GOING green will help the economy, the Government hopes, by creating 18,000 more jobs and adding $3.4 billion to the Republic's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015.
On Monday, Singapore's Government released its sustainable-development blueprint which projects that environment and water technologies and clean energy solutions will each contribute $1.7 billion to the GDP in the next six years.
Of these, 11,000 jobs will come from environment and water technologies, such as water-treatment plants, while 7,000 will come from the clean energy industry, such as solar-cell plants or biofuels.
To grow the clean technology - or 'cleantech' - sector, a $680 million fund has been set aside for research, development and training manpower.
January's Budget also pledged an additional $1billion for sustainable development over the next five years.
Though that figure is a small percentage of Singapore's $257.4 billion GDP produced last year, Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said: 'We are not looking at headline-grabbing numbers...We are looking at something that is doable in the Singapore context, that is practical, that will give us results.'
- The Straits Times
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