China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (former known as CSSIP, now as SIP) — untold story #1 ： Choosing the untrodden path, living in Suzhou, China
There were tons of stories by academia about Suzhou Industrial Park, a joint-partnership project undertaken by the China and Singapore governments since 1994, supported by top leaders of both countries. However, most articles on this project had been told from researchers and interviewers, but not many stories were told as a young person who used to live and work there on the project. At least not that I know of, as far as I am aware. It was the everyday life that I spent in Suzhou that I wished to pen down, as adventurous as it seemed then to be, and as truthful as seen from the eyes of then a young person. The day in SIP has always remained to date one of the most memorable yet stressful period of my career life.
Unique as this project was, it was named then as China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (CSSIP) because it was backed by both the China and Singapore governments. Today it is only known as Suzhou Industrial Park or SIP. I was considered lucky to be “chosen” to represent Singapore’s interest to promote foreign companies to invest in this park during those days in the late 1990s. With me were many fellow Singaporeans involved in this project whom I had known then, and became long and endearing friends till today, given the comradeship we had gone through together. More so, I counted myself blessed too that I had also made many more Chinese friends who remained to be one of my dearest today.
Unlike today, China in the mid-to-late1990s was not the “choice location” for many Singaporeans who were posted as expatriates overseas. Given that Suzhou was not even a first-tier city and thus the environment was unknown and considered tough to many. In fact, in those days, China was not a key priority country to visit; on top of that, so little was known about Suzhou for people of my age then. All I knew then was that Suzhou would have “Chinese” food, that could fill my appetite instead of local Singapore or any other food for that matter, such as Western or Japanese food. (To my surprise, there were good Japanese food then and I will share more on food in subsequent blogs) Back then, I did not even think that Suzhou was being recognized as one of the most “live-able and nice” cities, as illustrated by the Chinese saying, “上有天堂，下有苏杭”, that portrayed Suzhou as like a heavenly city. All I wanted then was to try a challenge in my career and this opportunity to try something out of Singapore, out of what I was doing before this, as well as out of the usual career development.
I was “being relocated” to CSSIP initially for a simple reason, to help China as part of the Singapore’s joint venture entity to promote Japanese companies to set up manufacturing facilities in the Park and also IT companies from Singapore keen to set their first foot-print into China, basically because I speak fluent Japanese and Mandarin, and because I graduated with an IT/Computer Degree. I must say that on hindsight, I had taken a leap of faith, being young and perhaps even a bit bold, to uproot myself to base in Suzhou then. I did not know much about this city, had not even really heard of it except that I understood it to be a government led project and our role was more to “provide our knowledge and expertise” to help China to modernize as a role model city development project. Blessed by a special arrangement, I was considered then one of the youngest persons being stationed in Suzhou full time, and everything was considered new and exciting. Of course, I was not immediately sent to the Suzhou City as I had to be “trained” in the Singapore office. Thus, I had to really pick up lots of learning to find out about everything about China and specifically about CSSIP, and then translated the knowledge as marketing information for this park even though I had then absolutely no idea how it was like. So here I was, learning to sell the concept of industrial park to many companies’ executives, and persuading them to invest in China then.
For many who read this now, many may think that China, being a huge market, would have been a big magnet for investment. It was totally not true then ! Marketing China was a tough job, especially the myth about its market size, because there was no domestic market for many goods in China then (I even recalled that the lemons we bought was priced in US dollars and considered extremely expensive during those days)… So that made my work rather challenging, and instead, we promoted many foreign companies to invest in CSSIP, and then export their products outside of China with lower cost of manufacturing compared to many cities as that time, given the vast availability of labour and skilled talents. What’s more was Suzhou, itself a city unknown to many executives around the world, and it was not easy to convince many foreign companies as their first destination even if they decided to invest in China ! So much for being part instrumental to promoting FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) to China then, a word that was considered “alien” to many people in China.
So the journey to Suzhou, a 2nd tier city as my first overseas posting, was met with many unknowns — but everything was then considered new to me, the people, the place, the food, the working environment, the working style, the knowledge needed as I was not trained in any skill required then. Yet, I thought my youth’s curiosity and enthusiasm as a young person during those days, the willingness to take the risk to venture outside of my home country had overcome everything else; and coupled by some an obstinate determination mindset of a “hot-blooded” young man, I tried and “walked on the untrodden path” that led me to Suzhou.
