The France-Singapore business forum that took place here on Wednesday – France is featured this year at the Singapore airshow – highlighted cooperation. “France is the sixth largest investor in Singapore,” said Jeffrey Lam, first v-p of Singapore's association of aerospace industries.
Sondra, for example, is a Franco-Singaporean laboratory, a joint venture between French aerospace research center Onera and Singapore's DSO. The latter company specializes in radar signal processing, a field of expertise that is increasing in importance with earth observation. Sondra's business model has researchers, engineers and users working together. As a result, the laboratory manages to transition early ideas to higher technological readiness levels, according to Marc Lesturgie, Sondra's director.
Thales has created S4TIN, a collaborative venture drawing on a combination of Nanyang Technological University's advanced skills in the small satellite segment; Thales' research and technology resources in Singapore; and Thales Alenia Space's expertise in satellites. Thales is also calling for tenders to implement its “open innovation” philosophy – tapping intelligence from outside the company. In turn, small innovative enterprises enjoy new business opportunities, Thales Solutions Asia director Quek Chin-Kwok said.
Finding local talent can be difficult, however, as many scientific graduates are eventually attracted by the finance sector, Airbus Group Innovations Singapore' head of operations David Woon noted.
BeAM, a three-year-old company in 3D printing, is willing to do business in Singapore, not only selling its machines, but also transferring know-how. “Singapore has the highest density of 3D printers in the world, per million inhabitants,” said Frédéric Le Moullec, BeAM's vp for business development, hoping to prompt new partnerships.
Leak detection specialist Aerokwai is a Malaysia-based subsidiary of a French company and would like to do business in Singapore, too. It is finding it difficult, however, and seems to be having a hard time understanding why.
Singapore's Hope Technik was tapped by Airbus Group in 2012 to help design a spaceplane. Although he believes such an asymmetric relationship can work, Hope Technik CEO Peter Ho noted that Western companies' concerns about intellectual property still too often hinder cooperation.