The Suzhou industrial park project (1994–2001): The failure of a development strategy

This article assesses the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) project as a developmental strategy of the Singapore government. The primary focus will be on explaining the reasons behind the strategy's failure. It begins with a background to the Singapore government's “economic regionalisation” strategy, followed by a description of how the Singapore government proceeded to develop and manage the SIP between 1994 and 2001. The article then identifies a few positive aspects of the SIP project, as well as several problematic aspects, which ultimately led to the Singapore government's disengagement. The article concludes by arguing that despite a few successes, the SIP project must be considered a failure as a developmental strategy, as it did not achieve the intended objective of generating an external income to supplement Singapore's domestic economy.

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Alexius A. Pereira, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore.