It was an exciting year to start a new publication targetted at Asian entrepreneurs: 1965.
That year, Singaporeans woke up on the morning of August 9 to learn that they were no longer part of the Malay Federation.
In what was a sure sign of things to come, volume was up 200% on the joint Singapore-Malaysia Stock Exchange that day. On August 10, 25 of the 27 industrial stocks on the index rose. Investors, it seems, had decided that going it alone was the right thing for Singapore.
In his memoirs, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew notes that some countries are born independent, some achieve independence and some, like Singapore, have independence thrust upon them. "For Singapore, 9 August 1965 was no ceremonial occasion," Lee writes in Singapore Story. "We had never sought independence. In a referendum less than three years ago [in September, 1962], we had persuaded 70% of the electorate to vote in favour of merger with Malaya."
The union was described at the time as "something of a shotgun wedding" by Anthony Head, the British High Commissioner in Malaysia.
But on August 7, the day before Singapore's independence was announced, Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman was at breaking point. "There is no other way now," he told Lee in a private meeting. "You go your way, we go our own way." The next morning, the Malaysian parliament debated the Constitution of Malaysia (Singapore Amendment Bill) 1965, which finalised the divorce. And so 1965 saw the beginning of one of the region's pitched rivalries, between Singapore and Malaysia, that continues even today.
The situation was even more heated to the north and south. US armed forces had started bombing Communist-ruled North Vietnam a year earlier, in hostilities that would last another decade. That same year, violence between India and Pakistan flared again over Kashmir, which remains a hotspot. And a year later, Chairman Mao would launch the Cultural Revolution in mainland China.
Exciting times for Asia on the political front, to be sure. But even as the region's frictions simmered, it was on the cusp of an industrial revolution. Countries began moving away from purely agrarian economies and governments encouraged the startup and mechanisation of factories.
The following highlights from the first issues of what was then known as Asian Industry reveal how far Asia and its small and medium enterprises have come in the decades since.
From January, 1965:
* U Nyun, executive secretary for the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, wrote: "Asian countries need to look beyond their national boundaries to overcome the limitation on industrial growth imposed by the small size of domestic markets."
* Diosdado Macapagal, then-president of the Republic of the Philippines, wrote an article titled, "Industrialists should organise own lobby". "We are only too conscious of the pressure and the difficulties which weigh heavily upon the Filipino entrepreneurial class," he wrote. "We are only too aware of the internal menaces as well as the external threats to your survival, and we are not indifferent and insensitive to them. But to a preponderant extent, solution to the problems of the industrial sector lies in the hands of Congress."
* The alarm has been sounded from many quarters about the impending crises that will be generated by the rapidly increasing world population ... The world population now totals about 3 billion. About a half of these people are in Asia. The world population doubles about every 37 years. This rate is somewhat faster in Asia than elsewhere in the world.
From February, 1965:
* The article, "Asia's potential said to be greatest in the world", reported on a speech by Walter B. Wriston, the executive vice-president of the First National City Bank, speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers in New York. He described the economic growth of Asian countries as "extraordinary" by any economic yardstick, and discussed the nation-building plans and industrial development that offer potential "as great or greater than in any other part of the world."
* The article, "Hong Kong puts plastics into profitable shape" noted how Hong Kong's plastic industry was taking on bigger jobs, trying new techniques, experimenting with new materials and influencing the design of injection, extrusion and blow-molding machinery. During the first 10 months of 1964, Hong Kong exported nearly US$40 million worth of plastic flowers and fruit, some US$33 million in plastic dolls and toys, around US$9,000 in footwear... This is quite an impressive record for an industry scarcely 14 years old."
From March, 1965
* The magazine wins kudos in its first Letters to the Editor page:
"We would like to congratulate your office for putting up an industrial publication that deals with the development and progress in this region of the world. Your foresight on this front is noteworthy as it is inspiring to us in the developing regions of Asia," wrote Simplicio B. Bellosillo, from the Forest Products Research Institute in Laguna, Philippines.
* Both the entrepreneur and the policymaker are showing an increasing interest in industry for producing export goods ... Inspired by the success of industrialists in Hong Kong and prodded by the necessity to offset imports of new machinery and industrial raw materials, the emphasis is shifting from that of saving foreign exchange to producing foreign exchange... During the past year, Taiwan has come into the picture of Asian industrial exports prominently. During the first three quarters of 1964, Taiwan had a favourable trade balance of US$90 million, nearly 50% of it from exports of industrial goods.
* The magazine featured a "Silent Pile Driver" in its New Products section: "Its sound is equal only to the noise of a car engine ticking over 69 decibels at five feet and not even recordable at 25 yards. Pile-driving operations can now be carried out at night without disturbing residents nearby."
