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Last year's record fixed asset investments (FAI) commitments exceeded the Economic Development Board's (EDB) own target of $8.5 to $9 billion, it said.
FAI refers to capital investments in facilities and equipment.
Despite signs of a slowing economy, the EDB said Singapore is confident of matching last year's figure. It said it is targeting manufacturing commitments worth $16 to $8 billion this year.
It is also targeting to attract as much as S$8 billion in business spending this year from manufacturing and service industries including information, communications and media, education and health care.
'The consensus view is that there will be a slowdown by 2008,' EDB's assistant managing director for planning and policy, Beh Swan Gin, said at a media briefing.
'Nevertheless, the slate of projects that we have announced over the past few months for Singapore gives us a certain degree of confidence that the momentum that we achieved in 2007 will be continued in 2008,' he said. 'Quite frankly they do the assessment of what the longer-term trends are... they assess their strategic needs to position themselves,' he said.
The EDB said almost 400 projects were committed to in 2007.
These are expected to create 28,600 jobs and add $11.6 billion annually to
Singapore's gross domestic product when they are fully implemented.
Hailing 2007 as a 'remarkable year', EDB said many noteworthy projects committed by companies such as Samsung-Siltronic, Intel-Micron, Shell, Exxon-Mobil
Corp and Neste Oil pushed investments to a record high of S$16.1 billion. This new high exceeded the S$8.8 billion committed in 2006 by a wide margin, and exceeded forecast.
It was also a record year for total business spending which hit S$3 billion, and number of jobs created, which totalled 28,600, against S$2.8 billion and 26,800 a year ago.
'These strong investment achievemens will open up new opportunities for growth and jobs,' said EDB.
'2007 was notable for the depth and quality of investment in capital, knowledge and innovation-intensive activities that these investments will bring to Singapore in the coming years.'
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's government cut taxes by 2 percentage points last year to encourage businesses to set up operations or expand in the Southeast Asian nation.
Drugmaker Novartis AG and Renewable Energy Corp., a Norwegian maker of solar-power components, are among companies that announced plans to build new factories in Singapore.
Of the new jobs, many will be in the engineering, management, research fields as well as creative and industrial design.
Major projects Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest investor-owned oil company, in November broke ground on its second petrochemical facility in Singapore to meet rising demand in Asia.
The new plant, at a cost of 'several billion dollars' will be Exxon's largest petrochemical plant in the world.
Novartis of Switzerland is also building a large-scale biotechnology plant here.
Said EDB: 'These projects not only help in developing depth in our key industry clusters, but are also notable in that many will provide the spark for new clusters to grow, such as in Clean Technology.' said EDB.
'They reflect strong investor confidence in Singapore. It also affirms manufacturing as a critical component of Singapore's economic growth, andunderlines our ability to continue to attract high-end complex manufacturing projects, which brings in quality jobs for people living in Singapore.'
Referring to the mega projects, which will provide good jobs for Singaporeans, the EDB added: 'Investors make capital-intensive investments only when they are convinced of the long-term viability of their projects and the stability of the host country.'
On new areas of growth, EDB said it has also made good headway in developing new industries.
New industries In Environment and Water, R&D centres are being established by Keppel(Singapore), Danish Hydraulics Institute (DHI) (Denmark) and Marmon (USA)-Hyflux (Singapore).
Also, the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre was set up as part of Nanyang Environment & Water ResearchInstitute at Nanyang Technological University. Black & Veatch (USA), aleading environmental engineering firm, also established its global water design centre cum Asia-Pacific headquarters.
In Natural Resources, Mitsui & Co (Japan) establishing its Asia Pacific HQ in Singapore, and NUS (Singapore) setting up the Minerals, Metals andMaterials Technology Centre to undertake research and development.
Also, GenoMar South East Asia achieved an important breakthrough in successfully developing the world's first DNA traceability system for fish.
Going forward, EDB said it will 'explore opportunities in the following business growthareas where Singapore itself requires good solutions, where Singapore can serve as a working model and a test bed for new ideas.'
It lists three areas: Urban solutions in clean energy research and testbedding initiative, health, wellness and ageing, and lifestyle products and services.
EDB has also been reaching out for new sources of investment from Asia and the Middle East.
Last year, there were several significant projects from China, India and the Middle East. For example, Tsinghua Tongfang (China) began operations for its Asia-Pacific R&D Centre for IT and Environment which will require 100 researchers when fully established. Wipro Technologies' (India) is setting up an R&D centre while Tamilnadu Petroproducts and Kuwait Finance House are major joint venture partners to build a petrochemical plant.
Elaborating on EDB's optimism for this year, its chairman Lim Siong Guan said many global companies take a long-term view when assessing investment plans.
Among the major projects secured by Singapore are Neste Oil, Finland's only petroleum refiner, which will invest about 550 million euros (S$1.15 billion) to build the world's biggest biodiesel plant in Singapore as demand for alternative fuels increases.
Some of these projects include Renewable Energy Corporation's (of Norway) S$6.3 billion world's largest integrated solar manufacturing complex, Oerlikon's only site in Asia which will manufacture and undertake R&D in solar manufacturing equipment, and Solar Energy Power's (Germany) first Singapore solar cell manufacturing plant, which started production of ultra-thin waferbased solar cells in May 2007.
