As one of the world’s best places to live, Singapore has its fingers on the pulse of global lifestyle demands. Our cosmopolitan population is a trendsetter and barometer for global lifestyle needs. Coupled with having the best business environment in the world, Singapore is a natural launch pad and international hub for lifestyle businesses looking for global success.

Centrally located in a region of growing affluence, Singapore is a unique gateway to consumers who are increasingly seeking diverse and sophisticated lifestyle products and services. Art, collectibles, performing arts and sports companies are examples of Lifestyle businesses that are growing in Singapore.

• The Visual Arts
• The Performing Arts
• Sports 

The Visual Arts
Art and collectibles businesses ranging from auction houses, conservators, art logistics providers, art investment firms and art printers have set up base in Singapore to serve the Asia Pacific market. From 2004 to 2008, the operating receipts of these businesses registered a high growth rate of 30%.

The Singapore Freeport, the world’s largest high-security storage facility for art and high value collectible items started operations in May 2010; with leading arts business Christie’s establishing its Fine Art Storage Services within the Freeport facility to provide storage services to its global clientele. Another top auction house, Spink, has chosen Singapore as its base to tap into Asia's growing market for coins, stamps, medals and banknotes collectibles. 

Arts businesses setting up in Singapore will also benefit from the other exciting developments in the Singapore arts scene. The inaugural Art Stage Singapore in January 2011, will be the latest art fair by the former Director of Art Basel, Lorenzo Rudolf, that will position Singapore as the arts hub for the Asia-Pacific. The fair would feature top galleries from the most dynamic art markets of Asia and prestigious international galleries from Europe and the United States. Via the works of brilliant emerging and established artists, Singapore will be the venue for an enriching dialogue between East and West.

Singapore will also unveil a new National Art Gallery in 2014 which will focus on Southeast Asian art. The new gallery is expected to position Singapore as a centre for the promotion, research, study and display of Southeast Asian art. The School of the Arts (SOTA), has been  set up as Singapore’s first national pre-tertiary specialised arts school to offer a 6-year unique integrated arts and academic curriculum for youths aged 13-18 years old. The school will lead the charge in identifying and grooming future generations of artists and creative professionals in all fields.

The Performing Arts

The performing arts scene in Singapore is vibrant and diverse with 7,500 performances a year, and a continual stream of major events such as the Singapore Arts Festival, Mosaic Festival Sun Festival, LIVE! Singapore and ConversAsians attract the world’s best artists and arts groups. Singapore has also played host to international visiting productions. We were the first and only Asian stop for the world tour of The Tempest, host to world premieres of international productions such as Dunas, a creation of flamenco and contemporary dance between two of the world’s most celebrated dancemakers, María Pagés and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, at the Esplanade’s da:ns festival in 2009. In addition, we are co-producing Asian content that have become international successes in the examples of i La Galigo, and The Village.

Supporting this vibrant scene is a world-class arts infrastructure. Performing arts venues in Singapore are now numbered at 56 with a seating capacity of over 44,000. The Esplanade, along with new performance venues at the two Integrated Resorts, will be able to host large-scale musicals and long-running shows. Singapore is also garnering international attention as a platform for the development of arts and culture in Asia. A good and credible base of local and foreign arts institutions like NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Ngee Ann Polytechnic Diploma in Arts Management, School of the Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts help build a strong pool of performing arts talents and practitioners.

Attracted by these opportunities, international companies such as IMG Artists and Based Entertainment, have chosen to use Singapore as a base for their regional business activities and to expand their foothold in Asia. There is also a strong base of companies specialising in supporting services such as Creative Technology UK, Arup Acoustics, Unusual Entertainment and Arina Hogan Builders. 

Sports

The Asia Pacific sports industry is expected to grow 6.5 percent per year to an estimated $26.7 billion in 2011. In Singapore, the sports industry is projected to contribute S$2 billion to GDP by 2015, along with the goal of employing 20,000 people in sports related jobs. In 2009, Singapore held over 700 local and international sporting events across the city and was named No.2 Ultimate Sports City at the biennial Sport Accord Convention in April 2010.

