Of all the world’s strategic resources – oil, coal, even land itself – none is likely to be more valuable and controversial over the coming decades than fresh water. Singapore may not have an abundance of natural water but it is becoming a centre of excellence for water technologies.

Its experiments with reclaimed seawater, waste water treatment and recycling have attracted international attention. And as it positions itself as a global hydro hub, it is attracting industry big names including Siemens Water Technologies, Black & Veatch, GE Water and the Norit Group, which have all set up R&D centres or regional headquarters in Singapore.

Siemens, which came to Singapore more than a century ago, has its Asia Pacific water technology business in the Republic, providing engineering and manufacturing support to a S$13 billion regional market for water and water technologies. Siemens Water employs nearly 400 people in Singapore.

Ruediger Knauf, the Vice President of R&D at Siemens Water Technologies says Siemens’ decision to locate one of its five water hubs in Singapore makes strategic sense.

“Singapore is promoting water and it is very committed to water,” he explains. “It may have something to do with it being an island nation, but it really drives a holistic approach to water management and they look at water from a completely different angle.”

“Singapore supports us with competitive research programmes and better testing opportunities in the field, but most of all, it’s a great place to find talented people to support our innovation activities.” Without this creative talent pool, Knauf says their projects would not have taken off the way they did. One project that Siemens is working on is to invent the next desalination technology that will cut energy demand into half.

“We have found very good people in the market who were happy to become part of Siemens. We believe the best companies attract the best people, and this is very true in Singapore,” Knauf says.

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Singapore’s business-friendly environment, its proximity to the rest of Asia and its culturally diverse workforce made it an easy choice for both Siemens and Norit.

For Norit, Singapore’s much-vaunted pool of engineering and technical management talent was also a major draw for locating its Asia-Pacific headquarters.

Norit, which is based in the Netherlands, purifies water for almost 9 per cent of the world’s population – equivalent to over half a billion people. The group expects its growth in the Asia-Pacific to at least triple over the next five years.

Duane Schlicht, Managing Director of Norit Asia Pacific, says: “It is basically a know-how centre of knowledge, so all of the regional expertise that supports our efforts in the region comes from here. Singapore is one of the few places in the Asia Pacific region where we have very little difficulty recruiting quality staff.”

“Singapore is the gateway to the fast-growing Asia Pacific region and an ideal location to best manage and coordinate Norit’s regional business activities.”

Schlicht says Singapore has a good track record for achieving what it sets out to do, so its ambition to turn the Republic into a global hydro hub is realistic. “We’ve done a lot to support Singapore in the way of project activity, because we believe in what Singapore is doing.”

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