Home » Feature » District Special
Pudong managers learn in Singapore ‘jobs’
Print Edition
Hands-on internships working at businesses in the “Lion City” are helping local cadres replicate their success back home. Qu Zhi listens in.
When Huang Dan, a manager at a State-owned company, was dispatched to Singapore for a three-month internship, he never expected he would have only one day to tour the “Lion City.”
Huang, who works in the financial department of Shanghai Waigaoqiao (Group) Co Ltd, went to work for Keppel Land Limited, a property company in Singapore and attended lectures at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
With the help of the Consulate General of Singapore in Shanghai, two groups including 10 Pudong cadres were sent to study such subjects as urban planning, tourism development, community management and comprehensive social management.
The first group came back last year with a 200-page report on what Pudong can learn from Singapore, while the second group who interned from December 2012 to March 2013 staged a presentation recently to share their insights with colleagues at Pudong government. Huang was in the second group.
Compared with lecture-based courses, the three-month training program tends to better meet the need of modern cadres, according to Ong Siew Gay, consul general of Singapore in Shanghai.
Temporarily serving in a position at a local business or institution helps officials gain first-hand exposure and experience, rather than just visiting governments and factories or learning theoretical knowledge.
The Pudong New Area has participated in internship programs in foreign countries since 1998, with more than 300 people selected to go to the United States, Britain, Singapore and other nations.
Members of the team get to observe and study at more than 30 companies and institutions relevant to their jobs in Shanghai.
After extensive observation, the cadres get to know the development of the city.
“During the three months of my training, I went deeply into the history and culture of Singapore, while my understanding of the competitive strengths of State-owned enterprise’s management system and the internal operations of listed companies has taken a big leap,” Huang says.
His mentor was the former CFO of Keppel Land Limited, the property arm of the Keppel Group, one of Singapore’s largest multinational groups with key holdings in offshore, marine, infrastructure as well as property concerns.
Huang always wondered about the key to success for Keppel, successfully operated for more than 120 years, producing handsome returns for its shareholders.
Keppel Land Limited’s development process is an example of keeping pace with the market, Huang says. “The company thinks highly of personnel selection and training ... It uses a variety of ways to recruit and train employees that may be industry leaders in the future and takes cultivating a first-class management team and competitive workforce as the company’s ‘lifeblood’,” he says.
Another participant, Liu Yongyou, from the Shanghai International Tourism Resort Zone Committee, says his observation of the development and management of Resorts World Sentosa inspired him a lot regarding the tourism industry in Pudong.
Resorts World at Sentosa Development Corporation is the leisure and gaming company that owns and operates the integrated resort on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa, according to the company’s website.
He says the Shanghai Disney Resort “repositions tourism in Pudong with the implementation of ‘quality tourism’ to create diversified products,” and also “constitutes a tourism industry chain to enhance the overall competitiveness of the tourism industry in Pudong.”
In Singapore, each major tourism project has an institutionalized decision-making process to make sure it is scientific and enforceable. For example, for an annual work plan of a tourist site, there will be mandatory processes including goal setting, program development, public debate, board approval and annual assessments.
Tourists’ experience is always the first priority, he says.
A tourist experience center, which is like a customer service center, has been suggested for Shanghai, to operate much as Singapore’s counterpart does.
It would focus on integral solutions for the tourist experience from demand to supply, and from product design to operating management.
One problem would be how to get tourists to go beyond a resort’s anchor.
In 2011, Resorts World Sentosa received 11 million visitors, but only 18 percent of them visited the 20 attractions other than the main attraction.
Liu says it will be “vitally important” to get tourists visiting Shanghai Disney Resort to do more in the city, and planning, traffic design and publicity should be oriented toward that goal.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
