TOP STORIES 3 The Business Times, Monday, March 17, 2014 Companies should also focus on the ‘I’ in PIC Innovation, not just productivity, needs more attention, say business leaders By RAPHAEL LIM [email protected] [SINGAPORE] Rather than focusing on just automation and training, companies should use more of the other qualifying activities in the productivity and innovation credit (PIC) scheme, said participants at a post-budget roundtable organised by Canon Singapore in collaboration with The Business Times. The other four activities – which include the acquisition and registration of intellectual property, research and development, and approved design projects – will help businesses to innovate and be different, instead of having incremental productivity advances from the first two activities, they said. PIC has a total of six qualifying activities. Said Abhijit Ghosh, corporate tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore: “There is really high value-added stuff out there in the last four buckets. We don’t see much action there, and the question we should be asking is: Why not?” According to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s annual report, just 3 per cent of PIC claims in 2012 were for the other four activities, while the first two activities – acquisition of automation equipment, and training of employees – accounted for 62 and 35 per cent, respectively. Panel discussion: (From left) Ho Meng Kit, CEO of Singapore Business Federation; Jow Lee Ying, senior lecturer, Business Law, Nanyang Business School; Abhijit Ghosh, tax partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers;, Michael Lebeda, CEO Therefore Corporation; Lim Kok Hin, vice-president and head of domestic business operations, Canon Singapore; Vikram Khanna, associate editor, The Business Times Mr Ghosh added: “As a country, we have been so far focusing more on productivity rather than innovation, although PIC means productivity and innovation credit scheme.” Besides government schemes, the panelists also said that education to inculcate an innovative culture was equally critical. Jow Lee Ying, senior lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School, said that education remains important to instil a risktaking mindset for people to venture into new businesses. Citing the success of Facebook and WhatsApp, she said that more could be done to encourage startups here. Having a strong internal culture to promote innovation also helps, said Lim Kok Hin, head of domestic business operations Canon Singapore. The company puts some 10 per cent of turnover back into research and development, to help it remain at the cutting edge, he said. The roundtable, moderated by BT’s associate editor Vikram Khanna, was part of Canon’s Managed Document Services (MDS) day at Mandarin Orchard last Friday. Panellists at the roundtable also focused on manpower issues. Chief executive officer of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) Ho Meng Kit said that the business community heaved “a collective sigh of relief that there were no further cuts to manpower” in the latest budget. But he added that businesses would still be faced with older workers for a long time due to fewer foreign workers and continued low birth rates. “It is better for you (companies) to look after them and create an environment within your company so that the older workers can actively age (there),” he said. He added that older workers were more experienced and less likely to job hop, making sense for companies to focus on them. Canon’s Mr Lim added: “Companies like us need to recognise and observe the unique capabilities of such older workers and put them into places where they can best perform and do the job.” He spoke of how the company moved older workers from technical servicing to become project managers, boosting their self-esteem and productivity. Another issue raised was the care for older citizens, going into the future. Mr Ghosh called for tax breaks for companies that take pre-emptive measures to encourage healthy living for employees. He also emphasised the need to promote the concept of “remote care” to monitor the health of the aged in their homes, with the help of technology. This would reduce the burden on hospitals, he said. Michael Lebeda, CEO of Therefore Corporation, a software provider partnering Canon, said that technology would be a differentiator for companies in the future. “Therefore is about turning information, which is an asset, into productivity,” he said. “Technology used to be something that is possible, but we think now it’s becoming more a business discipline, more of a responsibility (for companies) to do it.” MISSING MAS FLIGHT M’sia seeks help from 25 nations as search widens Hunt now expands to deep oceans, land across 11 countries [KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysian authorities have asked 25 countries to support the hunt for a missing passenger jet as it prepared to extend the search to an area stretching from Kazakhstan in the north to the three-kilometre deep waters off Australia in the south. “The search area has been significantly expanded and the nature of the search has changed,” Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a press conference yesterday in Kuala Lumpur. “From focusing mainly on shallow seas, we are now looking at large tracts of land, crossing 11 countries, as well as deep, remote oceans.” Satellite transmissions that weren’t turned off along with other communications systems showed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 operated for almost seven hours after last making contact with air traffic controllers on March 8, Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday. That may have taken the Boeing Co 777-200 about 5,000 km from where it was last tracked west of Malaysia and pushed it to the limits of its fuel load if it was airborne the whole period. It is possible that the radars could have picked up a signal from the plane while it was on the ground as long as the electricity was on, said Civil Aviation Chief Azharuddin Rahman. Malaysia has not received any contact from any groups making demands over the plane, he said. The new satellite transmission data indicated the plane was last spotted in an arc of radar that reached as far as Kazakhstan in the north to a spot in the Indian Ocean off Australia in the south. Malaysia is now enlisting the help of 25 nations, up from 14 in the initial operation, Mr Hishammuddin said. Among the countries Malaysia is now asking for assistance are Kazakhstan, tended flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Meanwhile, Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K Shanmugam yesterday said the incident brings home the need for governments to have extremely good intelligence and be able to use it effectively. Speaking on the sidelines of a community event, he said the latest revelations on MH370 are “quite chilling”. He noted that the takeover of the plane was a very deliberate, very carefully planned operation. “It is a very sharp reminder, really, that we cannot take anything for granted,” he said. With 50 million passengers passing through Changi Airport each year, it would not be practical to do “100 per – Hishammuddin Hussein, cent checks”, he Malaysia’s Acting Transport said. “So the real anMinister swer is extremely good intelligence ahead of time, close Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, cooperation with others.” Turkmenistan, Pakistan, While “it doesn't mean that Bangladesh, India, China, it will pick up everything ... Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, with good airport security Thailand, Indonesia, Aus- and intelligence, you tralia and France, the should be able to avert Transport Ministry said in most of the danger”, he addthe statement. Malaysia is ed. The jet was carrying also asking the US, China 239 passengers and crew and France for additional when it went missing, with radar data to try to narrow the last satellite contact at the search area. 8.11am, according to Mr Malaysia said its offi- Najib. Malaysian officials cials discussed with all part- previously said the plane nering countries how best was last tracked by its transto deploy assets along the ponder, a device that helps two corridors after Mr Na- radar find its location more jib said that satellite data in- precisely, at 1.30am. – dicated two new zones of in- Bloomberg terest. Malaysia called off ☛ MH370 mystery may the search in the South Chi- spur redesign of switches, na Sea along the plane’s in- Page 23 ‘The search area has been significantly expanded and the nature of the search has changed.’