SINGAPORE – Fixed asset investment (FAI) commitments in Singapore rose to $3.7 billion in the July to September period this year, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Economic Survey released on Wednesday (Nov 24).
The commitments, garnered by the Economic Development Board, are up from $3.6 billion in the previous quarter and $2.07 billion for the same period last year.
When the projects from the investments secured in the third quarter are fully implemented, they will create close to 900 jobs and generate $2 billion in value-added to the economy, said MTI.
Value-added refers to the direct contribution made by a company to Singapore’s gross domestic product, and includes components such as employees’ wages and corporate earnings.
FAI comprises the amount invested in building, land, machinery and equipment, as well as infrastructure related to a project.
However, commitments in total business expenditure (TBE) – referring to a company’s incremental annual operating expenditure, excluding depreciation – dropped to $230 million in the third quarter of this year, from $1.4 billion in the previous quarter.
For FAI, the largest contribution came from the manufacturing sector, which attracted $3.4 billion worth of commitments, driven mainly by the electronics cluster.
Meanwhile, the research and development cluster garnered the most FAI commitments within the services sector, at $311 million.
Investors from the United States contributed about 90 per cent of total FAI, with $3.3 billion.
For TBE, the services clusters drew the highest amount of commitments, at $158 million. The research and development cluster accounted for $88 million of the commitments, while the headquarters and professional clusters drew $70 million.
Within the manufacturing sector, the electronics cluster attracted $59 million of TBE commitments, while biomedical manufacturing snagged $14 million.
Investors from the US were again the largest source of TBE commitments, with $117 million, or 51 per cent, of the total.