Originally posted by fudgester:
I have said it once; I'll say it again.
You say that 'the figures speak for themselves'.
So give us the figures for the net returns to our investment in
Suzhou.
Just look at the profits since 2001:
SUZHOU - NINETY minutes by car from financial hub Shanghai lies one
of China's prime magnets for foreign investment - a Suzhou township
created in the spitting image of Singapore.
Driving along neat tree-lined roads past well-manicured parks,
pastel-hued condominiums and a miniature lake, one experiences a
severe sense of dislocation. This could be Pasir Ris or the Kallang
Basin area, not an industrial zone in eastern China.
It is a far cry from the crowded, dusty factory towns that took
root at a similar stage of China's economic development.
The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) is a 12-year-old joint project by
the Chinese and Singapore governments.
Conceived as a showcase for the city state to share the lessons of
its economic development, the 70 sq km park bears the Singapore
stamp of methodical town planning.
It has clearly demarcated districts for industry, business,
research and development, logistics, housing and recreation.
Some 900 companies, including big-name multinationals such as
Samsung, Siemens and Panasonic, are based in the SIP.
Their glittering glass-and-steel factories sit alongside pockets of
greenery; unsightly power cables are tucked away underground.
The park's wealth and influence loom larger than its small
size.
Though it occupies only 4 per cent of land in Suzhou, it
contributes some 15 per cent of the city's gross domestic product
and 26 per cent of Suzhou's foreign investment. The park's
total output last year was 58 billion yuan (S$11.6 billion) - about
50 times what it achieved when it first started 12 years
ago.
Due in part to the park's ripple effect, Suzhou has the
fastest-growing economy of any city in eastern Jiangsu province,
itself one of China's best-developed regions.
In August, the Chinese government approved the expansion of the
park by another 10 sq km, even as it enforced strict controls on
land usage and over-investment elsewhere in the country.
It was not so long ago, however, that the area occupied by the SIP
was just farmland, populated by villagers instead of some 260,000
foreign and local executives and their families.
'Our cars used to get stuck in the dirt tracks,' recalled
businessman Goh Toh Sim, the park's former top Singapore executive
and a 10-year veteran of the project.
For him and other Singaporeans who helped develop the park, this is
a microcosm of China's growth path, an accelerated and occasionally
bumpy process of opening up the economy and applying the lessons of
other countries.
As it evolved from a basic manufacturing centre to a value-added
information technology and services hub, it took a leaf from
Singapore's own economic development, say Chinese executives at the
park.
'Singapore started with manufacturing, and now it has become known
for services. Our association is so close, it is inevitable that we
would follow Singapore's pattern of development,' a Chinese
spokesman for the SIP Administrative Committee told The Straits
Times.
Put the two together and you get all the ups and downs of a
bilateral marriage that has since flowered into a success story
other parts of China want to emulate.
The disagreements of old have been well documented.
Five years ago, Singapore pulled back and took a minority share in
the project. It felt undercut by local government officials on a
partnership inked with the central government in Beijing.
Interviewed by The Straits Times, Singapore's Minister of State for
Trade and Industry, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, said that through the SIP,
'Singapore companies learned how business is done in China. We
don't assume things are done the same way as back home
anymore.'
Mr Lee, who was International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's chief
executive before entering politics this year, spent over a year in
Suzhou in the late-1990s as one of the park's senior
executives.
Singapore started out with a 65 per cent stake in the project but
found the local Suzhou authorities less than supportive, as they
had less to gain by channelling resources into the park.
The turnaround in the park's fortunes began when the two
countries swopped stakes in 2001, with the Chinese side becoming
the majority shareholder. That year, the park posted its first
profit of US$7.6 million (S$12 million) and has not looked back
since.
A current top Singapore executive, Mr Goh Tien Jin, believes the
switch coincided with China's entry into the World Trade
Organisation, when a lot of foreign investment began pouring into
China.
'Also, when the Chinese took over as the majority shareholder, they
became more active in giving support and policy incentives to these
investors,' said Mr Goh, who is executive vice-president of the
China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Development Company
(CSSD).
Far from hurting Singapore's reputation, the park has now become
the city state's best-known brand in China, say insiders.
Mr Goh Toh Sim, who left CSSD for Singapore-based regional firm
Ascendas in 2004, told The Straits Times that he had visited major
cities across China 'and every city asked me to help them build
another SIP'.
Ascendas, which develops economic zones and office space, has
offices in 10 Chinese cities, including Suzhou.
Now CEO of Dragon Land, a Singapore-listed company dealing in
Chinese real estate, Mr Goh Toh Sim told The Straits Times: 'We are
seeing a lot of the practices we brought in with SIP duplicated all
over China.
'Whether it is 'one-stop approval' for foreign companies or a
'pro-business' mindset, the same tune is being sung by other
industrial parks.'
National and provincial leaders have even waxed lyrical about the
Suzhou park, calling it a 'fresh flower' that could spread its
'blossoms' elsewhere in China.
Singapore has trained nearly 1,000 Suzhou officials in all aspects
of township planning and management, including financial discipline
and customer service. Another 50,000 industry professionals from
other parts of China have visited the park as observers.
Minister of State Mr Lee said the park had raised Singapore's
profile in official and business circles.
For Singapore firms trying to get a foothold in China, the magic
word Suzhou gives them 'a good reference site which is easily
understood in the Chinese context'.
'Today, when people talk about the park they say, 'Indeed, it is a
very far-sighted, well-planned township',' he said.
(Straits Times 16 Oct)
