While much of the focus on Asia has been concentrated on the twin rising giants of China and India, it may then come as a surprise to know that manufacturing remains a vigorous component of the ecomony of Singapore, the small city-state in Southeast Asia. The sector contributed some 27 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004 and 2005, and in the first four months of 2006, year-on-year production output grew by almost 16 percent.
And this looks set to continue, as Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang outlined at a June 5 announcement of the US$60 million investment by Motorola that will make Singapore the company’s worldwide supply chain hub.
“Our vision is to double manufacturing output from S$150 billion (US$94 billion) to S$300 billion (US$188 billion) by 2018. We are forthcoming with our long term targets and growth, as we want to send an unequivocal signal to our investors—that we are committed to the future of manufacturing in Singapore.
“As Motorola, together with many other companies locate their full manufacturing value chain here, we are confident we can achieve the Manufacturing 2018 vision,” said Lim.
Global Impact
As for Motorola, the significance of this latest investment in Asia—the Global Supply Chain Control Tower (SCCT)—was highlighted by the fact that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Zander flew in to make the announcement.
“I am delighted to be able to share with you this morning an important milestone in Motorola’s business, one that will have an impact not just on our Asia Pacific operations, but our global operations as well. The Global Supply Chain Control Tower will manage Motorola’s full value chain of activities in supply chain management across all businesses, from Mobile Devices, to Networks and Enterprise, and Connected Home Solutions,” said Zander.
Some US$60 million is expected to be invested over the next two years to establish the full operational capabilities for the Global SCCT, which will employ 200 professionals in Singapore by year-end 2007.
Supporting the Global SCCT will be six Centers of Excellence: Next-Generation Manufacturing Technologies Lab; Global Market Competency Center; Supply Chain Institute; Advanced Manufacturing Solutions Center; Global Procurement Group; and Global Test Engineering Group.
