Honourable Pete Hodgson, Minister for Research, Science and Technology, New Zealand

His Excellency Nigel Moore, New Zealand High Commissioner

Mr Teo Ming Kian, Chairman EDB

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasure to be here at the presentation of the Phoenix Award 2001.

The Phoenix Award is given to recognise the entrepreneur who has taken risks, met with failure, persevered, overcome odds, and gone on to succeed.

The father of invention, Thomas Edison, is a perfect example of a person who persisted despite failing countless times. After he reached experiment number 9999, someone asked him, "Sir, are you going to try again and fail 10,000 times?" Edison replied, "I have not failed in 9999 attempts. Rather, I ’ve succeeded at discovering 9999 ways of how not to invent the electric lamp."

There is much we can learn from the constructive attitude of Edison towards failure. The Phoenix Award focuses on the positive side of failure. That failure is a stepping stone to success if we are able to learn from failure. That failure is part and parcel of being enterprising and innovative.

Why is this positive attitude towards failure important to the future development of the Singapore Economy?

For 40 years, we have done well as a value- adding economy. We have made ourselves an attractive location for MNCs from all over the world to set up manufacturing and service operations here. This is because we are able to offer a "risk-free" environment for manufacturers and business corporations to launch into production and business operations quickly and productively.

Looking ahead, as we make the transition towards becoming more of a value-creating economy, we will need to complement our strategy of offering a pro-business environment with that of a pro-enterprise development environment. Besides continuing to attract leading MNCs and FDI into Singapore, we need to nurture future corporations and new growth industries.

In other words, we strive to offer a conducive environment for enterprises, large and small, foreign and local, to thrive. We strive to build a self-sustaining enterprise ecosystem so that ideas and innovations can be funded and can grow into businesses to complement and contest with established players in the market.

Like the natural ecosystem, some firms will fail in the process of creative destruction, while the more adaptable ones will survive, grow and become established enterprises. They will go on to spawn start-ups and spin-offs as they reinvent and transform themselves to remain competitive.

Enterprise and innovation is the foundation for such a vibrant and self-sustaining enterprise ecosystem. A culture of risk-taking and tolerance of failure will make this foundation strong.

We have five finalists for the Phoenix Award this afternoon. Each one of them is a successful entrepreneur, who has taken measured risks, met failures and overcome obstacles, yet worked passionately to achieve his goals.

Some of the difficulties they faced include being hit by unforeseen shifts in market demand, falling out with partners, and just pure bad luck. Yet, despite these setbacks, they endured, innovated, tried again and came back. They were able to learn from past failures and used the experience to forge their next venture.

I am sure these outstanding entrepreneurs are not alone. There are many other entrepreneurs out there working hard to realise their dreams. I hope that the spirit of the Phoenix Award will inspire all entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs.

I would like to commend the organisers. Ernst & Young, OCBC Bank, the Singapore Venture Capital Association, White & Case, Colin Ng & Partners, and the EDB, for jointly organising this Award.

It gives me great pleasure to present the Phoenix Award 2001 to this year’s finalists and winner. Thank you.

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