What many Israelis don’t get about the Far East, and especially about China, is its patriarchy-oriented culture, according to Dr. Alex Lin of Singapore’s Infocomm Investments.

“There’s a major cultural gap that is very hard to close,” Lin told The Times of Israel on a visit here, where he is searching out start-ups for his $200 million fund to invest in. “The cultural gap is a reason why many companies don’t make it in Asia, and for those having trouble fitting in, I would suggest taking a look at Singapore as a gateway to bridging those gaps.”

On paper, Singapore and Israel have a lot in common, said Lin on the sidelines of a conference for potential Singaporean investors in Israeli firms. Both are relatively small countries with small, dense populations (Israel is bigger and more populous but Singapore has more people per square mile than Israel). Both have border issues with some of its neighbors, and both scramble geopolitically to survive among much larger and less stable neighbors (although Israel’s neighborhood is certainly tougher, admits Lin).

The most important similarity, though, is in the natural resource both countries rely on – their people.

“Historically, neither Israel nor Singapore could rely on natural resources to feed their economies, because neither have had any,” although in Israel’s case, the discovery of huge amounts of natural gas off the coast will change that. “Nevertheless, Israel’s experience as a resource-poor country for six decades forced it to rely on the one thing it did have – people – and that is Singapore’s strength as well,” said Lin.

Because, like Israel, Singapore doesn’t have much of a domestic market, it’s had to focus on exports — i.e., developing technology and services that can be deployed in foreign markets. Tech services, which don’t require natural resources or a strong manufacturing base, fit in with that strategy.