From April, 1965
* The 21st Session of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East began in Wellington, New Zealand in mid-March to discuss ways and means for solving the more urgent economic problems faced by the half of the world's population living in the Asia region. The ECAFE Secretariat reported that Asia's 1960 population of 1.6 billion people will become 2.63 billion by 1980 in the region where each square kilometre of arable land already has to feed 410 mouths.
* Although it is probably better known for its rice-cookers in Southeast Asian countries, Toshiba can build complete monorail train systems, computers and space-communication equipment with equal ease.
From May, 1965
* The billion-dollar Johnson Plan for Southeast Asia's economic development did not get more than one day's top billing in newspapers of the region. This is not because countries in the region don't like the idea or don't need the capital it would make available. The countries of Southeast Asian need the billion dollars. They would like peace in their region as much as [then-US] President Johnson. After all, they live there. But they need the funds to build industries and to otherwise develop their economies, whether or not there is peace.
* The one thing that Asia has plenty of is manpower. But it is unfortunate that most of the manpower available in the region is unskilled or untrained for many of the necessary activities of modern countries. This fact was forcibly emphasised when the American firm Manpower Inc opened its 350th branch last month in Hong Kong, where the demand for modern trained office personnel has far exceeded the possible supply. Manpower Inc started an office in Tokyo five years ago and is now looking at Bangkok, Manila, Taipei, Singapore and Osaka . . .
* Labour is no longer cheap in Hong Kong. A year ago skilled labourers received a minimum of about US$1.50 and unskilled labourers about US$.65 per day. Today, wages are about 1 1/2 times these figures and workers get additional fringe benefits and bonuses.
* ...The construction boom in suburban areas is slowing down because the shortage of cement has forced prices over US$1 per bag. The [Philippines] national road-maintenance and repair program may also be affected.
* [Taiwan's] Economic Affairs Minister K.T. Li has set up a Committee for Streamlining State-Owned Industries that will study, among several problems, how industries suitable for transfer to private management can be transferred.
* The Board of Investment [of Thailand] has approved a bicycle tyre and tube plant in Bangkok, a parquet flooring plant in Lampang, an iron-rod factory in Paknam and two synthetic rubber plants with a combined annual production of 6.5 million kilograms.
From June, 1965
* The Singapore government has offered private industrial firms the services of men who have been trained under government programs and at government cost, in return for half the cost of training.
* The Bank of Thailand will begin printing Thai currency notes early next year in the new million dollar building that houses more than US$2 million worth of printing equipment and machinery opposite the Bank of Thailand building. The first note printed will be a five baht note designed by an Italian expert. The cost of printing banknotes to the Thai government has been about US$1 million a year...
* Mr. Fung Ping-fan, leader of the Hong Kong delegation to the 6th Tokyo International Fair, says that Japan is concentrating on manufacture of more sophisticated goods and offers a good market for Hong Kong goods. He pointed out the Japanese enjoyed a higher standard of living but a business recession temporarily clouded the situation.
From July, 1965
* The problem of what to do with production machinery that still has a normal useful life of another 15 or 20 years is rapidly building up into a national headache in the United States.
From the youngest American state, little-industrialised Hawaii, comes a possible solution that should cause Asian industrialists to sit up and take notice. The solution: recondition and sell the used equipment to industrialists in Asian countries who have a growing need for more machinery.
* Singapore manufacturers have been warned that their future exports to the United States can no longer use the "Made in Singapore" label but must carry a "Made in Malaysia" tag.
* An excerpt from, "Teaching machine uses programmed instruction" describes a precursor to the personal computer:
The fully transistorised mechanism based on digital techniques is the only one of its kind available. It features programmed instruction on 35mm film projected onto a screen at the front... The information, generally illustrated by diagrams and other graphic aids, is shown one frame at a time. Each student can progress at his own pace. A person with some previous knowledge of the subject or a rapid learner may study only a selection of frames known as the mainstream.
* The Telephone Organisation of Thailand is installing 9,200 new telephones in Bangkok during the next three years. An additional six-year plan to install 135,000 more new telephones from 1967 is being drawn up.
From August, 1965
* The proposed Asian development bank will be a major influence on the direction and pace of industrial growth in Southeast Asia. Japan feels it important enough to lobby for its headquarters to be in Tokyo ... The Philippines, however, is campaigning vigorously for Manila....
* Thailand's first industrial census shows that an industrial worker earns as much as 15 farm workers. Industry uses only 2% of Thailand's manpower but yields 15% of her gross national income . . .
From September, 1965
* It takes more than capital and know-how to become an industrialist in Vietnam. The entrepreneur who sees the opportunities for modern industry and the markets for its products must not only know where he can find the men and how to obtain the money to go into production, but he must literally have courage and determination under fire.
More than 400 modern plants that have survived from among those set up in the industrially underdeveloped part of Vietnam since Geneva testify that there are entrepreneurs with guts and staying power in the South ... It is doubtful whether industrial development would have progressed at a much faster rate if there had been no political upheavals and no military operations. What Vietnamese industrialists have accomplished despite disruptions has been impressive.
