China, Japan, Singapore: 3 development perspectives
The following is excerpted from a university lecture last Wednesday by Nanyang Technological University Adjunct Professor Ngiam Tong Dow, a retired senior civil servant
China
CHINA is a continental giant with thousands of years of history and civilisation.
Being large, China considers itself the Middle Kingdom - self-reliant and self-sufficient.
In my view, the Chinese are big thinkers. Consider the country's Great Wall, North-South Canal and now the Three Gorges Dams.
These are mega engineering projects with strategic development objectives.
Arguably, the Great Wall was for defence. But it did not stop the Mongols and Manchurians from conquering China. Hard power did not stop the tribes that excelled in warfare. Instead, the conquerors were assimilated by the soft power of the Han Chinese.
Metaphorically, the Great Wall was a symbol of China's Middle Kingdom arrogance.
Unfortunately, it did not stop Marxism from penetrating Chinese thought. There could have been a disaster for China if Deng Xiaoping had not introduced the concept of socialism with a Chinese face.
Japan
THOUGH Japan is only a tenth the size of China, it is the world's second largest economy after the United States.
Japan's modernisation from a feudal to an industrial state began just 250 years ago with the rise to power of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
How did Japan do it? In my view, Japan is a country that makes the most out of the least.
Consider how with little arable land it has managed to grow substantial amounts of rice; how despite its dependence on imported oil, it has managed to build a steel industry that makes some of the world's finest steel - used to build oil and gas tankers that bring crude oil and natural gas to feed the furnaces making the steel.
In the 1970s, I was privileged to visit Matsushita's pioneering VCR plants in Osaka.
What struck me most was its layout. It was vertical rather than horizontal; a high-rise rather than a traditional factory building. Components were loaded on the top floor. The assembly line flowed from one floor to the next. The final product was then inspected by human eyes before it was loaded onto delivery trucks.
It was a fascinating demonstration of production engineering. Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese are flawless in execution. On the other hand, the Chinese genius is in bold design.
In my view, higher productivity comes from careful attention to details. Japanese production engineers practise W. Edwards Deming's quality-control system more diligently than others. As a result, the quality of Japanese cars is way above the competition.
If China wishes to compete in capital-goods exports, its quality has to be equal to, if not better than, Japan's. The recent scandal over contaminated food and unsafe toys from China has dealt a blow to its export capability.
Unlike China, which looks inwards, Japan has always looked outwards for technology and talent. In a recent visit to the museum of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' shipyard at Nagasaki, I was surprised to learn that the shipyard, the company's first, was designed by a Dutch sea captain. Similarly, the Zero fighter was designed by a German aeronautical engineer.
Culturally, however, the Japanese have kept the outside world at bay.
The Japanese government does not encourage the learning of English. There is, however, a huge industry that translates books and other publications from other countries. In this way, the Japanese imbibe the best of the West without collateral cultural damage.
Singapore
SO WHERE does little Singapore position itself?
As a small state, we have no choice but to plug ourselves into every nook and corner of the world. As I have said before, Singapore became the world's first global economy not by choice but by necessity. Unlike China and Japan, Singapore's domestic market is too minuscule to sustain any domestic industry.
Fortunately for us, the world is entering into an era of knowledge-based competition and mobile human talent.
Our potential GNP is no longer limited by land, labour or capital. We will grow so long as we retain the drive to acquire knowledge. Our knowledge reserves will have to expand every day at the individual, institutional and national levels. Only in this way can we keep up with the Chinas and the Japans of the world.
Education
THOUGH my observation of the development paths of China, Japan and Singapore are by no means exhaustive, I am convinced that the underpinning of the social, economic and political progress made by all three societies is their reverence and respect for education.
The poorest of families will scrimp and save to send their children to school. Education is the foundation of knowledge.
Knowledge accumulated in a society is the driver for the very rapid rates of economic growth in the first decades of an economy opening up. Japan, Singapore and China achieved 10-plus per cent rates of growth in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
But as their reserves of knowledge plateau, so will their GDP growth rates. So China will see growth settle down to 7 to 8 per cent, Singapore to 5 to 6 per cent and Japan 2 to 3 per cent.
Only the infusion of new knowledge and talent will lift their growth rates beyond the optimum.
(with thanks to ST www.straitstimes.com )
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