Jurong Innovation District (JID)

Jurong Innovation District

As part of the Singapore government’s plan to promote greater innovation, a new industrial park will be built in the western part of the island. Named Jurong Innovation District (JID), it is targeted to kick off in 2022.

In his Budget speech in March 2016, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat outlined the objective of JID as a forward-looking industrial district aimed at developing products and services for the future. JID will bring together different groups of expertise under one roof. Businesses, students, researchers and innovators come together, bringing assorted activities thus creating a very vibrant and flamboyant environment.

Industrial estates of yesteryears were purposefully built to meet the demands of specific industry. Jurong was transformed from swampland 5 decades ago to help power Singapore economy during the country’s developing era, providing the infrastructure for manufacturers. JID however is built for the future; for innovation; for research and for better living. It aptly signals the progress leap the island is taking, brought about by the remarkable results the economy has made over the past 50 years.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s national developer of industrial infrastructure – JTC is putting together a few initiatives such as Launchpad@JID and Open Innovation Call essentially to serve as platforms for innovators, students and researchers for development and design works, prototyping and to test out their new ideas.

To further provide more opportunities and motivations for innovators, JTC is building a creative industry hub near Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) to tap the technology brains from the campus.

The Government’s push for innovation does not stop here. SG-Innovate, a platform to string together like-minded innovators and entrepreneurs and exposing them to funding and talent hunt, helping them to reach out to untapped markets will be set up. SG-Innovate will work intimately with Spring Singapore and the Economic Development Board (EDB) focusing on technologies such as Internet-of-Things (IoT), fintech, digital manufacturing and smart energy.

Furthermore, as much as up to $4b from the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 Plan will be channeled to industry-research tie-up.

Heng Swee Keat summed up the Government’s commitment to innovation – “Innovation is enabled and enhanced by the use of technology but innovation goes beyond that. It is fundamentally about new ways of doing things to meet the needs of people and industries. Innovation is the engine of value creation and growth. We must make innovation pervasive in our society.”

With the above being put in place, it is the government’s intention to grow and establish the Jurong area as the second CBD, the largest commercial hub outside the city area. This definitely brings good news to the residents of Jurong as their property is sitting on gold mine. For those who wish to have a share of this treasure, they can seriously consider some new condo Singapore launches here:

√  LakeVille
√  Lake Grande – launching in June / July 2016