S'pore to become technological hub

S'pore to become technological hub

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore has announced new measures to strengthen its intellectual property framework aimed at supporting plans to transform itself into a technology hub.

Minister for Education Teo Chee Hean said late Saturday that the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) and other agencies would set up a bureau to assist companies in innovation and research and development activities.

"This will help companies identify the areas of technology that they should be building up," he said.

Technology-savvy Singapore will also intensify its efforts to raise public awareness of intellectual property rights, he added.

"We must continue to work on inculcating in our society a healthy respect for the intellectual property rights of those who have invested time and money to generate intellectual creations," he said.

Singapore will also refine its patent application fund, set up to develop an awareness among inventors and researchers of the merits of patent protection.

The fund will provide early funding for the protection of local innovations, thus easing the up-front burden.

"This is timely as 'technopreneurship' takes root in Singapore," Teo said.

According to Teo, almost 50 percent of companies that received investments from venture capital companies in 1998 were technologically based start-ups.

More remarkable was the increase in the number of locals applying for patents, he said. In 1993 there were 142 and in 1998 the figure surged to 579 applications, a 308-percent increase.