Headline: He believed in Singapore's future Byline: CHUA LEE HOONG Publication: ST^ST Date: Saturday, 07 December 1996 Page: 54 Picture Caption: Dr Winsemius with then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Mrs Lee in China in 1980. (C) Singapore Press Holdings Limited Death of Dr Albert Winsemius ---------------------------- DR ALBERT Winsemius was a foreigner who had faith in Singapore and believed it had a future, at a time when not many people, whether Singaporean or otherwise, did. Although he was a brilliant man and one of the world's experts on development economics, he was also extremely down-to-earth and easy to talk to. He was a leading theoretician in economic planning, but he had also been a cheese salesman in his younger days and understood the importance of salesmanship and marketing strategy. Such was the portrait of the man which emerged from interviews with people who knew Dr Winsemius yesterday. Mr Chan Chin Bock, 62, who first met Dr Winsemius in 1968 when he was a young officer with the Economic Development Board, said: "I was struck by the fact that he was a foreigner, yet he really believed that Singapore had a future. Very few people at that time, except those who were most dedicated, did." Asked why, the present chairman of the EDB Consulting Group said it was probably due to the excellent rapport and intellectual match that he found in Singapore leaders then, such as Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr S. Rajaratnam, Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr Hon Sui Sen. The founding father of the Dutch post-war industrialisation programme, Dr Winsemius headed a United Nations team that came to Singapore in 1960 to study what sort of industries could be set up here. He ended up being Singapore's consultant for 25 years, and was behind the 10-year development plans that saw the island state transformed into today's high-technology, high-value-added industrial hub. Apart from being a macro-planner, Mr Chan said Dr Winsemius also had a very "astute appreciation of the importance of salesmanship and marketing skills in the development of an economy". The economist had worked for his father's cheese company before he got his doctorate, Mr Chan recounted, and understood the difficulties involved in selling something, whether a product or ideas. "At times he would say that it is more difficult to sell cheese than to run an economy," he said. While in Singapore, which he visited faithfully every year, Dr Winsemius toured government economic agencies and interacted with ministers in charge of economic development. Contacted at his home yesterday, Mr Rajaratnam said his death was a tragedy. "He was a man I admired very much." He added: "I hope that Singapore will always think of him as a great man and thinker." Dr Winsemius also left his mark on others like DBS Bank deputy president and chief operating officer Ng Kee Choe, who worked briefly with him in the late 1970s, when some problems occurred in the Rollei factory in Singapore. Together with others, Mr Ng went to The Hague to consult Dr Winsemius and the latter accompanied them to meet two German shareholders. Mr Ng said: "He was an easy person to deal with. Easy to talk to, not impatient, and he would listen to you without interjecting." For EDB's Mr Chan, Dr Winsemius had an even greater significance in his life. "Without him, I would not have had my 30-year career in EDB," he said, explaining that it was Dr Winsemius who in 1968 recommended him to then EDB chief Hon Sui Sen to set up EDB's first overseas branch, in New York. "That was the beginning of EDB's international operations," he said. Today, the Consulting Group that Mr Chan heads provides economic consultancy services to countries less developed than Singapore. Its clients have included Ghana and Cambodia. "In a way, we are doing for others what Dr Winsemius did for us," he added. .