Leveraging multinational corporations, fostering technopreneurship: the changing role of S&T policy in Singapore

Abstract

Since political independence in 1965, Singapore has achieved remarkable economic growth through continuous industrial re-structuring and technological upgrading. This paper presents a framework suitable for analysing the national innovation system of small, late-industrialising economies, and applies it to examine how Singapore's national innovation system has transformed over the years, and how public S&T policy has changed in response to the changing needs of the innovation system. In particular, the paper highlights four generic stages in the evolution of Singapore's national innovation system, with the emphasis of public S&T policy shifting from assimilation and diffusion of technology through leveraging foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) to include an increasing focus on promoting indigenous R&D and technopreneurial start-ups in recent years. Implications from the analysis for Singapore's future public S&T policy challenges are discussed.