A survey of more than 1,000 organizations in Singapore found that the country’s 2008 gross expenditures on R&D (GERD) grew 12.4% to SGD $7.128 billion ($5.061 billion), or 2.77% of GDP. Manpower, operating expenditures and capital expenditures accounted for 35%, 33% and 32% of R&D spending, respectively. By sector, private, government, higher education, and public research institutes represented 72%, 8%, 10% and 11%. Private sector R&D spending rose 20.9%. The top three fields for R&D expenditures were engineering and technology (68%), biomedical and related sciences (15%) and natural sciences (8%). The number of research scientists and engineers totaled 25,745. Experimental development accounted for the highest share of R&D spending at 58%, while applied and basic research made up 25% and 17%.

Source: Agency for Science, Technology and Research