After productivity push, 'firms must innovate'

At a post-Budget forum organised by the Economic Society of Singapore on February 25, SMU Professor of Quantitative Finance and Director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics David Lee, who is also the Vice President of the Economic Society of Singapore, noted that “innovation” was mentioned 37 times in the Budget statement this year, compared with 20 times for productivity. He added that companies will have to innovate as they face increasing costs and decreasing margins. Prof Lee said: “Every sector is going to be disrupted. The margins are going to be very different in the next 20 years and jobs are going to be replaced. So how do we deal with it?” On companies finding ways to get around their limited scopes to innovate or raise productivity, Prof Lee said: “WhatsApp does not make money, but Facebook still bought it at a high price because of the customer stickiness it has built up.”