1918 - 2010 Goh Keng Swee - People's Action Party - PAP

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Goh Keng Swee: The Legacy gapore’s first industrial estate. It called for not just filling in the land but also the creation of roads, power plants, sewers, drainage… But few entrepreneurs were convinced of the possibilities and workers shied from living so far from town. The project was dismissed as “Goh’s Folly”. To promote his baby, Goh Keng Swee made it a point to attend the groundbreaking ceremony and official opening of even the smallest factory. The press was asked to cover every single event, and a steady trickle of entrants resulted. His big breakthrough came in 1968, when Texas Instruments not only came for a looksee but opened a plant within 50 days of deciding to invest. National Semiconductor followed, and other multinationals joined them. Jurong Town Corp was set up in 1968 to manage the estate’s development and other industrial estates. There are now more than 7,000 local and global companies sited on over 6,600ha of industrial land, and 4.4 million sq m of readybuilt facilities in Jurong, plus industrial estates elsewhere in Singapore. Export nation Plans for a common market with Malaysia and of serving as a manufacturing centre for the grouping crashed when Singapore and Malaysia parted ways in 1965. Goh, needing a new strategy, gambled on a route newlyindependent countries were shunning to protect their industries exportoriented development. Rather than protect Singapore from the discipline of international competition, he opened the country to free trade and foreign investments. And while others avoided MNCs, believing they would exploit a country, he welcomed them, leveraging particularly 24 PETIR MAY / JUNE 10 Goh helped set up MAS and decided the economy be export driven. on the growth in the electronics sector. The result is one of the world’s most open economies where exports are more than double Singapore’s GDP. Stable dollar Prior to 1970, separate government departments were handling different aspects of monetary policies and functions. As Singapore developed, it needed a central body to develop a more dynamic and coherent policy on monetary matters. Goh oversaw the setting up of the Monetary Authority of Singapore that became Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator. He also served as its chairman from 1981 to 1985. While there, he laid out policies for a strong and stable currency and took measures to ensure the Singapore dollar was not internationalised, to discourage speculation in it. This helped keep the currency strong and controlled domestic inflation. He also put in place tough banking regulations which helped see Singapore through economic crises. At the same time, he changed the laws to attract foreign financial institutions to do more business here. As a result, the sector grew at doubledigit rates for most of the 1980s through to the 1990s. Meanwhile, foreign banks were kept out of the domestic banking scene, allowing the local banks to grow.
Building an army in two years was akin to a miracle, said Goh. Currency issue It was Goh who insisted that the Currency Board – a colonial legacy – issue Singapore dollars, rather than MAS when it was set up. Again, Singapore stood out as an exception among newly independent states. Acknowledging that it was “a strange anachronism in this age of electronic finance”, he argued that governments cannot “spend their way to prosperity” and that every single Singapore dollar has to be fully backed by reserves. This prevents overissuing of new money that can lead to inflation, and ensures the country’s currency remains stable. However, MAS has since taken over the board’s functions. Wealth fund Having dragged Singapore out of its financial pit, Goh was faced with growing state coffers in the 1970s. Asked to find ways to obtain better returns from the surpluses, he came up with an independent, professionallymanaged – the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. Its task was to find longterm investments for the spare cash. This allowed MAS to focus on regulating banks and managing the country’s currency. This pioneer in sovereign wealth funds is now possibly the fourth largest in the world. Development bank Singapore’s largest local bank, DBS Bank, started off as the finance arm of the EDB. Its main aim was to help finance new, relatively risky projects that others avoided, such as infrastructure building and electronics manufacturing. Goh pushed for it to list publicly and, later, become a fullfledged commercial bank. Savings culture Ninety years after the British set it up, the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) was in decline. However, Goh saw its potential to start a savings culture here. On top of that, the money could be used for development projects. To encourage the lowerincome to stash their cash, he waived the need for a minimum sum required to set up an account and the tax on interest paid on the savings. As people’s incomes grew, savings too would grow, he reckoned. Singapore now has one of the highest national savings rates in the world – 55 per cent. DEFENCE Army days When Singapore became independent, it had only 1,000 soldiers, 75 per cent of whom were Malaysians and British, who owed no loyalty to the new country. As the first Defence Minister, Goh Keng Swee had the major headache of building a defence force from scratch. He started by calling for volunteers, dragging in MPs to his People’s Defence Force. His initial idea was to have 12 battalions of regulars, but was asked to come up with a scheme where civilians would also be trained and could be called on if needed, “because the security of every society must always depend, more or less, upon the martial PETIR MAY / JUNE 10 25
Page 1: 行动报 www.pap.org.sg Goodbye Go
Page 5 and 6: Dr Goh’s role extended well beyon
Page 7 and 8: Mr Lee’s letter of thanks to his
Page 9 and 10: In his talks with Tun Razak, then M
Page 12 and 13: Eulogy by Mr Goh Ken-Yi Great grand
Page 14 and 15: We Salute the Great Man Who Helped
Page 16 and 17: Goh Keng Swee: The Man active in th
Page 18 and 19: 16 PETIR MAY / JUNE 10 We Salute th
Page 22 and 23: 1 5 Goh Keng Swee: Memories THE POL
Page 24 and 25: THE FUNERAL: 1. Son, Mr Goh Kian Ch
Page 28 and 29: Goh Keng Swee: The Legacy spirit of
Page 32 and 33: DR GOH KENG SWEE We pay tribute to
Page 34 and 35: Dr Goh Keng Swee was instrumental i
Page 36 and 37: We Salute the Architect of Singapor
Page 38 and 39: We salute the visionary who helped
Page 42 and 43: Overheard 40 PETIR MAY / JUNE 10
Page 44: A Tribute to the Prime Architect of

1918 - 2010 Goh Keng Swee - People's Action Party - PAP

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