Singapore Government

Press Release

Media Division, Ministry of Information & The Arts, #36-00, PSA Building, 460 Alexandra Road, Singapore 119963, Tel: 3757794/5

OPENING ADDRESS BY MR KISHORE MAHBUBANI, PERMANENT SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AT THE NATIONAL TCDC FOCAL POINTS WORKSHOP, 21 JANUARY 1997 AT 9.00 AM AT 3RD FLOOR, RAFFLES HOTEL BALLROOM

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Madam Chairman

Dr Denis Benn, Director, UNDP Special Unit for TCDC

Mr Neil Buhne, Acting UNDP Regional Representative

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Government of Singapore and on behalf of my colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I am delighted to welcome our friends from overseas to this second National TCDC Focal Points Workshop for Asia and the Pacific. We hope that you will find your brief stay in Singapore both enjoyable and rewarding.

We are happy to host this Workshop in Singapore for several reasons. Firstly, when Singapore became independent in 1965, we benefited a good deal from the advice and assistance given to us by UNDP. Indeed, the team leader of a UN Industrial Survey Mission to Singapore in 1960, Albert Winsemius, who later became Singapore's trusted economic advisor for 25 years, foresaw Singapore's need for well-trained technical and managerial personnel and advised the Singapore Government to pay critical attention to these areas. We heeded his advice. Winsemius unfortunately, passed away in The Hague early last month, but his contributions still endure. Winsemius' keen interest in Singapore and his diligent sharing of experience with the Singapore Government provided us with a firm head-start for our future development.

Secondly, when we became independent, we also received much assistance and advice from other friendly countries. If we are successful today and if we have succeeded in moving up the ladder of development, it has been due in no small part to the help we have received from our friends overseas. Just as many countries have given us valuable help since we became independent 31 years ago, we are also committed and ready to assist other developing countries in their human resource development. Indeed, Singapore has over the past ten years, provided training and briefings on Singapore's development experience to more than 20,000 foreign nationals from over 80 countries. We welcome their interest to learn from our success as well as our mistakes as we hope that this will accelerate their climb up the development ladder.

Thirdly, we are all aware that with the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet-American rivalry for influence in the developing world, one of the key rationales for foreign aid has disappeared from many major developed countries. This has been accompanied by a phenomenon which has been called 'aid fatigue'. In a period of budget cuts, slower growth and general downsizing, Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC), which encourages nations to be self-reliant, has gained ascendancy. As a mechanism for implementing development programmes and projects through the use of shared experience and expertise, TCDC also has the potential to facilitate trade between developing countries and promote shared growth.

In sharing our development experience with other countries, we in Singapore, are aware that we are fortunate to be in a region of the developing world that has done relatively well. Both Southeast Asia and East Asia have done very well, leading The World Bank to produce a volume entitled 'The East Asian Miracle'.

The record success of the region has led many to believe that this region was always destined to succeed. But this was not always so. It may be salient here to recall what one Australian Industrial expert said in 1915. He was commissioned by the Japanese Government to report on its manufacturing industry. To him, the possibility of any economic progress appeared wildly remote. His report, published in the Japan Times, speaks for itself:

'Japan commercially, I regret to say, does not bear the best reputation for executing business. Inferior goods, irregularity and indifferent shipments have caused no end of worry......'

He was equally unimpressed by the Japanese work-ethic:

'My impression as to your cheap labour was soon disillusioned when I saw your people at work. No doubt they are lowly paid, but the return is equally so; to see your men at work made me feel that you are a very satisfied easy-going race who reckon time is no object. When I spoke to some managers they informed me that it was impossible to change the habits of national heritage ....

First-class managers....are required to wake things up and get out of the go-as-you-please style that seems universal at present.'

The moral of this story is simple. Please do not believe any expert who claims to know which regions will succeed.

We are confident that the road that was taken initially by the Japanese and followed later by the four tigers and other Southeast Asian economies will be the road that can and will be followed by other developing countries. Indeed, recent statistics show that growth has been spreading among the developing economies. In 1993, about half the population in 56 developing economies experience rising per capita output. Last year, 96% of the population in some 75 countries were pegged with rising per capital output. Another positive sign for developing economies is that their growth rates have been climbing despite lower-than-expected growth rates in their main trading partners, the developed countries. These positive signs should lead us to make a sustained effort of cooperation and mutual assistance among developing economies to boost our growth, encourage development and achieve common prosperity.

In brief, we live in more optimistic times. As more developing countries from all regions progress, it is natural and inevitable that there should be more cooperation among developing countries. TCDC is the conscious and voluntary sharing of experience between two or more developing countries with the objective of boosting development. The architects of TCDC envisaged an interlocking network of equal partnerships for progress. Countries would work together to achieve common goals which include sustainable development, self-reliance and the convergence of economic interests. The concept of TCDC received international legitimacy at the conclusion of the 1978 UN Conference on TCDC. 138 participating countries adopted the final document of that Conference, the Buenos Aires Action Plan. The 28 points of the plan of action provided a clear guidance for promoting and strengthening international cooperation in technical training.

On the part of Singapore, we established the Singapore Cooperation Programme in 1992 to give a better focus to the diverse programmes offered, and to expand our technical assistance programme to developing countries. Training is offered in diverse fields which include information technology, civil aviation, telecommunications, port and environmental management, food packaging, community policing, childcare and technical education. We also conducted courses on the study of English language. Under the Singapore-UNDP (TCDC) Programme established in 1992, about 150 foreign participants from close to 40 countries travel to Singapore annually to participate in courses in various fields. Singapore is willing to assume a larger role in promoting technical cooperation and training. In fact, Singapore and UNDP are planning to expand our cooperation through the establishment of more training programmes in 1997. The partnership between UNDP and Singapore has been longstanding. Indeed, an entire volume has been written about our cooperation. It is entitled 'One Partnership in Development: UNDP and Singapore'.

We are therefore happy to host this Workshop here today as an important component of our cooperation with UNDP on TCDC. I congratulate UNDP for its initiative in organising this Workshop. Let me now convey my best wishes for the success of this Workshop. I also wish all of you a pleasant and memorable stay in Singapore.