Singapore welcomes sports businesses to leverage Singapore’s pro-business environment to tap into the business opportunities in the region. Converse, a sports and lifestyle footwear & apparel company affiliated to Nike Inc, for example, has chosen Singapore to consolidate its global trading operations and drive its business expansion into the region. Most notably, Singapore will house global planning and supply chain management functions for Converse globally.

The growing number of events and infrastructure developments in Asia have also attracted sports management companies to Singapore. World Sport Group is Asia’s leading sports management company with its global HQ in Singapore managing key sports rights such as Indian Premier League (cricket). The company is also the exclusive marketing partner of Asian Football Confederation. MP & Silva is a leading international sports agency managing the event and media rights for one of the world’s most lucrative professional football league – the Italian Serie A. The company also drives the commercialisation and management of event and media rights for Middle East and Asia from its base in Singapore.

The increasing demand for sports-related training services has also attracted the Manchester United Soccer School (MUSS) to establish its South-East Asian Hub in Singapore. Youths from as far as South Korea and Japan participate in the football clinics and tournaments organised by MUSS SEA.

These businesses will add to the base of sports infrastructure and activities that are being developed in Singapore. A state-of-the-art Sports Hub and Changi Motorsports Hub which are on the cards, will also place Singapore on the international map for sports. The 35 ha Singapore Sports Hub will be the base for elite athletes and sporting events and will serve as the centrepiece of Singapore’s development as a regional hub for sports business and events. The Changi Motorsports Hub (CMH) is another key development that is set to become Asia's first premier motorsports and entertainment centre. Singapore will also play host to a number of international marquee sporting events such as the F1 night race and the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

Reach Us

Ms Thien Kwee Eng, Executive Director
Email: clientservices@edb.gov.sg

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Lifestyle Factsheet
Performing Arts Brochure
Visual Arts Brochure

Nanotechnology is the science that deals with materials, processes and devices that operate in the exceedingly small range of 1 to 100 nanometres. After two decades of R&D, recent years have seen a significant increase in the integration of nanotechnology into many industry and consumer products such as light weight composites and anti-bacterial clothing.

To propel and capture the economic potential of nanotechnology further, Singapore has been actively promoting and facilitating the commercialization of nanotechnology by increasing the lab-to-market efficiency through various partnerships and platforms. Singapore's first nanotech consortium, Industry Consortium on Nanoimprint (ICON), boasts members from material suppliers to equipment makers to end-users allowing its participants to source for suppliers and customers in tandem with their technology development process. Similarly, Nanotechnology in Manufacturing Initiative (NiMI) provides a networking platform where various industries can source for nanotechnology based solutions for their impending technical challenges.

Singapore’s robust Private-Public Partnership (PPP) ensures that companies are able to reduce their R&D cost and risks by leveraging on state-of-the-art public facilities from Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) and collaborations with Centre of Excellence such as Singapore Graphene Centre and Energy Research Institute at NTU (ERI@N).

Tapping onto these infrastructures in Singapore are about 50 nanotech companies with combined strength of 1,000 researchers, scientists and engineers. One of these companies is Bayer Material Science which opened it 1st Functional Film Centre outside Germany in Singapore. The 30 men centre currently focuses on development of high –tech functionalized films and nanotechnology. Other Multinational companies with nanotech R&D presence include 3M and BASF which are working on various applications of nanotechnology. Meanwhile, dynamic start-ups such as Zyvex chose Singapore as the location to launch and demonstrate the capabilities of the world’s first Carbon Nanotube (CNT) enhanced boat, leveraging the conducive business environment and position in Asia. Ensuring the continuity of such vibrant nanotech activities in Singapore are the presence of VCs such as NanoStart Asia, the regional arm of specialist German venture capital company NanoStart AG.

These advances, along with many others, have contributed to Singapore’s reputation as the premier nanotechnology commercialization hub.

Mr Bernard Nee, Executive Director
Email: clientservices@edb.gov.sg

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Nanotechnology Brochure

The premise of Singapore becoming a natural resource hub is fast becoming a reality. Its strategic position in resource-rich Asia makes Singapore a choice location for world-class natural resource companies.

