Eight years on, Singapore’s medical-technology industry has doubled its growth figures, buoyed by the worldwide demand for healthcare technologies. According to the Economic Development Board, the medical-technology sector doubled its manufacturing output and employment since 2000, with a manufacturing output of $2.9 billion last year, up from $1.5 billion.
Medical technology includes the making of contact lenses, pacemakers and research instruments. For instance, some 10 per cent of the world’s contact lenses are made in Singapore. The labour-intensive sector also employs some 8,200 workers, two-thirds of the workers in biomedical manufacturing and twice that in 2000. This year, medical-technology jobs made up half the 900 new jobs in biomedical sciences.
