2.4 We are not just getting more large investments, but more ‘first-of-its-kind’ investments. Take for instance, the chip used in the latest PlayStation3 and Xbox. A French semiconductor company, Soitec, is investing $700 million to set up in Singapore its first offshore facility to make the wafer for this chip. It is high precision, high technology. The wafers have alternating layers of silicon and insulator, unlike conventional wafers which use silicon throughout. Why did Soitec choose Singapore? Because its technology has to be well-protected, and we are the only country in Asia that it trusts well enough to set up its first manufacturing campus outside of France.
2.5 Soitec is like many other global companies which have come here because they know their investments will be protected, and we have the pool of talent and skills for sophisticated manufacturing. Like Sumitomo, which expanded its $500 million complex in Singapore only last year to make the special kind of plastic used in LCD screens and dentures. These are big votes of confidence by global investors.
2.6 But it is not just the large MNCs that we are drawing here. We are also attracting a whole new category of small and mid-sized global players. Take Bob Chandran, for example, who came from the US. He had listened to PM talk on TV about Singapore being a place with ‘Asian values but Western conveniences’. He explored further, looked around, and eventually decided to move his family and his company to Singapore. It is a marine fuel company, Chemoil. In fact he has now taken up Singapore citizenship. Chemoil is listed on the SGX. And Bob Chandran just announced recently a major investment in a new fuel terminal on Jurong Island.
2.7 Another example is Johan M Karlstedt. He first relocated from Finland to the US, lived there for several years, before deciding to come to Singapore — both for his company and his family. The company that he founded, QXSystems, creates virtual offices for businesses around the world. As he puts it, with the Internet, it does not matter if you are in a small country. QXSystems now owns five companies around the world, headquartered in Singapore. Johan himself doesn’t work from an office; they call it working from home. So I emailed him to ask him what it really means. He said he actually sits and works daily, for hours, in many places around Singapore. His favourites are the al fresco cafes. Thanks to widespread WiFi, he can interact with anyone around the world from any spot in Singapore for the cost of almost nothing.
2.8 Bob Chandran, Johan Karlstedt and the many others like them are here because we are a compelling home for enterprise and for families.
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