The Kent Ridge Common, 9 Apr 2009, Kelvin Teo
" The initial failure of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) serves as an important reminder to all of us. SIP was initially conceived to be the epitomy of Singapore-style industrial township - a showcase of Singapore’s way of managing an industrial set-up. That wasn’t to be, and Singapore transferred a major part of SIP’s ownership back to the Chinese. What happened was that SIP was outgunned and outfoxed by the Suzhou New District, despite the former enjoying advantages ranging from political support from the Communist party to freedom over planning and land use. Turned out that the experiment to clone Singapore in China failed.
Thus, what Suzhou has taught us is that what works in Singapore may not necessarily work elsewhere. Undoubtedly, learning the language or dialect involved in trade communications is important, but the key to survival is to be able to adapt to the prevailing business conditions. This is the basic rule of evolution."
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