The Government announced this on Monday at the launch of its revamped talent outreach programme, Contact Singapore. Contact Singapore is now jointly-run by the Economic Development Board and the Ministry of Manpower. MOM ran the programme solo previously.

While Contact Singapore, which currently has four offices around the world, will continue to help scour the globe for talent, it will also be looking for entrepreneurs keen to do business and invest here.

To pave the way for this, it is setting up three new offices, which will be operational by end of the year.

It will also tap on additional resources like EDB's 19 offices around the world.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng was the guest-of-honour at Monday's event, which attracted over 100 participants from companies like law firm Drew & Napier's corporate administration support and immigration services arm DrewCorp and the Korean Chamber of Commerce.

Previously, the Government's efforts to attract investment had been primarily focused on larger multinationals, said Contact Singapore executive director Ng Siew Kiang.

While these efforts have been successful, the Government had 'known for some time' the tremendous role rich individuals and business families in the region play in their economies, she said.

And 'at the back of our mind', she said, was always the thought that it could be 'missing out' if does not tap on these individuals and business families.

This prompted it to begin looking into this area during the last quarter of last year.

Ms Ng said Contact Singapore has had some successes so far attracting individuals to invest here, although she declined to give numbers as it was still a 'fairly new' area.