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Regina Ip suggests plotting course for high technology quicksand

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'Singapore and Taiwan quickly recovered from the [Asian] economic crisis as they have niches in biochemical development and semiconductors.'

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee

Talk show host

YES, SINGAPORE DOES indeed have a niche in semiconductors, a very deep niche indeed, one that other semiconductor manufacturers would rather not occupy.

For an indication of the nature of that niche, just look at the bar chart. Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, a government-sponsored corporation set up as the leading edge of Singapore's drive into high technology, has suffered cumulative losses of US$1.2 billion since the onset of the Asian economic crisis in 1997.

But, as Mrs Ip may point out, and the chart certainly reveals as fact, Chartered Semiconductor did take a break from posting big losses with a profit six years ago of US$244 million.

This happened at the height of that worldwide phenomenon we now call the Internet Bubble and I suppose she can argue that this brief shift from profit to loss helped Singapore to recover faster than Hong Kong did from the Asian economic crisis.

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