Note: I recorded this video 3 months ago, which is why it says 100K subs. Thanks for watching. Check out other videos on Singapore here: th-cam.com/play/PLKtxx9TnH76TS34YoUFNgTdAB1qNE4wTK.html
Any comment on the Pengerang Integrated Oil Complex (RAPID) built by Malaysia just next door? It just started operating and how will this affect Singapore as the oil hub in the region?
42% growth in a quarter is mighty impressive! I'm glad to see your channel is getting so much traction Jon. You have a great perspective and insight on topics that interest many of us. Congratulations
1:48 Singaporean here, can confirm that the robust supply of cats is one of the biggest drivers of our productivity growth. The advent of cat videos on TH-cam in the early 2000s only augmented that growth.
I'm assuming that the cat-egory of 'cat' includes both fluffy ones and those waving ones, right? I'd never really considered the economic impact of of feline populations. Is it a propinquity or density dependent impact? Is it a positive externality? Is it an externality at all? So many questions
This is actually one of the biggest "secrets" of Singapore. Nowadays, when tourists visit Singapore, they only see shiny hotels and beautiful parks. What they miss is how Singapore's wealth is actually created. Jurong island can be seen from the coastal side, it's massive...!!
If you are at the beach of Sentosa you will see the oil refinery on Pulau Bukom. Actually you will hardly see the horizon because of the refinery and all the oil tankers. It is not invisible, but I agree that in general it is a bit hidden from the usual tourist spots
@@miallo Land planning is a serious policy domain in Singapore. I lived in SG for 10 years. I never visited Jurong Island. Indeed, I set foot in Tusa (another massive reclaimed area) only twice for meetings. On both occasions, I nearly could not get back to the city (around 5pm), because no taxis were near that newly reclaimed land mass in the west. Town planning means that most people have no good reasons to venture into those industrial areas.
I remember taking the bus from Singapore to Malaysia, and along the causeway were three large pipes. A local explained that two of those transported untreated water to Singapore. The third one returned some of the treated water back to the city of Johor in payment.
Singapore founding fathers are incredibly entrepreneurial and farsighted. They did stuff one after another which the world was still wondering about back then, and these are regarded as common wisdom. This is remarkable concerning a country's willingness to take risk and any bad risk has catastrophic consequences. I am thankful for the brilliant foresight of my founding fathers in all the undertakings that make up the fascade of Singapore.
@@Mikasks the british and Dutch did establish a strong entrepreneurial attitude and some of the early leaders of Singapore were british educated or had been part of british companies. Singapore was a thriving port and trading hub built from nothing by British and Dutch traders and some of the early post independence investors were from british Hong Kong. the Singaporean leaders did take some massive risks on unproven ideas they thought would succeed and like many famous entrepreneurs their calculated risk paid off.
I recommend reading "Bold Vision: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Reserves and Its Sovereign Wealth Fund". It talks about how Singapore founded GIC when it was unprecedented for a non-oil country to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund. Dr. Goh Keng Swee was instrumental in its conception. I am always amazed how fucking crazy and bold our founding fathers were.
What would be interesting is to track what the new generation of civil servants and ministers are upto, so that a similar incredible story can be told a few decades down the lane. Singapore's succession planning is also critical for the continuity of the "crazy and bold" initiatives that made the tiny island a growling LION in the world.
Civil servants with broad executive power with the know how and desire can be a great asset to a country. Civil servants with broad executive power but without the knowledge or with a desires other than the advancement of their society can be a great bane. The problem is you don't know how any particular person will turn out until you give them the power and once you give them the power it's very hard to take it back. Singapore has been very lucky in that respect .... so far.
It is quite fascinating to learn that tiny Singapore having one of the largest petrol chemical refinery in the world . Well done on the in-depth research and analysis !
@@bell-xk5dd Singapore being densely populated doesn't have much land, so it's shrewedly placing its solar panels on high-rise apartments' roofrops & floating on reservoirs
Another thing many people don't know is that Tiny Singapore is the biggest manufacturer of Oil Rigs. Very hugh industry and sub industry. Also benefits the hotels and service apartments. Tons of engineers are sent here to check the status of the rig building. Just go check service apartments rates in Singapore.... It's crazy, minimum $2.5k a week for a studio.
Your videos are so informative, well-presented, sometimes even inspiring. While in the west we're used to either big personality CEOs or boring decline, the theme in several of your videos is how Asian nations achieved success through decades of sensible, focused, well-managed progress.
This is one big ideological different between the East and the West, generally speaking. Although both using the label "democratic countries" In the East, one strong centralize power is consider ok, while in the West is consider a taboo. A strong center power with the right mind-set to improve the country economy, you can be come Singapore, but if the leaderships are corrupts and no real interest to look out for their people, it turns into Venezuela. The West emphasis on "check and balance", therefore from policy to execution take forever, and they always never ended up the same as the original policy intended to. It is because so many different interests (many are self interest or driven by their financial backing) and politics. If China changes her label from "communist" to "capitalist" then the West will say, "the democratic system works in China."
Viewing as a Singaporean, one of Venezuela's biggest problem (and to an extend all of South America) is geography. It's not just 'resources curse', but also the continent's location makes practically every country in South America very vulnerable to US sanctions. The US don't simply intervene, they would have an easy time of it, easier then every other continent, because most trade route of both North and South Americas pass through US sphere of influence. Regardless of how people felt about the government system, South American governments has good reasons to be paranoid about the US, because the US can easily make things every difficult. It isn't simply a matter of bad administration, South America has a geo-political vulnerability far worst then that of Australia have with China.
The first refinery is Shell at Pulau Bukom. The second was the Mobil Oil Refinery constructed sometime in 1965 at Tanjong Penjuru and I remember the dredging works was done by an American firm called Hawaiian Dredging..
He definitely read Facebook really well, because that's what everyone uses whenever news outlets publish an article related to politics and comes the whole shitstorm against the 'G'.
