YOUNG AND CLUELESS? 'We had only Plan A and looking back later, he must have thought, 'These young fellas, they don't know what they're doing'. MR S. DHANABALAN (above), on how Milton Friedman quizzed young officials on Singapore's fall-back plan if its economic strategy failed

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.

And telling the story of the journey yesterday was civil servant, politician and corporate chief Mr Dhanabalan, 70, whose political career spanned five ministries, and who helped build two key institutions: the EDB and DBS Bank.

Now Temasek Holdings chairman, he was speaking at a dialogue - the second of a series showcasing Singapore's economic pioneers - organised by the EDB Society and The Straits Times.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was the first speaker in August.

Chaired by Mr Patrick Daniel, Editor-in-Chief of Singapore Press Holdings' English and Malay Newspapers Division, the 90-minute session included questions e-mailed by readers of The Straits Times.

Student Lew Ji Zian, 17, for instance, asked about how Singapore - a backwater country in the 1960 and 1970s - was able to attract multinational corporations (MNCs).

Mr Dhanabalan's response: 'We had one thing that others did not have - we were not afraid of the MNCs.'

That was when many developing countries feared the power of MNCs. He said: 'They saw them as dangerous, but we certainly didn't have that fear. But basically we had to go and get overseas investments because we had no other alternative.'

After all, Singapore had neither raw materials nor a large market for MNCs to exploit. And 'it was better to be employed and paid some wages than to be unemployed'.

The need to overhaul conventional thinking began even before independence, when the EDB was set up in 1961 with a $100 million budget.

'The thinking behind the EDB when we first started was that we had to restructure the economy,' he said.

The then-traditional sectors of entrepot trade and local services did not offer sufficient growth opportunities. The decision was taken to grow the manufacturing industry, with an eye on the Malaysian market.

But when separation came in 1965 and the dream of a common market collapsed, the team rallied and looked to woo foreign companies.

Nothing was sacred, including agreeing to build a factory according to the specifications of Fairchild Semiconductor, renting it to them - and giving them the option to buy it later at cost price, minus rental.

To laughter from the audience of 120, he said wryly: 'In those days, we did a lot to try and attract industries.'

But the expense was worth it as other companies soon followed in its footsteps.

The courtship did not end there. Singaporeans had to be trained for factory assembly lines. So the EDB set up a 'camp' in Jurong where women were asked to do simple sewing work - but sitting for four hours at a time with a half-hour break thereafter, Mr Dhanabalan recounted.

Yesterday's seminar at the the Old Parliament House was also a trip down memory lane for former EDB stalwarts such as Mr P.Y. Hwang and Mr Lim Ho Hup, who laughed at the reminiscences and jolted Mr Dhanabalan's memory where needed.

Said Mr Hwang, the former EDB chairman in the 1980s: 'It is good to relive the old times.'

xueying@sph.com.sg

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