Contributions of Dr Goh Keng Swee
Goh was a key member of the PAP's Central Executive Committee, and later became its vice-chairman.Goh successfully contested the Kreta Ayer seat in the 1959 general election for the Legislative Assembly, and joined the first government of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew as Minister for Finance.
EDB
He pioneered many of the economic institutions. Dr Goh spearheaded the formation of the Economic Development Board in August 1961, at the recommendation of United Nations team led by Dr Winsemius, to kick start Singapore’s industrialization programme. The team was called in by Dr Goh. Dr Goh subsequently guided the EDB through its formative years, steering its development of industrial promotion strategies and tax incentives to draw more companies to Singapore. The EDB spawned several divisions. Its finance arm offering loans to companies eventually became DBS Bank and its industrial estate division later evolved into Jurong Town Corporation.
Dr Goh also believed firmly in making Singapore a free port. He led Singapore down an export-oriented route, relying heavily on foreign trade for growth. This strategy has worked well and Singapore is now one of the world’s most open economies and it exports more than double its GDP.
Jurong Industrial Estate
In 1962, he started the development of the Jurong industrial estate on the western end of the island which was then a swamp. The scale of the project was challenging as it involved creating roads, power plants, sewers and drainage, all ib the hope of attracting industries. At the beginning, Dr Goh had a hard time getting entrepreneurs to invest in the brand new estate as foreign investors hardly knew Singapore existed and people were reluctant to live in Jurong. To create more confidence in Singapore and attract more foreign investments, Dr Goh made a big show of attending factory openings and getting TV coverage. Things took a turn when Dr Goh managed to persuade two Indonesian businessmen to set up the National Iron and Steel Mill. Soon after that, all kinds of factories started to sprout all over Jurong. In 1968, EDB managed to persuade Texas Instruments to visit Singapore and set up its plants in Jurong. National Semiconductor followed suit. In the same year, Jurong Town Corporation was created to manage Jurong’s development.
Jurong Shipyard
Jurong Shipyard was set up on April 25, 1963 as a joint venture between with Ishikawajiman- Harima Heavy Industries Company of Japan and EDB of Singapore. Dr Goh had persuaded the Japanese company to establish a shipyard in the Republic to capitalize on Singapore’s strategic location.
Defense
Upon independence in 1965, Goh relinquished his finance portfolio and became Minister for the Interior and Defence until 16 August 1967, assuming responsibilities for strengthening Singapore's military and domestic security capabilities. Dr Goh saw that the first thing an independent state must have is a defense force. He initiated the establishment of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and brought in the Israelis as defense advisers, having become impressed by their defense system when he visited their country in 1959. He also created National Service, a mandatory conscription system for able-bodied young males. On 11 August 1970 he was reappointed Minister for Defence. He oversaw the building up of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), including the training of pilots. Dr Goh decided that flying training should be open to girls too. Over the next eight years, he also started a slew of defence related companies which became the predecessors of Singapore Technologies Engineering subsidiaries competing in the world market today. In 1971, he put together the Electronic Warfare Study Group, a team of newly graduated engineers who had excelled in their university studies which was headed by Dr. Tay Eng Soon, a university lecturer. The group worked on Project Magpie, a secret project to develop Singapore's defence technology capabilities. In 1977, the group was renamed the Defence Science Organisation (DSO). Originally part of the Ministry of Defence, in 1997 the organization became a non-profit corporation called DSO National Laboratories.
MAS
He was again Finance Minister between 17 August 1967 and 10 August 1970, during which time he declined to allow the central bank to issue currency. Instead of letting the MAS take charge of issuing Singapore dollars, Dr Goh insisted that the Currency Board – a legacy of colonial days – be kept separate. A currency board system is more onerous to maintain because every single Singapore dollar has to be fully backed by reserves. It also prevents the over-enthusiastic issuing of new dollar notes that could stoke inflation. The MAS which Dr Goh helped created in 1971, plays a pivotal role in Singapore as its central bank and financial regulator. Under Dr Goh, Singapore implemented a unique monetary policy centred on the exchange rate, rather than the interest rate as in most other countries. The policy, still use today, has brought about low inflation and high growth for Singapore. Singapore’s financial sector also boomed during Dr Goh’s time at MAS, especially in the areas of offshore banking and forex trading.