1. It is strategically placed at the mouth of the straits of Malacca. 2. It is surrounded by countries that do have petroleum reserves but couldn't develop their expertise or refinery infrastructure to take advantage of it for whatever reason at the time. They've caught up but you could make the argument they kinda missed the boat on really making bank on it.
Yups, many Singaporean success really came down because their 2 neighbor especially Indonesia has a poor leadership and their civilian mostly stupid enough to understand any basic mathematics
So my ears didn't deceive me? What do they use cats for in the oil refinery business? Like they used canaries in the coal mines? "If the cat dies you RUN!" :P
singapore has made the the best of all the opportunities their little island nation was given, nothing is more important then lifting the living standards of your citizens and every country that is able to do that has done a commendable job.
Apparently cats are an integral part of oil refinery. They show up many weird places. In medical, for instance, they apparently use cats for scanners. No idea how that works either....
The real reasons for the incredible wealthy Singapore from about 2000 can be found in the early 60s. The reason why the US is having so much trouble now can be found in the early 80s.
@@krollpeter I wonder if you could elaborate the US comment further. I am intrigued by " ... US is having so much trouble now can be found in the early 80s"
@@krollpeter Singapore was opportunistic I guess in getting some "1st mover advantage" (e.g. more FDI, military co-operation (it proudly says it's 1 of the only 6 countries to fly the F-15)) by being the 1st country in SE Asia to be friendly with the USA, while neighbouring countries were less so for various reasons e.g. opposition to the Vietnam War, though there've been times where Singapore hasn't been as friendly, probably as part of exercising its sovereignty. E.g. heard some 1 once say something like "Thanks to our military we could cane Michael Fay"
5:00 -"Shell's first refinery [in Singapore] was built in record time..." - and the "illustrative image" shows a SNOW covered ground. Oh, boy... ;-) Singapore being less than 2° north off the equator, surrounded practically on all sides by a tropical ocean... In December of 1990, if my memory serves me (or was it 1991?) there was a constant three day rainfall (December and June are the peak months of "wet seasons") - going from a tropical downpour, to drizzle, to moderate rain, back to heavy rain, and so on, for three days in row, with heavy clouds and pretty strong winds all the time - and that was the "winter of the century", and temperature indeed dropped to an unimaginable low ("unimaginable there"), which was... 19°C/ 66°F. Yeah, that was a big chill - nothing like that happened for next ten years... (And I know it for a fact, as I was living there for all those ten years.) In fact, there are just TWO weather forecasts for S'pore that works perfectly for all year round - for "wet season" it is "temperature between 23 and 27°C, with showers and thunderstorms all over the island in morning and afternoon" and for "dry season" it is "temperature between 27 and 32°C, with possible scattered showers and thunderstorms over some areas the island in morning and afternoon". So, that snow on the ground... But WAIT - that was in sixties, way BEFORE the global warming, wasn't it? Surely that could happened back then, eh? ;-) PS: And then, when you thought nothing can trump this... @ 6:32 - "Indonesia Pertamina ....." - illustrated by a stock photo of a guy from Роснефт (Rosneft, Russian abbreviation of "Russian Oil", Русский Нефт) peering over some permafrost... : ) (For all of you out there not very good at geography - Indonesia spans the equator.). What next, coconut palms and white-sand beaches in a video about Norilsk? : )
This commenter is having too much fun, but I strongly agree that errors like those severely compromise the video's credibility, and credibility is the most valuable thing here.
@@habpi It's not even about "credibility" as such - it's just "plain deb..." well, never mind. "Cognitive dissonance" they call in the trade, they do... Suffice to say it just looks silly. And while everyone knows and understands (myself included) that this "slide show" is just an eye candy, something to hang your sight on and keep your visual cortex busy while listening to the narrative, nonetheless photos like that are just completely out of tune. Therefore they're more an eyesore then eyecandy, something akin seeing a man with a wig and in woman's dress and hearing "this is a woman". O'Reilly? Too much fun? Hey, there's no such thing as "too much" of fun. And no, this is not "fun" per se, it's more like watching a slapstick comedy act - it's silly, it's a low brew thing, but you just can't help laughing. Cheers anyway, and Merry Christmas. Oh, and by the way - I really do appreciate informative value of Asianometric's videos. But when I saw this "slip of slide", so to speak, it was like seeing someone with a sign "kick me" pinned on the back his trousers... Yeah, we're malicious creatures, us humans, aren't we? ;-)
Plug and play : Build flatted factories and prefab buildings for larger ones and ready made infrastructure for roads, power, utilities, jetties. Also international schools. Also at one time the biggest supplier of design and build offshore drilling platforms and conversion of supply vessels and on board staff quarters and repair. Also for good measure the largest exporter of ornamental fish and cut orchids.
Fantastic! One of the absolutely best, most informative and enlightening videos I've seen in a long time! Thank you for your deep and knowledgeable insights!
All boiled down to the Great man (some say benevolent dictator), Lee Kuan Yew, who aimed to make Singapore.. In his words, "a first world oasis in a third world region." people like Goh Keng Swee and Pillai and later on Phillip Yeo (of Jurong Island fame) all took their queues from LKY.
Love your videos! They always go very deep into the topic, while keeping them succinct and interesting. The last bit in this video on insights into the empowerment of civil servants was spot on. In addition to being a great analyst, you also have the maturity of being able to pinpoint the issues that can make or mar things.
Similar situation With Water. They used to receive water supply from Malaysia (with constant threads of it being turned off whenever it was politically convenient ). Now they treat the same water and send it back to Malaysia with a markup. lol. Always turning weakness into strength
MY THUMB UP TO SINGAPORE EVEN PREMIER DENG SIOW PING WAS IMPRESS WITH HER GROWTH,LEE KWAN YEW IS STILL SMILING FR HEAVEN N PROUD OF SINGAPORE ACHIVEMENTS IN THE WORLD.KEEP IT UP.SINGAPOREAN.
