TRANSFORMING LANDSCAPES, IMPROVING LIVES..

THE SINGAPORE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD’S(EDB)

50TH ANNIVERSARY

Standing at the concourse just beyond the Salon.

Welcome to the exhibition “Transforming Landscapes, Improving Lives” which tells the story of the Singapore Economic Development Board(EDB) through its 50 years from 1961.

My name is “xxx” and I am a volunteer guide with the Friends Of the Museum. This walkthrough will take about 40 minutes. This way please...

Walk visitors to the framed Chinese calligraphy, near the exit of the history gallery.

This story of EDB mirrors the story of Singapore who gained independence on 5 June 1959.

What we see here is a piece of Chinese Calligraphy written by

Singapore’s President Mr Nathan. The four characters say “自强不熄” (Zi Qiang Bu Xi) which loosely translated means “One’s strength

is never extinguished”.

President Nathan was then working for the National Trade Union Congress and helped EDB by gaining the trust and cooperation of the unionised workers.

The story is chronologically demarcated by three main parts –

Pioneering Spirit in the 1960’s and ‘70s

Dare to Dream in the 1980’s

And

Future Ready, the 1990’s to present day

There is also an area on the second level for us to write our good wishes for Singapore’s future!

Walk visitors to the far-end table, nearest the exit of the History Gallery.

So the EDB story begins shortly after Singapore obtained full internal self rule on 5 June 1959. Singapore faced many challenges as a self-governed country. It had a population of 1.6 million, half of which was illiterate, the birth rate was 4.4 per annum and the double-digit unemployment rate was to be compounded with the imminent withdrawal of the British Troops. This withdrawal would mean a loss of 40,00 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs.

This is when the indomitable spirit came into play and young leaders like Goh Keng Swee led the way.

Professor Edgar Schein of MIT wrote in his book Strategic Pragmatism, a study of the organisational culture of EDB:

“The EDB and the government of Singapore assumed that the only way it could fulfil its vision of development was to learn from others and its own experience, and to continuously innovate in dealing with whatever problems were discovered to stand in the way of achieving the vision”

And this is how EDB set forth right from the beginning.

Let us look at an example of this spirit:

Display: Photo of Dr Goh at the laying of the foundation stone for the National Iron and Steel Mills in the newly opened Jurong Industrial Estate. They produced steel-reinforcing rods for the construction industry.

We see here Dr Goh Keng Swee, the Finance Minister of Singapore in the ‘60s taking a very active role in shaping Singapore’s future by attracting investments in the manufacturing sector. He had the help of a team from the United Nations comprising Dr Albert Winsemius and Mr I.F. Tang. This team drew up the economic blueprint for Singapore.

Such opening ceremonies were important publicity events to bolster the confidence of investors and Dr Goh ordered the EDB officers to “..get me a roster of new plants to open every day for the next 3 months”

Although EDB did not have 90 factories, not even 9 then , they very cleverly devised ceremonies for every milestone of a factory – the signing of an agreement, the laying of a foundation stone to signify the start of building the factory, the celebration of the completion of a building, and so on..

It was a time when EDB cannot afford to be choosy about what type of factories wanted to set up in Singapore.

Display: Mosquito coils, joss sticks, plastic flowers and hair wigs

EDB worked hard to establish factories in Singapore to bolster the job market. The EDB attracted all types of investors, including those producing mosquito coils, plastic flowers and joss sticks, and even hair wigs, all labour intensive industries! This is an all-out attempt to reduce the double-digit unemployment rate in the ‘60s.Each factory opening meant employment for some 80 more people.

These factories started filling up the Tanglin Halt Industrial Estate. The Jurong Industrial Estate became home to industrial factories such as National Iron and Steel Mills (NISM) and Sugar Industry of Singapore (SIS).

To further seal the commitment of these investors, the EDB offered them Pioneer Status

Display: Pioneer Certificate

The pioneer certificate was an important tool EDB used to attract new investors to Singapore. “Pioneer Status” exempted companies from paying taxes for a number of years. These generous terms were given to encourage job creation in Singapore.

In the 1960s, Shell was the first company to receive Pioneer Status. The Government of Singapore provides a comprehensive package of tax concessions and incentives to businesses, the very nature of which reflects the direction in which the authorities are trying to steer economic development.

