Topic: How to boost innovation in our country ?

[A²]

Dear contributors,

Stocks, real state, gold, forex... ok there are all good opportunities but I am surprised that a few people really care about innovation !

You know this risky thing that scares the fans of secured investments !

However, innovation is still the best bet you can make as returns are substantials.

Let's be critics toward ourselves !

Ok, risky investment is not our cup of tea but why try to find together a solution that could deserve everybody you, me and our country.

Insiders will tell you that today it is impossible to raise money for a technological startup or R&D based company. And this not only here but anywhere in the world. Only a couple of Venture Capitalist are still able to do it as well as some wealthy people.

Of course, Singapore has put in place some schemes through Spring programs for example. But, the amount are too small to pretend building a regional or worldwide champion.

My suggestion would be to have each tax payer to participate to the innovation in our country on a voluntary basis.

How to do it ?

For example, we can imagine that each volunteer could inject a reasonable amount of its income tax in an innovation fund that will only finance private innovative technological startups. Then we could deduct let's say 75% of this amount from our income tax but benefit from the dividend generated by this innovation fund.
This way or risk is limited to 25% but the perspectives can be huge.

I see some interesting points in this, first this will "educate" our compatriots about the beneficial effects of sustaining innovation and taking reasonable financial risks. Second, this will be an easy way for our government to fund innovation with the active participation of the citizens and sustain the active policy in favor of the innovation in Singapore. Third, everybody will win : entrepreneurs will have an easier access to money, this would generates more employment, welcome overseas entrepreneurs with great ideas as well that they could develop here, citizens would be rewarded for their contributions, reinforce Singapore as a place of choice for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Make a simple calculation, imagine that 1 million tax payers are all injecting $100 in this fund, this is at already $100M more to fund innovation in Singapore ! Of course, wealth tax payer could inject far more than $100 so $500M+ could be gathered each year to fund technological innovation within the next year. And you could recover your money 5 years later with a consistent markup and dividends

What do you think of this ?