The west part of the island state is dominated by Petrochemical industry specialized in oil refinery right after independence, it had been a high revenue generator for Singapore ever since. Ease of loading into tankers at the port and quick to export. 😁
Learnt in a university module that the way Jurong Island was built took advantage of the shallowness of the waters between the islands originally in the area e.g. _Seraya_ , before they were all joined together by land reclamation to form Jurong Island, as that meant less sand would be needed. Also didn't know beforehand that what I thought was the bridge (Jurong Island H'way) to the island from the mainland is actually a floating pontoon so that it could be more easily dismantled in an emergency
Philip Yeo was flying in a helicopter over where Jurong Island is now and thought it'll be a good idea to amalgamate and reclaim land for a petro chem. hub. He's right. I think with visionary civil servants like him, S'pore will still be innovative.
very rare 2 see an informative n factual piece which ever most sporeans do not know....this is called long term fore-sight n great planning for such a massive undertaking with serious risks if wrong....only in spore-no-not indonesia-philippines-malaysia -thailand..WHY ?.. cse of great leadership n guts.
Singapore contributed massively from Big Businesses that left Hong Kong in 1997 due to its turnover to China! Since then Singapore became a Powerhouse in Asia and in the whole world!
When I was in my 30s I work as a courier on my motorbike and delivered letters, parcels to companies in Jurong Island. There was no GPS app or smart phone yet, I had to rely on street directory book to navigate and many times got lost too. The island is huge!
The history of petroleum goes back even further. Standard Oil (parent of Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco …) and Royal Dutch Shell sold kerosene into Singapore into the Far East in 1890s. This was the time of kerosene lamp.
The outro says that Asianometry would like to reach 100k subscribers one day. Congratulations - I think you're already there? (142k subscribers showing).
I'm really interested to hear how the new complex in Pengerang in Malaysia fits into all of this. I saw it from an aeroplane window and it was amazing how much construction was going on, and the size of the place even compared with what Singapore has.
Heard speculation that the 3rd road between Singapore & Malaysia proposed by the latter's then PM _Mahathir Mohammad_ would be sited at the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) to make it more accessible & thus more attractive place to work at, as it's otherwise in a more rural region. Analysts doubt the financial viability of this proposal though, with the existing bumboat ferry service to _Pengerang_ (from Singapore's _Changi_ Village IIRC) isn't that heavily used. The 3rd road might be more utilised if it wasn't so far east, perhaps linking Singapore's _Seletar_ & Malaysia's _Pasir Gudang_ regions instead
As someone close to the petrochemical industry, i'm quite heartened to see your analysis. I think the training institute CPTC which I've attended has closed. Unfortunately we probably wont see such government-private sector collaborations like we did during the founding years. Too much compliance and regulations.... GKS was really instrumental in Singapore's nation building. As much as people revered LKY, GKS was similar in stature. Their selfless attitude putting nation before self really kept Singapore ahead in the Four Asian Tigers.
I believe the video was designating to introduce Singapore, but does it have anything to do with Taiwan? In the beginning of this video has a map of showing almost all the settlements within Taipei basin when Taiwan was under Japanese rules…
Those tycoons are the cancers that rot hk to the core...the reason why majority of hkers can’t afford a decent home...yes, please do a video about that.
Wow, amazing to lern it snows in Singapore, a tropical climate, unless the author is using stock photos... (internet): , and the coldest months are December, January, and February. The temperatures range from 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). The temperatures are too high for snow formation; therefore, it does not snow in Singapore
Glad you spoke even before finishing the video. My nation unlike this one IS an oil giant, by mismanagement closed recently PETROTRIN refinery. This party in particular can't cultivate but destroy. I knew Singapore became a refiner.
as a sri lankan, Sri Lanka's political decisions also helped Singapore to develop. American and British companies came to invest in the oil tank terminal but they were not allowed to do so, so they left Sri Lanka and did oil refining in Singapore. Today Sri Lanka also imports oil from Singapore. India does not like America. When countries like Trincomalee come to Trincomalee oil tanker terminal and port, India says that it is a threat to their national security. And the right leadership is the main reason for the development of Singapore.
Two key Sg's Economics driver and advisor, i.e. Dr. Goh Keng Swee and Dr. Albert Winsemius. Not because of Dr. Goh, today Sentosa Island would be long gone to Mobil, not because of him, I doubt today Sin$ is so rock stable.
Excuse me, if you were to read LKY’s books, you would know the initiative of developing the oil refinery in Singapore came from him, GKS was his right hand man in carrying out the task...there a candid interview of LKY talking about how he had regretted in renting out a huge space to Japan at a relatively low price for oil storage in those early years ..he laughed about it and said he had learned from that experience, I can’t find that video on TH-cam again. LKY was the mastermind and architect behind our oil refinery in Singapore.
As I understand the remaining refineries in Australia are past their life and receive government financial assistance to remain operational. Most petroleum products are imported and storage supplies are very limited should shipping be disrupted
Australia 🇦🇺 can't build anything now. They used to make their own submarines but now had to buy from the superpowers. But on the bright side you can always steal Timorese steal like you've been doing 😂
your channel is way toooo good..pls put a big subscribe logo or something at the end when you are asking so it hits them in the face..ppl just end up forgetting to, you know, with endless other things that feel a doing.
In the 90s the defunct Asiaweek magazine made a yearly list of Asia's biggest companies. The biggest SEA companies at the time was Pertamina of Indonesia 🇮🇩. I don't recall if there was a oil company from Singapore 🇸🇬 but I seem to remember Sony had a subsidiary there with some $5 billion in yearly sales
SG's politicians are very clever. Without natural resources, they are using brains instead. SG under LKY is doing anything for progress, not only oil and many other sectors, SG is also like Swiss a center of money laundering. SG today invests heavily in China building new cities and investments. SG is amazing, the smallest in ASEAN but a leader in quality of life.