The government plays a key role in driving Singapore economic development through the granting of fiscal incentives. The allocation of an incentive depends primarily on such considerations as the amount of investment involved, the technical output, the export potential, the employment opportunities and the general conduciveness to Singapore economic activity.

Later, Pioneer status is would be given to high-tech companies which introduce high-tech skills to the economy. High-tech companies include business entities engaged in computer based information services, engineering services, technical services, the development or production of industrial designs and other computer related services. A company designated pioneer status is entitled to the following fiscal benefits:Profits are fully exempted from corporate income tax for a period of up to 15 years. The current rate of corporate income tax is 17% (18% in 2009).

The Oral interviews here with the late Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr S. Danabhalan attests to this ‘can-do” attitude of EDB and is best demonstrated with the story of Heng Guan Limited.

Display: TV Footage of Minister of Finance Dr Goh Keng Swee AND Mr S. Danabhalan then a young officer with the Admin Service brought into EDB.

Display: picture of SETRON TVS and Worker

Did you know this worker assembling a TV was not too long ago a coffee bean grader? It started with a company called Heng Guan Limited dealt in Indonesian produce. Because of the Indonesian Trade embargo, Heng Guan’s 600 coffee graders and packers suddenly had no jobs! EDB worked closely with this trading company to find another labour-intensive project which was TV assembly.

Hence SETRON(Singapore Electronics) Limited, South East Asia’s only TV assembly plant was born! Coffee packers and graders , with little or no education , became semi-skilled and skilled assembly line workers.

EDB, with the help of its investors started to upgrade the skills of its workers. Rollei, a German company making was one such company and here we see 2 Rollei Cameras that were made in Singapore.

Display: Rollei camera and Bullets

Black Rollei XF35 rangefinder cameras

These cameras were the world-renowned 35mm rangefinders that had been manufactured in Singapore by Rollei

This is an example of precision engineering. The company’s investment marked a milestone in the development of the precision engineering sector. Rollei was a German camera and optics company renowned for its technical know-how and its highly-skilled employees. In the 1970s, it opened a S$39 million manufacturing plant in Singapore. This enabled the creation of jobs for 4,000 workers.

Rollei also contributed to the development of a skilled labour force in Singapore. It entered into a joint venture with EDB to establish the Rollei-Government Training Centre (RGTC). Throughout its 10-year stay during the 1970s, Rollei did more than just bring German production excellence to Singapore. Through its factories and the Rollei-Government Training Centre, Rollei had also helped to train about 5,000 Singaporeans in precision engineering skills, many of whom went on to join new Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs) or

started their own companies.

And also bullets made in the ‘60s and ‘70s by the Chartered Industries of Singapore(CIS),

Display:10 rounds of 5.56 mm Ball and 5.56 mm Tracer

CIS started in 1967 to produce ordnance for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). Known as ST Kinetics today, the company is part of a global integrated engineering group, ST Engineering. It designs and manufactures military products for the SAF, including small arms and munitions. Singapore was then the first tropical country with bullet manufacturing activities. It did not feel comfortable having to buy arms from another country to defend itself.

Today, it even manufactures the M16 rifles under licence and many other types of army vehicles which it exports to the US.

Over the years, through training and hard-earned experience, Singapore built a critical pool of skilled craftsmen. Singapore’s skilled workforce was a key driver in its success within the precision engineering industry.

EDB went on a mission to bring in globally recognised leaders in precision engineering and courted the Japanese watch maker Seiko for some years.

Display of Seiko mechanical stopwatches made by Singapore Time and Lee Kuan Yew’s Seiko Watch

We see here the first Seiko mechanical stop watches and also a Seiko watch presented by Seiko to Mr Lee Kuan Yew as appreciation for his support.

The story goes that after three years of fervent engagement with EDB, Seiko’s management was finally persuaded to visit Singapore. Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s visit to the Seiko factory in Japan also finally convinced Seiko of Singapore’s interest and commitment to the company.

In 1976, the Seiko Group opened Singapore Time, the first fully integrated watch movement plant in Singapore. The plant manufactured stopwatches, wrist-watches, related movement and parts, and tools and dies in Singapore. Seiko Instruments Singapore today employs 900 staff and continues to contribute to Singapore’s economic well-being.

