Why healthcare, agritech and sustainable mobility businesses find Singapore attractive – highlights from Caixin’s Asia New Vision Forum

Caixin Global, a Chinese media organisation, hosted its first Asia New Vision Forum (ANVF) in Singapore from June 12 to 13, 2023. Themed “Recalibrating the Compass”, the forum brought together policymakers, business leaders and renowned scholars from East and West to take the pulse of current geopolitical, business and sustainability trends and discuss how collaboration can drive future innovation. The forum sessions also allowed for the exchange of ideas and brokering of partnerships across trade, technology, and sustainability. Here are some key takeaways:

Healthcare

Why have MedTech, pharma and biotech firms chosen Singapore as their base to serve patients around the globe?

Cao Lin, Founder, Chairman and General Manager of Nanjing Vazyme Biotech, a biotechnology company specialising in the development and production of enzymes and antibodies, cited several reasons for why his company intends to make Singapore its launchpad to go global.

Mr Cao pointed to Singapore’s strong manufacturing base, and well-connected transportation and logistics networks that ensure the fast delivery of products for biomedical companies.
 

Singapore also has a deep pool of talent and thriving ecosystem that includes world-class research institutes, and robust IP protection frameworks, supporting companies in developing and producing new products catering to the region. Southeast Asia, which has 650 million people, is on track to becoming the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030 according to the ASEAN Development Outlook (ADO) report.

Regional economies are also prioritising healthcare investments. Ridha Wirakusumah, CEO of the Indonesia Investment Authority, which enables global and local co-investment in Indonesia’s infrastructure and resources, said during a panel discussion on investing in APAC that healthcare is a key investment area the country, which is Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Indonesia’s young and expanding population has great economic potential, allowing businesses to cater to resilient consumer demand while offering a sizeable workforce to meet production needs.
 

Several global healthcare players have installed and expanded operations in Singapore to tap on the region’s growth. A recent notable investment is Thermo Fisher Scientific’s sterile drug facility, which will allow it to better deliver new medicines and vaccines to the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2019, global healthcare company GSK opened a new $130 million pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Singapore and just last year, opened its first high-potency manufacturing and test facility here for next-generation cancer treatments.
 

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Alternative Proteins

For Kevin Li, Chairman of Mojia Biotech, which produces food ingredients and bio-based materials, there is no place better than Singapore, given its policies that are conducive to developing and commercialising alternative proteins. Alternative proteins are either plant-based, fermented using microbes or cultivated from animal cells.

Mojia Biotech uses renewable carbon sources and green processes with research and manufacturing sites in China, the US and Singapore. The Shanghai-based bio-manufacturing company is dedicated to sustainable development and carbon neutrality and is close to commercialising its own brand of Vitamin B5 protein, Viridimin™, that can be used as a feed additive without large land use implications.
 

With its advanced infrastructure and regulatory framework and entrepreneurial and business-friendly environment, Singapore is an ideal place to set up operations. Doug Cameron, an advisor and investor focused on sustainable technologies, cited Singapore’s “great workforce” that could drive technology development. He pointed to Singapore’s connectivity and networks with the region, highlighting its “proximity to operations where things can be built up”, and its neutral geopolitical positioning. Doug was previously Director of Biotechnology and Chief Scientist at Cargill, Inc., and a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On the regulation front, Singapore became the first country to allow the commercial sale of cultivated meat in 2020. Today, Singapore is home to a growing ecosystem of over 70 alternative protein companies that work on a wide range of cultivated proteins technologies at various stages of maturity, from early research to production and export.
 

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Electric Vehicles

The global push for sustainable transportation has gained significant momentum, with electric vehicles (EVs) taking centre stage. Singapore has emerged as one of the pioneers in this domain, with its strong business ecosystem and forward-thinking policies. Under the Singapore Green Plan 2030, Singapore has a comprehensive EV Roadmap that aims to enhance accessibility of charging infrastructure, greening Singapore’s public transport, and various taxes and incentives to encourage and ease EV adoption.
 

“We focus on EVs not just as a product, but as a new industry,” said Liu Xueliang, General Manager of electric vehicles producer BYD Asia Pacific Auto Sales Division and President of BYD Japan.

Ian Zhu, Managing Partner of NIO Capital, a leading venture capital firm in China, cited Southeast Asia as a key market for product development, given its sizeable population base and rapid urbanisation leading to demand for EV adoption. “It is a trend we cannot change,” said Zhu, while highlighting the fast pace of EV adoption in Thailand. He shared how BYD sold over 10,000 units of its Atto 3 fully electric SUVs there in just one month.

“Ten years ago, people queued for the newest iPhones. Now they are queuing for BYD,” he told the audience.

A bottleneck in the growth of EV adoption is largely logistical: the lack of charging infrastructure. It is something the Singapore government is seeking to address. There are currently approximately 1,800 charging points in Singapore, but this is expected to increase to a total of 60,000 charging points by 2030 to support and encourage EV adoption. In addition, seven residential towns will have EV chargers at all carparks by 2025.

Singapore also has initiatives like the Land Transport Innovation Fund that encourages mobility-related research and technology trials to spur innovation and collaborative projects with industry partners. Singapore also continues to function as a living lab, allowing companies to test-bed and adopt new technologies and solutions. For example, a Taiwanese mobility company was awarded a sandbox pilot by Singapore to deploy and validate battery swamping as a means for next-generation smart mobility. The firm is looking to collaborate with companies in the logistics sector to further develop sustainable business models that can be implemented in Singapore and in other cities across the region.
 

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