Singapore responds to HK's Cyberport plan

The Technopreneurship Investment Fund will be used to co-invest with the private sector in technology start-ups both at home and abroad.

There will be no conditions applicants must satisfy to receive backing, except for coming up with innovations that can be turned into a viable business.

Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said: "The idea is not merely to attract funds to be based here, but also to draw in the whole panoply of players who are knowledgeable about the venture-capital business and able to assess and value intellectual property, understand and manage risks."

The move is part of the government's concerted effort to transform Singapore from a capital-intensive manufacturing and services economy to a globally competitive advanced-knowledge economy in the next decade.

To build a critical mass of technopreneurial talent, a special ministerial committee chaired by Mr Tan will conduct a systematic and comprehensive review of Singapore's education facilities, regulations and financing.

Mr Tan said: "Education is a crucial component of the strategic plan. To build up a technopreneurship sector in Singapore requires a change of mindset among Singaporeans.

"We need to infuse in our people a culture of innovation and enterprise and a readiness to take calculated risks."

A private sector committee has also been set up to advise the government on necessary policy changes.

It will be headed by Singapore's number one technopreneur, Creative Technology founder and chairman Sim Wong Hoo.

Mr Sim said: "There are quite a lot of rules and regulations in Singapore meant for bringing up the nation to what we are today.

"To be entrepreneurs, many of these rules need to be changed. In the early days of Creative [in the 1980s], we confronted many of these obstacles."

The National Science and Technology Board, headed by Teo Ming Kian, will lead the technopreneurship drive.

Mr Teo said: "In Singapore today we have no lack of money, but there may be a lack of people to assess and value intellectual property and therefore willing to invest in them."