THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY OF SINGAPORE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL SHIPOWNERS

Abstract

This study aims to examine the entrepot role of Singapore in a changing political, economic and social environment in Southeast Asia through the establishment or the organisational approach. This approach is to trace the development of local shipowners for the past 20 to 25 years. The environment surrounding Singapore's shipping industry was found to have changed through time and is still changing. These charges are due to technological innovations, economic booms and recessions as well as the rise and fall of political powers in the world. The consequences of these changes in different political policies and legislation in Singapore and especially the regional countries has its impact on the Singapore shipowners. This is so because the regional countries are the major trading partners of Singapore who frequently utilised Singapore flag vessels owned by the local shipowners for feedering purposes. Perceptions, suggestions, survival methods and the issues concerned were gathered form published literature and interviews with the local shipowners. The issues concerned are the world-wide recession in the 1980s, the low profit margin pertaining specifically to the shipping companies and the problems that local shipowners faced at the organisational level.