Noticed that our “nation-building” and “constructive” MSM has gone quiet on innovation when ministers talk bugger-all on the topic? Remember when innovation was the theme, juz recently? https://atans1.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/want-more-creativity-let-the-dark-side-in/
Seriously, given the S’pore’s govt penchant for building state-of-the-art infrastructure, could this be a reason why we have problems in the “innovation space”.
That lousy infrastructure = innovation.
The Economist’s Babbage blogged, “It’s well established that America, on a number of different measures of internet speed, availability and penetration, tends to rank about 15th. Yet YouTube, Twitter and the iTunes store are all American innovations, all from a time when America was already falling behind on speed and access. Which leads me to a question: is it possible that the limitations of America’s internet infrastructure actually spur innovation? The delivery of Flash-encoded video — as on YouTube — is a cleverly efficient use of bandwidth. If America could pipe 100 HD channels into every home, would there have been a YouTube?”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/03/infrastructure_and_innovation
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 
india also has great innovative stuff for the poor which is also high quality despite poor infrastructure, eg. aravind low cost eye surgery