Thank you Morgan Stanley (MSCI-EAFE) and Mr. John Reed, Chair, Citi...Bank, Corp. and Citi-Group. Then? Citi...as Mr Read preferred...in 1976. Mr. Reed was a MIT Sloan School Of Management. This man had more class in one finger that Goldman Sachs did in-toto in 1976...the entire organization of GS!
The government is very strong on green initiatives and renewable energy. We're phasing out petrol cars latest by 2040. But our refineries are serving developing countries in Asia Pacific, and demand is still growing. That said, the economy is now no longer reliant on O&G, with most initiatives now focused on growing digital technology and fintech.
Diversification has long been on the country's economic agenda, though there has been concerns that we're going too far & thus may end up as a jack of all trades but master of none. E.g. we attracted more private universities to setup branches here to become a "global schoolhouse" & develop our education sector, but in the end we had unhappy students/customers as quite a number of universities suddenly closed down (due to financial problems I think) without refunding students. Tourism is another sector we're developing but that's involved building much man-made attractions since we don't have a lot of natural ones, & to sustain tourists' interest some attractions were rebuilt after only a short time, which isn't very environmentally friendly e.g. the Merlion observatory tower was demolished after just ~20 yrs to be replaced by a multi-sensory garden
Note: I recorded this video 3 months ago, which is why it says 100K subs.
Thanks for watching. Check out other videos on Singapore here: th-cam.com/play/PLKtxx9TnH76TS34YoUFNgTdAB1qNE4wTK.html
Any comment on the Pengerang Integrated Oil Complex (RAPID) built by Malaysia just next door? It just started operating and how will this affect Singapore as the oil hub in the region?
42% growth in a quarter is mighty impressive!
I'm glad to see your channel is getting so much traction Jon.
You have a great perspective and insight on topics that interest many of us.
Congratulations
Pls do one on temeask holdings or GIC and their history/investments as they are so have little information on them .
Your videos are great and surely you deserve to get way way more than 100k subscribers.
I live singapore
1:48 Singaporean here, can confirm that the robust supply of cats is one of the biggest drivers of our productivity growth. The advent of cat videos on TH-cam in the early 2000s only augmented that growth.
Lol, I'm also in Singapore and can confirm - my neighbor has a cat that's always watching us from their doorway, reminding us to be productive
I'm assuming that the cat-egory of 'cat' includes both fluffy ones and those waving ones, right?
I'd never really considered the economic impact of of feline populations. Is it a propinquity or density dependent impact? Is it a positive externality? Is it an externality at all? So many questions
Truly the level of detailed analysis we've all come to expect from Asianometry
Yes, our cats are our productivity masters
Man, the cats when I go outside stare at me as if they will hop into my room and kill me lol.
This is actually one of the biggest "secrets" of Singapore. Nowadays, when tourists visit Singapore, they only see shiny hotels and beautiful parks. What they miss is how Singapore's wealth is actually created. Jurong island can be seen from the coastal side, it's massive...!!
If you are at the beach of Sentosa you will see the oil refinery on Pulau Bukom. Actually you will hardly see the horizon because of the refinery and all the oil tankers. It is not invisible, but I agree that in general it is a bit hidden from the usual tourist spots
Yup it's massive
th-cam.com/video/g3wHerBa3Ow/w-d-xo.html
@@miallo Land planning is a serious policy domain in Singapore. I lived in SG for 10 years. I never visited Jurong Island. Indeed, I set foot in Tusa (another massive reclaimed area) only twice for meetings. On both occasions, I nearly could not get back to the city (around 5pm), because no taxis were near that newly reclaimed land mass in the west. Town planning means that most people have no good reasons to venture into those industrial areas.
@@jays9591 Tuas
@@jays9591
The whole area where the refineries are is heavily guarded by surveillance cameras and soldiers...
I remember taking the bus from Singapore to Malaysia, and along the causeway were three large pipes. A local explained that two of those transported untreated water to Singapore. The third one returned some of the treated water back to the city of Johor in payment.
That is actually quite mind-blowing
whats more mind-blowing is how Malaysia repeatedly likes to use the water pipes as leverage.
In addition, the cost of constructing and maintaining the reservoir, pump facility, pipes are paid by Singapore.
@@johnlzr Singapore needs the precious water. She has to pay for infrastructure.
@@jysm3302 whats more mind-blowing is how every countries have different levererage on each others. Its how the world works.
Singapore founding fathers are incredibly entrepreneurial and farsighted. They did stuff one after another which the world was still wondering about back then, and these are regarded as common wisdom. This is remarkable concerning a country's willingness to take risk and any bad risk has catastrophic consequences. I am thankful for the brilliant foresight of my founding fathers in all the undertakings that make up the fascade of Singapore.
Lol you mean the British education and law System and Western Industrial technology? Or what do you mean specifically?
@@davidw8668 ah it seems like we have an ignorant westerner here. Don’t make us look bad.
@@Mikasks the british and Dutch did establish a strong entrepreneurial attitude and some of the early leaders of Singapore were british educated or had been part of british companies. Singapore was a thriving port and trading hub built from nothing by British and Dutch traders and some of the early post independence investors were from british Hong Kong. the Singaporean leaders did take some massive risks on unproven ideas they thought would succeed and like many famous entrepreneurs their calculated risk paid off.
Deputy PM Goh Keng Swee was credited by Lee Kuan Yew as being able to see 30 years ahead.
@@davidw8668 as if you had any part in creating those things
I recommend reading "Bold Vision: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Reserves and Its Sovereign Wealth Fund". It talks about how Singapore founded GIC when it was unprecedented for a non-oil country to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund. Dr. Goh Keng Swee was instrumental in its conception. I am always amazed how fucking crazy and bold our founding fathers were.
