DISQUS

I know of non-dilutive grants from the government supporting engineering headcount to encourage startups to establish engineering centers in Singapore. Does this sound interesting in such times?

You basically plonk a team in Singapore, pay their payroll out of Singapore, and every 3 or 6 months, get reimbursed up to 50% of their base salary. This might be a good way to stretch startups’ existing venture-backed dollars in such tough times.

Does it makes sense? Thoughts guys?

jiinjoo,

I agree that there are many areas that would also be important to MNCs, such as those you mentioned. However, without core technology that is defensible, there are no customer relationships, business models, on/off/near/inshoring to speak off.

Although I was not schooled locally, I do sincerely believe that we have good 'hardware' in the form of our 2 technical universities, NUS and NTU. What we are weaker in is the image and perception of Infocomm in general.

The interim global trend may very well be such that students as a whole are losing interest in Computer Science as a genre. That doesn't mean it's a good enough reason for us to sit on our hands and do nothing about it.

Infocomm will continue to be an integral part of our lives, and increasingly so. Check out "The Uncanny Impact of Computing" by J. Srother Moore. Pure economics alone (add a dash of greed of man) will ensure that Computer Science as a subject will continue to flourish, although it may go through cyclical dips in the near term.