Singapore aims to attract as much as $14 billion of investments in manufacturing and services this year to boost economic growth and spur employment.

The city state lured fixed-asset investments of about $12.9 billion last year, the Economic Development Board said today. The government also targets as much as $7.5 billion in business spending this year from manufacturing and services industries such as information, education and health care.

 

Singapore has cut taxes in recent years to encourage investors to set up operations or expand in the Southeast Asian nation. Exxon Mobil Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. are among companies that are adding capacity in the island ranked by the World Bank as the easiest place to do business.

 

“The Asian growth story remains a very strong driver for companies’ investment decisions,” Leo Yip, the board’s chairman, said at a press briefing today. “We see great interest in companies from America, Europe and Japan seeking to build on their Asian presence.”

 

The investment that comes in this year should help generate 16,000 to 19,000 skilled jobs and add as much as $16 billion to gross domestic product annually when completed, the board said. Projects that were committed in 2010 will create about 21,300 jobs and add $14.4 billion to GDP every year, it said.

 

Exxon’s Singapore refining complex, the company’s biggest globally, comprises a 296,000 barrel-a-day plant on Jurong Island off the country’s southwestern coast and a 309,000 barrel-a-day refinery on the mainland. In November, it announced plans to build a diesel hydrotreater.