SINGAPORE: A rising tide lifts all boats and Lingjack was one of the many companies that blossomed during Singapore’s industrial boom in the 70s and 80s, as the small tooling business quickly gained a foothold producing metal works for firms in the marine industry and elsewhere.
As Singapore and the rest of the world prepare to reboot their distressed economies under the shadow of COVID-19, homegrown businesses such as Lingjack have found themselves at the crossroads. It was maritime trade that turned Singapore from a post-colonial backwater to a thriving entrepot. Its openness to the world has brought in investments and talent, and its hub status in aviation, finance, and infrastructure has secured its place in the world and diversified the Republic’s overall economy.
The stakes are high, said Mr Heng, as he announced further plans to refresh an economic strategy based on past industry roadmaps that cover 80 per cent of the economy. As Institute of Policy Studies’ senior research fellow Christopher Gee put it: “We have to look beyond the present and identify what are the industries that will need to be revised completely, and what areas of strength Singapore wants to keep.“Essentially, what was 10 to 20 years of change have been compressed into a couple of years. Those who will win are the ones agile enough to transform in these one to two years,” he added.
“Some drivers have, on the back of COVID-19, stepped harder on the accelerator, doubling down on their existing transformations. For other drivers, they had to pivot, turning a sharp left or right to head down a new, and unexplored pathway. For some businesses, it is about accelerating existing transformation plans such as digitalisation.”
At the time, Lingjack had faced a labour crunch — his attempts to attract Singaporeans to join his company netted zero applicants. This was done using internet-enabled devices and applications to help monitor production and the maintenance of firefighting equipment. He is now seeking to make industry technological solutions a core part of Lingjack’s business model, using the downtime during the pandemic to prepare marketing pitches and demonstration kits for its technologies.
Local start-up Mdesign Solutions also charted a new path during COVID-19, moving from being a design consulting firm for external clients to becoming a full-fledged manufacturer of its own product.
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