Upon hearing from my friend Boon Kwang that Dr Foo Chek Fok was looking for a student to take up an overseas attachment to China, I was almost sure that I did not want to miss this opportunity to experience working abroad.  After having a dialogue with Dr Foo, I was encouraged to send in my application.

The company that offered this overseas industrial attachment is Speedy-Tech Electronics (S) Pte Ltd.  The Speed-Tech Group is a Singapore-based company and was founded in 1985.  At present, the Group has its subsidiaries established in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and the Philippines.  The company has grown with the Asia region.  It has developed substantial resources in Asia to service its customers worldwide.  The products include switch-mode power supplies, printed circuit board assemblies and contract manufacturing of various electronic, electrical and audio/video appliances.

The China subsidiary, Shenzhen Speedy-Tech Electronics Co Ltd, was established in 1988.  It is a joint venture company involving Singapore, China and Japan with the Singapore partner having the major share.  Having a strength of about 200 staff and 800 workers, the factory which operates on a floor area of 200,000 sq. ft, is organised into three production departments and other supporting units.  The organisational structure in Shenzhen Speedy-Tech is a different one as compared to many other foreign setups in China.  The distinct difference is that all personnel in the management team, including the General Manager, is local Chinese.  That is, it is a ‘Chinese-manage-Chinese’ system in Shenzhen Speedy-Tech.  Presently, this practice is seldom seen in many other foreign companies operating in China, not even within the Hong Kong or Taiwan-based corporations.

Living Conditions

The Shenzhen setup is large compared to the one in Singapore.  The main building is 5-storey high and has a floor area of 100m x30m.  I stayed with the Singapore staff in a dormitory which occupied part of the third floor in the factory building.  The living condition was comfortable.  There was a gym, in addition to bathrooms with water heaters, air-conditioned bedrooms and queen-sized beds for each and everyone of us.  Besides these well established living conditions, I enjoyed the comfort of having a servant to take care of our daily necessities and a chef to cook our meals.  I felt like I was at home during the entire stay.

The IA Project

During my attachment to Shenzhen Speedy-Tech Electronics, I reported to Mr Chow P K, the Director of China Operations.  The task given by him was first to understand the operational structure of the company.  I took the initial month to study the operations by being rotated among the departments.  That allowed me to understand the functional role and the daily operations of each department. Meanwhile I also took the chance to learn the Chinese working culture.

After going through all departments, I was given my main task for my attachment.  My project was mainly to establish a training structure for the staff and workers in the company.  I was told by the top management that market competition was tough and employees’ turnover rate was rather high in Shenzhen.  The management’s concern was to find a means to improve their quality and services in order to gain a foothold in the market share.  The method identified was to constantly upgrade the employees and at the same time provide them an opportunity to improve themselves through learning.

The assignment enabled me to work closely with the Chinese and allowed me to practice management skills.  However, the interesting thing was that I was given the opportunity to perform administrative tasks instead of engineering duties.  I may not be sure that I was the only engineering student on an "administrative" attachment, but I am confident that this opportunity does not occur too often.

Eating and Drinking Etiquette

Chinese cuisine is special in its own way.  In China you can expect a massive variety of food and even some unexpected dishes that you will never have in Singapore.  Eating and drinking is part of the ‘Leisure’ I had during the stay in Shenzhen.  Let me educate you on some important rules of etiquette to observe during drinking sessions.  If any party raises his glass and clinks glasses together with another party, both parties have to bottoms up.  The guest of honour has to go round the table toasting everyone,  so it is important to have associates to go along for the event if one is expected to be the ‘guest’.

Besides work, I visited many places of interest in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.  Immediately after the attachment, I had a tour to Beijing and visited the Yellow River.  Another special event I had during this attachment was the chance to be in Hong Kong during the hand-over ceremony.  All in all, the fascinating experience in China has been enriching.  At this point, I should like to take this opportunity to put forward a proposal to the University to organise more of such Overseas Attachments, and also to the IA companies, to take the generosity of Speedy-Tech Electronics as an example, to provide the next generation like us a chance to expand our horizons.  At the same time, I would like to encourage fellow undergraduates to step forward for the opportunities NTU provides.