Ong, whose family owns and runs Singapore's First Engineering, a component company.

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The occupation-based component includes 95 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations as classified by the federal Standard Occupation Classification system.

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Geoff Ford, chairman of two South Shields engineering companies, Ford Aerospace and Ford Component, praised the council for the plans, which he said needed to be "imaginative and bold".

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Such an investment would create jobs in engineering, construction and computer fields, and have indirect effects on manufacturing and component assembling employment.

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