by Tng Ying Hui
Capt. MJ had free rein to run the company, which began in a small room in Fullerton Building. That NOL did not have a government label was Dr Goh’s idea. The NOL was registered in 1968, and within two months, Capt. MJ had ships setting sail. Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s wife, Kwa Geok Choo, took an active interest in naming the ships. NOL’s first large oil tanker was christened the Neptune World by Kwa. In 1969, ownership of NOL was transferred from the government to Temasek Holdings.
To become viable and competitive, NOL had to acquire ready ships to enter the major trade lanes in order. From the outset, it fought hard to join the Far East Freight Conference (FEFC), which controlled the lucrative Far East-Europe trade route. Its Western members controlled the number of ports a shipping line could visit, amount of freight rates and proportion of routes. The Far East-Europe trade route connected major ports in Europe and North Africa via the Malacca Straits to those in Southeast Asia. But joining the FEFC had its challenges.
The FEFC treated Capt. MJ and his colleagues shabbily, and tried to dissuade them from joining by pointing to the “hardships” they would face. Once, the FEFC even wanted to limit the amount of tonnage that NOL could carry. Nevertheless, Capt. MJ stood his ground and negotiated for a place for Singapore in the exclusive club. By taking part in Far East-Europe trade, Singapore gained access to the entire route right through the Malacca Straits located at its doorstep.
After four years on the job and with NOL owning a fleet of about 20 ships within that short time, Capt. MJ felt that it was time for a Singaporean to take the helm. Goh Chok Tong, who would later become Singapore’s prime minister, succeeded the captain. When Capt. MJ left, Lee Kuan Yew wrote in a farewell letter, “Thank you for your letter of September 7 telling me that you have decided to return to Pakistan. May I sincerely thank you for having helped NOL get on its feet. Your services were invaluable. Thank you for the kind and generous compliments you have paid to the people of Singapore, and for your good wishes to my wife, children and me. May I wish you an interesting and rewarding future as you move to new challenges. For a person of your years to find the time and interest in between your duties to be able to write a note to me in Chinese demonstrates the triumph of an inquisitive mind and an indomitable spirit over hard challenges.”
When Capt. MJ left Singapore, he was already 63. He went on to join the United Nations (UN) Conference on Trade and Development and taught at the Arab Maritime Transport Academy. He also helped to build up the Abu Dhabi National Tanker Company, before returning to Pakistan in 1982.
Capt. MJ died in 2005 at the age of 95. Two days after he died, Capt. MJ’s wife received a letter from Goh Chok Tong. He wrote, “None of us had ever run a shipping line and Captain Sayeed was patient in teaching us the ropes. On a personal level, I will always cherish Captain Sayeed’s friendship. He was kind and considerate. He was unselfish in passing on his knowledge and I learnt quite a few things from him. He was, in my eyes, the perfect gentleman.”
References
The Importance of The Straits of Malacca and Singapore,”
Singapore Journal of International & Comparative Law 2 (1998): 302.
Rahita Elias, Beyond Boundaries: The first 35 Years of the NOL Story
(Singapore: Neptune Orient Lines, 2014).
Chew Xiang, “They Fuelled the Passion,” The Business Times, August 28, 2006.
Ardeshir Cowasjee, “Sayeed of Singapore,” DAWN, September 25, 2005.
Captain Muhammad Jalaluddin Sayeed
India, b.1920–2005
Tang I-Fang
The Singapore Promoter
In his capacity as the chairman of the EDB and then JTC in the early years of Singapore’s development after independence, former Chinese national Tang I-Fang “sold” Singapore to the rest of the world, by encouraging exports and wooing MNCs to invest in the fledgling nation. Among his numerous contributions to his adopted country, he also built Singapore’s first science park.
Tang I-Fang was born 1924 in China and obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from China's National Central University in 1945 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1948. He started working as a businessman in the US, but later developed an interest in addressing the development problems of emerging countries.
Tang came to Singapore in 1961 as part of the first UN Industral Survey Mission that was tasked to help Singapore set up its industrial plan. Before 1965, Singapore had adopted an import substitution strategy on the assumption that it would be part of a common market with Malaysia. When Singapore and Malaysia separated in 1965, Tang advised Finance Minister
Dr Goh Keng Swee, “From now on, we must be export-oriented. Forget about domestic markets. There are no more common markets. You’d better look at the rest of the world as your market.” Tang’s advice resulted in the Economic Development Board (EDB), Singapore’s investment promotion agency, removing all of the country’s existing 300 tariffs and tariff categories
for imports.
In 1968, Tang became the director of the EDB. He recognised that Singapore’s success depended on upgrading the economy and developing a skilled workforce. Hence, he promoted investment in higher value-added industries, particularly the electronics sector, in the 1970s.
