不靠石油不靠地！新加坡如何用“全球节点”战略躺赚？

2025年3月21日，新加坡副总理在新加坡国际商会（SICC）表扬合作创新的第九届颁奖典礼和晚宴上发表演讲，表示新加坡未来经济战略的核心支柱，是将自身定位为全球和亚洲的节点（Global-Asia node），以科技和创新为重点，将世界与亚洲连接起来。

以下内容为新加坡眼根据英文翻译整理：

新加坡国际商会主席陈女士（Ms Dawn Tan），

副主席黄先生（Mr Wong Joo Seng），

商会的各位理事，

女士们、先生们：

晚上好！

首先感谢邀请。我研读过入围企业资料并与诸位交流，深感各位的创新实践令人振奋——每位入围者已是赢家，衷心祝贺！

我很高兴地得知，自2018年起，获奖案例就通过亚洲新闻台传播以激励大众，此举极具意义。正如陈主席所言，该奖项诞生于2015年新加坡建国50周年之际，呼应政府“企业能力合作计划”（PACT）。十年来，SICC推动创新尤其是协作创新的努力值得赞许——奖项从2个扩展至5个，映射创新生态的动态演进。

今年恰逢SICC成立188周年，堪称“长青典范”！

商会1830年代创立时，正值第一次工业革命巅峰，其坚守自由贸易港定位，促进东西方贸易，推动开放互联的全球经济——这与经济学家亚当·斯密提出的分工理论一脉相承。

数据显示，1970至2023年，全球商品服务出口占GDP比重从12.8%升至29.3%。

同一时期，全球人均GDP增长约16倍，从约816 美元增至 13 000 多美元。

中低收入国家，人均GDP增长更为显著。跃升至29倍，从 1970 年的 196 美元增至 2023 年的 5600 多美元。

这些，都印证全了球分工体系对各国发展的关键作用。

然而，2001年启动的WTO多哈回合谈判24年停滞不前，贸易战却在自由贸易协定伙伴间愈演愈烈。关税被政治化，经贸协议遭颠覆——贸易逻辑虽清晰，政治博弈却主导现实。

对新加坡而言，开放始终是命脉：今天，我们的贸易额仍占GDP三倍以上；我们的27项自贸协定助企业融入东盟、亚洲乃至拉美供应链。正如管理大师德鲁克（Peter Drucker ）所言，组织应放大优势、弱化短板——小国更需借全球协作补足资源限制。

他的基本观点是，每个人都有长处和短处。

通过合作，管理人员可以优势互补，从而使组织更加强大。

企业、经济和国家也是如此。

鉴于新加坡的土地和人口规模有限，我们不可能独立生产我们所需的一切。

通过与世界各地的伙伴合作，我们的企业可以利用更广泛的专业知识，发挥集体优势，实现增长。

新加坡经济要保持竞争力，就必须保持开放。

SICC 和其他商会在外国企业和本地企业之间架起桥梁，为自由贸易和投资提供持续支持，这些工作非常有价值。

188 年前，你们就是这样起步的。随着我们迈入工业 4.0，你们对协同创新的关注将大有裨益。

未来几年，我相信科技和创新驱动将推动经济增长。原因有几个。

1. 人口结构剧变：首先是人口结构--由于人口老龄化和出生率下降，全球劳动力正在萎缩。联合国预计，2030年代中期全球80岁以上人口将超过婴儿；2080年65岁以上群体超越18岁以下。新加坡2030年约25%人口超65岁（2010年仅10%）。

2. 技术飞速加速：尤其是人工智能的进步正在重塑商业模式、企业甚至整个行业。由于人工智能具有放大和巩固竞争优势的潜力，技术竞争也越来越多地涉及地缘政治层面。

3. 气候行动紧迫：对于我们新加坡这个低地岛国来说，气候变化关系到我们的生存。一些研究预测，如果不紧急采取大规模的全球气候行动，2070 年至 2090 年间，全球经济的国内生产总值可能会损失 50%。

对于企业来说，可持续发展不仅是对社会的责任，还关系到企业的长期生存能力、供应链的稳定性和消费模式。

利用技术和创新，打造新产品、解决方案和系统，并大规模地开展这些工作，将是至关重要的。

因此，SICC新增“最佳技术协作”“最可持续协作”“最具规模协作”奖项极具前瞻性。奖项不仅是竞技场，更是创新理念的“社交平台”——如陈主席所言，其“学习属性”能让协作精神在商界“病毒式传播”。

