Manufacturing Industries in South Asia and R&D in Singapore

Atsushi Danno, Ph.D.

Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech)
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR),
Singapore

Abstract

While there was some slowdown in the G3 (US, Japan, European Union) economies in these few years, the economies of ASEAN countries and India continued to see robust expansion supported both by domestic demand and external trade. These economy in Asia has been mainly based on the transfer of production base for the components of transport (automobile), electrical/electric devices and plastic/chemical products, etc from G3 countries. 
The main benefit of production in Asia was higher cost competitiveness of products, which was supported by a lower labor cost in Asian countries. However, the recent improvement in production technology was remarkable in Asian countries. The environment-friendly manufacturing is to be developed widely in Asian countries for keeping their higher competitiveness in global market in future.

Singapore manufacturing industry has held 25~30% of domestic GDP and been composed mainly of electronics products (30%), chemicals (30%) and biomedical/ precision engineering products (20%).  Recently, it faces to a severe competitiveness in Asian countries because of relatively higher labor cost in Singapore and the remarkable expansion of manufacturing industries in other Asian countries.  In such the situation, Singapore has strongly push forward with R&D in the chemicals/pharmaceutics, biomedical manufacturing, aerospace (repairer, component manufacturing, engine assembling, etc.), medical technology & devices, advanced material & its processing as well as automotive devices (Communication technology, etc.) for strengthening their global competitiveness in future manufacturing industry.  These R&D are performed under collaborations of the national institutes, national universities and multi national companies in Singapore.

Bio: Dr. Atsushi  Danno has been engaged in R&D work on the high precision bulk-metal forming technology for automotive components in Toyota Central Res. and Develop. Labs, (Japan) for around 40 years since 1964. In 1981, he was granted a degree of Dr. Eng. from Osaka University (Osaka, Japan).
He was appointed as Director and board member of Toyota Central Res. and Develop. Labs, from 1995 to 2001, a Director of JSTP in 1996-1998, a vice president of JSME in 1999-2000 and the head of TOKAI branch office of JSME in 2001-2002. He has been the Fellow of JSME since 2001.
He continued his R&D work on the forming technology as a Visiting Senior Scientist in A* STAR-Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology in Singapore since 2003.