S'pore govt loses patience with Suzhou park

The joint venture on the outskirts of Shanghai was planned as a model for co-operation between Singapore and the mainland but relations have soured, with the Singaporeans increasingly complaining that the Suzhou municipal authorities are not committed to the project.

Singapore has accused the Suzhou authorities of directing investors to their own wholly owned, nearby industrial and economic zone where land and service charges are cheaper.

The decision to pull forward the transfer date is the clearest evidence so far that Singapore wishes to reduce its involvement in the ailing venture.

Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) was started by the Singaporeans in 1994 as a goodwill gesture to help the development of the mainland's hi-tech industry.

Singapore promised to bring in the best of its technology, facilities and efficient management to create an oasis and gateway for Singaporean and multi-national corporations wanting to get a foothold in the mainland.

It would cover a total of 70 square kilometres and be developed over a 20-year period at a total investment cost of US$20 billion, according to the original plan. So far, eight square kilometres have been completed.

Just 48 companies moved to the park in its first three years, bringing in total investment of $3.24 billion. Another 30 are said to be building facilities there, but the Singaporeans fear interest may have already peaked.

Lim Neo Chian, chief executive of China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Development, has appeared on Singapore's Insight television programme and complained that the commercial and residential aspects of the township had been a complete flop.

"We've hardly made any progress at all," Mr Lim said.

The original plan envisaged more than 100,000 people living within the hi-tech industrial town. Instead, its population stands at just 500, providing little in the way of a workforce.

For several years there have been rumours of discontent over Singapore's flagship venture in the mainland, but no-one dared speak out.

That silence was finally broken in December last year when Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kwan Yew visited the mainland and delivered a blunt message to the Suzhou municipal authorities about their attitude toward the high-profile joint venture.

He told them they needed to decide whether to back the Sino-Singapore park or its rival municipal project, where costs were lower.

Mr Lee warned if Suzhou authorities decided on the latter, "then it should devote all its resources to it and the SIP will bow out".

President Jiang Zemin subsequently came out and pledged the mainland's support for Singapore's multi-billion dollar venture, offering a ray of hope.

As recently as last week, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan toured the park and publicly expressed his confidence that the problems plaguing the development could be ironed out.

However, Mr Lim's comments suggest serious differences persist.

Lim Chee Onn, the park's former chief, told Insight that Suzhou officials "did not quite understand the purpose" or had "lost sight of the original goal" of the project.

Singapore officials also said they felt an "investor-friendly mindset has not been internalised" by mainland workers in Suzhou.

To aid in the park's transfer, Singapore officials now intend to accelerate the transfer of know-how and software so that the park and companies within it can continue under mainland management control.

A Singapore consortium owns 65 per cent of SIP, while mainland companies hold the rest.

 Published in the South China Morning Post. June 4, 1998