THE crucial role played in Singapore’s early development by the former government-linked company Intraco has been laid out in a new book.

While the book, entitled Intraco: Blazing A Trail Overseas For Singapore? deals with the firm’s history, it states that it also aims to provide “an economic narrative of Singapore’s development”, with the firm as a “case study”.

Author Faizal bin Yahya, who is a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, a think-tank within the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS), added that the book was meant to “look at the nation-building process through the lens of a former government- linked company”.

The International Trading Company or Intraco was established in 1968 as a state trading enterprise with the goals of exporting Singapore’s goods and importing cheaper raw materials for fledgling industries here.

… The launch at the University Cultural Centre at NUS was attended by Dr Faizal, as well as Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, the executive deputy chairman at the S. Rajaratnam Schoolof International Studies, and Mr J. Y. Pillay, adjunct professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.