Tang also understood that investments from multinational corporations (MNCs) were pivotal to developing export-led industries in Singapore. This led him to woo them even though most countries at that time were anti-capitalist and were worried that encouraging foreign investments in their homelands would lead to overdependence on MNCs. Singapore went against the tide and became the first in Southeast Asia to reach out to the these corporations. Because he was a “sharp, shrewd, and a good negotiator,” Tang “enabled the EDB to attract leading MNCs and investors from around the world,” said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a condolence letter to Tang’s wife when the economic advisor died. Between 1969 and 1973, as MNCs sought a low-cost base for labour-intensive operations, manufacturing value-added grew by an annual rate by 22% (when adjusted for inflation).
At the end of his stint with EDB in 1972, Tang took up citizenship and became “one of our most outstanding citizens,” wrote former civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow in his book,
A Mandarin and the Making of Public Policy. Tang possessed a profound understanding of what Singapore needed to prosper, and so was the ideal man to head the Jurong Town Council (JTC). The JTC was formed in 1968 to help EDB manage and develop industrial estates.
After he became chairman of JTC in 1979, he established the Science Park, a research, development and technology hub at Kent Ridge to encourage high-tech companies to set up bases there. Tang also had the foresight to transform the Southern Islands into a petrochemical hub. Under his charge, JTC pulled off a large reclamation project and reclaimed 650 hectares of land off Tuas to develop the manufacturing operations of pharmaceutical companies. The Tuas Biomedical Park was completed in 1988.
While he was chairman of JTC, Tang’s plan to transform Jurong into a lively regional centre was hatched as early as 1984. But his plan was postponed as Singapore ran into a serious recession the next year. When Tang passed away in 2013, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, “Mr Tang was absolutely right about the strategic direction, but was ahead of his time. Our current efforts to transform Jurong into the Jurong Lake District, including regional offices and an integrated work-live-play environment, reflect many of his original ideas.”
Tang was noted for his business achievements as well. When he became chairman of Wearne Brothers Ltd in 1984, he revamped the company’s business model. It transformed from an auto-parts distributor in Singapore and Malaysia to a giant, multinational corporation dealing in technology, leisure and property, and financial services. Its computer manufacturing unit, Wearnes Technology, was driving the company sales. Its personal computer won the PC Magazine award as best desktop computer at a major trade show in 1988. By the time Tang bowed out as CEO in 2004, Wearne’s turnover had reached an impressive $1.8b
illion.
Tang received the Distinguished Public Service Award in 1972 for his dedication to Singapore’s economic development. At Tang’s passing, Prime Minister Lee wrote in his condolence letter that “his passion for Singapore was beyond doubt; he once said that ‘we are not selling coffee or tea; we are selling a country’.”
References
Chia Yan Min, “Tang I-Fang a man Ahead of his Time: PM,” The Straits Times,
September 28, 2013.
Ngiam Tong Dow, A Mandarin and the Making of Public Policy, ed. Simon S.C. Tay
(Singapore: NUS Press, 2006).
“PM Lee Offers Condolences to Wife of Tang I-Fang,” Channel NewsAsia, September 27, 2013.
“Our History: The seventies,” The Economic Development Board, accessed December 2014,
http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/our-history/1970s.html.
“Former EDB, JTC Chairman Dies at 89,” TODAY, September 28, 2013,
www.todayonline.com/singapore/former-edb-jtc-chairman-dies-89.
Juay Miang Tan and Suresh Natarajan, The Impact of MNCs Investments in Malaysia, Singapore
& Thailand (Singapore: The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992).
Harold Tan Hock Chye, “Invaluable Lessons From a Visionary,” The Straits Times, October 1, 2013.
Cai Hongxiang, “Quiet Mastermind Behind Wearnes’ Transformation,” The Business Times, September 27, 2013 http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1297_2009-06-23.html
“Centennial Edition—A look at tomorrow—a centennial view: companies to watch—corporate stars of the future: hot ideas, blue-chip tradition—from high tech to ice cream, often its style, not products, that counts,” The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 1989.
Tang I-Fang
China, b.1924–2013
Ratan Tata
Reinforcing Ties
By virtue of their presence in Singapore, Indian powerhouse Tata Group, with its plethora of companies in diverse areas like manufacturing, engineering, communications and information technology, has helped to vitalise the nation’s economy through the years. Although it was his uncle who first established the group’s presence here in 1972, it was India-born Ratan Tata who went on to build on the family connection and expand the company’s valuable ties with Singapore.
The Tata Group has been present in Singapore since 1972. Ratan Tata’s uncle, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy “JRD” Tata, who was then the group’s chairman, was asked by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew whether he would start up a business in the precision engineering industry and a training institute for young people here. JRD did not readily agree to Lee’s proposal. India had been a closed economy since its independence in 1947 and so Tata Group’s business moves were limited by foreign exchange controls.
But he recognised the benefits of being in Singapore and eventually went on to set up the Tata Precision Industries and the Tata-Government Training Centre, which taught skills related to the manufacturing industry like tool making and precision machining.
For many years, Tata Group was probably the only Indian company which invested in Singapore. S. Dhanabalan, who was chairman of the Development Bank of Singapore, now known as DBS Bank, was involved in helping Tata Precision Industries gain a footing here. He said in an interview with writer Sunanda K. Datta-Ray for the book, Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission to India, that JRD took the risk when “all kinds of acrobatics were needed for Indians to travel, let alone set up overseas operations.” Explaining JRD’s decision, Tata said, “We considered Singapore to be the model of what India could look like if it could have the freedom to grow.”
