There’s been a spate of newspaper articles here in Singapore, how some companies are rebuilding the manufacturing needed to make our own surgical masks. Even the gaming laptop company Razer—whose CEO is Singaporean—is in on it, allegedly setting up one plant within 24 days, with a production capacity of 5 million masks per month. Spotlight was also on another government-linked company which had to ship their machinery back from Taiwan to make the masks locally, after an embargo on mask exports was introduced in Taiwan.

“Made in Singapore” seems to be becoming a source of pride; bringing manufacturing back home seems to be trending. With the pandemic stretching out and countries tightening borders and exports, the only thing certain are delays and blockades in the global supply chain. So reigniting manufacturing capabilities back home seems to be a good move. I wonder what’s the second and third order, knock-on effects of such a trend. It won’t be just pandemic gear like masks and sanitizers that will be in short supply in the global supply chain, but everything else. The days of logging into Amazon or Alibaba to order something half-way around the planet, might be disappearing faster than we expect. 

“Made in Singapore”—or made in whatever country you are from—will make a comeback in the economy. Making things for yourself—growing food, sewing masks, baking your own bread—might just be the next big trend to watch. And for makers, that’s a bright future. 

What will you make?