Dr. Beh Swan Gin (42) is the Managing Director of Singapore’s Economic Development Board.
A medical doctor by training, he has worked for 16 years at the Board, which considers itself a “compass” for Singapore’s evolution as a business center.
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What role does sustainability play in Singapore’s development?
Gin: Singapore is an island with limited space and resources. Here, land has always been a luxury that must be managed carefully and efficiently. It’s basically thanks to our founding fathers that we are often held up as an example of sustainable urbanization. Back in the 1960s, they made a conscious decision to give precedence to sustainable development. They wanted Singapore to become a garden city that prospers economically while growing in harmony with nature.
To what extent can sustainability also promote economic development?
Gin: In Singapore we combine our own need for sustainable solutions with innovative ideas from companies around the world - to both sides’ benefit. Companies such as Siemens can use our city as a test bed and collaborate with local universities and institutes to see whether their ideas work. If they do, Singapore can then serve as a lead market. We thus use Singapore as a sort of living laboratory for innovations.
Can you give us a concrete example?
Gin: Take water technologies. The idea of the living laboratory was born when we were looking for new solutions in the field of water treatment in order to become less dependent on imports. Solutions that would be of interest to Singapore - highly efficient, space-saving technologies - did not exist at that time. We thus established the optimal conditions for companies from around the world to develop and test new innovative ideas here. Many of those innovations are now in use in Singapore.