REGIONALISATION 2000

Abstract

Regionalisation 2000, the strategic plan to launch Singapore's "second wing", was officially announced in 1994. Besides providing incentives and schemes to encourage investment overseas, the Singapore government has also been directly involved in the regionalisation process by actively transferring management "software" to various regional countries. A major strategy in our Regionalisation 2000 is to establish "Singapore style" flagship projects in various regional countries. To date, eight flagship projects have been developed: the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park and the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park in China; the Batamindo Industrial Park, Bintan Industrial Estate, Bintan Beach International Resort and the Karimun Marine and Industrial Complex in Indonesia; the Bangalore Information Technology Park in India; and the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in Vietnam. This academic exercise focuses on the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP), the latest of the eight flagship projects to be developed. The VSIP was started in 1996. Since its inception, no single coherent study of its viability has been done. As this form of analysis is unprecedented, data collection proved to be challenging because at the time of analysis there is limited official published facts. Information reported here lays foundation for future research or analysis. This study seeks to highlight the success formula of VSIP that goes beyond the simply theory of comparative advantage. VSIP is the fruition of an economic collaboration between Singapore and Vietnam. It is a place where the two economies pool their resources together such that a competitive environment is created for enterprise.