Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology in Singapore
Since 2003, AVA has been working closely with TLL, NUS, and other tertiary research
institutes on agri-biotechnology to develop key applied upstream farming technology in specific
areas of food crop research, plant biotechnology, animal and fish health research, fish biotechnology,
and aquaculture in the following agri-food areas:
Vegetable: identification of genes for abiotic and biotic stress resistance in Asian leaf
vegetables, downstream field testing, molecular diagnostics for leafy vegetable diseases, and
GMO testing for food crops.
Rice biotechnology: disease resistance.
Aquaculture biotechnology: molecular selective breeding of fish, molecular diagnostics and
vaccines for food fish and shrimps, genetic transformation of indigenous foodfish for improved
traits.
Animal biotechnology: molecular diagnostics and vaccines against zoonotic diseases or
those of food safety concern.
These projects will help Singapore build long-term capacity for platform technologies as
well as human and intellectual capital that can benefit both agri-biotechnology and the life
sciences as they cover diverse and broad areas of platform technologies development.
Other tertiary academic institutes like Temasek Polytechnic are also involved in agribiotechnology
R&D, working in close partnership with the industry and AVA in shaping the
agri-biotech sector.
SUPPORTING INFRASTRUCTURE
Under a major government initiative of the NSTP, Technopreneurship21 (1999), a framework
providing comprehensive support for cultivation of innovation and entrepreneurship was
constructed to ensure that the value from the knowledge creation (from industrial sectors, including
biotechnology) is extracted, protected, and exploited. These initiatives range from increasing
the availability of equity financing to soft and hard infrastructural support enabling technopreneurial
businesses to grow. The lead government agency in this initiative, NSTB (now
A*STAR), has been working closely with state agencies such as EDB, Jurong Town Corporation
(JTC), and the Housing Development Board (HDB) and with various industry sectors over the
years to realize this vision.
Science Park and Incubators
The Science Park, established in 1981, together with incubators designed by government,
provides the high-quality infrastructure essential for industrial R&D, as well as an environment
conducive to interaction between industry, academia, and research groups. The Technopreneur
Assistance Center established within the park provides a range of technical, business, training,
and shared facilities. Other support for early-stage companies includes financing for innovators,
venture capital, and a patent application fund, as well as state agencies providing productivity,
with a complementary fit to harness respective strengths in forming mutually beneficial partnerships, such as
working with local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to provide R&D consultation and technology
transfer to assist these companies to move up the technology ladder, and with multi-national corporations
(MNCs) such as Bayer CropScience (French-German) and Delta & Pine Land Company (U.S.) on R&D in cutting-edge
scientific discovery; exploring various avenues to commercialized projects in animal health, fish, and
plant biotechnology as well as drug discovery with a number of potential industrial partners. TLL is also investing
in life sciences that have limited private sector participation due to their long gestation period and high
risks, both directly in companies and indirectly through venture capital funds invested in overseas firms with the
strategic intent of generating spin-offs for local life sciences and biotechnology industries through technology
transfer and other forms of collaboration.
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