EVEN though the maritime cluster has overtaken all other sectors in terms of annual turnover, value-added and number of workers, it is still an obscure fact that needs to be highlighted.
Otherwise, Singapore won't be able to attract the talent needed to make it a global maritime knowledge hub, said Sven Ullring, chairman of the 3rd Maritime R&D Advisory Panel (MRDAP) at the 24th annual Chua Chor Teck Memorial lecture last night.
Mr Ullring, who is also a Keppel Corp director, cited examples of Boston, Houston and Silicon Valley as being top of the game in R&D for biotechnology, oil and gas, and IT respectively, adding that Singapore still has a long way to go before it becomes a global maritime knowledge hub.
He said that the maritime cluster had a turnover $90 billion, employed 120,000 people and contributed $17.6 billion in economic value added in 2006. The Economic Development Board, for example, could present the figures in a more focused way because currently, many of the maritime industry figures are lumped together under manufacturing, Mr Ullring said.
While Singapore has developed a strong maritime cluster, it needed to step up its game amid strong competition from other major Asian maritime clusters such as Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, India and the UAE. A knowledge hub differs from an industrial cluster in terms of its knowledge content, knowledge investment and its density of knowledge networks, Mr Ullring said.
The MRDAP has an articulated vision for 2025 that a global maritime knowledge hub 'shall propel' the Singapore maritime cluster. Four key initiatives are needed to bring this about, Mr Ullring added.
These are to give maritime industries the highest national priority, make sure Singapore remains the leading Asian port, invest heavily in maritime R&D and education, and make Singapore an international financial and maritime service centre.
In line with this, Mr Ullring recommended that maritime technology and operations be added to biomedical sciences, environmental and water technologies, and interactive and digital media as one of the strategic research programmes of the National Research Foundation.
There must also be a dedicated maritime institute as a centre of excellence for advanced maritime research as none exists now, he added. The maritime innovation and knowledge hub could be a similar concept to what has been done at Biopolis, for example, Mr Ullring said.
And all these efforts should come under the umbrella of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, the most logical body to support the efforts through funding and encouraging venture capitalists to come in.
Strategies to develop the hub could include attracting international companies to Singapore, selecting maritime business areas for the future, creating a leading maritime service industry, through boosting R&D, developing a critical mass of core competencies in the maritime domain in the fields of energy, environment and related technologies and in commercial and business knowledge, and finally through developing and commercialising new technological and commercial idea with applications in the maritime sector.
Examples of applications would be in new sustainable energy technologies, information, communication and automation technologies, process optimisation to improve port operations, maritime security systems and equipment, and vessel technology for deepwater and Arctic applications, Mr Ullring said.
These are only recommendations, Mr Ullring emphasised, and some way off yet but 'if you decide to do something, you will do it well in Singapore', he concluded.