The late goh keng swee is a former malaysian. Malsysia's loss is singapore's gain.
@@ongsengkee2530 no need to point out utterly pointless information spewed out from your mind
Now Singapore's Raffles Hotel & Asia Sq office towers have also been bought by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund too I think
What would be interesting is to track what the new generation of civil servants and ministers are upto, so that a similar incredible story can be told a few decades down the lane. Singapore's succession planning is also critical for the continuity of the "crazy and bold" initiatives that made the tiny island a growling LION in the world.
I though I was the only one who listened to that .
Civil servants with broad executive power with the know how and desire can be a great asset to a country. Civil servants with broad executive power but without the knowledge or with a desires other than the advancement of their society can be a great bane. The problem is you don't know how any particular person will turn out until you give them the power and once you give them the power it's very hard to take it back. Singapore has been very lucky in that respect .... so far.
It is quite fascinating to learn that tiny Singapore having one of the largest petrol chemical refinery in the world . Well done on the in-depth research and analysis !
Petro chemical is a dying business.
@@fredtan1506 Nah. It may die in Sing but people still need those products every day.
@@TheViettan28
While other countries are buying our petrol, Singapore is developing solar energy island wide, another open secret.
@@bell-xk5dd Singapore being densely populated doesn't have much land, so it's shrewedly placing its solar panels on high-rise apartments' roofrops & floating on reservoirs
@@TheViettan28 There's been proposals that Singapore could use its refineries to produce other chemicals from petroleum too, besides fuel
Another thing many people don't know is that Tiny Singapore is the biggest manufacturer of Oil Rigs. Very hugh industry and sub industry. Also benefits the hotels and service apartments. Tons of engineers are sent here to check the status of the rig building. Just go check service apartments rates in Singapore.... It's crazy, minimum $2.5k a week for a studio.
Your videos are so informative, well-presented, sometimes even inspiring. While in the west we're used to either big personality CEOs or boring decline, the theme in several of your videos is how Asian nations achieved success through decades of sensible, focused, well-managed progress.
This is one big ideological different between the East and the West, generally speaking. Although both using the label "democratic countries" In the East, one strong centralize power is consider ok, while in the West is consider a taboo. A strong center power with the right mind-set to improve the country economy, you can be come Singapore, but if the leaderships are corrupts and no real interest to look out for their people, it turns into Venezuela. The West emphasis on "check and balance", therefore from policy to execution take forever, and they always never ended up the same as the original policy intended to. It is because so many different interests (many are self interest or driven by their financial backing) and politics. If China changes her label from "communist" to "capitalist" then the West will say, "the democratic system works in China."
As a venezuelan this video is both fascinating and incredible frustrating.
I feel your pain.
You have the "resource curse" and a bad administration while Singapore has strategic location with a stable semi-police state government.
How’s the situation back there?
Viewing as a Singaporean, one of Venezuela's biggest problem (and to an extend all of South America) is geography. It's not just 'resources curse', but also the continent's location makes practically every country in South America very vulnerable to US sanctions. The US don't simply intervene, they would have an easy time of it, easier then every other continent, because most trade route of both North and South Americas pass through US sphere of influence.
Regardless of how people felt about the government system, South American governments has good reasons to be paranoid about the US, because the US can easily make things every difficult. It isn't simply a matter of bad administration, South America has a geo-political vulnerability far worst then that of Australia have with China.
@@biocapsule7311 U.S.A. Monroe doctrine
Singaporean here. I worked my first job at ExxonMobil. Jurong Island actually houses ExxonMobil's largest refinery outside of the US.
That’s a great organisation? Are you still working with the same?
@@chanakyaer5680 Nope I've moved to tech and work at Amazon now. But Exxon is a great brand name on the resume
Really good topic, as an Australian this has a massive impact on our energy consumption so it's great to see it get good in-depth coverage.
Yup indeed
th-cam.com/video/g3wHerBa3Ow/w-d-xo.html
The first refinery is Shell at Pulau Bukom. The second was the Mobil Oil Refinery constructed sometime in 1965 at Tanjong Penjuru and I remember the dredging works was done by an American firm called Hawaiian Dredging..
This is literally why I exist. My father was a chemist working for an oil company in the late 70s. He got transferred to Singapore and met my mother.
Hahahah the fact that you called it the "G" goes to show the amount of research u put in for all your videos. Kudos!!
He definitely read Facebook really well, because that's what everyone uses whenever news outlets publish an article related to politics and comes the whole shitstorm against the 'G'.
G is too atas. He will only earn his Ph.D in colloquial Singaporean when he uses "Gahmen people" correctly in a sentence.
1. It is strategically placed at the mouth of the straits of Malacca.
2. It is surrounded by countries that do have petroleum reserves but couldn't develop their expertise or refinery infrastructure to take advantage of it for whatever reason at the time. They've caught up but you could make the argument they kinda missed the boat on really making bank on it.
Yups, many Singaporean success really came down because their 2 neighbor especially Indonesia has a poor leadership and their civilian mostly stupid enough to understand any basic mathematics
But we don’t take that much crude oil from our neighbours. The Middle East oil helped us too.
@@tohkenghoe yeah it wasn't a lot but it was enough to jumpstart Singapore's petrochemical sector.
Americans help too ..... they are save n secure refining it on a carrier among hostile regions
@Azarello Rich. I'm from PH 🇵🇭 and I know all of SEA is low IQ region 😢😭🙄😂
Cats, we all love large supplies of cats
So my ears didn't deceive me? What do they use cats for in the oil refinery business? Like they used canaries in the coal mines? "If the cat dies you RUN!" :P
Singapore has a huge urban population of friendly stray cats
@@andersjjensen I believe it is catalytic cracking, also known as 'cat' cracking.
@@andersjjensen no, that's for detecting radioactive radiation.
@@gamerforlife9865 there's also a cat island
singapore has made the the best of all the opportunities their little island nation was given, nothing is more important then lifting the living standards of your citizens and every country that is able to do that has done a commendable job.
