China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park

For those of us with a deep and abiding interest in the Suzhou Industrial Park, it is interesting to note that the high-level bilateral project between China and Singapore is beginning to make its presence felt as a "case-study", mostly negative, invariably cautionary, in articles/text books about the region.

Such as "Remapping East Asia The Construction of a Region" (2004), which contained an article by Natasha Hamilton-Hart titled "The Regionalization of Southeast Asian Business".

Unless I am gravely mistaken, the purpose of incorporating the case study was to highlight the author's point that 1) "despite being made up mostly of ethnic Chinese, Singaporean companies apparently do not naturally have the skills to operate in the region", and 2) "Singaporean companies investing in China need to acquire skills and strategies that are different from those employed in Singapore".

In the article, she noted that although some firms were attracted by the Singapore brand name, both the Suzhou and the Wuxi industrial parks ran into difficulties, especially in adjusting to the political and regulatory environment in China.

"According to a manager of the company set up to develop the Suzhou Industrial Park, "normal" companies could use whatever means to make a profit: "You can be above table, under table, back door, front door or whatever you think of, but not for us. Number one we cannot embarrass the Singapore government."

"Indeed, an article in the Chinese press noted that because of "strict laws and regulations, and drawing on Singapore's experience of honest and clean government, not a single civil servant in the park's administrative committee has broken the law or committed a crime".

Hamilton-Hart added: "Squeaky clean operations and high-level political support might underpin successful industrial parks in Singapore, but in China the lack of flexibility and attention to local government priorities caused problems for the Suzhou Industrial Park from the start."