Yesterday, his questions drew responses from Minister of State S. Iswaran and Minister Lim Hng Kiang of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Mr Iswaran said the Agency for Science, Research and Technology (A*Star) has nurtured local researchers through its scholarship programme since 2001. Its 700 scholars are at leading universities around the world and its goal is to train 1,000 local PhDs by 2015.

He also assured Mr Low that the lion's share - more than 85 per cent - of A*Star scholarships have been awarded to Singaporeans.

Non-Singaporeans who take up the scholarships are expected to take up citizenship, he added during the debate on his ministry's budget.

But Mr Low pressed on to ask if there are plans to attract more Singaporeans to the research and development (R&D) sector.

It was Mr Lim who responded.

'We cannot embark on an R&D strategy that is just anchored on Singaporean talent alone. If we do so, I think we are shortchanging ourselves,' he said.

Giving examples of research labs around the world, he said they were staffed by people of different nationalities. Likewise, 50 per cent of research talent here will be Singaporeans. Among them, half will have PhDs.

'If we don't attract foreign talent... we will take a far longer time to reach the end stage that we want,' he noted.

Mr Iswaran said local businesses also benefit from Singapore's R&D efforts. Under the Growing Enterprises with Technology Upgrade (GET-Up) scheme, 166 A*Star researchers have joined 116 small and medium-size enterprises to help start or strengthen their in-house R&D capabilities.