Absolutely true, never pass up genuine opportunities !
What is "a robust supply of cats"? around 1:48?
also ey said "i want to reach hundred thousand subscribers", which is several months overdue :3
Apparently cats are an integral part of oil refinery. They show up many weird places. In medical, for instance, they apparently use cats for scanners. No idea how that works either....
@Anders Juel Jensen Cats are vital to the construction industry in Singapore as well.
Singapore has a large population of friendly stray cats
@@0deepak they need to stamp their paws on various bits of wet concrete to meet Singapore's building code 😜😜😜
This is an interesting video that shows the often unseen reasons why Singapore has succeeded. Well done. Much appreciated. More please.
The real reasons for the incredible wealthy Singapore from about 2000 can be found in the early 60s.
The reason why the US is having so much trouble now can be found in the early 80s.
@@krollpeter I wonder if you could elaborate the US comment further. I am intrigued by " ... US is having so much trouble now can be found in the early 80s"
@@jays9591 The Ronald Reagan area
@@krollpeter Singapore was opportunistic I guess in getting some "1st mover advantage" (e.g. more FDI, military co-operation (it proudly says it's 1 of the only 6 countries to fly the F-15)) by being the 1st country in SE Asia to be friendly with the USA, while neighbouring countries were less so for various reasons e.g. opposition to the Vietnam War, though there've been times where Singapore hasn't been as friendly, probably as part of exercising its sovereignty. E.g. heard some 1 once say something like "Thanks to our military we could cane Michael Fay"
@@lzh4950 Singapore did well, because the neighbors were busy skimming off the money from their own people.
5:00 -"Shell's first refinery [in Singapore] was built in record time..." - and the "illustrative image" shows a SNOW covered ground. Oh, boy... ;-) Singapore being less than 2° north off the equator, surrounded practically on all sides by a tropical ocean...
In December of 1990, if my memory serves me (or was it 1991?) there was a constant three day rainfall (December and June are the peak months of "wet seasons") - going from a tropical downpour, to drizzle, to moderate rain, back to heavy rain, and so on, for three days in row, with heavy clouds and pretty strong winds all the time - and that was the "winter of the century", and temperature indeed dropped to an unimaginable low ("unimaginable there"), which was... 19°C/ 66°F. Yeah, that was a big chill - nothing like that happened for next ten years... (And I know it for a fact, as I was living there for all those ten years.)
In fact, there are just TWO weather forecasts for S'pore that works perfectly for all year round - for "wet season" it is "temperature between 23 and 27°C, with showers and thunderstorms all over the island in morning and afternoon" and for "dry season" it is "temperature between 27 and 32°C, with possible scattered showers and thunderstorms over some areas the island in morning and afternoon".
So, that snow on the ground... But WAIT - that was in sixties, way BEFORE the global warming, wasn't it? Surely that could happened back then, eh? ;-)
PS: And then, when you thought nothing can trump this... @ 6:32 - "Indonesia Pertamina ....." - illustrated by a stock photo of a guy from Роснефт (Rosneft, Russian abbreviation of "Russian Oil", Русский Нефт) peering over some permafrost... : )
(For all of you out there not very good at geography - Indonesia spans the equator.). What next, coconut palms and white-sand beaches in a video about Norilsk? : )
Не душни, в Сингапуре и без тебя душно бывает.
To be fair, these are high security places. So stock photos of these places are scarce if not impossible to find.
@@nulnoh219 Still, a stock photo from Siberia to illustrate a developement in INDONESIA? C'mon, let's get real, shall we?
This commenter is having too much fun, but I strongly agree that errors like those severely compromise the video's credibility, and credibility is the most valuable thing here.
@@habpi It's not even about "credibility" as such - it's just "plain deb..." well, never mind. "Cognitive dissonance" they call in the trade, they do...
Suffice to say it just looks silly. And while everyone knows and understands (myself included) that this "slide show" is just an eye candy, something to hang your sight on and keep your visual cortex busy while listening to the narrative, nonetheless photos like that are just completely out of tune. Therefore they're more an eyesore then eyecandy, something akin seeing a man with a wig and in woman's dress and hearing "this is a woman". O'Reilly?
Too much fun? Hey, there's no such thing as "too much" of fun. And no, this is not "fun" per se, it's more like watching a slapstick comedy act - it's silly, it's a low brew thing, but you just can't help laughing. Cheers anyway, and Merry Christmas. Oh, and by the way - I really do appreciate informative value of Asianometric's videos. But when I saw this "slip of slide", so to speak, it was like seeing someone with a sign "kick me" pinned on the back his trousers... Yeah, we're malicious creatures, us humans, aren't we? ;-)
Plug and play : Build flatted factories and prefab buildings for larger ones and ready made infrastructure for roads, power, utilities, jetties. Also international schools. Also at one time the biggest supplier of design and build offshore drilling platforms and conversion of supply vessels and on board staff quarters and repair. Also for good measure the largest exporter of ornamental fish and cut orchids.
A short and sharp summary, well done.
Fantastic! One of the absolutely best, most informative and enlightening videos I've seen in a long time! Thank you for your deep and knowledgeable insights!
All boiled down to the Great man (some say benevolent dictator), Lee Kuan Yew, who aimed to make Singapore.. In his words, "a first world oasis in a third world region." people like Goh Keng Swee and Pillai and later on Phillip Yeo (of Jurong Island fame) all took their queues from LKY.
If you read Lee Kuan Yew book, he does often disagree with Goh Keng Swee, and at times Goh Keng Swee does proves his worth as peer of Lee Kuan Yew
Thanks!
Great job! Once again you feature a little known story about Singapore.
Love your videos! They always go very deep into the topic, while keeping them succinct and interesting. The last bit in this video on insights into the empowerment of civil servants was spot on. In addition to being a great analyst, you also have the maturity of being able to pinpoint the issues that can make or mar things.
