Opening Address by Mr Lim Chuan Poh for Roquette’s Asia Pacific Headquarters and Innovation Centre

Mr Jean-Marc Gilson, CEO, Roquette
Mrs Ariane Trichon, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of France,
Mr Dominique Baumann, CEO Roquette Asia Pacific,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies & Gentlemen

A very good morning to all of you.

Opening Remarks

It gives me great pleasure to join you at the opening ceremony of Roquette’s Asia Pacific Headquarters and Innovation Centre in Singapore.

Last summer, I had the privilege of visiting Jean-Marc and his team at Roquette’s industrial site in Lestrem, France.

I was thoroughly impressed with the size and scale of the production facilities there.

It was three quarters the land area of the whole of One North.

Equally impressive was the depth of the research and development activities carried out there.

Jean-Marc, I am delighted to welcome you and your executive team to Singapore and on behalf of Singapore and A*STAR, we thank you for your trust and confidence in us.

Growth opportunities in Nutrition and Health in Asia

Singapore is really fortunate to be in the heart of Asia at this present time with a steadily and robustly rising middle class and growing income levels.

By 2030, Asia will represent two thirds of the global middle-class population and about 60% of the middle-class consumption.

This is compared to 28% and 23%, respectively in 2009¹.

This translates to tremendous growth opportunities in Asia.

However, there is a need to appreciate and respond to the changing preferences and needs of the Asian consumer base more specifically because the disease responses are different when dealing with the Asian phenotype.

For example, in the area of nutrition and health, with rising incomes, greater food intake and lifestyle changes, Asia has earned the reputation of having 60% of the world’s diabetics.

Here in Singapore, we have indeed one of the highest incidences of diabetes among developed countries, second only to the United States.

Probably arising from this same concern, another report showed that Asia had a strong 15% growth rate for the healthy food categories, outperforming the global average of 5%.

Millennials in Asia are leading the world in terms of their choices or strategies to have healthier diets for losing weight, such as following a low carbohydrate and high fat diet².

These trends and opportunities reinforce the importance for companies to be in Asia to innovate and respond to the particular needs of the Asian market.

We are confident that Roquette will be able to leverage its base in Singapore to do precisely this and harness the opportunities that the growth in Asia presents.

Strong momentum of new innovation activities in Singapore in the Food, Nutrition and Ingredients industry

The sustained and steady investments by leading companies like Roquette are also a testimony to Singapore’s reputation as a global Research, Innovation and Enterprise hub.

Since the inception of the Biopolis, it has flourished to include a wide range of sectors today including drug development, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, medical technologies, food and nutrition, and represented by many MNCs and also local enterprises.

Business expenditure on R&D and the number of private sector researchers for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Care companies that A*STAR partners with saw a compound annual growth rate of 27% and 22% respectively from 2010 to 2015.

Over the last two years, global companies in the food, nutrition and ingredients industry, such as Nestle, Ferrero, Mane and Lesaffre, have established research and innovation centres in Singapore, making Singapore one of the most exciting locations globally for research and innovation in food, nutrition, ingredients, flavours and fragrances.

Located in Helios in Biopolis, Roquette’s new 1,100 square metres innovation centre, encompassing research and development, and customer technical centres, will be well positioned to forge partnerships to grow its portfolio of innovations in areas such as nutrition and pharmaceuticals.

Translating research through open innovation

Our economic agencies, in particular EDB, have worked to cultivate an ecosystem in Singapore that makes it ideal for MNCs to base their headquarters and research centres.

A*STAR’s mission is to create economic impact through open innovation in collaboration with enterprises, and in RIE2020, we intend to deepen these partnerships to enhance our research and translation efforts.

I am delighted to share that two research collaborations have already been forged between Roquette and A*STAR’s Research Institutes.

The first is a collaboration with the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC) to validate the health benefits of dietary fibre in Asian consumers.

The centre is one of the most comprehensive in Asia, conducting nutritional studies to understand the causes of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, and develop products and formulate diets that can reduce the risks of these diseases.

The second is a collaboration with A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) on the research in culture media development for biopharmaceutical applications.

I understand and am encouraged that Roquette is already speaking to Universities and other Research Institutes in Singapore to explore more partnerships in research and innovation.

It is our ambition that through such partnerships, we can accelerate innovation to meet nutrition and health challenges, and bring meaningful outcomes to Singapore and the rest of the world.

Strengthening the innovation capabilities of our ecosystem

Likewise, industry partnerships play a vital role in strengthening the capabilities of our food, nutrition and pharmaceuticals industry ecosystem. Roquette, in bringing its unique expertise in plant based ingredients, will enhance our sector’s innovation capabilities in developing sustainable, healthy and nutritious foods and solutions.

The company’s new Customer Technical Centres in Singapore, will allow them to strengthen their partnerships with local and global food and pharmaceutical manufacturers, to develop products and solutions for regional and global markets. 

Closing

On this note, I would like to conclude by welcoming Roquette’s new Asia Pacific Headquarters and Innovation Centre to Singapore.

I would like to thank Roquette for its trust and confidence in Singapore, and look forward to widening and deepening our partnership. I should further mention that earlier this year, I had the pleasure of hosting France’s former President Francois Hollande and officially announced the launch of France-Singapore Year of Innovation in 2018. I wish you every success in your new venture.

Thank you very much.

¹  The emerging middle class in developing countries, Working Paper No. 285, OECD Development Centre

² Nielsen global health and wellness report, 2015