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Dr. Tan starts his talk by talking about the particular situation of Singapore and its extremely fast expansion.  He talks about the history and the factors of production that have been taken into account in order to evolve the economy of Singapore from labour intensive to knowledge and innovation intensive, and how Singapore went from being a poor country to being what it is today.  He points out how they managed to attract multinational companies, embrace skill-intensive industries by a capital-intensive strategy and investment in education and infrastructure, move to a knowledge-intensive way of doing things in order to have a differentiation with their competitors and finally make a very big investment effort in technology. He explains how Singapore has positioned itself as an intelligent island and attract foreign investors and talent. Dr. Tan explains how Singapore reinvented itself with their R&D strategy based on attracting talent and investors, and how the focus on education and universities has been the basis of Singapore’s success. He talks about the next phase of action that will be the generation of entrepreneurship. Dr. Tan concludes by talking about their ideas-driven society.

Dr. Tan is Chairman of the Media Development Authority (MDA) and was appointed to this position since 2003. He is also Chairman of the Board of Temasek Management Services, Senior Adviser of the Salim Group, Senior Adviser of Hexagon Development Advisers, and a Non-Executive Independent Director of Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd and Stamford Land Corporation. Dr Tan was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts from 2002 to 2007 and was the first Chairman of the National Library Board (NLB), from 1995 to 2002. Prior to this, Dr Tan was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Manpower from 1998 to 2001 and began his civil service career in the Ministry of Defence in 1974 where he held positions centred around systems and information technology, culminating in his appointment as Director, Systems & Computer Organisation responsible for the Ministry’s information technology management. Dr Tan is Singapore’s Governor to the Asia-Europe Foundation since October 2004.