The Singaporean government will spend S$16.1 ($12.5) billion on research innovation over the next 4 years—a 20% increase over the previous budget. A quarter of the funding—S$3.7 ($2.9) billion —is allotted to biomedical science, according to the September announcement. The funding boost “reflects our steady commitment to transforming our economy,” says Beh Kian Teik, director of biomedical sciences of Singapore's Economic Development Board. Since 2000, when the Singaporean government outlined its long-term plan to transform this tiny nation-state into a knowledge-based economy, the government ploughed roughly S$25 ($19.3) billion to shore up research infrastructure and create a talent pool to attract private investment. The figures suggest Singapore has succeeded. The country's biomedical manufacturing output alone more than tripled from S$6.3 billion ($4.9 billion) in 2000 to S$21 billion ($16.2 billion) in 2009. The biomedical sector now represents 10% of the country's manufacturing output, up from 4% in 2000. Most major pharma companies have a presence in Singapore, although in October, Eli Lilly of Indianapolis announced the closure of its Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery. The new funding budget will make “more money available for everyone,” says Beh, with an emphasis on initiatives that favor “economic outcomes.” In fact, some are questioning whether the shift in emphasis toward translational outcomes and away from blue sky research is too myopic. Some of the funding has been earmarked to support the Biomedical Science Industry Partnership Office (IPO), a fledgling agency that supports public-private research projects and helps companies pool expertise across Singaporean research institutes and medical centers. The IPO office has succeeded in setting up collaborations for Basel-based Roche and London-based GlaxoSmithKline with Singaporean researchers. Roche plans to spend S$130 ($100.6) million to support a center for translational medicine to develop drugs for the Asian market; whereas GlaxoSmithKline will participate in four public-private research collaborations focused on early-stage research in ophthalmology, regenerative medicine and neurodegeneration. “This should be good news for the biotech sector,” says Jan-Anders Karlsson, CEO of S*BIO, a drug discovery company set up as a joint venture between the Singapore Economic Development Board Investments and Chiron Corporation in 2000. Government estimates that the nation's economy will have grown by 13–15% by year's end—higher than estimated growth for China and India. In October, Basel-based agribusiness Syngenta opened an R&D facility in Singapore to support technology development in the Asia Pacific region.