1. BY ANITA GABRIEL
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
IT HAS long been seen as the bright new
frontier for Singapore businesses desper-
ate for space to expand but Batam’s eco-
nomic promise seems to be fading, bat-
tered by forces from within and without.
Its ace cards – cheap land, cheap
labour, proximity to home base – still res-
onate with Singapore firms although with-
out the force of a few years ago.
The rise of other industrial enclaves,
whether in Johor or China or fast-rising
states like Vietnam, have dented Batam’s
appeal but it is problems closer to home
that worry businesses more.
A man known only as Mr Tan, a manag-
er at a Singaporean-owned shipyard in
Tanjung Uncang, on the western side of
Indonesia’s Batam
Island, shifts uncomfort-
ably in his seat, smiling
evasively, when the top-
ic comes up.
No wonder, it is
Batam’s most touchy
subject – the perpetual
demand of its raucous
and spirited labour force
for higher wages. When
prodded, Mr Tan,
admits: “If there is no
more wage advantage to
stay here, investors may
move out.”
Labour unrest could
well become the island’s
Archilles heel, notes Mr
Robert Broadfoot, man-
aging director of Hong
Kong-based Political
and Economic Risk Consultancy.
He notes that the regulatory environ-
ment is tilted in favour of labour, which
encourages a confrontational situation
between labour and management.
Strikes in Batam are becoming an annu-
al affair. “Most of the time, the demands
are reasonable and the strikes last a day,”
says a manager at a firm in Batam.
But late last year, the protest involving
thousands of workers from 200 firms
turned ugly and lasted three days.
“While they appear to be isolated inci-
dents and do not detract BBK (Batam, Bin-
tan and Karimun) from its fundamentals,
they remind us to be sensitive in manag-
ing the local workforce,” says Mr Lee Yee
Fung, trade agency IE Singapore’s region-
al director based in Jakarta.
The mission to turn Batam, a once
sleepy fishing outpost with just 6,000 res-
idents, into a hive of industrial and tour-
ism activity remains intact despite the
ructions on the industrial front.
The population is now more than one
million, there is a workforce of about
300,000 and a million visitors come eve-
ry year, drawn by six “international stand-
ard” golf courses, 25 industrial parks, 50
hotels and two marinas. Between 2003
and 2010, with the exception of 2009, its
economy grew over 7 per cent each year.
More than 1,200 foreign companies
operate there, drawn particularly by the
proximity to Singapore.
But the place – and the mission itself
– needs a turbo-charged jolt.
That came in part two weeks ago when
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong and Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono renewed the pledge
to drive growth in Batam and two other
islands – Bintan and Kar-
imun – dubbed BBK,
which make up one of
two free trade zones in
Indonesia.
Singapore’s role is
crucial given its strate-
gic position in the
“growth triangle” be-
tween Malaysia’s thriv-
ing Johor region and the
three Riau Islands.
For hundreds of thou-
sands of Indonesians
who have found jobs on
Batam, the largest island
in the Riau archipelago,
Singapore has become a
lifeline.
“Batam exists
because of Singapore,”
says a local, born in
Jakarta and one of about 300,000 who
came to the island for work.
In almost all of Batam’s development
benchmarks, Singapore sits on the perch.
It is the island’s largest investor, having
contributed US$933 million (S$1.2 billion)
or 70 per cent of its foreign direct invest-
ment over the first half of last year. Half
of Batam’s exports head to Singapore.
It is mostly companies from the preci-
sion engineering, electrical components
and electronics manufacturing, and
marine and offshore supporting indus-
tries that have set up shop on Batam, says
Mr Lee Yee Fung.
The advantages are aplenty. “Land is
cheap, infrastructure is cheap, labour
abundant. We save 20 per cent in overall
business cost,” says Mr K. T. Ang, manag-
ing director of ASL Marine Holdings, a
Singapore-listed shipping firm with a
shipyard in Batam which employs 3,000
contract workers, mostly Indonesians.
Big firms are not the only ones flock-
ing to the area.
A woman known only as Ms Lo bought
an oceanfront villa on a 328ha island
between Singapore and Batam, which is
the third favoured tourist spot in Indone-
sia, after Bali and Jakarta.
She is one of a huge band of hopefuls
who have scooped up real estate in Batam
and neighbouring islands banking on
their sheer promise.
Yet that promise, that potential, does
not look as shiny as it did a few years ago.
Rivals like China’s southern city of
Shenzhen, also once a small fishing vil-
lage that became a special economic zone
about the same time as Batam, has
thrived.
Malaysia has poured billions of ringgit
into Iskandar Malaysia in south Johor
since 2006, also to leverage its proximity
to Singapore.
While Shenzhen is an export process-
ing zone, a lot of its products are also sold
in China.
But Batam, built on the concept of an
export-oriented industrial area, is not
meant to compete with other industrial
areas in Indonesia, which market their
products within the country.
“Indonesia ought to be its natural mar-
ket but Batam is strictly an export zone
and there’s a firewall between them. It’s
a flawed protectionist strategy,” says Mr
Broadfoot.
Another weak link is connectivity.
