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The Technology Ladder in Development: the Singapore case
Author(s) -
Swee Goh Keng
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
asian‐pacific economic literature
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.232
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1467-8411
pISSN - 0818-9935
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8411.1996.tb00002.x
Subject(s) - multinational corporation , clearance , economic shortage , engineering , constraint (computer aided design) , prime minister , unemployment , technology transfer , vocational education , business , economic growth , management , economics , political science , international trade , finance , politics , mechanical engineering , law , medicine , linguistics , urology , philosophy , government (linguistics)
This paper by Singapore's former Deputy Prime Minister explains Singapore's industrial development in which the electronics industry was a major propellant. The growth of industry from the late 1960s cleared the backlog of unemployment, created demand for technical staff which transformed the education system and facilitated technology transfer to Singaporean companies. It also proved a developmental force as it moved into neighbouring countries when labour shortage in Singapore became a constraint. The article traces the role of multinational companies and of technical education in Singapore's ascent of the technology ladder and, more briefly, that of Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.