The EDB’s Natural Resources Strategy encompasses aquaculture, agriculture, metals and minerals; Singapore aims to be a nerve centre that plays a part in fulfilling global demand for these resources, and creates technologies to ensure future sustainability. Presently, the growing number of international companies has generated a buzz of activity. Many of the agri-commodity players in Singapore today have also moved beyond trading functions to establish significant activities along the business value chain, including marketing, trade finance, shipping, and even shared services operations here.

Increasingly, we are seeing global consumption and production patterns shifting from the West to Asia Pacific. Singapore is also located in the centre of a region which is home to some of the top producers of several commodities. Hence companies in the commodities or natural resources business are finding it attractive to chose Singapore as the epicentre of their operations. As a global business city, Singapore’s well-established trading infrastructure and comprehensive network of international agreements, backed by our financial, logistics and shipping industries, our pro-business environment, political and economic stability, efficient legal system and a highly-qualified workforce, are key pull factors for companies choosing Singapore as the nerve centre for their operations in the region.

Underpinning the growth of this sector is research and development. Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory undertakes cutting-edge basic and strategic research in molecular biology and genetics to address the needs of the global agriculture and aquaculture industries. In addition, the National University of Singapore established the Minerals, Metals and Materials Technology Centre in 2007, the first centre dedicated to the research of new material development, metal and mineral processing.

Mr Bernard Nee, Executive Director
Email: clientservices@edb.gov.sg

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The vision of Singapore: Real-Time is the creation of an interacting city by making available real-time and commercial data. The availability of real-time data unlocks new opportunities for businesses to create innovative business solutions which can improve efficiencies or create new value. Singapore:Real-Time can also enable new smart city solutions which will allow Singapore to improve urban efficiencies and liveability.

EDB is looking to help companies partner with other private sector data providers or end-users to develop new solutions. The solutions developed will accelerate the creation of new business models, platforms and standards for utilization of real-time data. This vision is for solutions developed in Singapore to be exportable and deplorable in other urban cities.

Mr Bernard Nee, Executive Director
Email: clientservices@edb.gov.sg

Click here for the video of a visualization project supported by EDB, Live Singapore!

As a young player, Singapore's achievements in space have been promising. In 2011, Singapore saw the successful deployment of its first indigenous satellite, designed and developed locally by NTU. This capability has since been commercialized under ST Electronics (Satellite Systems), which will design, develop and produce advanced earth observation satellites. Beyond satellite development, Singapore has a strong base of communications equipment manufacturers, satellite service providers and capabilities in Earth Observation.

Riding on Singapore’s existing strengths in research and innovation, EDB aims to catalyze a new cluster in the emerging growth areas of the space industry. The adjacent public research capabilities – which have strengths in electronics, aeronautics, communications, sensor systems and materials – would be complementary to global space-based equipment manufacturers in developing satellite components and subsystems. Singapore companies are also encouraged to tap on EDB’s network and support to forge international collaborations to advance their technological capabilities.

There is already a significant presence of satellite operators and service providers managing regional businesses from Singapore, leveraging on the excellent connectivity, pro-business environment, and a ready pool of high-quality talent from the infocomm industry. The group includes Digital Globe, GeoEye, Inmarsat, Iridium, SES, Singtel, Spot Image and Thuraya. Together with this vibrant ecosystem, Singapore is increasingly a choice location for the development and test-bedding of in-city satellite solutions. The National University of Singapore’s Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing has also been performing research applicable to urban planning, maritime and coastal observation, climate-change studies, disaster monitoring and agriculture.

Estimated to be worth more than US$270 billion in 2010, the global space industry still has many exciting opportunities. One inspiring example, is where EDB assisted Europe’s largest space company, EADS Astrium, in partnering Singapore for its suborbital spaceplane program. EDB will actively work with pioneers from around the world who have innovative opportunities suited for Singapore.

The sky is not the limit.

Mr Bernard Nee, Executive Director
Email: clientservices@edb.gov.sg