An industry with 'bright future'

WHILE not quite moving a mountain, Singapore literally shifted part of a highway here. It rebuilt the main Jurong Island Highway to enable US energy giant ExxonMobil to site its second multibillion-dollar petrochemicals complex - codenamed Singapore Parallel Train - alongside its first complex to boost operational efficiency. It also facilitated passage to and special housing on the petrochemicals island for the thousands of workers - there were more than 22,000 construction workers at the peak - needed to build the project.

That expansion has increased ExxonMobil's chemical plant workforce by 50 per cent, bringing total employment at its integrated manufacturing site here to 2,000.

This solid backing - which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday said Singapore will provide to energy and petrochemical investors here - will help the industry ride out coming storms. With energy and chemicals contributing one-third of manufacturing output, Mr Lee stressed that it was not a sunset industry, but rather "one with a bright future", especially with fast-growing Asian economies fuelling demand.