Source : Business Times - 12 Aug 2008
CLARISSA TAN looks back at the 1980s and how JTC responded to one of Singapore’s worst downturns
AH, the 1980s. How can we ever forget the big hair, the shoulder pads?
When you think of this rather loopy decade, when everyone was trying to do the moonwalk, the words ‘flatted factory’ hardly come to mind. But if it weren’t for some pretty nifty groundwork by the Jurong Town Corporation, we wouldn’t all be sitting quite so comfortably now.
The 1980s brought many challenges for Singapore’s industrial sector. Firstly, the nation faced one of its worst economic downturns. Secondly, manufacturers’ requirements for factory space were changing to capital-intensive and high-tech, from labour-heavy and low-skilled. JTC responded by thinking different and thinking big - coming up with a variety of new factory models, carrying out one of the world’s largest reclamation projects, and setting aside space for research and development.
‘JTC must dream new dreams,’ said Lee Hsien Loong, then Minister of Trade and Industry, at JTC’s 20th anniversary dinner in 1988. ‘It must support Singapore’s new economic thrust: to adopt a global strategy and become a competitive total business centre.’
The government corporation turned 40 in June this year.
In the early 1960s, it was still not uncommon to see zinc-walled factories. Throughout the 1970s, standard and flatted concrete factories mushroomed across Singapore, thanks to JTC. (Interestingly, the Corporation built standard factories in the shapes of certain alphabets: C, Z, H, L and T).
In the 1980s, JTC unveiled the series ‘6′, ‘7′ and ‘8′ of improved factories. Series 6 had larger production and office areas, a transformer switch and additional shading to minimise power used for air-conditioning. Series 7 factories had enlarged storage areas and fewer columns, roofs that could contain cooling towers of air-conditioning plants and lower office ceilings to save energy. Series 8, introduced in the late 1980s, had sleeker facades, aluminium wall cladding and tinted glass walls - a more streamlined, high-tech look overall.
Design improvements were also made to flatted factories, which were proving especially popular with a new breed of company - computer hardware and software makers.
In 1982, JASSI (JTC Accommodation of Selected Service Industries) was launched to attract technology companies. Under strict guidelines set by JTC, the National Computer Board and the Economic Development Board, 13 companies were selected and moved into flatted factories. These companies were involved in computer software, engineering consultancy and laboratory testing.
Aside from this, JTC also custom-built factories and offices for industry centres, such as the Precision Engineering Institute, and international cooperative bodies, such as the Japan-Singapore, the German-Singapore and the French-Singapore institutes.
From producing things, JTC wanted to move towards producing ideas. In the 1980s, it drew up a 10-year Master Plan which included the building of a science park. Development of the park, situated in Kent Ridge next to the National University of Singapore, started in 1981. By 1988, 35 companies - involved in software, robotics and other technology-intensive enterprises - had moved into the Singapore Science Park.
Underwater reef
JTC’s leaders at this time had the foresight to see how important R&D would be. Tang I-Fang, chairman for seven years from 1979, was both an engineer and economist by training, and saw the critical need for technically skilled workers in the push for industrialisation. Francis Mak, JTC’s longest-serving chief executive from 1981 to 1992, was also heavily involved with the first-phase development of the science park at Kent Ridge.
Mr Mak also had a hand in the mammoth reclamation projects of the 1980s. While Singapore was trying to set aside space for technology and R&D, investment was also pouring in for energy and commodity industries such as oil refinery, storage and redistribution, as well as chemicals production.
The southern islands of Singapore were earmarked for these sectors. Reclamation merged Pulau Sakra and Pulau Bakau and enlarged the combined area of the islands by about 10 times - to 155 hectares from 16 hectares - for $44.5 million. Another $32.5 million was spent on reclaiming 55 hectares at Pulau Busing.
In 1984, JTC launched an ambitious $602 million reclamation plan off Tuas. The 650-hectare project, among the world’s biggest, was completed in 1988. The reclaimed land was shaped like a hockey stick and added some 13 kilometres to the Singapore coastline. A biomedical site was located there.
And in an interesting aside, Terembu Pesek in the south, an underwater reef, was reclaimed by JTC in the mid-1980s to provide a transit station for imported pigs.
This expansion was going on despite Singapore entering a recession in the 1980s. Net demand for standard factories fell by 40 per cent in 1983. JTC responded by slashing rents and giving concessions. Industrial tenants also got free consultancy on renovations, electrical and mechanical installations, and any additions or alterations.
Even so, the going continued to be tough and some manufacturers had to return their premises and land to the JTC. The Corporation gave another round of concessions in 1985. Of the 1,057 factories available at this time, 846 were occupied. Planning of new units had to be frozen.
Still, by the end of the decade, the worst of the downturn had blown over. JTC already had plans for something else - an International Business Park. A 40-hectare site was picked in Jurong East for this project, which was to see the integration of office and corporate needs with manufacturing facilities.
‘Such parks will function as a hybrid between office parks, distribution centres and traditional industrial parks,’ announced JTC’s newsletter Periscope in its October-November 1988 issue. ‘They will accommodate all types of support and business activities like research and design, light manufacturing, distribution and warehousing, marketing and office administration.’
Among the many companies that expanded their manufacturing presence in Singapore during this decade were names synonymous with the 1980s - Japanese hi-fi audio maker Aiwa, for instance, and Singapore’s pioneer video-tape producer Electro Magnetic (S) or EMS. The American specialty chemical giant Rohm and Haas Company invested $60 million in a new plant to serve the growing semiconductor industry in the region.
Amid all the work and financial hard times though, JTC staffers found time for the finer and funner things in life. A skating disco, known as the Jurong Park Roller Skating Rink, attracted many roller boppers throughout the decade. Jurong Lake, meanwhile, became the water-skiing venue for the South-east Asia Games hosted by Singapore in 1983.
A restaurant and grill room called Buaya - so-called because of the crocodile-infested swampland that was the Jurong area before industrialisation started in the 1960s - became de rigueur at the Jurong Country Club. By now, the club also boasted an 18-hole golf course, four tennis courts, seven squash courts, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
JTC was fighting fit to meet the 1990s.
This is the second of a four-part series brought to you by JTC Corp
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