His Excellency, Mr Bendt Bendtsen, Minister for Economic and Business Affairs
Ms Kigge Hvid, CEO, INDEX:
Mr Robert Tomlin, Deputy Chairman, DesignSingapore Council
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good afternoon

I am pleased to join His Excellency, Minister for Economic and Business Affairs, Mr Bendt Bendtsen, to sign the Denmark-Singapore Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Design to Improve Life.

2 Singapore enjoys longstanding, warm and friendly ties with Denmark. Our economic and trade ties are strong. Currently we have 153 Danish companies operating in Singapore. They cover a wide range of business areas including shipping, consumer electronics, furniture, engineering services, pharmaceuticals and logistics. We have also established fruitful exchanges in design, arts and culture, and infocomm technology. The signing of this MOU on design will further enhance our ties and provide a framework for more private sector cooperation in the design industry.

3 Denmark is well known for a long history and rich cultural heritage. Works by Danish cultural luminaries such as Han Christian Andersen and Carl Nielsen are enjoyed worldwide by readers and music lovers. Denmark is also one of the first countries to adopt a national design policy. Being a first mover in this creative field has enabled you to gain international recognition for your design innovation and strong design philosophy in many areas. We admire your ability to fuse design and technology to deliver innovative and value-added outcomes for businesses.

4 In Singapore, as we address the challenges of new economic competition and globalisation, we too recognise the importance of design as a contributor to new value-add and national competitiveness. Equally important is the power of design to enhance functionality and aesthetic value in everyday life. However, our strong focus on the creative industries particularly design is a recent development. In the 2003 economic review, we identified the creative industries as a promising driver for our vision of transforming Singapore into a diversified, entrepreneurial and innovation-driven globalised economy. Design was identified as an integral part of the creative industries development. While design had been promoted as part of Singapore’s manufacturing sector, we realised that what was needed was a more fundamental shift in the promotion and inculcation of a pervasive design culture in nearly every aspect of the economy and life in general. Clearly, from the public sector’s provision of public service and amenities to the manufacturers’ product innovation to the service providers in the tourism sector and many other sectors, we can benefit from leveraging on the power of design. This strategy was anchored on positioning design as the creative integration of art, culture, business and technology to drive innovation and national competitiveness.

5 Unlike Denmark with your long history of deploying design, we in Singapore are quite new at this game. But I am glad that our effort has received international attention. The Design Competitiveness Report, which is based on data supplied by the World Economic Forum, showed that Singapore has improved from 22nd position in the year 2002, to 16th in 2005. Denmark was ranked 5th position in 2005. So we have made some progress. More Singapore designers are also displaying their creative flair and winning international recognition. We are therefore keen to encourage more Singapore companies to integrate design into their products and work with local and international designers in order to create more compelling products and services.

6 The signing of the Denmark-Singapore MOU on Design to Improve Life will provide a timely framework for extensive design co-operation by the design sectors of both countries. It sets the stage and provides the impetus for our respective design champions – INDEX: of Denmark and DesignSingapore Council – to work together to leverage on design to improve life and businesses. It will pave the way for more exchanges between the designers, design companies and enterprises keen on leveraging the power of design from our two countries. We hope to see greater collaborations between design associations, cultural and design institutions and the business community. This MOU will also contribute to the competitiveness and the innovative capacity of our respective economies through interdisciplinary design collaborations. Singapore and Danish designers and design-led businesses could explore new opportunities and partnerships to extend their global outreach.

7 We also hope that through collaborative design programmes, we can contribute to enhancing the understanding of the direct and indirect impact of design on human, social, environmental and economic developments. Indeed, we hope that Design to Improve Life will resonate with people throughout the world.

8 For a start, a group of Singapore businessmen with special interest in design is here to meet and explore opportunities with their Danish counterparts. Our design companies would like to take this invaluable opportunity to learn from Danish design practices and acquire a deeper appreciation of Denmark’s design capabilities and organisations. Such exchanges are invaluable for the establishment of new business relationships.

9 In conclusion, I am confident that the Denmark-Singapore MOU on Design to Improve Life will take our already close relations another step forward. I look forward to a fruitful partnership that will strengthen existing relations and also open up new areas for cooperation and mutual benefits to Singapore and Denmark.

Thank you.

Report “Global Design Watch: April 2006”, by DESIGNIUM, the New Centre of Innovation in Design, at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki.