SINGAPORE, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) recorded a new high of 7.13 billion Singapore dollars (about 5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) said on Wednesday.

    The GERD in 2008 increased by 12.4 percent from the GERD of 6.33 billion Singapore dollars (about 4.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007. The figures were indicative of the intensity of R&D activities in Singapore.

    The 2008 figure was 2.77 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), putting the country on track to achieving its target of 3 percent by 2010, according to A*STAR's latest National Survey of R&D for 2008.

    The private sector increased its R&D spending by 20.9 percent year-on-year from 4.23 billion Singapore dollars (2.95 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007 to 5.12 billion Singapore dollars (3.58 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008.

    Much of the private sector growth was driven by manufacturing R&D activity, particularly in the electronics sector. R&D spending by the electronics sector in 2008 was 3.04 billion Singapore dollars (2.12 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 39.3 percent from 2.18 billion Singapore dollars (1.52 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007.

    Overall, GERD grew rapidly at a compound annual growth rate of 11.2 percent from 2000 to 2008.

    Sales revenues generated from commercialized products and processes attributed to R&D performed in Singapore have increased by 31.5 percent from 16.4 billion Singapore dollars (11.46 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007 to 21.5 billion Singapore dollars (15 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008.