Good evening, ladies and gentleman

I am honoured to be here tonight at the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition.

The Senior Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his first generation colleagues formulated the "mother" of all business plans more than 40 years ago. Singapore faced unique problems, and innovative unique solutions were needed. Their plans resulted in the transformation of a third world city, with no natural resources, and indeed, very little economic basis for independent existence into the thriving city-state that we have today.

I state this, not to flatter the Senior Minister, but to remind everyone that we have had a history of entrepreneurship, and a successful one, at that. The ability to identify, evaluate and exploit opportunities was, and will continue to be essential for our survival.

Senior Minister Lee told the Cabinet yesterday that he is now convinced that we can change mindsets and cultural habits if we teach entrepreneurship. We should consider teaching entrepreneurship in our universities, polytechnics and even junior colleges. In the US, the Kauffman Center starts entrepreneurship education in kindergarten through high school, providing young learners the knowledge to make choices for their futures.

Entrepreneurs are the result of both nature and nurture. We will address both variables of this equation. We will accrete talent from the world, and we will hothouse indigenous talent. Consequently, I would like to congratulate the Singapore Management University for your prescience in organising this competition. I am especially glad that you chose to make this a global competition, and received more than 200 entries from 79 universities spanning 19 countries.

We recognize that the world has changed, and will do whatever it takes to respond to this changed world.

The investment driven, large MNC and GLC dominated economy has served us well, and will continue to be a key component of our economy. However, this will not be enough to deal with the competition from rapidly upgrading economies in the region and from China.

Singapore based companies must try to break new ground, generate new ideas and exploit new business opportunities. It is not enough to be technically competent in following or executing someone else’s plans. We cannot just be an assembly plant, regardless of how efficiently we do this. We need to forge our own way in the future.

The world has become smaller and faster. Competition, in tonight’s exercise, and in real life is global. Your ideas will have to contend with ideas arising from all over the globe. Your winning idea will have a short shelf life, and you will have to run very fast to make hay while the sun shines.

The difference between winning and losing is going to become greater. And, there will be more losers than winners. How will Singapore adapt to this brave new world? Will we thrive, or will we wither? I am an optimist.

Let’s start with the generation of new ideas. The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2001-02 has ranked Singapore 13^th out of more than 70 countries for innovation on the basis of international patents per capita and the proportion of scientists and engineers. Multinational companies and non-citizen residents would have filed a significant number of these patents. Nevertheless, the point remains that they are here, and our strength lies in our ability to accrete talent and combine it in new ways with indigenous talent.

Next, I would like to touch on role models. In the past, the role model of success was to do well academically, win a scholarship, work for the government or a large firm, and rise to the top. It was a safe, secure, reasonably well paid and absolutely rational thing to do.

Fortunately, not everyone was caught by this talent scouting net, and some fish got away to build soundcards, make "popiah" or even fishballs! In a perverse sense, these were people who did not have a safety net, and so were forced to make their own way.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2001 study, Singapore only had only 5.2% of people in Singapore were trying to start or running a business that was less than 42 months old. This contrasts with 11.7% in the USA.

We will change our role models of success. The question that you will be asked at the interview is not what scholarship you have won in the past, but what companies have you started. At the risk of exaggeration, the President’s Scholar is out, and the entrepreneur is IN.

We will also have to work on a theology of failure. Failure will become part and parcel of the learning experience for most, if not all of us. We will have to equip our people with the tools to elevate themselves with, and also ensure that there are minimal systemic impediments to resurrection.

I hope our university grading systems will evolve to recognise new ideas in our students rather than the rote learning of soon-to-be obsolete facts. This should not be impossible given that universities already assess their faculty members on the basis of their research and scholarship.

I also note that the EDB and indeed VCs stand ready to invest in some of the ideas generated by tonight’s competition. I believe this is the correct approach for the government. We will take side bets with you, but you remain in charge. We will be the incubator for your company. We will provide the environment, and networking, but it will be your company and your success.

May I conclude therefore, by congratulating all participants in this competition, and wish you all success in your future enterprises.

************