Tata graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University in 1962. He returned to India and started work on the shop floor of Tata Steel, shovelling limestone and iron ore into furnaces. He worked his way up and became the chairman of Tata Sons in 1991, taking over from his uncle, JRD. He also became chairman of the major Tata companies: Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices.
Tata valued the boots-on-the-ground working experience. “Otherwise I would never have had the chance to work alongside workers to understand how they felt or what their thinking was,” he said, adding that the experience also moulded him as a leader, and he believes in the bottom-up approach to management.
Under his leadership, the Tata Group became the first Indian company to make major overseas acquisitions, and took over companies like luxury car group Jaguar Land Rover and steel maker Corus. In FY 2014/15, Tata Group’s revenue was
US$108.78 billion.
In 2004, his company spent $486 million to buy out Singapore-based NatSteel, a steel producer which had steel mills in China, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia. With the acquisition, NatSteel could weather volatilities in the steel industry and gain access to extensive resources through Tata Steel.
Tata also used Singapore as the regional headquarters for nine of its companies, ranging from engineering to shipping. “Regional headquarters made sense as Singapore had all the facilities that you would need as though you were located in London or New York,” explained Tata. One of the first companies to be set up in Singapore was Tata Consultancy Services, which provides information technology consulting services to both multinational and domestic companies. It has become Asia’s largest software companies, employing over 1,000 staff in Singapore in 2015. There are also Tata companies in manufacturing, engineering, communications and information technology.
In 2013, Tata achieved a long-awaited dream and established a domestic airline in India in partnership with Singapore Airlines. Vistara, the joint venture airline, was a significant achievement for two reasons: First, Tata is a trained pilot and had bonded with JRD over their shared passion for aviation. JRD became India's first licensed pilot in 1929, and founded India’s first commercial airline, Tata Airlines, in 1932. JRD used to fly Tata Airlines over 874 kilometres to deliver mail from Karachi to Bombay. The airline was nationalised in 1953 and became Air India. Second, Tata had tried to team up with Singapore Airlines in 1994 but the plan did not materialise due to strict regulations on foreign direct investment in certain sectors. But with India opening up its airline sector to 49% foreign direct investment in 2012, the joint venture was approved. Vistara began operations in January 2015 with its inaugural flight between Delhi and Mumbai.
Tata retired in 2012, on his 75th birthday, and now spends his time advising the Tata companies and leading the Tata Philanthropic Trusts. The Trusts aim to combat malnutrition in India. He has worked on public education campaigns educating parents about the importance of nutritious food, and has set up health facilities in villages. In 2008, Singapore conferred the Honorary Citizen Award on Tata.
References
Amol Sharma, “India Tata Finds Home Hostile,” The Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2011,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704662604576256921125394838
Peggy Hollinger, “Business Pioneers in Industry,” Financial Times, March 31, 2015,
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/c18fd2c6-cc99-11e4-b5a5-00144feab7de.html
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission to India
(Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2009).
Ratan Tata
India, b.1937
Kartar Singh Thakral
An Inspiration to Entrepreneurs
Thailand-born Kartar Singh Thakral was sent to Singapore as a teenager to help run a family business. How the tenacious and astute businessman turned a small textile shop into a multinational group of companies, the Thakral Group, is an inspiration for local entrepreneurs.
Kartar Singh lives by his mantra that, “if you can’t handle hardship, you shouldn’t do business”. He turned a small textile offshoot into a roaring homegrown distribution business and has enjoyed every moment of it.
Born in 1933, Kartar Singh
Thakral is one of Singapore’s best-known businessmen today. When he was just 19 years old, his father, the late Sohan Singh Thakral, sent him from Thailand to Singapore to help his older son and Kartar Singh’s elder brother, the late Ajit Singh Thakral, who was then running a branch of the family’s textile business. Kartar Singh’s father had picked him to run the business in Singapore as the young man had displayed sharp business acumen. Once Kartar Singh had settled in, his brother left Singapore a year later, and he felt "very lonely". Singapore seemed entirely foreign to him, as he spoke limited English and not a word of Malay or Chinese dialects. Even the food took some getting used to. Kartar Singh recalled, “I missed my favourite Thai food. Here, all I could eat was chicken rice.”
The business began to do well in the 1960s, eight years after Kartar Singh arrived in Singapore. When many Asian countries banned trade with China, Kartar Singh astutely established a partnership with selected Chinese companies. He knew that the Chinese textiles were of high quality. “You could wash the fabrics till they tore, but the prints would still be there,” he explained.
Kartar Singh used Singapore as a distribution hub to import textile goods from China. He then exported the goods to Thailand, Indonesia and other neighbouring countries. By the late 1960s, the company was a leading distributor of Chinese textiles. “At that time, I was daring,” said Kartar Singh, his steadfast gaze tempered with a smile. He could barely converse with his Chinese suppliers but had no qualms asking for discounts.