A survey earlier this month showed that Singaporeans are becoming so stressed at the seminal changes in their daily lives that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people wanting to emigrate. The top destination along with the US is Australia.

Prior to Mr Mah's announcement last week that Singapore Inc was about to be dismantled, the strongest sign of the trend was an end of cradle-to-the-grave jobs at government-linked companies, known as iron rice bowls.

The rot started when PSA Corp, the island's massive container terminal, announced last month that 850 jobs were to be axed because of increasing competition from other South-East Asian ports.

The Housing Development Board, responsible for the huge apartment blocks that dominate the Singapore skyline, added to the island's job woes by announcing early retirement packages for around 500 employees.

Neptune Orient Lines said on Wednesday that it could be axing over 1,000 jobs or 10 per cent of its global workforce following huge losses.

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, another GLC, announced last month it would close down its oldest plant in Singapore and axe more than 500 jobs.

There has been speculation even heavyweights such as SingTel and Singapore Airlines could follow suit.

"At issue is not just the iron rice bowl the concept of lifelong employment which many people nostalgically hark back to but also the future of Singapore Inc," wrote The Straits Times. The paper reported the top 22 GLCs accounted for 13 per cent of the island's gross domestic product in 1998.

Singapore can claim to be the only country in South-East Asia with a development model of a national entity along the lines of Japan Inc and Korea Inc.

Crony capitalism has flourished in Thailand and Malaysia and there have been national industries, but nothing comparable to the corporate and state identity of Singapore Inc.

Singapore also has major government-investment arms that have the largest investments in the region and the US of any South-East Asian nation.

There have been mutterings about the efficacy of the state-owned companies for more than a year following the much-dissected failure of some of the acquisitions of the island's leading blue chips.

For the first time there has been open discussion of the lack of corporate governance and management failures at many of the GLCs.

10 March 2003