First they attracted manufacturing industries in droves with low cost manpower, stable government and very less tax. But as manufacturing industries gauged the even more cheaper alternatives in other under developed East Asian countries, they fled Singapore (very few remain and do not function as manufacturing units but more like Head Quarters).

Then they attracted the financial services industry, with a stock exchange that was better than Hang Seng and that could be used as a barometer of Asian Stocks. But then the Great Asian Financial Crisis and the fondness of Chiinese companies to list their stocks in Hang Seng diminished that area of growth.

They also tried very hard to encourage home grown entrepreneurs with several free goodies. But none of the start ups have become big enough to be listed in the SGC or push up the growth of Singapore, like the Chinese entrepreneurs have done to China.

With the exhausion of all these possibilities, Singapore government is now looking for an avenue to grow. Wired is reporting about the zillions of money Singapore Government is willing to spend on Biotechnology. It is evident in the big plans my university and NUS have to have extensive research centers and courses to teach BioTech.

It may be Singapore’s pot of gold. But I seriously doubt if they can sustain this growth for long. After all, it is a developed country with very high standard of living. Once the companies create their breakthroughs they would rather manufacture the products in other countries. Moreover. there are several companies in India, trying their hands on Bio Technology.

So long as the research leads to lesser suffering, the race for bio tech will be worthwhile.