我已经谈到了对全球化保持开放以及利用技术和创新的重要性。

将这些结合在一起，就意味着我们需要达到一定的规模才能产生影响。

在新加坡国际商会认可和促进合作创新的倡议基础上，为了产生更大的影响，我们必须在新加坡国内和跨国界进一步扩大规模。

我相信，新加坡未来经济战略的核心支柱，以及我们未来的经济价值，就是把新加坡定位为全球-亚洲节点，以科技和创新为核心，连接世界和亚洲。

我们必须继续与世界各地的创新节点合作，深化创新，寻找新的增长领域，应对共同的挑战。

在这一领域，各种规模的外国和本地企业都可以做出有益的贡献。

政府已启动多项计划，鼓励跨部门、跨国界甚至跨地区的合作。

-政企研协同：在企业与我们的研究、创新和企业（RIE）生态系统之间建立有目的的合作关系，以利用创新和解决目标问题。我很高兴地看到，今年的一些决赛入围者都具有这种跨部门合作的特点！

国立研究基金会（National Research Foundation）、经济发展局（EDB）、A*STAR和其他机构一直支持在行业参与者与我们的大学和研究机构之间建立各种企业实验室。

多年来，我们已经建立了 20 多个这样的企业实验室，包括与意法半导体和埃克森美孚等 SICC 成员公司建立的实验室。我邀请其他热衷于此的公司也考虑建立类似的合作关系。

几周前，在今年的预算案辩论中，我宣布我们正在开发新的研究与创新旗舰项目和大挑战，作为建设研究生态系统和推动新加坡未来增长的下一个环节。

这些平台将汇聚我国大学、研究机构、公共机构和私营部门的研究和转化能力，为新的经济领域创造价值，解决现实世界的问题和需求。

第一个旗舰项目将重点关注半导体和微电子研发，第一个大挑战项目将关注健康和成功的长寿。

我们欢迎从事这些领域工作的 SICC 成员与我们在这些平台上开展合作。在未来几年，我们将宣布更多的大挑战和旗舰项目。

- 大小企业联动：我们促进合作的另一种方式是加强大型企业、中小企业和初创企业之间的联系。自2017年以来，新加坡企业发展局通过 “开放式创新 ”支持大型企业与小型企业建立创新伙伴关系。一年来，通过这一平台促成了350余起大企业与中小企业的创新合作。例如，奥兰国际与（Olam）和壳牌石油公司（Shell）等新加坡国际商会成员与新加坡和海外的中小型企业和初创企业牵线搭桥，在可持续农业和清洁能源分配领域开发新的解决方案。

- 全球网络织就：将创新者彼此以及与投资者和合作伙伴更紧密地跨界联系起来，以启动合作。与其他生态系统的强大网络可为企业提供本地见解和合作伙伴关系，从而充分利用新机遇。

在这方面，新加坡企业发展局的全球创新联盟（GIA）将新加坡的初创企业和企业与世界各地的成熟创新中心联系起来，促进市场准入和跨境研发合作。

迄今为止，全球创新联盟已为 24 个城市的 600 多家初创企业提供了市场准入机会，并促进了与 40 多个国家的跨境研究。

我们还举办了新加坡科技创新周（SWITCH），以加强我国企业与全球企业之间的联系，深化我国的创新能力，特别是在深度科技领域。

SWITCH为包括新加坡国际商会（SICC）成员在内的企业提供了良好的交流机会，让他们更好地了解气候科技、先进制造和人工智能等新兴技术的最新发展。

我鼓励SICC会员参加今年10月举行的第10届SWITCH。

像新加坡国际商会这样的商会，凭借其多元化的会员和网络，在加强新加坡作为全球-亚洲节点的地位方面，也发挥着重要作用。

在这方面，请允许我向 SICC 提出一个建议--考虑在你们的奖项中增设第六个类别，以表彰 “最佳跨境创新 ”合作。

结语：

最后，让我总结一下今晚我想留给大家的三个要点：

第一，新加坡须在割裂世界中坚持开放，深化全球供应链价值。 新加坡必须继续保持开放，继续在全球经济中寻找新的互补点，以保持和提升我们的价值主张。在一个竞争更激烈、更分散的世界，这将是我们的价值所在。

早在 SICC 成立之初，我们的成功就建立在开放、互联的经商环境之上。我们的繁荣将继续与我们积极参与全球经济息息相关。

其次，科技与创新是增长核心引擎。 科学、技术和创新将是未来几年经济增长的关键驱动力，我们必须学会以最佳方式加以利用。当然，我这样说有些偏颇，因为我也是我们国立研究基金会的主席。

