Singapore: Manufacturing Fortunes in “Sunrise” and “High Noon” Industries

This chapter focuses on firms&s; industrial restructuring strategies. It also focuses on the different fortunes of small manufacturing concerns and large multinationals. The chapter examines the behavior of firms in two industries, garment and electronics, based on a matching survey conducted in 1992. The overwhelming presence of multinationals in Singapore&s;s economy makes Singapore an anomaly among the Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (NIE). The growing dominance of electronics in the manufacturing sector may be a cause for concern, since Singapore&s;s manufacturing fortunes are now increasingly tied to this competitive and volatile industry. In the 1990s, with two decades of development and rising costs in the Asian NIEs, the stage is set for further elaboration in the international division of labor in manufacturing as capital moves from the Asian NIEs to cheaper production locations. The industrial restructuring of the 1980s has meant different fortunes for the garment and electronics industries.