INVOLVING SINGAPOREANS IN REMAKING SINGAPORE

MR Kanwal Rekhi, Mr Kailash Joshi and other Founder Members of TiE Network
Mr Inderjit Singh and other Founder Members of the Singapore Chapter
Colleagues and Friends
New Age Clan Associations

The INDUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) Network reminded me of the many Chinese Clan Associations which sprang up two centuries ago in many parts of S E Asia and grew to become a significant social institution.

For Singapore, the Chinese Clan Associations played an important role in our development from a colony to a nation. In the uncertain and difficult conditions of our early days, they provided a safe haven and a lifeline for the many Chinese migrants who came to Singapore in pursuit of a better life.

The Clans looked after their welfare, helped them to settle down, provided social services, ran schools and clinics. They arranged marriages, celebrated births, performed religious ceremonies and also took care of the dead. It was full service, from cradle to grave, from the physical to the spiritual. The Clans also carried out many essential economic functions, like postal and remittance services. They formed the broadband conduit between the migrants and the homes they left behind.

Many of the new migrants had uprooted themselves from their homes and families and arrived penniless and alone. The Clans played an important role strengthening bonds among fellow migrants from the same village, offering support, companionship and practical help.

The Clans were highly successful because they met a genuine need. At times of change and upheavals, people need mutual support and fellowship. They seek stable comfort zones to emotionally anchor themselves. In a strange environment in a strange land, the need is particularly compelling.

Likewise, The INDUS Entrepreneurs Network has within 10 years grown to become a vibrant organisation because it effectively meets a compelling need of its members. But the similarity with the Clans ends here. There are stark differences between both phenomena.

First, our forefathers were penniless economic refugees. Second, they were illiterate and unskilled. In short, they could not have been more economically handicapped. On the other hand, TiE Network members are among the most savvy and talented modern entrepreneurs in the world. Some of them are gathered here tonight, to whom I extend a very warm welcome.

Power of Networks

While the early migrants were about basic daily survival, the TiE Network is about remaking the world, creating new technology and producing millionaires and billionaires along the way. In the New Economy, networks are a fundamental part of how the high tech industry works. The most successful VC (venture capital) firms and entrepreneurs have their own networks that they rely upon to rapidly bring together the elements to quickly start a company. TiE has successfully created a model that allows its key persons, the Charter members, to recognize one another as likely to be a valuable contact, while the broader membership can approach these for assistance or mentoring.

Since its creation in 1992, the TiE Network has leveraged on the Silicon Valley and in turn contributed to its spectacular growth. It is a wonderful symbiotic relationship. In Singapore EDB’s jargon, both are key players in a powerful ecosystem of entrepreneurship, creativity and economic growth.

Remaking Silicon Valley

The Internet bubble has burst, but the Internet Revolution is certainly not a virtual phenomenon. I have just read a recent white paper prepared by The Next Silicon Valley Leadership Group. It documented vividly the evolution of the Silicon Valley in the last 50 years: how it has each time dealt with its boom/bust cycle, only to emerge stronger than before.

During this period, the Silicon Valley has been shaped by four major waves of technology innovation, from defence, through IC (integrated circuit), to PC (personal computer) and more recently the Internet. Along the way, the Silicon Valley has reshaped the world and the business scene.

Like The Next Silicon Valley Leadership Group, I share their optimism that the Silicon Valley will emerge from the Internet bubble to ride on the fifth wave of technology innovation. But what will that be: mobile Internet, bio-informatics, or nanotechnology? Nobody can be certain.

Nevertheless, a good bet is that the Silicon Valley will again be the habitat to host the next technology wave. The intense energy of the players in the remaking of the Silicon Valley and the considerable amount of talent they bring to the table, have put the odds in the Valley’s favour. To be sure, the centres of innovation are also spreading rapidly beyond the Silicon Valley. Evidence? VC investments in the Silicon Valley have been declining as a percentage of all VC investments for a while now, although I believe it is still a significant figure.

The TiE Network is deeply embedded in the Silicon Valley. Your members are active parts of the habitat and the ecosystem. You have the inside track on the latest development. And in keeping with the spread of innovation beyond the Silicon Valley, your network has grown considerably beyond it. I understand that you now have 10,000 members globally and more than 30 Chapters outside of the Silicon Valley. This could be really powerful in the future as it makes you one of the few active networks that have a global presence. The few others that I can think of are the alumni networks of the top business schools and a few select firms like McKinsey and its peers.

