SPEECH BY RAYMOND LIM, MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE AND INDUSTRY AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF ICOMMUNITY AT NANYANG POLYTECHNIC ON 17 SEPTEMBER 2003

Singapore Government Press Release
Media Relations Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts,
MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369
Tel: 6837-9666

SPEECH BY RAYMOND LIM, MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE AND INDUSTRY AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF ICOMMUNITY AT NANYANG POLYTECHNIC ON 17 SEPTEMBER 2003, 10.10AM

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am honoured to be here to launch ICommunity, Singapore's first dedicated incubator for start-ups in integrated circuit design. It is good to see the warm and enthusiastic support of all the ICommunity valued partners here today, especially those of you who have taken time off your busy schedules to come to Singapore from as far as Hong Kong and the United States for this significant event.

Today, Singapore has many incubators. Some are industry-specific others are set up by countries from the region, such as India, Korea and China.

ICommunity is by no means just another incubator. It will be a knowledge and business community where anyone and everyone within or related to the IC Design industry from the private and public sectors and institutions of higher learning, will be able to interact, collaborate and explore business opportunities. It will also seek to engage the involvement of other interested parties from the semiconductor industry, venture capital companies, international trading houses and training institutions.

These parties will come together through activities such as IC Design industry forums, seminars and workshops to exchange ideas, network and even form alliances and partnerships. Over the next 2 years, ICommunity aims to reach out to some 150 companies, including start-up enterprises.

With this level of participation, ICommunity, hosted at the Nanyang Polytechnic, would also provide the right environment to encourage more Singapore-based IC design enterprises to be developed. We hope that ICommunity will become a hotbed of innovation, allowing ideas to cross-fertilise, germinate and sprout with appropriate and timely infusions from private sector participation.

In time, we hope to nurture these new ideas to commercial use. In the process, we hope ICommunity will serve as a role model for others to adopt to spur greater entrepreneurial activities.

We are planting the seed, providing the platform and nurturing its growth. We hope that talented IC design professionals will step up to the challenge. Given the significant level of private sector participation, ICommunity is well placed to provide a comprehensive support environment covering the whole value cluster of IC design, applications development, market knowledge, software support, new enterprise formation and VC or seed funding. I am sure the partners present today, Cadence, Chartered, Fortune Venture, Synopsys, Infiniti Solutions, Intraco, SEEDS Capital, IPOS, Nanyang Polytechnic and EDB can attest to this.

We are also hopeful that ICommunity will provide the launch pad for locally-based IC design companies to commence operations.

Today, Singapore has about 30 IC design houses employing some 800 professionals. EDB is keen to increase the IC design activity in Singapore as it is an integral part of Singapore's semiconductor industry. We are hopeful that ICommunity will add at least 10 more locally-based IC Design start-ups, and train some 300 IC Design professionals to keep abreast of the latest developments in the IC Design field.

ICommunity should spark the development of an IC design community, which will not only spawn new and innovative designs, but serve as a forum for debate, especially on issues of protection and exploitation of these ideas. Like any other highly knowledge intensive industry, the fabless design community will benefit from the infrastructural support of such an incubator as well as the stringent intellectual property regime that Singapore offers.

I am happy to note that we already have four ICommunity members signed up as of today. This strong response is indeed a very encouraging beginning.

I am also mindful of the importance of the semiconductor industry to the Singapore economy. It accounted for $17 billion in output last year, which translates to about 13% of total manufacturing output. We are committed to being a global player in this business. Our existing favourable business environment and new initiatives such as ICommunity between government and the private sector will further strengthen our infrastructure to support the semiconductor industry.

Over the years, Singapore has grown with the semiconductor industry. Today, we have 12 wafer fabs operating in Singapore with industry leaders such as UMC and TSMC and STMicroelectronics.

Fabless design companies are an important and growing part of the global semiconductor industry. ICommunity gives IC design innovators and entrepreneurs more than a chance to compete in this growth industry, through collaboration with strategic partners.

I would like to congratulate all the parties involved in making ICommunity happen. I would urge IC designers and entrepreneurs to take advantage of this opportunity. It therefore gives me great pleasure to launch ICommunity today. Thank you.