Alexius A. Pereira

State entrepreneurship and regional development: Singapore's industrial parks in Batam and Suzhou

This paper examines a case of state entrepreneurship and regional development through an analysis of the Singaporean governments ‘regional industrial parks’ programme, which began in 1990. To the Singaporean government, this programme was an entrepreneurial venture because it was designed to generate profits through developing, leasing and managing industrial estates in selected locations across the Asia Pacific region. This paper examines two such regional industrial parks, situated in Batam (Indonesia) and Suzhou (China). It finds that as an entrepreneurial venture, the parks have both successes and failures. In addition, the two parks have had different developmental impacts. The paper concludes by arguing that although the entrepreneurial states strategies are important, host governments must act on these strategies effectively in order to achieve sustained economic development.

Whither the Developmental State? Explaining Singapore's continued Developmentalism

Abstract This paper examines why the Singapore developmental state, unlike the other East Asian developmental states, has shown no signs of devolving but instead appears to be strengthening its position within society by embarking upon several ‘post-industrial’ economic programmes. By utilising a class relations perspective, the paper argues that the resilience of the Singapore developmental state results from the continued weakness of the domestic capitalist class as well as from the states collaboration with transnational capital and government-linked corporations. At the same time the working class has continuously been ‘incorporated’ by the state. To illustrate these processes, the paper examines Singapores Biomedical Sciences Initiative, and the Work Restructuring Scheme, which have reinforced the supremacy of the Singapore developmental state, particularly in the economic sphere. The paper concludes that developmental states need not necessarily devolve, if they can continue to provide economic growth as well as to carefully ‘manage’ class relations in society.

State Collaboration with Transnational Corporations: The Case of Singapore's Industrial Programmes (1965–1999)

This paper explains how and why transnational corporations have chosen to collaborate with the Singapore government in certain industrial programmes, and not in others, between 1965 and 1999. In the analysis, this paper links two concepts, the global game of industrial production, and the developmental state, to explain the outcomes of three national industrial programmes in Singapore: the industrial transformation (1965–1980), industrial upgrading (1980–1990), and regional industrialization (1990–1999) programmes. This research finds that because of their relative autonomy from national governments, transnational corporations would collaborate not just due to the effectiveness of embedding strategies, but when these strategies were complementary to their own global business strategies within the global game of industrial production.

Singapore's Regionalization Strategy

This paper evaluates the Singapore governments ‘regionalization strategy’ (1990–2004) as a national development policy. Unlike the Singapore governments earlier national development policy, which focused on encouraging industrial transnational corporations to locate production within Singapore, the new strategy encouraged them to locate production in Singapore-developed industrial parks in selected cities across the Asia Pacific region. As a development policy, this research finds that the regionalization strategy has had mixed results. It has succeeded in encouraging industrial transnational corporations to locate in these Singapore-developed industrial parks, but failed to generate enough profits to supplement Singapores domestic economy. Based on this study, there are two conclusions that can be drawn: first economic globalization and global production networks are not only driven by the motivations of industrial transnational corporations (market driven) but also by national economic policies (state driven), such as by the Singapore governments regionalization strategy. Second, as a national development policy, a ‘regional’ strategy is highly risky as the state is not in full control of external factors, as opposed to implementing development policies locally.

The Suzhou industrial park project (1994–2001): The failure of a development strategy

This article assesses the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) project as a developmental strategy of the Singapore government. The primary focus will be on explaining the reasons behind the strategys failure. It begins with a background to the Singapore governments “economic regionalisation” strategy, followed by a description of how the Singapore government proceeded to develop and manage the SIP between 1994 and 2001. The article then identifies a few positive aspects of the SIP project, as well as several problematic aspects, which ultimately led to the Singapore governments disengagement. The article concludes by arguing that despite a few successes, the SIP project must be considered a failure as a developmental strategy, as it did not achieve the intended objective of generating an external income to supplement Singapores domestic economy.