One company wanted to set up a factory in Woodlands to make MSG, or monosodium glutamate.

Already in the market was MSG from Ajinomoto in Japan and Nissin in Taiwan.

'And they wanted protection from these imports, because otherwise they could not compete,' says Mr Dhanabalan.

Another company making Eveready batteries put forth its case.

'They had a big plant in Princess Elizabeth Estate. They were finding it difficult to compete with the new batteries that were coming in from Japan ? Hitachi and National and so on.

'They made the point that they were selling the batteries at the same price as these imported batteries but they were not selling as many. And they needed protection.'

Such calls for the Government to step in to protect companies from competition sound outmoded today, in a Singapore which is the world's second freest economy, according to a 2007 survey by American think-tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

But back in the early 1960s, conventional wisdom said a country should protect its domestic industries from external competition.

This could be done by preventing foreign companies from opening factories, or by putting high tariffs on imports so they become more expensive than locally made products.

Like other economic planners in Singapore and much of the developing world, Mr Dhanabalan and his bosses subscribed to this orthodoxy.

'We were quite favourably disposed to their arguments,' he recalls of the meetings with companies that wanted protection.

Mr Dhanabalan is talking about the past in an interview with The Straits Times at Temasek Holding's headquarters at The Atrium@ Orchard.

Down the corridors are offices of the senior staff at Temasek, a mixed group of finance, economics and other professionals from around the globe.

Temasek, a Singapore investment firm, has more than $160billion in net portfolio assets as at March this year.

From pro-tariffs to globalised city IT IS hard to think of Mr Dhanabalan, who now chairs a global investment company of the world?s second freest economy, as being pro-tariffs.

But Singapore today is radically different from the early 1960s.

A pioneering generation of civil servants and ministers know intimately how Singapore made the leap, from an import-substitution economy premised on a domestic common market with Malaysia, to the open, globalised city state that is a hub in everything from finance to logistics today.

To capture some of those stories, the EDB Society and The Straits Times are organising a series of seminars to tap the insights of these pioneering policymakers.

The first seminar featuring Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was held in August.

The next will be held at The Arts House on Dec 11, with Mr Dhanabalan as the keynote speaker.

Mr Dhanabalan joined the Economic Development Board (EDB) in 1961, remaining till 1968.

He entered politics in 1976 and retired from the Cabinet in 1994.

In between, he held the ministerial portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Community Development, National Development, and Trade & Industry.

That Singapore went from domestic protection to external investment promotion is well known.

But how did the change come about?

Mr Dhanabalan, who lived through the change, recalls that there was no sudden reversal, but a gradual process of responding to changing circumstances.

It was, in short, a response to the failure of the common market with Malaysia.

Mr Dhanabalan tells the story in his methodical fashion.

In the 1960s, the idea was that Singapore should join with Malaysia to form a common market. This would create a large enough domestic market for local enterprises.

'A few of us in EDB, Ngiam Tong Dow, myself, Joe Pillay, were tasked to go to all the secondary schools to talk to the children about the common market. The idea was that they could then tell their parents about it. There were radio quizzes for schools on the common market.

'So we were like salesmen, went from school to school, talked to all the children in the school hall and the teachers, telling them why we need the common market and how the common market would benefit us.'

Common market didn't take off SOON, the common market was a buzzword.

Singapore became part of Malaysia in 1963.

But dreams of a common market never materialised.

When Singapore became independent on Aug 9, 1965, economic planners were both fearful and relieved.

'Relief that we were in charge, that we could do things ourselves. But we were not sure whether we could get things done. To speak the truth, I would say there was more fear than relief,' recalls Mr Dhanabalan, who adds, however, that as a young officer at that time, he was not privy to the thinking of the political leaders.

From an emphasis on protecting domestic industries, the EDB quickly reoriented itself to attract manufacturing investment to Singapore.

Early investors included Japanese manufacturers who set up shop to make galvanised steel or cables.

Hong Kong garment makers opened factories in Singapore to make simple textiles like bedsheets.

EDB officers ran around helping investors to set up factories in record time. In the meantime, Singapore workers had to be trained to get used to a factory environment.

'We set up camps in Jurong, where young girls could live for a few weeks and learn to do simple things like sitting at an assembly line without wandering off.

'Because it's one thing to be working as a waitress or something where your time is your own, but quite another to be in an assembly line, where your absence will put a stop to the entire process!'

To tap opportunities in the United States, the EDB opened its first overseas office in New York, with Mr Chan Chin Bock as the first local director.

At that time, the idea was just beginning to surface that US companies could reduce costs if they made their goods in cheaper places.

A big US company, Uniroyal, wanted to reduce its costs by setting up a factory in Singapore to make sneakers for its US market.

The plan came to nothing when powerful unions in the US protested against the plan.

'But the fact that a major US company like Uniroyal decided that it would come to Singapore was something that made other American manufacturers open their eyes and look at this possibility,' says Mr Dhanabalan.

Later, two big companies at that time, General Electric and Fairchild Semiconductor, set up factories here.

They wanted to make products not for the Singapore or Asian regional market, but for their US domestic market.

Singapore officials then realised that the Republic was attractive as a low-cost alternative to big companies producing for their own domestic market.

This meant Singapore's small domestic market did not matter.

'That then opened our eyes to this opportunity of leaping beyond the region to the world,' says Mr Dhanabalan.

'We didn't sit down and say, 'Well, this is the way to go, all right, and let's go and do it'.

'There were many things happening and then as things happened, we began to see the trend and say, 'We really got to seize the trend'.

'We were also not hampered by any fear of MNCs, no ideological hang-ups that these foreign companies were coming to Singapore to exploit us.'

After retiring from politics, Mr Dhanabalan maintains an active role chairing government-linked companies such as DBS Bank and Singapore Airlines, and now Temasek Holdings.

The devout Christian, who is active in the Bukit Panjang Gospel Chapel, has an independent streak.

As a young man, he left the Administrative Service because he did not like the pension system.

He had seen how senior officers nearing retirement had to swallow their pride and stay, and did not relish having to do so.

State pensions do not exist in statutory boards like EDB.

The independent streak is crucial in his current role as Temasek chairman, since he is the boss of Temasek chief executive Ho Ching, whose husband is Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Their easy relationship could be seen when Mr Dhanabalan had lunch with members of the EDB Society and journalists of The Straits Times recently.

Ms Ho peeked into his office, strolled in to say 'hello', and pulled up a chair to join his lunch guests over fruits.

Mr Dhanabalan says he has a friendly, productive relationship with Ms Ho.

'Frankly, if you ask me, the best decision I ever took in Temasek was to appoint her as CEO,' he says.