There is also another Japanese precision engineering company that found success in Singapore called Nippon Miniature Bearings(NMB).NMB sells precision miniature bearings to US defence companies with special sanction from the Pentagon.

To wrap up the Pioneering days we note that is was increasingly important Singapore has an educated and skilled workforce. This would be the real competitive edge for Singapore.

Hence there were technical institutes of training set up, like the

German-Singapore Institute

French-Singapore Institute

Japan-Singapore Institute.

All these were absorbed into the Nanyang Polytechnic in 1992.

In this footage,Chong Shin Chuan, an ex-Rollei employee speaks of his encounter with the German philosophy of perfection – “Bitte Langsam” or “please slowly” means the thinking is to go over a job many times to attain perfection, to attain “Meister” status, and not be in a hurry to move on to another thing which the Rollei employers noticed with Singapore trainees!

DISPLAY: TV Footage of ITE Employee and Rollei ex-employee.

Moving into the Eighties

By the late 70’s Singapore had a much lower unemployment rate and workers were more educated and skilled.

Singapore shifted its focus towards skills-intensive businesses and EDB was asked to be more selective in awarding Pioneer Certificates to investors. This came as a challenge during the negotiations on an electronics assembly investment proposal with Hewlett-Packard. Convinced that HP was an important investor, EDB requested for an exception. The petition went through on the condition that it would be the last project of its kind EDB would support. With that, HP’s investment in Singapore was successfully secured and it continued its operations into the following decades in many other areas.Singapore missed out on other companies like Intel that went on to become the world’s top semiconductor company. Talks with Motorola also fell through.

Moving to the next table

DARE TO DREAM

Overall, the EDB story of the ‘60s and 70’s was one of indomitable spirit, perseverance, innovation and sacrifice and we will now go on to see how these qualities are laid the groundwork for the ‘80’s and beyond.

Electronics Evolution

Singapore had come a long way since its Setron TV set days. By the 1990s, MNCs such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Micron Technology, STMicroelectronics and Seagate had established high value-added manufacturing operations in Singapore. Throughout its evolution, the electronic industry has remained a key pillar in Singapore’s economy.

Singapore shifted its focus towards skills-intensive businesses and EDB was asked to be more selective in awarding Pioneer Certificates to investors. This came as a challenge during the negotiations on an electronics assembly investment proposal with Hewlett-Packard. Convinced that HP was an important investor, EDB requested for an exception. The petition went through on the condition that it would be the last project of its kind EDB would support. With that, HP’s investment in Singapore was successfully secured and it continued its operations into the following decades in many other areas.Singapore missed out on other companies like Intel that went on to become the world’s top semiconductor company. Talks with Motorola also fell through.

Standing by the copy of the memo that was prepared by John Doyle, who led the Hewlett Packard study team on Singapore as a location for its overseas division

Singapore’s investment in training its workers bore fruit as borne out by this memo addressed to Bill Hewlett, CEO and President of Hewlet Packard. It summarised the recommendations of the study team to make a long term investment in Singapore due in no small part to its work force.

Display:HP Thinkjet, HP DeskJet 1000C

The HP Thinkjet was the first Hewlett-Packard (HP) printer that was manufactured in Singapore in the 1980s while the HP Deskjet 1000C was the first A3-sized printer that was designed and developed in Singapore in 1995.

HP first established its base in Singapore in 1970. Higher value products were manufactured in Singapore over time, such as the HP Thinkjet, which was manufactured in Singapore in the 1980s. By the 2000s, HP had begun using Singapore as a location to design and develop products such as the HP DeskJet.

During the 1980s, Singapore experienced its first disk drive wave. Seagate was the first hard disk drive company to set up in Singapore. In 1984, the company opened the Seagate Science Park. The facility was responsible for the development of the U Series hard disk drive. Over the years, the hard disk industry grew into a billion dollar industry. At its peak, Singapore produced 40% of the world’s hard disk drives.

Singapore also set its sights on the semiconductor wafer fabrication industry. EDB set an ambitious target of establishing at least 25 wafer fabrication plants in Singapore. A host of government agencies worked together to designate areas in Pasir Ris, Tampines and Woodlands as wafer fab parks. These industrial parks helped build a vibrant ecosystem of integrated circuit design companies, chip assembly and test plant, wafer fabrication sites, and research institutes.