Appreciate your insights JON
Living in this little island 🏝
Similar situation With Water. They used to receive water supply from Malaysia (with constant threads of it being turned off whenever it was politically convenient ). Now they treat the same water and send it back to Malaysia with a markup. lol. Always turning weakness into strength
MY THUMB UP TO SINGAPORE EVEN PREMIER DENG SIOW PING WAS IMPRESS WITH HER GROWTH,LEE KWAN YEW IS STILL SMILING FR HEAVEN N PROUD OF SINGAPORE ACHIVEMENTS IN THE WORLD.KEEP IT UP.SINGAPOREAN.
Thank you. It’s Lee Kuan Yew btw 😁
The west part of the island state is dominated by Petrochemical industry specialized in oil refinery right after independence, it had been a high revenue generator for Singapore ever since. Ease of loading into tankers at the port and quick to export. 😁
Learnt in a university module that the way Jurong Island was built took advantage of the shallowness of the waters between the islands originally in the area e.g. _Seraya_ , before they were all joined together by land reclamation to form Jurong Island, as that meant less sand would be needed. Also didn't know beforehand that what I thought was the bridge (Jurong Island H'way) to the island from the mainland is actually a floating pontoon so that it could be more easily dismantled in an emergency
Check out the book "Neither Civil nor Servant" - a biography of the Phillip Yeo, the man who pushed the entire idea of Jurong Island
I'm going to check it out, thanks!
Philip Yeo was flying in a helicopter over where Jurong Island is now and thought it'll be a good idea to amalgamate and reclaim land for a petro chem. hub. He's right. I think with visionary civil servants like him, S'pore will still be innovative.
Hi Jon! As always, you have hit the right mix of the history of industrial policy and current affairs.
As someone who works in Jurong Island, this video makes me smile
very rare 2 see an informative n factual piece which ever most sporeans do not know....this is called long term fore-sight n great planning for such a massive undertaking with serious risks if wrong....only in spore-no-not indonesia-philippines-malaysia -thailand..WHY ?.. cse of great leadership n guts.
I’d love to visit Singapore
Singapore contributed massively from Big Businesses that left Hong Kong in 1997 due to its turnover to China! Since then Singapore became a Powerhouse in Asia and in the whole world!
When I was in my 30s I work as a courier on my motorbike and delivered letters, parcels to companies in Jurong Island. There was no GPS app or smart phone yet, I had to rely on street directory book to navigate and many times got lost too. The island is huge!
Why you didn't invest on a compass?
highly informative video, this channel is a gem.
asianometry... thank you for doing this
Great video! Thank you so much for all your research.
The history of petroleum goes back even further. Standard Oil (parent of Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco …) and Royal Dutch Shell sold kerosene into Singapore into the Far East in 1890s. This was the time of kerosene lamp.
The British set up a kerosene processing plant in Pulau Bukom before independence.
Great video, thanks for posting this. Much respect for Mr Pillay
Nice video! At risk of sounding pedantic, Goh Keng Swee was already a politician (not civil servant) in the 1960s. In anycase, I enjoyed the video!
Well presented. Good work. Thanks again for your interest.
Thanks for sharing your research info and insights.
Love your channel,thanks for your work.
Always excellent content. Thanks
Incredibly interesting. Thank you for this!
The outro says that Asianometry would like to reach 100k subscribers one day. Congratulations - I think you're already there? (142k subscribers showing).
I'm really interested to hear how the new complex in Pengerang in Malaysia fits into all of this. I saw it from an aeroplane window and it was amazing how much construction was going on, and the size of the place even compared with what Singapore has.
Heard speculation that the 3rd road between Singapore & Malaysia proposed by the latter's then PM _Mahathir Mohammad_ would be sited at the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) to make it more accessible & thus more attractive place to work at, as it's otherwise in a more rural region. Analysts doubt the financial viability of this proposal though, with the existing bumboat ferry service to _Pengerang_ (from Singapore's _Changi_ Village IIRC) isn't that heavily used. The 3rd road might be more utilised if it wasn't so far east, perhaps linking Singapore's _Seletar_ & Malaysia's _Pasir Gudang_ regions instead
Singapore doesn't want to build a bridge at the north-eastern coast to Pengerang. Doing so will siphon off petro chem. business to Pengerang.
As someone close to the petrochemical industry, i'm quite heartened to see your analysis. I think the training institute CPTC which I've attended has closed.
Unfortunately we probably wont see such government-private sector collaborations like we did during the founding years. Too much compliance and regulations....
GKS was really instrumental in Singapore's nation building. As much as people revered LKY, GKS was similar in stature. Their selfless attitude putting nation before self really kept Singapore ahead in the Four Asian Tigers.
Great Insights. Thank you.
I believe the video was designating to introduce Singapore, but does it have anything to do with Taiwan? In the beginning of this video has a map of showing almost all the settlements within Taipei basin when Taiwan was under Japanese rules…
Can you do a video essay on Hong Kong conglomerates that emerged during the British Colonial Era?
Those tycoons are the cancers that rot hk to the core...the reason why majority of hkers can’t afford a decent home...yes, please do a video about that.
@@bell-xk5dd These people are replicates of colonizers with yellow skin.
Wow, amazing to lern it snows in Singapore, a tropical climate, unless the author is using stock photos... (internet): , and the coldest months are December, January, and February. The temperatures range from 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) to 90
degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). The temperatures are too high for snow formation; therefore, it does not snow in Singapore
wow you rocketed up in subs, good job
That pipeline you show in the video is a hot water pipe in Iceland, not an oil pipeline.
Haha..even i dont know.
