SINGAPORE - When Sembawang Shipyard was publishing its first book in 1998, Mr Lee Kuan Yew wrote in its foreword thus: "The history of Sembawang

Shipyard, like the history of Singapore, shows how a determined people were able to overcome the odds because management and workers were prepared to meet new challenges in an intelligent manner."

When the book was to be launched in December that same year, Mr Lee attended even though he had his heart stent operation just a few days earlier.

These and several other anecdotes were shared by top officials of Sembcorp Marine yesterday as the company held a tribute for Mr Lee.

"For Sembawang Shipyard, we had the double privilege of Mr Lee visiting us not once or twice but on every second day of Chinese New Year for many years," said Ms Wong Lee-Lin, executive director of Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary Sembawang Shipyard.

"He would visit unannounced - just driving through the shipyard. Why he did that every year is not known to us but perhaps he just wanted to remember the roots of his political career when he was the legal adviser of the Naval Base Labour

Union."

The tribute ceremony, attended by 400 people, was witnessed by Sembcorp Marine chairman Mohd Hassan Marican and president & CEO Wong Weng Sun.