attracting And retaining Frontier Investments In Manufacturing:
The Manufacturing sector remained resilient in 2020, growing by 7.3 percent last year despite the headwinds presented by the pandemic. It has continued to enjoy healthy growth this year with an 18 percent year-on-year growth in the second quarter, extending the 11 percent growth in the first quarter. These figures are evident that manufacturing remains a strong pillar of Singapore’s economy and an area that Singapore aims to build on.
Therefore, part of Singapore’s strategy is to continue to attract and retain frontier investments from best-in-class companies and anchor their most advanced factories here.
- GlobalFoundries recently announced its plan to invest US$4 billion to expand its fab capacity in Singapore to support fast growing end-markets in automotive and 5G.
- Silitronic also announced that it would invest EUR 2 billion (US$2.36 billion) to build a new 12-inch wafer manufacturing plant in Singapore.
4. Galvanising the Ecosystem For Innovation:
To strengthen Singapore’s position to capture new growth opportunities in the semiconductor industry, we will continue our strategy of steady and sustained R&D investments.
- We have announced that we would set aside S$25 billion (US$18.63 billion) under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan over the next 5 years which is a significant increase from the RIE 2020 plan to display our commitment to supporting companies in the development of new capabilities and technologies.
Featured photo: Minister Gan Kim Yong. Photo credit Finn Partners Box Asia
References:
[1] Source: World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS)
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