TiE Singapore

Singapore is therefore proud to be a part of your network and to host one of your two Chapters in Asia. You will find us useful to your mission as we are sandwiched between India and China, two mega economies in the making. Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, these are the only two major economies growing at "Tiger-rate" of above 6% per annum. For China, they have been at this rate in the last 20 years and the momentum has hardly slowed.

TiE Singapore can therefore serve as a useful bridge for TiE members to Asia. Being eager adopters of technology and innovation, Singapore offers a useful test bed for new ideas and new business models. TiE Singapore members can therefore help their TiE counterparts in the Silicon Valley to customise technologies developed there to suit the market needs in Asia.

In turn, TiE Singapore can help link Singapore companies to the global contacts necessary for internationalisation. This is essential for the development of a vibrant global, entrepreneurial high tech sector in Singapore.

Remaking Singapore

Like the Silicon Valley which is remaking itself for the next wave of technology innovation, we in Singapore are also trying to remake our economy to stay relevant in a fast changing world. It is not merely about the current recession which is a cyclical phenomenon which will recover sooner or later. But it is about the new world which is already beginning to look quite different from just a decade ago.

ASEAN post-1997 is different from its past. India today is quite different from 10 years ago, though parts of it unfortunately remain stuck in the past. China post-WTO accession will be drastically different even from its recent past. The whole world post-911 already has a different feel and touch.

The Economic Review Committee chaired by DPM Lee is comprehensively reviewing Singapore’s economy to see how we should restructure ourselves to secure our future prosperity. We will consult widely from Singaporeans, here and overseas, and international experts. The operating principle is that there will be no sacred cows. And if a policy has become outdated and is stifling new growth, we will have it updated.

Seldom do we get an opportunity like this to fundamentally review our policies, and to reshape our future. I encourage all Singaporeans to join us in this review exercise. Give us your views, your suggestions. Email us, phone us, write to us. We will create opportunities to receive your views, discuss your ideas and share with you ours when we are ready to do so.

I especially ask the young to take an active interest in this exercise. This is about your future. I am 50 and my career will probably run for another 10 years. Even if we do nothing and carry on existing policies, Singapore’s growth in the next 10 years is likely to be all right. But our concern is really the scenario after 2010. It will be a very different world. Existing policies are unlikely to be adequate to see us through that different world. It will be too late to start instituting new policies by that time. To be effective, any new policies will have to be implemented now, not in 2010.

For those below 40, the remaking of Singapore will intimately affect your future. So, do come forward to join us in this review and to make a direct contribution to the remaking of your future.

Singaporeans Overseas Network

The various Sub Committees and Working Groups of the ERC have started to seek public consultation. You will hear more of their activities over the next few months.

But we should at the same time reach out to the many Singaporeans overseas. They have global exposure and will have useful views to share. Their inputs will be valuable to the ERC.

I am chairing the Service Industries Sub Committee. One of my Sub Committee Member, Dr Richard Lim, lives and works in Boston. He has been an active and successful technopreneur in the US in the last 15 years. He will be organising the Singaporeans residing in the US, especially in Boston and San Francisco, into a network, to discuss the topics which the ERC is addressing. In fact, Richard will chair the kick-off meeting of this informal network in San Francisco tomorrow. He hopes to have the network members meet weekly and also discuss actively in cyber space.

At suitable intervals, we will invite the representatives from this US network back to Singapore to discuss their ideas and recommendations with the ERC members.

A similar network for the large number of Singaporeans living in Hong Kong will also be set up soon. MOS Dr Ng Eng Hen, another ERC Member, will be leading on this effort.

For both networks, we will not merely involve the Singaporeans, but will also include all those who want to help, for example, expatriates who had previously lived in Singapore and their families and friends. We have many such Friends of Singapore globally.

And I will certainly include the TiE network members as Friends of Singapore. You have contributed to the spectacular growth of the Silicon Valley. I hope you will find it equally meaningful to participate and contribute to the remaking of Singapore. I will leave it to the ingenuity of TiE Singapore, under the able leadership of Mr Inderjit Singh, to see how to follow up on this particular idea.

Come and join us in the remaking of Singapore. On this note, I am happy to launch the Singapore Chapter of The INDUS Enrepreneurs Network.

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ANNEX: FACT SHEET