Making continuous R&D a business habit

SINGAPORE is striving to be the world's first "Smart Nation" and has attracted overseas companies to introduce or test-bed their latest innovations in the island state. Since then, several new initiatives including self-driving vehicles, satellite-linked devices for dynamic road tolls and public car park charging and pneumatic waste conveyance system for HDB flats have been announced.

However, to help Singapore achieve its vision of becoming a Smart Nation, encouraging Singaporeans to be effective users of innovations is not sufficient.

To begin with, a Smart Nation should include "smart businesses". We are not talking literacy or paper qualifications. Instead, we should encourage the wider business population to pa…