Hybrid Management of Technology for Global Co-evolution: Insight from Singapore's Water Industry

Ensuring a sustainable water supply is crucial in all economies. Technological breakthrough has made possible the idea of using membranes to treat water. Recycling water and desalination are substitutes for the traditional water treatment process. While sea water is plentiful, the process of desalination depends largely on electricity, making the process costly. Singapore's success in NEWater (recycled water) depended on its stepwise advancement of membrane technology with sophisticated complementary engineering systems based on advanced information technology. This advancement contributes to electricity efficiency improvement in desalination which in turn accelerates dramatic advancement of the complementary engineering systems. Synergistic effects between NEWater and desalination can be expected by constructing a hybrid management of technology fusing indigenous strength and the effect of learning leading to a new phase in Singapore's NEWater development and also the trigger of its desalination endeavor. By means of an empirical analysis of Singapore's pioneer challenge, this paper demonstrates the significance of this endeavor for global sustainability

Vibrant Eco-system Creation for Sustainability: A Lesson from Singapore's Water Industry

Through a stepwise national strategy of importing technology, building indigenous capabilities through learning and assimilating imported technology to exporting the indigenous capabilities, Singapore has successfully caught up with the nations that are advanced in the technologies related to water treatment. From the macro-numerical phenomenon observed, this paper aims to provide both qualitative and quantitative evidences of this co-evolutionary dynamism between innovation and institutional systems. Realising the issue as a comprehensive technology chain and its substitution for traditional resources, sophisticated combination of government stimulation and industry participation leading to a Global Hydrohub has induced world leading-edge innovation involvement. Such a vibrant eco-system aiming at overcoming the constraints for sustainable growth can be applied not only to water management but also to energy and climate change issues. Policy makers in emerging economies can adapt the successful practices and note the pitfalls in establishing the vibrant eco-system that is essential for sustainable environmental solutions for their economies

Technology Leapfrogging: Findings from Singapore's Water Industry

This paper illustrates Singapore’s strategy in catching up with global water treatment nations. Water is an important economic resource for Singapore, creating value-added jobs and stimulating research and development in various related technology trajectories. The analysis shows that from a nation lacking in competence in the water industry, Singapore has successfully transformed herself into a global hydrohub, exporting indigenous capabilities and offering consultancy for water projects. With long-term government policies and funding support for initial R&D and subsequent industry R&D inducement by means of the introduction of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programme, Singapore has been able to build up her competence in waste water treatment. This is probably the first paper that analyses the development of the water industry in Singapore from the management of technology and policy perspectives