S'pore ranks among top global hubs for tech talent and investment, study shows
Singapore was cited as having a strong tech ecosystem, rich talent pool and a business environment that draws global talent and investment. PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE – Singapore has been named one of 12 global technology 'powerhouses' and is positioned to draw the capital and talent needed to develop a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem that will keep it among the elite.
The Republic was cited as having a strong tech ecosystem, rich talent pool and a business environment that draws global talent and investment, despite being the smallest of five Asia-Pacific tech hubs to make the Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025.
But Singapore is also one of the costliest cities to run a tech business in, ranking 24th out of 115 markets for software engineers' wages and with office rents that are second only to Paris.
Beijing, Shanghai, Bengaluru, Tokyo, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Boston, Toronto, Paris and London complete the top dozen powerhouses in the study compiled by real estate services firm CBRE.
Singapore, with 45 per cent of its 4.3 million working-age population having at least a university degree, ranked behind only Ireland and Switzerland in education levels.
Mr Ravi Nippani, head of regional industries and solutions at Mercer Asia, said CBRE's findings align with its own survey out in March that ranked Singapore third in Asia after China and India in the number of reported tech jobs.
'Singapore's tech ecosystem is quite mature and vibrant in terms of roles, encompassing both front-line and supporting positions,' he said. 'When compared with the sheer size of the working population in China and India, Singapore is more than punching its weight and can rightly be given powerhouse status.'
Overall, Asia-Pacific hosts the largest tech talent pools, with Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tokyo reporting having more than 500,000 tech professionals each.
Labour was singled out as the biggest cost for tech firms, with software developers in San Francisco and New York commanding the highest annual base pay, at US$177,273 (S$228,600) and US$158,387, respectively.
Software engineers in Singapore earn annual base salaries of US$111,000, but with rent among the costliest in the world, they fork out over 29 per cent of that to landlords.
Mr Jonathan Lasenby, head of technology and telecoms at executive search firm Ethos BeathChapman, noted two cost-related red flags in the report: Singapore ranks second globally for office rent and seventh for apartment rent.
'Together, they contribute to higher operational costs, driven by both rental overheads and salary expectations,' he said.
'This challenges Singapore's positioning relative to other tech powerhouse markets. Candidates may increasingly weigh cost of living when deciding where to live and work, especially as remote work and distributed teams become more viable.'
Singapore has to anchor high-value strategic jobs that are not easily replicated, such as AI, product innovation and research teams, and regional leadership and strategy functions, Mr Lasenby said.
These strategies have been incorporated into the country's AI Strategy 2.0 and government support for research and development, education, and innovation hubs, he added.
Ms Rohini Saluja, CBRE's head of consulting and integrated client solutions for Asia-Pacific, expects many more emerging markets to graduate to the 'established' tier by 2028, even though she forecasts that the powerhouse list will remain mostly unchanged.
'You start seeing a lot of new tech hubs. When you look at India, for instance, we know that Bengaluru (and) Hyderabad are established tech talent major metros, but they have started putting investments into education, harnessing technology skills and supporting quality of life in locations like Ahmedabad and Jaipur.'
She cited Auckland, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta as other examples of new and upcoming tech hubs.
Singapore could do better in drawing more venture capital.
AI-related venture funding hit a record US$129 billion in 2024 with Singapore accounting for just US$2.5 billion, less than 2 per cent.
'We have some way to go to compete with markets in the US, for instance, which takes the bulk,' she added.
As the US under President Donald Trump moves to bring manufacturing operations back to America and keep jobs at home, she expects more tech talent to come out of South-east Asia, India and China.
How the region retains its talent instead of losing it to the West, which is happening today as skilled workers gravitate to countries with higher quality of living, will be a challenge.
As geopolitics and the rise of AI erect fences in not only trade, but also talent flow, Ms Saluja has seen a rise in clients prioritising talent: 'That is the biggest change I have seen over the last 18 months.
'More and more companies are first looking at labour strategies, workforce distribution strategies, before they are making decisions on locations.'
Singapore can take a leaf out of the multinational playbook and build talent pools overseas, then tap them through partnerships such as the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.
This will ease some of the pressures to import foreign talent.
'You can't keep moving people and creating other issues. All you can do is create scale through these partnerships,' Ms Saluja said.
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