Find Industry and Manufacturing expertise in Singapore

Singapore holds the second-most competitive economy in the world (2012–13, World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report) with manufacturing contributing 22.2% of GDP in 2011. It is considered to have an innovation-driven development economy by the WEF and is classified first out of 185 countries by the World Bank for ease of doing business, a ranking based on how conducive the regulatory environment is to the opening and operation of a local firm. Industry workers make up over a fifth of total employment (2009, World Bank) and industrial production is estimated to be growing at a rate of 1.2% (2012 est. CIA World Factbook).

Singapore’s main industry is electronics, while other major industrial products and activities include pharmaceuticals and ship-building. Included in electronic manufacturing is the production of semiconductors, computer peripherals, and data storage. Major manufacturers in this subsector comprise Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Infineon Technologies, Rockwell Automation and Solectron Technology. Singapore’s Economic Development Board is working to foster development in this industry in order to cope with increased competition from within Asia.

Biomedical science has also gained popularity over recent years, with sites such as the Tuas Biomedical Park and the Biopolis attracting international companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis, Pfizer, Baxter, and Wyeth.

The country is also a hub for banking and finance in Southeast Asia, with insurance, banking and foreign exchange seeing the greatest growth. Barclays, Credit Suisse, Prudential and BNP Paribas are among the financial companies operating in Singapore, while the Institute of Banking and Finance works to develop this industry.

Since the 1960s Singapore has achieved phenomenal growth through “export-oriented industrialisation”, a policy and process aimed at speeding up the industrialisation course of a country through the exportation of goods. The main export industries include machinery, electronics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and consumer goods, which are exported primarily throughout Asia and to the US. The economies of East Asia and the Pacific have been growing rapidly over recent years, recording higher growth rates than any other region in the world – 7.5% in 2012 (World Bank). Production of goods for export within China, Japan and Malaysia in particular has raised competition for Singapore’s manufacturers. In 2012, Singapore was estimated to be the 14^th largest exporter in the world (CIA).

The 2013 Global Competitiveness Report scores and ranks the sophistication of production processes around the world, where a low country score of 1 means “no sophistication and labour intensive” and a high score of 7 means production processes are the “world’s best and apply the most efficient  technologies”.  In this respect Singapore ranks 18 out of 144 countries with a score of 5.5.

The Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) promotes the growth of Singapore’s manufacturing community through increasing competitiveness, capacity building, local and overseas expansion and networking. The SMF member base is made up of over 3,000 corporations, ranging from small to multinational enterprises.