第三，政企学界协作催化创新，巩固“全球-亚洲节点”地位。 通过政府、学术界和企业界的共同努力，我们可以成为一个全球-亚洲节点，以有影响力的方式催化合作创新。

我再次赞赏SICC为表彰和鼓励协同创新所做的不懈努力。请允许我感谢评审团的贡献和服务。我也要和陈主席一起，鼓励更多新加坡国际商会的会员公司参与和提名未来的奖项。

在庆祝新加坡独立60周年之际，让我们齐心协力，在前人的基础上再接再厉，为子孙后代留下一个更美好、更光明的新加坡。

我刚才向一些决赛选手提到，当我在COVID大流行期间担任财政部长时，我很高兴能够用五份财政预算案来支持我们的人民和企业。

作为其中的一部分，我不得不去见我国总理，征得他的同意，动用我们过去的储备金。

世界上几乎所有国家最终都花费了大量资源用于支持 COVID，而我敢说，我可能是唯一不用借一分钱的财政部长。

我总是对年轻人说，新加坡未举债一分钱，全凭储备金渡过危机，这得益于建国一代的远见。他们明智地储蓄和投资，以备不时之需。正是这种谨慎和纪律使我们能够在危机时期动用储备金，而不给子孙后代带来债务负担。

我希望我们能保持这种精神--从长远考虑，以拯救后代而不是给他们造成负担的方式行事。

本着继往开来的精神，让我也向新加坡国际商会前行政总裁Victor Mills致敬。

今天，Victor完成了他在商会的最后一天，他多年来为总商会提供了卓越的领导和服务。非常感谢Victor！

也祝愿新任行政总裁Bita Seow女士和您的团队一切顺利。Victor已经树立了很高的标准，你们的挑战就是要更上一层楼！衷心祝贺所有决赛选手和获奖者。

祝大家度过一个愉快的庆祝和交流之夜。

谢谢大家！

以下内容为英文原稿：

Speech by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat at the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) Awards on 21 March 2025.

Ms Dawn Tan, Chairwoman, Singapore International Chamber of Commerce or SICC,

Mr Wong Joo Seng, Deputy Chairman, SICC

Board Members of SICC,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening!

First, thank you for inviting me.

I have read and interacted with our finalists to learn about your interesting and innovative work.

Each of you is already a winner - my heartiest congratulations to all the finalists! Your effort is inspiring and exemplary.

I am glad to hear that since 2018, the winners have been featured on a Channel NewsAsia programme to inspire a wider audience. I think this is an excellent move.

As Dawn mentioned earlier, these awards were first launched in 2015, during SG50, in support of the Government’s Partnerships for Capability Transformation, or PACT, programme.

I commend SICC for promoting innovation, particularly collaborative innovation, over this past decade.

Starting out with two categories, you now have expanded to five, reflecting the evolving and dynamic nature of innovation.

SICC’s commitment to bringing businesses together, and connecting local and foreign enterprises, has been longstanding.

SICC has just turned 188 – what a role model for active ageing and healthy longevity!

The Chamber was founded in the 1830s to advocate for Singapore to remain a free port, facilitating trade flows between East and West and supporting the development of an open, inter-connected global economy.

This was around the peak of the first Industrial Revolution, when a proliferation of new technologies led to a surge in manufacturing output, particularly in Western economies.

The economist Adam Smith’s insight on the division of labour, specialisation and free markets laid the foundations for what we know today as modern industry, supply chains and globalised trade.

The division of labour, leveraging on economic complementarities and global competitive forces that drive efficiency and innovation, has spurred higher growth in trade and economic growth, especially in developing economies.

For example, between 1970 and 2023, the exports of goods and services worldwide grew from 12.8% to 29.3% of global GDP.

In that same time period, global GDP per capita rose about 16 times from roughly US$816 to more than US$13,000.

In low and middle-income countries, the improvement was even more impressive.

GDP per capita grew almost 29 times – from US$196 in 1970 to more than US$5,600 in 2023.

Now, the brief facts and figures that I have just outlined show that the global division of labour has been a key driver of progress for all countries.

I was in Doha back in 2001 for the launch of the WTO’s Doha Round of trade negotiations.

Unfortunately, in these 24 years, the Doha Round has made no progress.

Instead, we are regressing – with trade wars growing in intensity, even among countries with Free Trade Agreements.

Tariffs are being weaponised to pursue non-economic objectives, and trade and other economic agreements are being upended abruptly.

