The C hallenge of Developing across Borders: Singapore's Gambit in Bangalore, India
The hallmark of the Singapore `success story’, state-led, market-driven interventions and their efficacy have often been a matter of academic contention. This paper, as part of our series on this topic, revisits Singapore’s state-enterprise strategy in the context of the city-state’s determined efforts at internationalization. Singapore’s regionalization stratagem led to the establishment of industrial parks in China, India and several South-East Asian countries. The strategic intent behind these overseas projects was two-fold: exporting Singapore’s competencies such as management know-how, technological capabilities and corrupt-free administration to regions where such positive factors were lacking and secondly, exploiting comparative advantages that each region had to offer. Controversy, however, arises from both of the above; whether the city-state’s vaunted competencies were truly exportable, and whether said comparative advantages were truly present and applicable in the first place; such controversies are additionally present in India, where the high-tech focus of the park places the above into further doubt. To shed some light on this controversy, we present the latest evidence culled from surveys and interviews conducted in the Singapore-styled industrial-township in India; our results showing that, while the township is an undeniable economic success, the other motives behind its establishment have been somewhat less satisfied, and that concerns for the future yet remain on the horizon.