Singapore: co-publication between ISEAS and East Asian Institute, 2014. xix, 309 pp. (Figures, tables.) US$39.90, paper. ISBN 978-981-4519-18-2.
This well-edited book consists of nine chapters focusing on Singapore-China economic relations since the October 1990 establishment of formal diplomatic recognition between the two countries until 2013.
Chapter 1 by Saw Swee-Hock provides a comprehensive background of the changes to Singapore-China economic ties since the 1970s, covering the areas of trade, investment, services, tourism, and education. The writer highlights the historic landmark visit of China’s supreme leader Deng Xiaoping to Singapore in November 1978 (2) which subsequently paved the foundation for symbiotic Singapore-China economic collaboration. Saw’s paper also analyzes the roles Singapore’s top political leadership and governmental institutions played in sharing the city-state’s developmental experience with China (8) in Singapore’s flagship Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) project.
In chapter 2, the authors John Wong and Catherine Chong claim that the Singapore-China economic relationship is “special and unique” (31). They maintain that Singapore-China economic relations are broad-based, substantive, and complementary to each other (31). They convincingly argue that China has emerged as “the center of global and regional production networks” and as “an integrator of regional and global manufacturing activities” (47).
In chapter 3, Lye Liang Fook considers the SIP as a useful developmental model to transfer economic management and public administration “software” to China (63). Thus the SIP can serve as “a reference for China” (66), since the SIP project clearly delineated industrial, commercial, educational, residential, and greenbelt zones (71). Lye’s paper provides a sound argument regarding the confluence of political and economic factors that contributed to the successful establishment of the SIP by the two governments.
In chapter 4, Chen Gang and Zhao Litao analyze the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City (TEC) project, which was the second major joint infrastructure development project by Singapore and China after the SIP, and served as a litmus test of whether Singapore could still be relevant to the future development of China. The TEC’s aim—to build a new environmentally friendly and socially harmonious city with long-term economic sustainability (113)—is new for China. The paper highlights the social dimension as an important component in the TEC project (119).
In chapter 5, Yao Jielu argues that Singapore is not as important a destination for China’s outbound investments as other resource-based ASEAN economies like Myanmar and Indonesia. China for instance has invested extensively in resource energy and infrastructure development in Myanmar since 2011 (129, 144).
In chapter 6, Fan Ying and Huang Yanjie highlight the following points: first, Singapore’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in China had a head start in the 1980s (155) even though Singapore had yet to formally diplomatically recognize China. Prior to the 1990s, most of the FDIs were from ethnic Chinese Singapore businessmen, traders and investors. Second, Singapore’s FDIs in China are broad-based, ranging across trade, services, commerce, industrial parks, financial services, real estate, education and health care.
Chen Wen and Zhai Baiquan’s chapter 7 focuses on the structural features of Singapore-China trade and assesses the effects of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) on bilateral trade between the two countries. The chapter highlights the asymmetrical interdependence of bilateral trade in which Singapore constitutes a small portion of China’s total global trade. The authors claim that China is more important to Singapore in trade than vice-versa. The writers analyze the competitiveness and complementarities of Singapore-China trade. China has the comparative advantage over Singapore in labour intensive products but is complementary in electronic and electrical products (210–211).
Chiang Min Hua, author of chapter 8, argues that Singapore has an advantage in tourism because of its strategic location as a business hub, mature tourism management skills and market strategies (217). In order to secure a slice of China’s huge tourism market, the writer suggests that Singapore should adopt strategies to promote gambling tourism, education tourism, health-care tourism and finally medical tourism, in descending order of importance (245–246).
The final chapter by Saw Swee-Hock and Ge-Yun analyzes the complementarity of Singapore-China educational collaboration. Singapore is attractive for China because of its cultural similarity, safe environment, and ability to provide top-class university education. The paper shows that Singapore has been instrumental in China’s human capital development through the employment of various programs such as the one for leadership training conducted by the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. The chapter concludes by arguing that education collaboration has played an integral part in enhancing overall bilateral relations between the two countries (284).
In conclusion, the edited book in the context of economic regionalism contributes to the knowledge of the nexus between states, the economy, and markets. In the case of Singapore-China economic relations, the three actors are: first, the top political leaders; second, the bureaucrats in the inter-governmental institutions; and third, the enterprising private businessmen and entrepreneurs who provide inputs to cement the symbiotic economic ties between China and Singapore.
In terms of the structure of the book, the nine chapters are well organized and systematically presented, with the first chapter providing a solid background in understanding the evolution and development of economic ties between the two countries. Subsequent chapters touch on trade, infrastructure development, investment, and tourism, before finally concluding with education. There are however two minor shortcomings: overlapping discussions on trade, investment and infrastructure projects such as the SIP project in chapters 1, 2 and 3 and some repetition of data in the different chapters regarding trade and investment (39, 40, 164, 165).
In short, the book is highly recommended reading for its balanced and objective analyses written by specialists on Singapore-China economic relations.
Shee Poon Khim
Tamkang University, Lanyang Campus, Yilan, Taiwan
pp. 957-959