The timing couldn't have been worst, starting-up as a labour sub-contractor specialising in reinforcement concrete works. Nevertheless, we survived and have become a main contractor for logistics and industrial buildings.

The problems that we faced during the Asian financial crisis can be basically classified into two areas: Insufficient business and cash flow management.

As the construction industry usually has a lag time of one to two years to feel the impact of economic downturn, the whole industry was greatly hurt after 1999. Output shrank by 50per cent, the whole market was a mess and most of the people did not know where the construction industry was heading.

And we weren't the only ones.

It's very hard to secure a project with the tremendous competition in the market so we had to be realistic. Our philosophy to secure a project was: Just breakeven, let's not even talk profits. The biggest worry of a sub-contractor during a crisis is non-payment, short payment or delayed payment from main contractors and this has great impact on cash flow. So how we coped was to reduced our work force and survive by focusing on government MRT projects.

Other things we did to survive was to work with reliable clients to minimise the risk of non-payment; undertake self-improvement efforts and upgrade our skills; and most importantly, work with our staff (even the physical work).

I admit, I did think of giving up in 2001 when the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis hit us the hardest. At that time, we had no continuous projects and debts to settle. I told myself that I must be a responsible person and I couldn't' just give up after putting so much effort in growing my company, my baby. Moreover, being the eldest in my family, I felt that I needed to take care of my younger siblings. So I told myself; I must persevere and cannot fail.

Since then, we have grown from strength to strength, even during times of crisis. I believe the current crisis will ironically benefit us by easing up the tension of the overheated construction industry for the past two years and allow us some space to breath. As a main contractor for the industrial sector, we were hurt twice in 2007 & 2008 by the sand and aggregate crisis, as well as the increase of raw material prices.

The current crisis allows us the opportunity to restructure and reorganise our team to be better equipped to face future challenges. Our own premises, Jian Huang Business Centre, has been completed too.

Besides focusing on the local market, we are aggressively venturing into overseas markets such as China and Vietnam. In fact, we've just secured our 1first project in China for the construction of a 150,000m industrial facilities for the government - a new milestone.

Besides the core construction business that we are in, we have also taken the opportunity to venture into new areas of business - the environmental engineering solutions and rental of construction plant and equipment.

I believe, every crisis can be seen as an opportunity and we will do emerge better than before and grow stronger.