* The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Hang Seng Bank have sent officials on a tour of US and UK firms to study computers for speeding up their operations.
* A big drive to induce Malays to participate in industrial and commercial activities has been launched by the Associated Malay Chambers of Commerce... Malaysian-made goods are to be bought by all government departments even if they cost 10% more than imported equivalents.
* An income-tax convention between Thailand and USA for stimulating American private investment in the Thai economy is being strongly supported in USA.
* A convention to connect the electrical networks of Thailand and Laos has been signed.
From October, 1965
* Despite the altercations between India and Pakistan, the escalation of hostilities in Vietnam, the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia and warnings from Indonesia, Cambodia and Burma that they will not participate, Foreign Minister Shiina of Japan has ordered preparations to be made for a conference of Asian cabinet ministers in charge of economics in Tokyo in January.
* The economic ministers of Singapore and Malaysia wrestled with the problem of straightening out the intricate ties between the two countries. Singapore's Minister of Finance Lim Kim San visualises a common market for a limited number of manufactured goods as the beginning of a form of economic integration.
* A.S. Watson & Co. Ltd., local soft drink bottlers, are building an industrial estate of three blocks of 14-storey factory structures that will provide a total of over 20 acres of new industrial floor space in the North Point area [of Hong Kong]... High-speed computer-controlled lifts are among the new facilities being offered in the estate. [This estate now houses the current Asian Business editorial offices.]
* Seven or eight years behind Britain and more than a decade behind the United States, Hong Kong faces increasingly fierce competition from Japan and other countries where cost and profit is better controlled by the use of computers, General Manager R.N.T. Garlick of the IBM World Trade Corp warned in an address to the Lions Club of Hong Kong last month. The belief of local businessmen that they can get along without data-processing machines for another few decades is "an incorrect assessment of the situation" he added.
* [Malaysia's] Minister of Commerce & Industry Dr. Lim Swee Aun warned at a talk before the University of Malay last month that a government that faces the voters every five years cannot ignore the interests of consumers, and that the government will protect only the efficient industries. He urged entrepreneurs to make feasibility surveys before launching new enterprises...
* Earth-moving machines have created a new elite among construction workers of Hong Kong. An operator earns the equivalent of US$165 and more per month for himself and his oiler, an apprentice training for the day when he can have his own machine and his own assistant. One of the favourite anecdotes among Hong Kong contractors concerns one of their colleagues whose Caterpillar 944 operator asked to be relieved of his duties because transportation from his home to the work site each day was too much of a problem. The contractor finally solved the problem by buying a car for the operator, the moral of this story being that you can buy a car any time, but good 944 operators are hard to come by.
From November, 1965
* A tariff curtain is going up between Malaysia and Singapore despite earlier indications that the new industries in both states would share a single common market. The economic rivalry between the two now appears to be more deep-seated than previously supposed. Singapore can be expected to work at development of export markets for the overflow production of its new industries probably following the pattern of Hong Kong and possibly following in the tracks of Hong Kong industrialists.
* Amnuay Corvanich, manager of the Teak Department for the Forest Industry Organisation of Thailand, wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece entitled, "Tractors faster, more efficient than elephant". Here's an excerpt:
In Thailand, where elephants are mentioned by name and rank among the martial heroes, we who work with them have a high regard for their intelligence. But we have not found a way of convincing the work elephant that he should work harder and longer to earn more foreign exchange for his country ... The elephant will only work three days consecutively, after which he demands two days off ... In addition to all this, the elephant wants a three-month vacation a year like civilised persons ... I suggested ... that light and relatively inexpensive rubber-tired tractors might replace the elephants... These imported mechanical elephants cost approximately US$4,000 each, compared with about US$1,250 for a prime tusker at current market prices ... A tractor can do about five times as much work as an elephant in the same space of time, but it can also work full days six days a week.
* Evidence is increasing that air conditioning in factories is a profitable investment rather than a luxury. An electronics manufacturer reports that plant productivity increased 5% during the hot-weather months and absenteeism among workers decreased 20%....
From December, 1965
* The air-transport industry in Asia is growing rapidly and shows signs of continuing expansion up ahead. Philippine Air Lines has opened a once-a-week direct service from Manila to Singapore with DC-8s. Garuda Indonesian Airways is increasing the frequency of its Jakarta-Tokyo service from two to three flights a week via Bangkok and Hong Kong.
* Mr. Ferdinand E. Marcos said shortly after he was declared the President-elect of the Philippines last month, that he will seek foreign capital to help build the economy of the Philippines...
In upcoming issues, Asian Business will feature excerpts from its earliest pages spotlighting some of the region's entrepreneurs and the hurdles they overcame.