Glad you spoke even before finishing the video. My nation unlike this one IS an oil giant, by mismanagement closed recently PETROTRIN refinery. This party in particular can't cultivate but destroy. I knew Singapore became a refiner.
as a sri lankan, Sri Lanka's political decisions also helped Singapore to develop. American and British companies came to invest in the oil tank terminal but they were not allowed to do so, so they left Sri Lanka and did oil refining in Singapore. Today Sri Lanka also imports oil from Singapore. India does not like America. When countries like Trincomalee come to Trincomalee oil tanker terminal and port, India says that it is a threat to their national security. And the right leadership is the main reason for the development of Singapore.
Sometimes I forgoy that Asianometry isn't just a tech infra channel lol. Nice video tho, I really like the even handed and extensive examinations.
All these refineries are so beautiful 🤩
Ah yeah, the famous singaporean cats. Not as memetic as japanese cats, but has also got outstanding purring capabilities.
Two key Sg's Economics driver and advisor, i.e. Dr. Goh Keng Swee and Dr. Albert Winsemius. Not because of Dr. Goh, today Sentosa Island would be long gone to Mobil, not because of him, I doubt today Sin$ is so rock stable.
Excuse me, if you were to read LKY’s books, you would know the initiative of developing the oil refinery in Singapore came from him, GKS was his right hand man in carrying out the task...there a candid interview of LKY talking about how he had regretted in renting out a huge space to Japan at a relatively low price for oil storage in those early years ..he laughed about it and said he had learned from that experience, I can’t find that video on TH-cam again. LKY was the mastermind and architect behind our oil refinery in Singapore.
U heard about shell pulling out of singapore ?
You can never go wrong with visionary good governance such as Goh Keng Swee and J Y Pillay
And Lee Kuan Yew.
just subscribed. Great channel.
1:40 wait cats are important for oil refinements?
ironically Singapore's pump price is one of the most expensive in the world.
As I understand the remaining refineries in Australia are past their life and receive government financial assistance to remain operational. Most petroleum products are imported and storage supplies are very limited should shipping be disrupted
Australia 🇦🇺 can't build anything now. They used to make their own submarines but now had to buy from the superpowers. But on the bright side you can always steal Timorese steal like you've been doing 😂
What will electric vehicles and transportation system affect her petrol revenue?
Singapore government have far sight compare to Taiwan daily fighting with opposition
Taiwanese government was very far sighted in the past, TSMC didn't just spring out of the ground.
Is Taiwan country have oil industry like this
your channel is way toooo good..pls put a big subscribe logo or something at the end when you are asking so it hits them in the face..ppl just end up forgetting to, you know, with endless other things that feel a doing.
Would Asianometry do a video clip about Singapore's take-over of Family-Owned, PIL ?
1:49 I hope to one day have a robust supply of cats too
Have to drop the Royal Dutch part
as a singaporean i am humbled by this video. but the oil here is never cheap. 1L can go as much as $3.
Aren't cars there $190 k for a corolla?
To control car population.
Border still closed for Malaysian petrol.
Philip Yeo was the civil servant most responsible for the petrochemical investments and development.
"I would like to reach 100,000 subscribers someday" lmao how old is this video actually?
I think he reuses that audio clip :P
He has a lot of videos in pipeline that are not uploaded yet but available for patreon users first
This video explains many economic factors.
I haven't hear anyone call our Gahmen the 'G'. I wonder where that's from?
Great video.
1:50 ... cats make oil?
Secret of Singapore's success at 1:50!
Wow, Amazing
Very interesting.
Good work! (Important toppic.)
In the 90s the defunct Asiaweek magazine made a yearly list of Asia's biggest companies. The biggest SEA companies at the time was Pertamina of Indonesia 🇮🇩. I don't recall if there was a oil company from Singapore 🇸🇬 but I seem to remember Sony had a subsidiary there with some $5 billion in yearly sales
SG's politicians are very clever. Without natural resources, they are using brains instead. SG under LKY is doing anything for progress, not only oil and many other sectors, SG is also like Swiss a center of money laundering. SG today invests heavily in China building new cities and investments. SG is amazing, the smallest in ASEAN but a leader in quality of life.
Thank you Morgan Stanley (MSCI-EAFE)
and Mr. John Reed, Chair, Citi...Bank, Corp. and Citi-Group. Then? Citi...as Mr Read preferred...in 1976.
Mr. Reed was a MIT Sloan School Of Management. This man had more class in one finger that Goldman Sachs did in-toto in 1976...the entire organization of GS!
What’s the future of these plants? Will they be converted to natural gas ?
Sumitomo President "Singapore is the best place to invest". 20 years later : Japan Hour
13:21 knew he was of Indian descent when I first heard the name
spyros panopoulos and what is "anadiaplasis"
I had no idea. Will they be diversifying away from oil/gas as the world moves to renewable energy?
Probably, but oil/gas still has a strong future for another 30-40 years still
The government is very strong on green initiatives and renewable energy. We're phasing out petrol cars latest by 2040. But our refineries are serving developing countries in Asia Pacific, and demand is still growing. That said, the economy is now no longer reliant on O&G, with most initiatives now focused on growing digital technology and fintech.
Singapore is always a step ahead, now we are going for solar energy in a massive way..
Diversification has long been on the country's economic agenda, though there has been concerns that we're going too far & thus may end up as a jack of all trades but master of none. E.g. we attracted more private universities to setup branches here to become a "global schoolhouse" & develop our education sector, but in the end we had unhappy students/customers as quite a number of universities suddenly closed down (due to financial problems I think) without refunding students. Tourism is another sector we're developing but that's involved building much man-made attractions since we don't have a lot of natural ones, & to sustain tourists' interest some attractions were rebuilt after only a short time, which isn't very environmentally friendly e.g. the Merlion observatory tower was demolished after just ~20 yrs to be replaced by a multi-sensory garden
A robust supply of cats? Refining catalyst? Or a fun note about felines?
1:50 "a robust supply of cats"?????
1:48 cats?
Nice video. Might be nitpicking here but your pronunciation of 'Temasek' is a little odd.