Innovation is a shared responsibility

THE 2016 Singapore Budget is laudatory for its clarity of purpose in positioning the economy for its next 50 years. While there are many schemes and incentives for both SMEs and MNCs to leverage, at its heart, Budget 2016 is a wider call-to-arms for our firms: to innovate and grow beyond Singapore's shores, and to upskill the workforce and people with the aim of growing the economy as a whole.

There is no doubt that both innovation and internationalisation come with daunting challenges for businesses. There is a fundamental challenge that comes with innovation and internationalisation - it is impossible to quantify both in terms of how much financial investment is appropriate nor what kind of impact (financial or otherwise) can be reaped.

In other words, how does one calculate a return on investment on innovation? As our tax colleagues noted in a commentary Nurturing innovation and value creation (BT, March 26, 2016) : "Research in the early 1900s into quantum mechanics was impossible to link directly to immediate or even vaguely predictable financial returns. That research ultimately led to the invention of transistors, computers, lasers, television and numerous other things we take for granted today. Depending on whom you ask, that research in the early 1900s is responsible for something like 25 per cent of the total gross national product of the US today. The value created and return on investment for humanity has been incredible."