Outside of Singapore, regional tech companies are mostly final-assembly contractors and semiconductor packaging companies.
But the Crisis, heavier competition from its neighbors and constant change in the industry is changing the face of high-tech in Singapore.
In 2007, a married couple with well-paid tech jobs in Singapore saw a prototype of a Japanese electric car and had a revelation.
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While Hong Kong has continues its drawn-out debate over how it can carve a niche for its itself in the high-tech arena, Singapore has long been a major player in the electronics industry.
It is for this reason that the few examples of high-tech entrepreneurial activity in Singapore and Hong Kong come from people who were born outside of these countries.
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Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are moving into high-tech manufacturing.
Emerging-market economies like Singapore, heavily dependent on high-tech exports to the industrial world, suffered an even greater economic contraction than America, their biggest customer, did.
Deputy prime minister and defense minister Tony Tan told CNN that terrorism was an ongoing threat for Singapore, and he has turned to tech to beef up security.
What really stirred upset was Thaksin's selling his family-linked telecom-tech Shin Corp. to the Singapore government-linked Temasek Holdings.
The winners are, in alphabetical order, California, Maryland and its I-270 tech corridor, New Jersey, Singapore and Wisconsin.
Hong Kong and Singapore governments have taken some action to create high-tech start-up commons.
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Singapore is arguably the Asian tiger with the most advanced government-supported ecosystem for tech entrepreneurship.
Lewis Wu, project manager for smart cards at Singapore's National Computer Board, charts several social changes that have promoted smart tech.
In fact, despite efforts, neither Singapore nor Hong Kong has much to show for their efforts to create high-tech start-up commons.
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