While the logic and evidence of free trade is clear, the politics of trade dominate policy direction.

In fact, at the university where I studied economics, the Economics Faculty was referred to as the Department of Political Economy.

It is a fitting recognition that economic rationality is circumscribed by political calculations.

For Singapore to maintain our success and prosperity, we must stay open and carve a role for ourselves in global supply chains, including in new and emerging areas.

Today, trade remains at over three times our GDP.

Our network of 27 Free Trade Agreements enables our businesses to enter markets far larger than Singapore’s domestic market. I am glad that we had the foresight to pursue this policy.

For our SMEs, in particular, these FTAs help to unlock opportunities for them to be part of foreign companies’ supply chains, and in growth regions like ASEAN, Asia and even Latin America.

We continue to grow by establishing collaborations and complementarities with businesses around the world.

Management guru Peter Drucker once wrote that organisations make strengths productive and weaknesses irrelevant.

His basic point is each individual has strengths and weaknesses.

Through collaboration, executives could build complementary strengths for stronger organisations.

And the same can be said for businesses, economies and countries.

Given Singapore’s limitations in land and population size, we cannot realistically produce everything we need on our own.

By working with partners from around the world, our enterprises can tap on a broader bench of expertise, and tap on collective strengths, to unlock growth.

For the Singapore economy to stay competitive, we must stay open.

The work of SICC and other chambers – in building bridges between foreign and local enterprises and sustaining support for free trade and investment is very valuable.

That was how you started in the first place 188 years ago. And as we go forward into Industry 4.0, your focus on collaborative innovation will be most useful.

In the coming years, I believe science, technology and innovation will drive the future of economic growth. There are several reasons.

The first is demographics – the global workforce is shrinking – due both to ageing populations and declining birthrates.

The UN projects that by the mid-2030s, people aged 80 and above globally will outnumber infants.

By 2080, 55 years from now, the number of people aged 65 and above globally will outnumber those aged below 18.

In Singapore, around one in four Singaporeans is expected to be 65 years or older by 2030 –25% of our population. Just 15 years ago when I was still young in 2010, the figure was around 10%.

Now the second is rapid technological advancements.

In particular, advances in AI are disrupting business models, companies and even entire industries.

With AI’s potential to magnify and entrench competitive advantage, competition over technology is also increasingly taking on geopolitical dimensions.

The third reason for the importance of technology and innovation is the need for businesses to address climate change.

For us in Singapore, a low-lying island state, climate change is existential.

Some studies project that the global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090, unless global climate action is stepped up urgently and at scale.

For enterprises, sustainability is not just about a responsibility to society, but about the long-term viability of your business, the stability of your supply chains, and consumption patterns.

Harnessing technology and innovation, to build new products, solutions and systems, and to do it at scale will be critical.

So let me take this opportunity to commend SICC for expanding the SICC Awards to new categories like “Best Technological Collaboration”, “Most Sustainable Collaboration” and “Most Scalable Collaboration”.

I also appreciate that the SICC Awards provides not only a platform to compete, but also to share their ideas with one another, and with others.

Dawn earlier mentioned about building a “learning component” to these awards.

Doing so enables the spirit of innovation behind the collaborations we recognise this evening to also inspire others in the business community.

To borrow a social media term, let us make innovation viral.

I have spoken on the importance of staying open to globalisation, and harnessing technology and innovation.

Putting these together, it means we need to achieve scale to make an impact.

Building on SICC’s initiative in recognising and promoting collaborative innovation, to achieve greater impact, we must scale this further – within Singapore, and across borders.

I believe that a central pillar of Singapore’s future economic strategy, and our future economic value, is to position Singapore as a Global-Asia node, connecting the world to Asia with a very clear focus on technology and innovation.

We must continue to work with innovation nodes around the world to deepen innovation, to find new growth sectors and tackle common challenges.

Businesses, both foreign and local, and across all sizes and scales, can make useful contributions in this area.

The Government has initiated several schemes to encourage collaboration across sectors, borders and even regions.

One way is by building purposeful partnerships between businesses and our Research, Innovation and Enterprise or RIE ecosystem to harness innovation and solve targeted problems. I am glad to see a few of this year’s finalists featuring such cross-sector collaborations!

The National Research Foundation, EDB, and A*STAR and other agencies have supported the establishment of various Corporate Labs between industry players and our universities and research institutes.

Over the years, we have set up more than 20 such corporate labs including with SICC member companies like ST Microelectronics and ExxonMobil. I invite others who are keen to also consider a similar tie-ups.

