Singapore outlines medtech as future sector of growth

The Singapore government has outlined medtech as a future industry for growth, setting up a new industry-led coalition to explore opportunities in in-vitro diagnostics for disease preparedness, containment, and control.

The move, under the purview of Singapore’s Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST), builds on Singapore’s early successes in rapid testing, contact tracing and isolation in the fight against COVID-19. The taskforce will also be exploring opportunities to partner Southeast Asian countries in medtech.

Singapore’s EST was set up in May this year, under the Future Economy Council, which drives the growth and transformation of the country’s economy for the future. 

It is part of the government’s ‘startup’ approach to collaboration, in which industry-led groups are set up to prototype new ideas quickly and scale viable solutions widely, while engaging government agencies and other stakeholders to guide a long-term view on advancement in these sectors.

“This new and agile approach to public-private collaboration has allowed us to align our goals, experiment and change course quickly, and act together,” said Minister for National Development, Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration, and Co-Chair of the EST, Desmond Lee.

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So far, seven other industry-led coalitions have been set up, focusing on supply chain digitalisation; sustainability; built environment digitalisation; e-commerce; robotics; creating safe and innovative visitor experiences; and edutech.