Introduction For Singapore, 1993 is probably best characterized as the Year of the Second Wing. On 8 January 1993, Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew made a speech that set Singapore abuzz with words like regionalization, eco nomy, and In that speech at the annual Singapore Business Awards ceremony, Mr Lee stressed the need for developing an external economy, as was the case with all successful mature economies.1 He urged Singapore business to look seriously into going overseas and the Singapore Government to do what it can to expedite the process. Many agreed that for the Singapore economy to really fly it needed the second wing. Since then, the development of the exter nal economy has become a major preoccupation in Singapore. However, the need to develop an external economy has been a concern of the economic planners for a much longer time. In 1986 the Economic Commit tee, a specially constituted group of leaders from the public and private sec tors, submitted a report called The Singapore Economy: New Directions. It was a semi nal study. In discussing the future of the Singapore economy, the report identi fied offshore activities as a key factor for future growth. It argued that to seek investment opportunities only in Singapore would ultimately be limiting. The longer-term solution is to invest abroad and to promote offshore activities (p. 17). In 1991, another major report was released by the Singapore Government, entided The Strategic Economic Plan: Towards a Developed Nation. As the name sug gests, it was a long-range look at how Singapore should gear itself to a developed country. Here again, the concept of developing an external economy was discussed in depth and the economic planners recommended that becoming internationally oriented should be one of the eight strategic thrusts for the future. The report urged Singaporeans, who lacked a hinter land, to think of the whole world as their hinterland. To put it another way, Singapore needed to go global (p. 61).