We now examine two wafer discs which have to be produced with the purest waters(Newater actually!), physically stable (no vibration) settings and other extremely stringent conditions.

Display: STMicroelectronics 5-inch wafer

This historic 5-inch wafer from STMicroelectronics was the first ever to be fabricated in Singapore when the company set up the first wafer fabrication plant here in 1984.Today, it has become the company’s single largest wafer manufacturing facility in the world and the role and operations of STMicroelectronics have also strategically expanded to fully integrate research and development, product development, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and supply chain management.

Display:Micron Technology 12-inch wafer

This 300-millimetre (mm) (12-inch) wafer contains the first memory chip produced by TECH Semiconductor after the company converted its two existing 200-mm plants on the fly into a state-of-the-art 300-mm plant in 2006. The conversion was the first of its kind worldwide, and it more than doubled TECH’s capacity. TECH Semiconductor was set up in 1991 as a joint venture wafer fabrication plant between Texas Instruments, Canon, Hewlett-Packard, and the EDB to manufacture DRAM semiconductor memory chips. Today, TECH is wholly owned by Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world’s largest semiconductor memory companies, employing over 6,700 workers in Singapore.

Display: Seagate U Series 3.5-inch hard disc drives

These U Series hard disc drives were conceptualised, designed and developed at the Seagate Science Park Design Centre in Singapore, the company’s first outside the United States. Launched in 1999 for desktop PCs, the U Series sold more than 100 million units worldwide, generating a multitude of new inventions and patents in the process. Seagate’s research and development initiatives in Singapore can be traced back to 1984 when the Science Park was first set up, which created jobs for research scientists and engineers, enabling Singapore to play a dominant role in the global disc drive industry over the decades.

In 1991, Singapore’s disk drive industry contributed almost 50% of the world’s 32 million unit output of 2.5”, 3.5” and 5.25” drives. In the June 2001 issue of Storage Newsletter, Singapore was considered “the world’s disk drive factory”.

Display: TV Footage of STMicroElectronics Mr Sirtori

We see a happy Mr Sirtori who is not only successful with STMicroElectronics, but he also found love in Singapore and has made Singapore his home.

Standing by the TV footage of Philip Yeo

After two decades of steady growth, Singapore experienced its first recession in 1985. We see here footage of Philip Yeo a former chairman of EDB(1986 -2001) who talked about the recession of 1985 and the course of action the Singapore government took.

It was a downturn that took place in Silicon Valley US. Singapore workers were by then relatively well paid with the employer and employee’s Central Provident Fund(CPF) contribution at 50% of the worker’s wage. This increase in wages was not matched by value added improvements in the companies. So the Singapore companies found themselves uncompetitive in the times of recession with high overheads.

The National Wages council recommended a wage freeze which lasted for 2 years and an adjustment to the CPF contributions which currently stands at 36%.

The Economic Committee was formed to address the recession. It recommended the promotion of the manufacturing and services sector as the “twin engines of growth. The vision was to present Singapore as a country with boundless economic opportunities. This paved the way for Singapore to become the global business city it is today.

EDB are not only involved with companies that make “hardware”, it has a lot to do with popular food items you and I encounter in our everyday life, hence,

Food & Nutrition

In the 1990s Singapore placed increasing emphasis on research activities in industries such as the food and nutrition industry. Such a shift was reflective of the evolving socio-economic landscape in Singapore.

Nestle opened its R&D centre in Singapore in the early 1980s. At that time, it was one of the largest food research centres in the world. Its mission was to source, evaluate and incorporate regional food materials into new products for the Asian market. Nestle’s presence benefited small and medium enterprises in Singapore, as they tapped on the company’s research expertise and technical services.

In 2005, Kikkoman Corporation partnered with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to open the Kikkoman Singapore R&D Laboratory Pte. Ltd. The centre aims to develop safe, high quality food for the Chinese market.

Other companies such as Cerebos, the manufacturer of Abbott and BRANDS, have also engaged in nutritional research. In 2010 Abbott opened its Asia-Pacific Nutrition R&D Centre with the objective of creating science-based nutritional products for various age groups. In the same year, Brand’s research centre was established to study the effectiveness of nutritional products on consumers.

