December 27, 2009
Singapore’s latest foray into China, led by the Ministry of
National Development to develop an eco-city in the northern
metropolis of Tianjing is turning into another Suzhou nightmare for
the island state.
The China-Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) was set up in 1994 at the
outskirts of the Suzhou City in Jiangsu province with the help of
Singapore funds and expertise. Singapore owned a 65% stake in the
park.
Even as the park was being constructed, the Suzhou City
government set up Suzhou New District Industrial Park (SND) right
next to SIP. It was the exact replica of the Singapore model.
As the Suzhou City government had a majority stake in SND, it
largely ignored the SIP and concentrated on promoting the SND
instead.
After incurring losses of some US$90 million over 5 years, the
Singapore consortium lowered its stake to 35 percent, raising the
Chinese consortium’s stake to 65 percent from 35 percent and
reducing the Singaporean share from a planned 70 sq.km. to just 8
sq.km (source: wikipedia)
According to a report in the Sunday Times, tension appears to be
building up in the joint Sino-Singapore team as Singaporean and
Chinese officials often do not see eye to eye on such things as
work priorities and timing.
A Singaporean, who has lived in China for over a decade and
works for a company with close dealings with the Eco-City was
quoted as saying: “We may have another Suzhou Industrial Park
tangle on our hands.”
One problem which continues to plague the project as in Suzhou
is the difference in priorities between local officials and the
Singaporeans.
Though the project has received strong support from the central
government in Beijing, it is the provincial officials the Singapore
team have to liaise with and many do not share the vision of their
Singapore counter-parts.
To the Tianjin officials who are there only for a short stint,
they are desperate to produce quick results which will earn them
promotions elsewhere.
For example, while Singapore would like to have Housing
Board-style public housing that will cater to low-income Chinese,
Tianjin officials have been lukewarm to the idea because they worry
over who will stump up the cash to subsidise the apartments.
A Tianjin official apparently told his Singaporean
colleague:
“By the time the public housing project is completed, many
of us Tianjin officials would likely be promoted elsewhere. Who
would still be around to ensure that it is really the poor people
who are relocated to this public housing estate?”
Singapore appears not to have learnt its previous lessons from
Suzhou – that written contracts count for little in business
transactions in China and local officials are often more interested
in securing promotions for themselves than the welfare of the
people.
There is an ancient Chinese saying: “The mountains are tall and
the Emperor resides far away”. The Tianjin provincial government
runs autonomously on its own and even the central government in
Beijing has to “kowtow” to it in order to get things done
there.
Like in Suzhou, the project was supposed to be a joint
collaboration between two national governments, but end up being
hijacked by the provincial government instead.
For some inexplicable reasons, a state agency – the Ministry of
National Development, which is funded entirely by taxpayers’
monies, is directly involved in the Tianjin Eco City.
Asked why it was picked as the lead agency, the MND told The
Sunday Times that its ‘expertise in township development is
essential, especially in areas such as master planning…and the
provision of housing and green spaces’.
It is not revealed how much money that MND has pumped into
Tianjin so far. There is no opposition in parliament to hold the
ruling party accountable which gives it the freedom to do anything
as it wishes without answering to the people.
In China, the officials and businessmen are frequently
decried as being in “cahoots” with one another to cheat the people.
In Singapore, the officials and businessmen are together in one
single “class”.
An earlier Straits Times report in August this year described
Singapore’s Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan as
a ”key player” in the development of the Tianjin
eco-city, which China and Singapore formally agreed to develop in
Nov 2007. He co-chair a joint business council on cooperation
between Singapore and Tianjin.
With due respect to Mr Mah, he is hardly the ideal person to
fill such a position. An engineer by training, he worked in the
civil service during his entire career before he was plucked to
stand in the elections and becoming a minister. He never had any
experience working in China before.
The government should never be involved in business at all which
should be left to the private sector with the necessary drive,
experience and expertise.
Fortunately for Mah, he would never be asked to answer for any
mistakes made just like in Suzhou when the Singapore consortium
reportedly lost more than USD$90 million dollars in 5 years.