Closely matched: UK's & Singapore's economic strategies

A REVOLUTION is underway in the global economy. Digital communications, artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics all are transforming business and society. Tomorrow's successful economies will be those that embrace today's technological revolution.

2017 has been a year of economic vision and strategy for both Singapore and the UK. In February, Singapore published the report of the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE). The UK has just launched its new Industrial Strategy to support business and ensure a vibrant future for the British economy.

The similarities between our two economic strategies are striking. Both are forward-looking and visionary. Both accept the productivity challenge we face. Both propose bold solutions to drive future growth by embracing emerging industries and technologies. The similarities are unsurprising - the UK and Singapore currently sit in the global top 10 for ease of doing business, competitiveness and innovation.

The UK's Industrial Strategy sets out an ambitious plan to boost productivity and earning power throughout the country by 2030. It identifies five "foundations" of productivity growth: Ideas, People, Infrastructure, Business Environment and Places. These closely match the seven strategies in the CFE report. I've been exploring these linkages in Singapore this week with government and business.

The Strategy commits the UK to being one of the world's most innovative economies ("Ideas") by raising overall investment in R&D from 1.7 per cent to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027, bolstered by an additional S$12.7 billion of public funding over the next five years - the largest R&D funding increase in UK history. We see huge opportunities in data and artificial intelligence (AI), clean growth and autonomous and electric vehicles. The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund has so far announced S$3.08 billion to develop these technologies of the future, from smart systems and immersive creative technology to data-driven precision medicine. By being open to global investment and talent, we will be at the cutting edge of these fields.

RETRAINING

To create good jobs and greater earning power for all ("People"), the UK government will develop a technical education system to match our world-class higher education system, including the new institutes of technology and "T Levels". A National Retraining Scheme will support re-skilling and up-skilling of adults to help the workforce adapt to economic changes. We can learn from Singapore's SkillsFuture programme which is already leading the way in this space.

The UK government is determined that Britain should be the best place to start and grow a business ("Business Environment") by rolling out partnerships between government and industry. Like Singapore's industry transformation roadmaps, these sector deals target productivity increases in key industries, like life sciences and automotive. Both our governments also see small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as crucial to raising productivity and boosting growth, particularly through improved access to finance. This can help SMEs scale up, adopt technology and expand internationally. So we will drive over S$36 billion of investment in innovative firms, including through a new S$4.5 billion fund to co-invest in high potential businesses.

Matching Singapore's focus on autonomous vehicles, we will invest S$724 million in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and boost new industries through investments like S$319 million in 5G networks. We are increasing the UK's National Productivity Investment Fund to S$56 billion to support a major upgrade of our physical and digital infrastructure ("Infrastructure").

The UK, like Singapore, has clusters of world-class expertise linked to our universities. We will emulate the success of the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Corridor in other regions across the UK ("Places"). Both governments also see a major opportunity in developing urban solutions and clean technology to deliver economic and environmental benefits.

The Strategy identifies "grand challenges" to encourage collaboration between government, business, academia and civil society to innovate and develop new technologies and industries in strategic areas. The first four focus on global trends that will transform the future:

These challenges require global solutions and we intend to partner with countries like Singapore to solve them.

The overlap between our economic strategies is clear. We want to work closely with Singapore's government, businesses and investors on these shared priorities, capitalising on the UK-Singapore Economic & Business Partnership to share experience on economic policy and the commercialisation of R&D.

The moment is ripe for our open, forward-thinking and innovative economies to work together to ensure Singapore and the UK lead the way at the cutting edge of future growth opportunities.