(Photo) Visitors at the official opening of Kikkoman’s Singapore plant at Senoko Crescent

We see here a range of food products for adults and children.

Let us start with the three types of Kikkoman sauces namely:

Sukiyaki, Teriyaki and at the bottom, Soya

Which are100% naturally brewed and wholly made in Singapore.

Kikkoman Corporation, headquartered in Chiba, Japan, is the world's largest producer of soy sauce, with operations in more than 100 countries. In 2010, Kikkoman celebrated its 25th anniversary in Singapore.

Kikkoman began brewing soy sauce more than 300 years ago in the small

town of Noda. The city of Noda was chosen as the main base owing to its

ideal location near the Edo River, which has served as a convenient

transportation route to and from Tokyo for centuries.

Today, more than 17 generations later, Kikkoman is still owned and

operated by descendants of this early entrepreneur and the naturally brewed

soy sauce is sold in over 100 countries.

In 2007, a new type of soy sauce blended with Chinese herbal medicine was

released – herbal soy sauce with ginseng and herbal soy sauce with

honeysuckle flower. This unprecedented product line blends and balances

Chinese herbal medicine with soy sauce, Food flavour is enhanced thanks to

the complex aroma of Chinese herbal medicine and the scent of soy sauce.

Display: Brand’s Essence of Chicken

Every Singapore child sitting for his examinations will be given Brands Essence of Chicken as a boost to brain power!!

Brand’s, well-known for its Essence of Chicken, is a key brand of Cerebos. The company undertakes research as a key priority in order to create effective products which are scientifically proven. In 2010, Brand’s brain research centre was established in Singapore to study the effects of nutritional products on health and brain performance. Cerebos is also well known for its iodised salt. And food flavourings.

Display: S26 Promil, Pediasure, Similac and Milo (all nutritional products)

Many mothers rely on S26 when their infants are weaned off breast feeding and mothers return to work!

Nutrition companies like Abbott Nutrition and Pfizer Nutrition conduct product development, as well as manufacture nutritional powder in Singapore. The milk for these products come in a powdered state. It is then refined and blended with other ingredients in Singapore. These products need strong intellectual property protection and the hence the final products are made here because Singapore is a trusted location for intellectual property rights.

 Both companies work towards delivering solutions which address the critical nutritional needs and challenges for infants, young children and mothers.

Display:Milo

Another product children in Singapore grow up with is Milo. There is always a MILO van at sports meets dispensing ice-cold Milo in cone cups!

Production of Milo in Singapore started in 1984, and Singapore has since won the accolade of being the single largest Protomalt (Milo’s key ingredient) manufacturing plant worldwide, producing 30% of the world’s malt extract supply. Since the 1950s, Milo has been championing youth sports development in Singapore. Through sponsorship of various sports events with key institutions, Milo aims to nurture Singaporean athletes into national sports heroes. The Milo tin on display here features Tao Li, one of Singapore’s promising

young swimmers.

Companies like Nestle keep abreast of the changing lifestyles and food tastes of its consumers hence:

Display:Yang Sheng Le

As seen here, Yang Sheng Le is a range of concentrated herbal soups, aimed at fulfilling consumers’ needs for natural products and authentic traditional foods. It is packaged as an easy to prepare product, but without compromising on taste and nutritional value. The product was conceived through collaboration between Nestle and Singapore-based traditional Chinese medicine company, Eu Yan Sang, and first launched in Singapore in 2008.

Nestle’s operations in Singapore is the world’s largest malt producer, with a total production of 87,000 tonnes of Promalt every year. Promalt is a key ingredient in the Milo beverage.

To recap so far, we have overcome the challenges of the 60’s and 70’s, came out stronger from the financial crisis of the 80’s and we now have to be even more innovative and invest more to attract the best of the biomedical industry to set up home in Singapore!

Display: TV Footage of Phillip Yeo, EDB Chairman 1986-2001 and Yong Hwee Yee, Glaxo-Smith Kline Scholarship recipient 1991.

‘Brainpower’ remains key and the Singapore government and EDB nurtures talent by awarding scholarships – the EDB-Glaxo scholarship and the A* Scholarship both focussed on the sciences.

