Despite the pandemic, Economic Development Board managing director Chng Kai Fong is cautiously optimistic about being able to attract good companies to invest in Singapore.
"It's not all doom and gloom," he told reporters over coffee at the Funan Mall on Friday. "We are continuing to create jobs and to have a good pipeline of investment interest."
Dressed casually in a T-shirt, jeans and a baseball cap, the 42-year-old civil servant would not look out of place among the tech companies and start-ups he works with.
He cited recent examples of major multinational corporations (MNCs) that have expanded operations here: Royal Dutch Shell, which will start a pilot project at its Pulau Bukom refinery to implement advanced manufacturing site technology, and Japanese construction giant Kajima, which just broke ground for its first overseas innovation centre in Singapore.
The $100 million Kajima Global Hub will also serve as its Asia-Pacific headquarters.
Mr Chng said some firms, rattled by supply chain disruptions due to Covid-19, are looking to diversify their risk.
"There are companies that have never considered Singapore before, because they feel we are too expensive. But now they realise they are overconcentrated in one country."
The Republic's network of 25 free trade pacts helps companies not just save money from tariffs, but also anchor their manufacturing activities in Singapore and Asean, he said. "To activate some of the FTAs (free trade agreements), you need a certain percentage of product to be produced in Asean," said Mr Chng.
But the ultimate aim is to create for Singaporeans entry points into good jobs.
These jobs, he added, should not be back-end functions that can easily be outsourced to cheaper places.
"For example, if Facebook has advertising functions here, that creates value. Having those jobs here creates way more opportunity.
"That's what we are trying to construct in Singapore - an ecosystem of different kinds of jobs, a combination of MNCs and start-ups that are in the fast-growth phase. That's how you have an ecosystem of talent circulation and training."
Mr Chng stressed that the country must not lose sight of the importance of maintaining an open policy even as the recession bites.
In the tech sector, for example, not every Singaporean starts off knowing how to design products for fast-moving markets that serve billions of people around the world.
Using an analogy from the science fiction movie franchise Star Wars, Mr Chng said: "You need the Jedi Masters around, because some of these (heads of companies) have international experience.
"It's important to have them, otherwise you're not going to learn from the best, or be exposed to the best."
At the entry level, the padawans - young apprentices who study under Jedi Masters - must be groomed for key leadership positions over time, he added.
"At the entry Employment Pass level, we have to make sure that the foreigners we bring in do not prevent our people from having opportunities.
"And if those opportunities are in the core business of the company, then that's where they have the opportunity to shine and grow."
