Former Minister of Finance Goh Keng Swee opened the Texas Instruments (TI) plant at the Kallang Basin industrial estate on 4 July 1969. At the time, TI was the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors and also one of the leading manufacturers of electronic parts and components.[1]
The Economic Development Board (EDB) announced in December the previous year that they had successfully courted TI to set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore.[2] Texas Instruments Singapore (Private) Ltd was incorporated on 4 December 1968 and was awarded pioneer status by the Singapore government.[3] The 49,000-sq ft (about 4,552 sq m) factory, which cost S$6 million to set up, was leased from the Jurong Town Corporation.[4] When operated at full capacity, the plant was expected to produce 40 million semiconductors annually. The facility employed 1,400 workers, the majority of whom were women. The workers had to attend a one-week orientation programme at the National Productivity Centre in Jurong followed by two weeks of in-house training at the factory.[5]
TI was one of several US companies that the EDB and other government agencies assisted to set up in Singapore. In all, it took only about three months from the time in November 1968 when IT decided to set up a facility in Singapore to actual production in January the following year. The physical implementation of the project was completed in just seven weeks.[6]
References
1. U.S. electronics company opens $6m S’pore subsidiary. (1969, July 4). The Straits Times, p. 14. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
2. Two giant U.S. companies to invest in Singapore, says the EDB. (1968, December 3). The Straits Times, p. 13. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
3. Siow, I. (1969, February 23). 50 day wonder. The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. Campbell, W. (1969, May 14). U.S. firms sense an electronics boom in Singapore. The Straits Times, p. 10. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; The Straits Times, 4 Jul 1969, p. 14.
5. The Straits Times, 4 Jul 1969, p. 14.
6. Siow, 23 Feb 1969, p. 1.
The information in this article is valid as at 2014 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.