WHEN American economist Milton Friedman was here in 1965 and quizzed young public servants about Singapore's economic strategy, he received the same reply repeatedly: Attract investors, grow the manufacturing industry. The Nobel laureate pushed them for more answers.

What if you don't succeed, he asked. What if you don't attract investments? What if you don't succeed in growing the manufacturing sector?

'And we kept telling him we have to succeed. We have to,' recalled Mr S. Dhanabalan, then a 28-year-old Economic Development Board (EDB) officer.

'He was looking for Plan B ...We had only Plan A and looking back later, he must have thought, 'These young fellas, they don't know what they're doing'.'

The anecdote was symbolic of the single-mindedness with which Singapore strove to overcome the odds to succeed economically. » Full Story