Money does not grow on trees but the Singaporian Government hopes a green economy will pay off by creating 18,000 more jobs and adding $3.4 billion to the Republic’s gross domestic product (GPD) by 2015 – with the help of Neste Oil and Vestas.
Yesterday, the Singaporean Government released its sustainable-development blueprint which projects that environment and water technologies and clean energy solutions will each contribute $1.7 billion to GDP in the next six years. Of these, 11,000 jobs will come from environment and water technologies, such as water-treatment plants, while 7,000 will come from the clean energy industry, such as solar-cell plants or biofuels.
To grow the clean technology – or ‘cleantech’ – sector, a S$680 million fund has been set aside for research and development (R&D) and manpower training. Renewable-energy companies which are calling Singapore home include Finland’s Neste Oil, which is building a S$1.2 billion biodiesel plant in Tuas, and Danish wind-power firm Vestas, which last year set up its S$500 million R&D centre at Fusionopolis.
http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20090428-137983.html
