China-Singapore (Suzhou) Industrial Park: Lessons for Joint Economic Zone
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thrusts within its broad “regionalization strategy.” The aim of the initiative was “to generate an external stream of revenue that would supplement Singapore’s domestic economy” (Pereira 2007; Perry and Yeoh 2000). SIP was an important vehicle to demonstrate that the Singapore model of industrial parks could be transferrable (Inkepen and Pien 2006), thus opening up a potential new industry for the country, delinked from the physical constraints of its small market. Politically, SIP provided Singapore with the opportunity to better understand an emerging China, and to deepen relations with the country, through the various platforms set up for interaction between both leaders and officials. To achieve these aims, Singapore was particularly keen to work not just on a project with China but in China. For this, SIP fit the bill perfectly. The project allowed Singapore to share its development lessons comprehensively, including how to plan, implement, and administer an entire integrated development with industrial, housing, commercial, and recreational components in “the Singapore way.” Although Singapore invested in other industrial parks in the region, the economic and political importance of China gave this project a high profile and strong government involvement. Jointly, a key objective of SIP was that Singapore would share its knowledge of efficient economic management and public administration experience with its Chinese partner so that the latter could formulate pro-business policies in SIP and could govern with transparency and efficiency. With a benign business environment and good infrastructure, SIP was expected to be competitive in attracting investment and generating positive return to developers. But beyond this, both Singapore and China’s leaders had a larger vision for SIP to be a model of reform and innovation for other parts of China.
Partnership Structure SIP was established with a multilevel governance structure, as illustrated in figure 5.1. Overall governance of SIP is the responsibility of the ChinaSingapore Joint Steering Council (JSC). The JSC was designed to meet relatively infrequently (every 12–18 months) to review the progress, resolve major implementation issues, and set future development goals. The JSC is cochaired by the Chinese vice premier and the Singapore deputy prime minister and includes ministerial chiefs of the two countries, senior officials of Jiangsu provincial and Suzhou municipal governments, and the head of Jurong Town Corporation (JTC). At a more operational level, the Joint Working Committee, which was more active