Manufacturing saga: data doesn't tally with EDB optimism

IT is good to know that Singapore is well positioned to capture the benefits of new advances in manufacturing ("Singapore makes strides in advanced manufacturing", BT, Sept 7). The data thus far, however, doesn't quite tally with the optimism projected in the article.

From the 2017 Yearbook of Singapore Statistics, the value-added from the largest manufacturing cluster of "computer, electronic & optical products" declined 20 per cent in 2016 to S$18 billion from S$22.5 billion in 2010; in fact, it's even lower than the S$18.5 billion value-added attained a decade earlier in 2006.

In fact, save for the chemicals/pharma and F&B segments, virtually every manufacturing industry has shown a declining or flat trend over the past few years. Prima facie, this indicates that Singapore has not been able to move up the manufacturing value chain (especially in electronics) to make up for investments that moved from Singapore to lower-cost countries.