Daily Briefing: Singapore and Hong Kong's battle for innovation; Foreign workers trickle out of Singapore

And here's why more Chinese firms are saying goodbye to SGX.

From CNBC via Yahoo!: Innovation does not always have to mean a lighter phone or a slimmer TV: Hong Kong and Singapore are innovating to become smarter cities aimed at social improvement for their urban populations. Singapore's Smart Nations program is focused on making every aspect of life, from transport to water systems to even garbage disposal, more efficient. Under that program, the government is placing sensors in cars, roads and homes to measure how things run, and then tapping that data to make them run better. Read more here.

From CNBC via Yahoo!: Singapore's reliance on foreign labor may be shifting, with the city-state's central bank pointing on Thursday to a cautious employment outlook. In its macroeconomic review, conducted twice yearly, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it expected net employment growth was expected to stay "modest and uneven across sectors."

From CNBC via Yahoo!: Among departures from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) over the past year, a number of companies stood out for these common characteristics: they come from China and were among mainland firms that contributed to the flurry of initial public offerings in the city state about a decade ago. Chinese companies listed in Singapore , known as S-chips, led the local IPO market from 2005 to 2007 before such listings came to a halt in mid-2012. In recent months, those firms have left the SGX in greater numbers voluntarily or after failing to meet listing requirements, according to exchange filings compiled by CNBC.