During this year’s Budget Debate a few weeks ago, I announced that we are developing new RIE Flagships and Grand Challenges as part of the next bound of building our research ecosystem and driving Singapore’s future growth.

These platforms will pull together research and translational capabilities across our universities, research institutes, public agencies and the private sector to create value in new economic sectors and to address real-world problems and needs.

The first Flagship will focus on semiconductor and microelectronics R&D and the first Grand Challenge will look at healthy and successful longevity.

We welcome SICC members who are engaged in these domains to work with us on these platforms. We will be announcing more Grand Challenges and Flagships in the years to come.

Another way that we are fostering collaboration is by facilitating stronger connectivity between larger firms, SMEs and startups.

Since 2017, Enterprise Singapore has supported innovation partnerships between large corporates and smaller enterprises through Open Innovation. Over the year, more than 350 matches have been catalysed through this platform.

SICC members like Olam and Shell, for example, have been matched with SMEs and startups from Singapore and overseas to develop new solution in sustainable agriculture and clean energy distribution.

A third way is by connecting innovators more closely across borders, with one another as well as with investors and partners, to jumpstart collaborations.

Strong networks with other ecosystems provide enterprises with local insights and partnerships to make the most of new opportunities.

In this regard, Enterprise Singapore’s Global Innovation Alliance or GIA connects Singapore startups and enterprises with established innovation hubs worldwide, facilitating market access and cross-border R&D collaborations.

So far, the GIA has empowered more than 600 startups with market access across 24 cities, and catalysed cross-border research with over 40 countries.

We also host the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology or SWITCH to strengthen linkages between our enterprises and those globally and to deepen our innovation capabilities, particularly in deep tech.

SWITCH offers good opportunities for enterprises, including SICC members, to network and better understand the latest developments in emerging technologies like climate tech, advanced manufacturing, and AI.

I encourage SICC members to attend the 10th edition of SWITCH taking place this October.

And Chambers like SICC, with your diverse membership and networks, also play a role in strengthening Singapore’s position as a Global-Asia node.

In this regard, let me make a suggestion to SICC – to consider introducing a new, sixth category to your awards to recognise collaborations that are “Best Cross-Border Innovations”.

So in conclusion, let me sum up the three main points I wish to leave you with this evening.

First, Singapore must continue to stay open and continue to find new complementarities with partners in the global economy to preserve and enhance our value proposition going forward. In a world that is more contested, more fragmented, that will be our value.

Our success has been built on being an open and interconnected place to do business, going back to when SICC was founded. And our prosperity will continue to be intertwined with our active engagement with the global economy.

Second, science, technology and innovation will be critical drivers of economic growth in the years ahead, and we must learn to harness these optimally. I say this with some bias, of course, because I am also Chairman of our National Research Foundation.

And third, by working together among Government, academia and businesses, we can serve as a Global-Asia node catalysing collaborative innovation in impactful ways.

I commend SICC once again for your dedicated effort to recognise and encourage collaborative innovation.

Let me thank the panel of judges for your contributions and service.

And I also join Dawn in encouraging more SICC member companies to take part and submit nominations for future rounds of these awards.

As we celebrate 60 years of Singapore’s independence, let us all work together to build further on the good work of those who came before us – to leave a better, brighter Singapore for the generations who follow.

I mentioned to some of the finalists earlier that when I was Finance Minister during the COVID pandemic, I was glad to be able to support our people and our businesses with five Budgets.

As part of this, I had to see our President and seek her approval to draw on our past reserves.

Almost every country in the world ended up spending considerable resources on COVID support, and I dare say that I was probably the only Finance Minister who did not have to borrow a single cent.

I always tell young people that this is legacy of our founding generation, who saved and invested wisely for a rainy day. It was this prudence and discipline that allowed us to draw on our reserves during a period of crisis, without burdening future generations with debt.

This spirit – of thinking long-term and acting in a way to save future generations rather than to burden them – is something I hope we maintain.

In the spirit of building on the work of those before us, let me also recognise former SICC Chief Executive Victor Mills.

Victor, who completes his last day with the Chamber today, gave many years of distinguished leadership and service to the Chamber. So thank you very much Victor!

And I wish incoming Chief Executive Bita Seow and your team all the very best. Victor has set a high standard – so your challenge is to climb even higher! And heartiest congratulations to all finalists and winners.

And I wish everyone a pleasant evening of celebration and exchanges.

Thank you.