By ALAN KOZIARSKI June 1, 2010

FOR the past 40 years the Singaporean government has advocated study hard, get ahead. And it has worked. Exceptionally. But in an economically and environmentally changing world, the government is now highlighting the importance of innovation, implementing a raft of programmes across universities and industries, including the National Framework for Innovation and Enterprise.

But is innovation innate, or can you foster it? In this, New Zealand offers a good example in terms of scale. Both New Zealand and Singapore have similar population sizes and small, open economies.

But in terms of history, New Zealand’s remote geographic position gave it a head start in innovative thinking. Perched on the edge of the globe, early pioneers to the country had to make do with what they had on hand, and as the story goes, a New Zealander could create anything with a piece of Number 8 fencing wire. …

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