“As close as Batam is to Singapore, it
is still a ferry ride away. It’s easier for fac-
tories in Singapore to move to Johor,”
says Mr Broadfoot, referring to the two
direct road links between Johor and Singa-
pore.
About 70,000 Singapore passport hold-
ers cross the Causeway to Johor a day, sig-
nificantly more than some 62,000 Singa-
poreans who visited Batam in January.
There has been talk of building a tun-
nel or other land link from Singapore to
Batam but the costs as well as the securi-
ty and political dilemmas make that more
pie-in-the-sky than viable policy.
“Batam will never be close to its poten-
tial till it makes these fundamental chang-
es,” says Mr Broadfoot.
anitag@sph.com.sg
BY SALMA KHALIK
HEALTH CORRESPONDENT
CHANGI General Hospital (CGH) has
been helping one of its doctors get back
on his feet after he admitted that he wore
a schoolgirl’s uniform and exposed him-
self to a student.
The efforts have led to Ivan Ngeow Ko
Yen, a specialist in geriatric medicine,
being allowed to see patients again.
A hospital spokesman said he
remained under the close supervision of
his head of department.
On Tuesday, Ngeow, 37, pleaded
guilty to insulting the modesty of a
female university student in 2010.
He is out on $10,000 bail and the next
hearing is fixed for April 24.
The judge called for a pre-sentence
report to gauge his suitability for proba-
tion.
Ngeow’s lawyer told the court that the
doctor had been cross-dressing in secret
from the age of nine.
Ngeow, who is married, is currently
away on short leave, said CGH chief exec-
utive T. K. Udairam.
The Singapore Medical Council (SMC),
the professional watchdog, told The
Straits Times yesterday that it was aware
of the case and would await the conclu-
sion of court proceedings “before pursu-
ing its own action”.
The CGH spokesman said that when
the hospital discovered Ngeow’s trou-
bles, he was made to take a month off for
treatment with a psychiatrist from the
Institute of Mental Health.
This was before his arrest early last
year.
It was only when his condition
improved, and with the approval of his
psychiatrist, that he was allowed back to
work in October 2010.
But he was allowed to do only backend
duties that did not involve seeing
patients, such as training and drafting
clinical policies for his department.
The spokesman said the hospital
“takes this matter very seriously”.
The incident happened in August
2010. The victim, then 19, had alighted
from a bus at about 9pm and was walking
to her flat in Clementi Street 13.
She noticed Ngeow in the void deck of
her block wearing what she said was a Vic-
toria Junior College school uniform.
She entered the lift and through the
glass panels of the lift doors, saw him lift
his skirt and expose his genitals to her.
She rushed home and called the police
and he was arrested five months later.
No details of the arrest were revealed
in court but the judge allowed for an unre-
lated offence to be compounded, as Nge-
ow had paid $5,000 and issued a written
apology to another victim.
Before the incident, as a registrar in
the geriatric department, Ngeow was
mentioned in a letter published in The
Straits Times.
The son of a patient who had spent 40
days in CGH had praised the “top-class”
medical work of Ngeow and four other
doctors and nurses.
Meanwhile, another doctor who has
run afoul of the law – Dr Randhawa Singh
Tre’gon, 32 – is no longer working at KK
Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH).
He had looked at the medical records
of his former girlfriends in the hospital’s
electronic record system although they
were not his patients and he had no right
to see them.
He was censured and fined $10,000 by
the SMC in January.
The hospital has since made a police
report against him.
Yesterday, Ms Audrey Lau, director of
KKH’s corporate development division,
said he “ended his employment and has
left KKH”.
v
CHANGES NEEDED
“Indonesia ought to
be its natural market
but Batam is strictly
an export zone and
there’s a firewall
between them. It’s a
flawed protectionist
strategy.”
Mr Broadfoot
Competition from regional industrial enclaves, labour unrest and limited connectivity to Singapore have dented the appeal of Batam to Singapore firms looking to expand. ST PHOTOS: CHEW SENG KIM
Island’s potential to be
industrial hub for S’pore
firms no longer as bright
Batam losing its economic lustre
Batam
MALAYSIA
Kundur
Sumatra
Strait of
Malacca South China
Sea
Strait of Singapore
K e p u l a u a n R i a u
Johor
Karimun
Besar
Tanjung
Pinang
Tanjung
Uncang
US$ million
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
Batam export by destination country
(up to June 2011)$2,489m
Source: BATAM INDONESIA FREE ZONE AUTHORITY
RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS
Proximity to Singapore is driving growth in Indonesia's Batam
PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM ST GRAPHICS
The Singapore-Johor-Riau
(SIJORI) Growth Triangle
A shipyard in Tanjung Uncang, west of Batam IslandA shipyard in Tanjung Uncang, west of Batam Island
SINGAPORE
Thailand
US
M
alaysiaPapuaNew
GuineaNetherlands
France
Japan
China
Italy
Other
countries
NOTE: *Up to June
2011*201020092008200720062005200420032002
US$ million
Foreign private investment
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
3,631
4,467
4,765
5,188
3,482
3,814
4,080
5,547
5,938
6,020
Johor Baru
Bintan
I N D O N E S I A
SINGAPORE
Doctor who exposed himself to
girl back seeing patients
newsprimeí q THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, MARCH 30 2012 PAGE A8