http://therealsingapore.com/content...ot-supportive-local-talents-and-entrepreneurs
SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT NOT SUPPORTIVE OF LOCAL TALENTS AND ENTREPRENEURS
Post date: 27 May 2013 - 9:23pmDear The Real Singapore,I would like to share with you this story that I have come across.The Creative and EDB story.The post below is what I got from Creative's CEO Sim Wong Hoo's encounter with the EDB/NCB.This poster echoes my opinion about govt participation in entrepreneurship. They are a hindrance and barrier to ordinary people like us.Lee Kuan Yew can keep his illusions about a citizenry brutalized by a police state in a bankrupt system turning out to be entrprenuers. Just for the record he openly denigrated Singapore's most successful entreprenuer, Sim Wong Woo when Sim's Creative hit a bad patch about 4 years ago.Lee believed that his "top talent" could do better.I will give u a more interesting story about Sim Wong Woo and the scholars and the government.When Sim Wong Hoo (Founder of Creative and the sound blaster card) had developed the 8 bit sound card, he came to NCB (National Computer Board, now known as iDA)to explain what he has done and why he needed $ 250K to market this at Comdex ( trade show in the U.S.) The CEO of NCB was Lim Swee Say (current Minister) and the Chairman was Tan Chin Nam (now Perm Sec of MoM).Both of them ended up ridiculing him, saying that no one would every want to hear a sound from the PC. And moreover also mentioned that he was just a poly dip holder and thet he needs to develop something for the local market for which NCB would give him assistance. They also shunted him to TDB, which finally ended up giving him a $15K grant to participate.SWW went to Walden's office who ended up giving him $800k immediately for an undisclosed stake and the rest as they say is history.In 1994 and 1995, after Creative's success, the CEO of NCB ( Ko Keng Hwa, now CEO of EDB) and various other officials tried very hard inviting him to sit on committes, Boards and others. He didnt even return calls.In one year when the nomination committee nominated him for the Entreprenuer of the year award (1994, I think) he declined. That year it was given to the Thakral group. Subsequent year, needed a personal persuation from the PM.He has considerably mellowed down but I dont think he has forgotton the insult and embarassment.In late 1993, Aztech wanted to do the sound cards and actually hired 2 engineers from Creative. ITI (information Technology Institute) which has now become KRDL and Aztech signed a joint MOU to develop multimedia products. But, their real agenda was to try and reverse engineer Sound Blaster and make a better chip. After 5 months they did come up with a prototype, but was highly unreliable. Aztech pursued other initiatives and tried to clone the SoundBlaster. They infringed several copyrights and lost their case both in singapore and U.S.All, I am saying is that if at all there was roadblocks, it was the Government.Hence I respect SWH for having been steadfast in his approach. I take my hats of for himFYI, Aztech is a GLC now.The Singapore government is only interested in bringing established and successful companies from overseas and claim that Singapore is a home for successful businesses and start-ups. They are not willing to help Singaporeans with their proud and elite mindset. This is what I call 狗眼看人低. PUI！Our PAP ministers are all stuck in a certain and rigid mindset and they can't think outside the box. They are not entrepreneurs and so it is difficult for them to think like an entrepreneur. How can we promote more creativity in our country this way?Anonymous TRS reader*The views and opinions expressed by author(s) within the website are solely that of the contributors and in no way reflects the views of TheRealSingapore.com.