Gold Reserves
In 1968, Dr Goh bought Singapore’s first gold reserves, a 100 tons or around 101,600kg of gold reserves from the South African Finance Minister, then Dr Nicolas Diederichts, in a private exchange at the World Bank meeting.
GIC
In 1974, Dr Goh set up Temasek Holdings to take over the management and ownership of 30 fledgling Singapore firms in which the government had co-invested. Dr Goh believed that the Government as policy maker should distance itself from its role as shareholder in these companies.
And subsequently, in 1981, he expressed the view that the central bank need not hold large amounts of cash in reserve to defend the currency, proposing that the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) be established to invest excess reserves. At the time, it was unprecedented for a non-commodity-based economy to have such a sovereign wealth fund. And MAS was investing these reserves mainly in short term assets that did not have best returns. Dr Goh became
Education
Dr Goh encouraged the establishment of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in 1968. In 1973, Goh was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore concurrently with his other Cabinet portfolio. On 12 February 1979, Goh moved on from the Defence Ministry to the Ministry of Education, where he greatly influenced the development of Singapore's education system. He set up the Curriculum Development Institute, and introduced key policies such as religious education (subsequently discontinued) and, in 1980, the channelling of students into different programmes of study according to their learning abilities, known as "streaming". Goh served two terms as Education Minister, his first ending on 31 May 1980, and his second following the 1980 general election from 1 June 1981 to 1 January 1985. Dr Goh believed that education was a kind of investment. Because of that, priority was given to it in the Budget. From then on, teachers’ pay went up. Principals were sent for courses so that school leaders could see the big picture and have the courage to make changes.
Sports, Arts & Recreation
Goh was also responsible for projects that sought to improve Singaporeans' cultural and leisure life, such as the Jurong Bird Park, the Singapore Zoo and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He felt that a bird park would not only serve as a recreational theme park for Singaporeans but also as a tourist attraction to grow the fledgling tourism industry. He backed the construction of the Kreta Ayer People's Theatre in his constituency as a venue for Chinese opera performances. He was also instrumental in introducing rugby in the Singapore Armed Forces and later in schools. In recognition of his role in promoting the sport, the Schools "C" Division Cup is named after him. Impressed by an oceanarium in the Bahamas, he contacted the Sentosa Development Corporation and convinced them to have one. Underwater World Singapore opened in 1991. Dr Goh felt people, after fulfilling their material needs, should move to meet the needs of the soul. Even though some of the projects were not profitable from the start, Dr Goh persisted as he believed that man should not live by economics alone. In fact, he was the man behind the development of Sentosa into a tourist attraction. Back then, the island was used mainly to house military units, with navy recruits also training there. But Dr Goh suggested turning the island into a holiday resort for Singaporeans and tourists alike.
POSB
Dr Goh also played a key role in the history of POSB. POSB was established in 1877 by the British as part of the Straits Settlements’ postal department. It flourishes at first but in 1967, its deposits had plummeted by $20 million. To get the bank back on track, Dr Goh created a committee to come up with a plan to revitalize POSB. He saw the potential of POSB in encouraging a savings culture among Singaporeans and the chance to mobilize these savings for national projects such as building bridges and roads. The review committee set up a savings competition for schools and gave prizes to the top three schools with the highest average amount of savings per students. New services and incentives were also introduced and by the end of 1968, the declining trend in deposits was arrested.
Closing of Punggol Pig Farms
Dr Goh was the one who decided to close down all the pig farms in Punggol. He argued that it was cheaper to import pork, given the cost of Singapore land and pollution. The pig farmers were given about $50 million and they turned to farming orchids and ornamental fish instead. The last pig farm was closed in 1990.
From 1 June 1980 he was redesignated First Deputy Prime Minister upon S. Rajaratnam being made Second Deputy Prime Minister, and served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) till his retirement from politics in December 1984 at the age of 66 years. In a tribute to mark the occasion, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew wrote: "A whole generation of Singaporeans take their present standard of living for granted because you had laid the foundations of the economy of modern Singapore."
