Singapore seeks to be Israel’s window to Asia, says investor

What many Israelis don’t get about the Far East, and especially about China, is its patriarchy-oriented culture, according to Dr. Alex Lin of Singapore’s Infocomm Investments.

“There’s a major cultural gap that is very hard to close,” Lin told The Times of Israel on a visit here, where he is searching out start-ups for his $200 million fund to invest in. “The cultural gap is a reason why many companies don’t make it in Asia, and for those having trouble fitting in, I would suggest taking a look at Singapore as a gateway to bridging those gaps.”

On paper, Singapore and Israel have a lot in common, said Lin on the sidelines of a conference for potential Singaporean investors in Israeli firms. Both are relatively small countries with small, dense populations (Israel is bigger and more populous but Singapore has more people per square mile than Israel). Both have border issues with some of its neighbors, and both scramble geopolitically to survive among much larger and less stable neighbors (although Israel’s neighborhood is certainly tougher, admits Lin).

The most important similarity, though, is in the natural resource both countries rely on – their people.

“Historically, neither Israel nor Singapore could rely on natural resources to feed their economies, because neither have had any,” although in Israel’s case, the discovery of huge amounts of natural gas off the coast will change that. “Nevertheless, Israel’s experience as a resource-poor country for six decades forced it to rely on the one thing it did have – people – and that is Singapore’s strength as well,” said Lin.

Because, like Israel, Singapore doesn’t have much of a domestic market, it’s had to focus on exports — i.e., developing technology and services that can be deployed in foreign markets. Tech services, which don’t require natural resources or a strong manufacturing base, fit in with that strategy.

One of the biggest mobile firms in Asia, Singtel, is Singaporean, and the company is considered one of Asia’s biggest innovators. Several years ago, Singtel partnered with Israeli tech firm Amdocs to open a development center in Israel, and acquired an Israeli mobile advertising firm called Amobee.

“Israel is renowned for its innovation, and is fueled by a strong education system,” said Allen Lew, chief executive officer of SingTel’s Digital Life group. “You also have a core that drives an insatiable need to innovate and develop. We have been extremely satisfied with the wealth of talent in Israel.”

Israel, also with a negligible domestic market, has focused on exports in order to succeed, mostly to the US and Europe. In the past few years, Asia has caught the attention of Israeli firms, but it has been slow going because the brash Israeli personality does not always fit in with the much more staid Asian approach to things.

There’s a reason for that cultural gap, said Lin.

“Israelis and Westerners in general are used to democracy, where they take responsibility for their own fate, but in the East, you surrender your freedom and expect to be taken care of by the patriarch, whose job it is to look out for the people. This attitude has a great deal of impact on every aspect of life in China and other countries, and many people from Israel don’t understand it. And those who don’t understand it are unlikely to succeed.”

Singapore can help bridge that gap, he said.

“We straddle both worlds, almost as a buffer zone between the East and the West,” said Lin. “As a democracy, we understand personal responsibility, and we have numerous educational programs in place to encourage independent thinking and the start-up spirit among young entrepreneurs in our country. In fact, we work closely with Israel on this, with a special entrepreneurship program at Tel Aviv University for students from Singapore. On the other hand, we are at home in Asia and understand the Asian mentality. Add to that our connections abroad, throughout Asia, and you have an excellent window into many of the lucrative markets throughout the continent that would be very difficult for an Israeli start-up to reach otherwise.”

And Singapore is realistic enough to know where it can succeed – and where it cannot. “There’s no way be can become a manufacturing giant like China, and we don’t imagine we will be able to build an entrepreneurial culture similar to that in Silicon Valley,” said Lin. “But we know a lot about Asia, and about doing business in places like China. I think that the more Israeli companies get to know about us, the more they will see us the solution to a problem they may not have known how to deal with.”