ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY IN SINGAPORE

INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

A KEY NODE FOR ELECTRONICS IN SINGAPORE

Pick any electronics gadget today – a mobile phone, computer, video game console or a car navigation system. There's a good chance that part of it was designed or made in Singapore. Electronics is the bedrock of the Singapore manufacturing sector, contributing 5.2% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012. From its modest beginning as the only TV assembly plant in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, Singapore's electronics industry has grown to become a vital node in the global electronics market.

ASIAN DEMAND IS POWERING AHEAD

With the continuous shift of the industry's centre of gravity to Asia, Singapore's strong fundamentals in electronics industry makes it a choice location for companies to create and manage new markets, products and processes, technologies and applications for the region and beyond.

WORLD CLASS ELECTRONIC HUB

Our vision is for Singapore to be a Home in Asia for global leaders that enable an increasingly mobile, connected and sensory world. We aim to transform Singapore into a world class innovation-driven electronics hub, providing technology, manufacturing and business solutions; and enabling the development of new growth areas. Today, Singapore accounts for 1 out of 10 wafer starts in the world, and 40% of the global hard disk media are manufactured from here.

BACKBONE OF SINGAPORE'S ECONOMY

Electronics is the major industry underpinning Singapore's economic growth, it contributes 25% of the total manufacturing value-add. Of S$16 billion in fixed asset investments in 2012, electronics accounted for almost 38.8% of the total investments. Employment for the industry stands at 80,000, which is 19% of total manufacturing jobs. In addition, the manufacturing of finished electronics products creates many spin-offs to other segments of the economy, such as precision component manufacturers, chemicals and materials suppliers, electronic manufacturing systems companies and logistics service providers.

END-TO-END MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES

Singapore is the choice location for electronics companies to create and manage new markets. Today Singapore is home to:

- 14 silicon wafer fabrication plants including the world's top three wafer foundries
- ~20 semiconductor assembly and test operations including three of the world’s top six outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies
- 15 of the world's top 25 fabless semiconductor companies, and close to 40 integrated circuit design centres
- 11 of the world’s top 20 integrated device manufacturers
- The world's top three hard disk drive manufacturers
- Four of the world’s top five Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers

Singapore has a full suite of activities to meet business requirements; from R&D to development, manufacturing, supply chain management, logistics and regional and global headquarters functions. More information about infocomm products manufacturing can be found here.

PRO-BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Singapore provides a business environment with respect for intellectual property, integrity, productivity and reliability. The human capital that Singapore provides is a ready pool of global talent, achieved by encouraging qualified personnel of all nationalities to work here. We welcome talents from all over the world to live, work, study and visit Singapore. Today, Singapore has built up a base of high quality engineering talent to cater to investors' needs. Our electronics sector is also constantly upgrading its workforce and anticipating future demand. In 2011, more than a quarter of all research scientists & engineers in Singapore were involved in Electrical & Electronics Engineering research. In 2011, Electronics also accounted for 65% of Singapore's manufacturing research and development expenditure.

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Recognising that talent is an important driver of economic growth, we have put in place a comprehensive set of capability development schemes to address the electronics industry's talent needs. In 2010, EDB and the Nanyang Technological University ("NTU") officially opened VIRTUS, a new IC Design Centre of Excellence. VIRTUS targets to train at least 100 postgraduate students in analog and mixed signal IC design by 2014, and to develop key technologies in new growth areas such as low power management and energy harvesting. In addition, EDB has been actively co-funding scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate electronics studies in specialisations such as wafer fabrication and IC design.

CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT

R&D is another differentiating competency for high tech industries. Singapore has invested heavily in research. The government raised the R&D budget for 2011-2015 by 20% from the previous period, 2006 to 2010, with the aim of making Singapore one of the most research-intensive countries in the world.

Electronics is the major contributor to this goal, consistently accounting for the majority of private sector R&D spending.

Singapore’s well-developed electronics R&D capabilities range from component-level design and process R&D to system level product design, firmware development and industrial design. Publicly funded centres like the VIRTUS IC Design Centre of Excellence and the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) are pushing the boundaries of technology through their cutting edge research.

This strong R&D culture has encouraged companies to establish research centres in Singapore to develop next generation components and products.

FACTS AND FIGURES

- In 2012, manufacturing output in the electronics sector reached S$78.1 billion, contributing 25% to Singapore’s manufacturing value-add. The electronics industry has a workforce close to 80,000.
- Of S$16 billion in fixed asset investments in 2012, electronics was the second largest contributor, accounting for 38.8% of the total investments. When fully implemented, the S$6.2 billion in electronics FAI is expected to contribute S$1.7 billion in value added (VA) per annum to Singapore’s GDP.
- There are 14 silicon wafer fabrication plants, 20 assembly and test operations and about 40 IC design centres in Singapore. This includes four 12-inch fabrication plants, the world’s top three wafer foundry companies, three of the world’s top five assembly and test subcontractor companies, and nine of the world’s top 10 fabless IC design companies. Singapore accounts for 10% of the world’s wafer starts.
- Singapore is a leading manufacturer of enterprise hard disk drives with Seagate and Hitachi Global Storage technologies having a significant presence in Singapore. Singapore is also a major hard disk media mfg location accounting for about 40 per cent of the world’s hard disk media volume. Top players like Seagate, Showa Denko and Hoya are expanding their operations here.
- Six of the world’s top 10 EMS companies have significant presence in Singapore. Their operations range from design, high-value manufacturing, supply chain management and regional management. Key players include Flextronics, Sanmina, Celestica, Jabil Circuit and Venture. Prominent ODM players such as Asustek, Lite-On and Wistron also have HQ and R&D activities in Singapore.

¹ Projected figure for 2009