Singapore - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said two major thrusts would dictate Singapore's 
economy in the next 15 to 20 years. 

One is to foster innovation and enterprise and the other to exploit research and development. 

In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Mr Lee said human imagination and enterprise were 
what Singapore would need to move on and stay ahead. 

That is how the Republic has gone "from mosquito coils to semiconductors" and "from bee hoon to 
Biopolis". 

Mr Lee said the government had accepted the recommendations of the Ministerial Committee on R&D 
chaired by Deputy Prime MInister Tony Tan. 

It is setting up a Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council, which Prime MInister Lee Hsien 
Loong himself will chair. 

The council will advise the government on national research strategies, and funding will be 
provided by the National Research Foundation chaired by Dr Tony Tan. 

Mr Lee stressed Singapore needed this competitive advantage to stay ahead because it was no 
longer useful just to be "cheaper and better". 

PM Lee said: "Now countries that are cheaper than us are getting better, and countries that are 
better than us are getting cheaper. The twin blades of the scissors are closing in on us. But 
if we don't jump up and do something - we will be squeezed." 

That's why the country had to look at innovation, enterprise and R&D to remake the economy, 
added Mr Lee. 

If Singapore succeeds, these will fuel growth and create jobs for Singaporeans. 

This is a lesson he learnt from his Las Vegas trip. 

He said Las Vegas was human imagination and entrepreneurship created out of bare desert city 
where forty million people visited and enjoyed themselves each year. 

But Mr Lee emphasised that he did not want Singapore to become a Las Vegas but it was the spirit
that he's looking for. 

Mr Lee said home grown companies were using their creativity, knowledge and ideas to carve out 
new niches and new markets, even in East Timor. 

He said: "In 2003, DPM Tony Tan and (then CDF) LG Lim Chuan Poh visited East Timor. Chuan Poh's 
former NSF driver rang him up. He had gone to East Timor to do business, supplying the foreigners
there - UN staff, peacekeeping force and others. Today, he trades in electronic goods like TV, 
radios, CD, DVD players, oil lubricants for vehicles and also runs a cafe at Dili Airport." 

"At first he could not speak a word of Bahasa and communicated with the customers through the 
calculator. But after some time, he picked up Bahasa by himself. He told Lim Chuan Poh that his 
attitude was 'just do it'".
 
Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/164303/1/.html1