We want to be on the right side of disruption, says PM Lee

AT a gala event to mark the opening of Google's new Asia-Pacific headquarters at Mapletree Business City on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, called on the employees of the company to thrive here and help Singapore to thrive as well. "Your objective is to disrupt the world and we expect to be disrupted but at the same time we want to make sure we come out on the right side of the disruption and we depend on you to help us do that," Mr Lee said at the large gathering of Google employees, partners and guests.

Google opened its first office in Singapore's Collyer Quay in 2007 with just 24 people. Since then the company has grown rapidly and it felt the need for a new office to accommodate 1,000 employees working on "new products and projects across Asia for our users, customers and partners", said Caesar Sengupta, Google's vice-president for the Next Billion Users team.

He added that Google also wanted more room "for the community around us, the kind of place that's useful for gatherings of developers, students, founders, and kids to connect with Googlers", he added.