And here are a range of specialised products produced in Singapore and ‘’firsts” in the world. These are from your left, moving anticlockwise:

1.A Heart Valve product - Carpentier-Edwards Perimount Pericardial Bioprosthesis

2.BD Unijet Syringe

3.A high-density chip - Fluidigm Dynamic array 96.96

4.A drug to treat cancer - Avastin

I will highlight two of these:

Display: Carpentier-Edwards Perimount Pericardial Bioprosthesis

This is a heart valve made in Singapore by Edwards Lifesciences, a world leader in manufacturing heart valves.The valves come from cattle slaughtered in Australia, then brought to Singapore for

processing and sewing. This type of biological valve utilizes biological tissue to make leaflets that are sewn into a metal frame. This tissue is typically harvested from the Pericardial Sac of either Bovine (cows) or Equine (horses). The leaflets are flexible and durable and do not require the patient to take blood thinners for the rest of their life.

The company’s plant in Singapore is the first in Asia. It opened in 2005 and has a significant local workforce, as well as a dedicated upgrading programme with the Employment and Employability Institute(part of the National Trade Union congress – NTUC) and the Workforce Development Agency for medical device manufacturing.

Display:BD Uniject syringe

The BD Uniject is a pre-filled, easy-to-use, single-dose syringe that is designed and developed by Becton Dickinson (BD) Singapore. The Uniject device was designed with the following features in mind:·Single dose—to minimize wastage and facilitate outreach to individual patients.·Prefilled—to ensure that the correct dose is given, and to simplify procurement anddistribution logistics.·Non-reusable—to minimize patient-to-patient transmission of blood-borne pathogens.·Easy-to-use—to allow self-injection and use by health workers who do not normally give injections, and to facilitate use in emergency situations.·Compact size—for easy transport and disposal.

As you can see it is a disposable product hence does not run the risk of infection, and is light.

The Singapore Uniject syringe today provides a low-cost solution to global immunisation programs for hepatitis B, tetanus and other vaccines today, which were considered too costly for public-sector health programmes two decades ago. In 2000 BD set up its production plant in Singapore, manufacturing Uniject devices for the global market.

Other specialised products we see here are:

Heart stents and printed batteries

REC cell and wafer

The heart stents are developed by the school of Material Science and Engineering at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University(NTU) and the wafers produceclean energy from sunlight, one of the world’s largest integrated solar manufacturing plants.

Aerospace

Singapore is recognised as one of the most comprehensive aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sites in Asia. With over 100 aerospace companies, including major players such as ST Aerospace and Goodrich, Singapore’s aerospace industry makes up a quarter of the Asian MRO market.

Singapore is also expanding into aerospace design and manufacturing. Rolls-Royce, a major supplier for aircraft engines, has opened an advanced plant in Seletar Aerospace Park to manufacture engines for large aircrafts. The company aims to distinguish itself in Asia with its groundbreaking operational and environmental efficiency.

(Object) Hollow Titanium Wide-Chord Fan Blade

This hollow titanium wide-chord fan blade (WCFB) is pioneered by Rolls-Royce. It is manufactured through a proprietary process of diffusion bonding and super plastic forming, creating the hollow yet rigid 3D aerodynamic shape of the blade.

The fan blade will be manufactured at the Rolls-Royce Seletar Campus located at the Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore, the first WCFB factory to be located outside the United Kingdom.

SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence new s DATE:02/03/11

Rolls-Royce's Singapore facility to begin production in mid-2012

“Rolls-Royce aims to begin Trent engine assemblies at its new facility in Singapore's Seletar Aerospace Park in mid-2012, and expects it to produce up to 250 powerplants a year.

The engine assembly and test facility, which will produce Trent 900s, Trent 1000s and Trent XWBs, was first announced by Rolls-Royce in 2007. It is the first such facility outside the UK.

Rolls-Royce estimates that the Singapore plant will meet half of the engine manufacturer's annual engine demand, with its existing facility at Derby producing another 250 engines a year.

Another Rolls-Royce factory in Seletar, which will produce wide chord fan blades for the three engines, will also begin operations in mid-2012.

This will manufacture 6,000 blades a year, says Rolls-Royce's chief operating officer for its Singapore aerospace division John Horsburgh. It could eventually produce up to 9,000 blades a year by 2018.”

