Privatisation in Singapore : features, implications and prospects.

Abstract

Privatisation is a major economic trend in the world today. In Singapore, the Public Sector Divestment Committee was appointed in January 1986 to look into this area. By February

1987, they submitted a report, recommending the divestment of 40 companies. Following that, the privatisation programme was officially launched in Singapore. Many books and articles have been written on this topic of privatisation. This project is the result of studying these published articles, journals books and analysing financial information of certain companies.

This study examines the features unique to the Singapore privatisation and contrast them with other ASEAN countries privatisation features. It also evaluates the privatisation programme’s implications and impacts on areas such as finance, manpower and entrepreneurship, labour relations, efficiency and social welfare, role of government and foreign dominance. Finally, it outlines the problems Singapore faced during the process of privatisation.

From our study of the impacts and implications of privatisation, we conclude that the privatisation exercise in Singapore has broadened the Singapore stock market and has also resulted in the public sector withdrawing from commercial activities that can be undertaken by the private sector. However, although the number of GLCs in 1991 has decreased as compared to 1985, this is not conclusive evidence that the government has reduced or avoided competition with the private sector.

Due to the inaccessibility of certain information, some aspects of our research has been limited.