Business Times 5 Aug 08;
JTC has helped to spring Singapore to life, starting with the 'lost region' of Jurong, says CLARISSA TAN
IT TAKES guts, not to mention imagination, to look at hectares of crocodile-infested swampland and picture a thriving industrial centre.
Guts and imagination were what Singapore pioneers such as Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen had in spades, as they surveyed an area nicknamed the 'lost region', whose major tributary was a sluggish, silted river.
It was also how the Jurong Town Corporation, or JTC - now celebrating its 40th year - came into existence.
JTC was incorporated on June 1, 1968, but its story can be traced back to 1961, with the formation of the Economic Development Board. The EDB was created with Mr Hon, then permanent secretary of the finance ministry, as chairman. It was given a starting budget of $100 million and tasked with coordinating the development of the 'lost region', Jurong.
Such was the audacity involved in developing this hilly jungle-covered area that Dr Goh, then finance minister and the person who had hatched the idea, joked that if the endeavour should fail, it would forever be known as 'Goh's folly'.
Quips notwithstanding, he laid the foundation stone of the first factory in the project, the National Iron and Steel Mills (today's NatSteel) on Sept 1, 1962.
Throughout the 1960s, JTC's founders and staff ploughed ahead even as Singapore went through a rocky period.
The island, granted full internal self-government in 1959, was facing great economic and political change. Unemployment was rising, and strikes, arson and rioting were common. The government was also anxious about the growing influence of communism. Singapore had to provide jobs for its burgeoning population, and fast. The People's Action Party under Lee Kuan Yew bet - rightly, as it turned out - on massive industrialisation to pull ahead.
Thus the Jurong Project, as it was initially called, never had the luxury of resting on its laurels. Its mandate became all the more urgent when, in 1965, Singapore separated from the Federation of Malaysia and, in 1967, the British announced the withdrawal of its troops. The two events left Singapore vulnerable both on the economic and military fronts.
Still, by 1963, 728 hectares of land had been prepared and 24 factories granted pioneer-status certificates, including protective levies and no tax. Jurong Wharf started operations in 1965. Lost region though it might have been, Jurong had been chosen precisely because it was situated near waters deep enough for ocean-going vessels, and its relative isolation meant that there were fewer residents to relocate and land reclamation would be easier.
By 1968, the EDB's workload had grown so much that it had to spin off the Jurong Project, delegating it to the newly formed JTC.
'It is because of the rate of expansion of industrial estates that the work associated with their management and development has become so large and complex,' said Dr Goh at JTC's inaugural meeting. 'It is now necessary that responsibility for this work be removed from the economic development board and assigned to a specialist agency, the Jurong Town Corporation.'
Breaking all the rules
By this time, 14.78 sq km of industrial land had been readied, while about 150 factories were fully functioning and some 45 more being constructed. Although the corporation was named after Jurong, it was actually in charge of industrial space and development throughout Singapore. Eleven more estates were put into its care, including Kallang Basin, Kranji, Redhill, Tanglin Halt, Tanjong Rhu and Tiong Bahru.
Orders for factories, both standard and flatted, as well as investments flowed in. Such was the demand that in 1968, JTC had to build its own pre-fabricated Box-Beam type factories in the Kallang Basin as a temporary measure.
The late Woon Wah Siang, JTC's first chairman, was known for adopting unconventional approaches, since building an industrial estate had no precedence. Chairman until 1977, it is said that he distinguished himself by breaking all the rules laid down in the Civil Service manuals.
Mr Woon spearheaded land preparation in Jurong, which included selecting suitable plots of land, acquiring it, clearing squatters and resettling residents, felling jungle, levelling hills and reclaiming land. He then introduced infrastructure such as roads, utilities, amenities and adequate housing for workers.
In June 1969, JTC announced plans to turn part of the British Naval Base area into an industrial town. Land development in that area started that very month, long before the British finally pulled out all troops in 1971. Mr Woon explained that this was to plan ahead and save time. By the time the British left for good, reclamation of the area had been completed and some factories, shipyards and housing built. In the 1960s, JTC staff first worked in temporary offices at Malayan Banking Chambers in the city, then moved to Corporation Road in Jurong. In 1974, they finally transferred to the corporation's first proper premises at Jurong Town Hall. (Today, JTC's headquarters are at The JTC Summit in the Jurong East Regional Centre.)
Throughout the Opec oil crisis of the early 1970s, which brought about a global recession, JTC continued to acquire tracts of land. By 1977, with world business still weak, the corporation exceeded its annual target of 405 hectares by completing 787 hectares across Singapore.
The optimism bore fruit - 1978 proved to be a record year for the manufacturing sector, which grew 12 per cent in real terms. Industrialists flocked to Singapore in even larger numbers.
JTC's pioneer tenants include BRC Asia, one of the first to introduce the use of prefabricated steel mesh in Singapore; GKE, which changed the purpose of its Jalan Besut premises to warehousing from engineering, to adapt to market conditions; Chemical Industries; Exxon Mobil; Shell and SembCorp Marine (previously Jurong Shipyard).
Eng Poh Tzan, current senior vice-president at NatSteel, said that today, 'Singapore's steel technology stands among the more efficient steel producers in the world in terms of productivity and resource consumption'.
The mills produced their first lot of steel from the meltshop in the second half of 1963, followed shortly by the rolling mill.
'The basics of steelmaking do not change with time, but what has changed is the plant and equipment which has become more efficient,' he said. 'Less energy and manpower are consumed to melt and roll steel products such as bars and wire rods.'
Not all the early tenants were in heavy industries - food companies Nestle and Meiji, for instance, became tenants in the 1960s and 70s.
By the end of the 1970s, there was a shift away from space- and labour-intensive manufacturing towards technology and capital driven operations. JTC, having made Singapore spring to life, was gearing up for its next challenge.
This is the first of a four-part series brought to you by JTC Corp