Rolls-Royce has said it was investing more than S$700 million ($550.5 million) in the Seletar facility, which would create 500 new jobs.

The Origins of Jurong Island

The chemical industry first began in the 1960s, with the first pioneer certificate awarded to Royal Dutch Shell Company. By the late 1970s, Singapore’s petrochemical industry contributed to more than 30% of the sector’s global manufacturing output. Singapore had four refineries then: Shell, Mobil, Esso and Singapore Refining Company. Due to the petrochemical boom in the 1980s, Asia received a lot of attention from global petrochemicals companies. This inspired Mr Philip Yeo, then EDB Chairman, to create a “chemical island” to further develop the industry in Singapore.

Singapore commenced on a massive project to reclaim and amalgamate seven southern islands in 1995. Today, Jurong Island is an integrated chemical hub, equipped with holistic infrastructure to support different chemical processes. Singapore was able to achieve economies of scale with the co-location of companies from various stages of the chemical value chain. The Island hosts research and development activities as well. These knowledge-intensive activities are conducted at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES).

We see here many products and by-products from the refining processes of energy companies like Shell.

These are:

1. Lycra Spandex Yarn and a lycra garment2. to 7. Test tubes of petrol of various grades ranging from

crude oil(dark brown, light brown, green, yellow, pale yellow and clear) to jet fuel!

8.Bitumen for road surfacing

9..A sponge.

Jurong Island is among the world’s top 10 petrochemical hubs with over 90 global companies. 1.3 million barrels of crude oil are refined every day and 4 million tonnes of ethylene, an important chemical raw material, is produced in Singapore every year.

And last but not least, we move into

A Creative Chapter: Interactive & Digital Media

The Interactive Digital Media (IDM) sector is increasingly popular among youths today. Singapore brought in speciality schools such as the DigiPen Institute of Technology to groom aspiring artists in broad areas of film, game and online media content design. For the first time, IDM courses were also introduced to tertiary institutions such as Temasek and Republic Polytechnics. Singapore has also welcomed leading media companies such as Lucasfilm, KOEI and Double Negative to set up studios in Singapore.

(Objects) Darth Vader Mask replica, Obi-Wan Kenobi Lightsaber replica, Darth Vader Lightsaber replica

Lucasfilm established its first overseas production studio in Singapore in 2005. Today, the studio has a multinational team working on TV and feature film animation, games and visual effects. Lucasfilm Singapore has contributed significantly to Lucasfilm’s line-up of blockbusters and hit TV shows – including work on Rango, Iron Man II, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars Animated TV Series.

Singapore has established Mediapolis, part of the One-North cluster, as a hub for media content creation. It will house creative agencies and media companies like MediaCorp.

There are opportunities for Singaporeans to undergo training in interactive and digital media. For example, Lucasfilm has an in-house apprentice programme, playfully named the Jedi Masters Programme (JuMP) that trains artists. Many other companies also have on-the-job training programmes for local tertiary graduates.

Standing at the foot of the escalators.

We have come to the end of the 50-year journey of EDB, starting with the Pioneering years when labour-intensive manufacturing brought much needed employment for Singapore.

The ‘80s saw Singapore becoming the hub for precision engineering, micro-electronics, disc-drive manufacturing.

The 21st century sees Singapore moving into Biomedical Sciences, and creative media technologies.

EDB with the help of the Singapore government and a network of government agencies will no doubt have to keep many steps ahead to ensure Singapore’s well- being. It will continue to transform landscapes and improve lives!

Let us proceed upstairs where you may wish to write what you want for Singapore’s future in the areas of Work, Play, Home and Objects.

At the top of the Escalators, platform area.

I wish you a good day!

Bibliography:

HEARTWORK by Chan Chin Bock

YAHOO WEBSITE for FOM-NMS RESEARCH TEAM

EDB 50th Anniversary Website:www.EDBis50.com

EDB –“Transforming Landscapes, Improving Lives” Teacher’s guide

STRAITS TIMES ON-LINE

FOOTNOTE:

RED HIGHLIGHTS are LINKS or attempts at!

YELLOW for ROUTING

ITALICS for OBJECTS DISPLAYED(to state the obvious)