Economics
Singapore Has a 10-Year Plan to Ramp Up Manufacturing by 50%
- Focus on quality products and not cheap labor, minister says
- Manufacturing forms 21%, or S$106 billion of city-state’s GDP
Photographer: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
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Singapore aims to grow its manufacturing sector by 50% over the next 10 years to maintain its competitiveness, with the pandemic highlighting its importance to the trade-reliant city-state’s economy.
But the goal is ambitious as it will become harder to rely on foreign labor to supplement the local workforce, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Monday. To meet the aim, Singapore has to innovate and produce higher-value products rather than look to lower the cost of production or labor, he added.