ABSTRACT
The British presence in Malaya dates from 1786 when Francis Light founded Georgetown on a sparsely populated Penang Island to serve East Asian trade routes. Expansion down the peninsula began in 1795 with the capture of long-established Malacca from the Dutch and continued in 1819 when Stamford Raffles claimed the island of Singapore. The Straits Colonies were held not by the British government, but by the East India Company (the EIC) which enjoyed a British monopoly on Asian trade. The rapid increase in population strained the education system. Both The Tasks Ahead and the Winsemius Report, for example, recommended the creation of an Economic Development Board (EDB) to be provided with SG$100 million in funding to oversee industrialization. Local businessmen lacked international distribution channels. Consequently, Singapore would have to seek investment from foreign sources, predominantly MNCs, in order to obtain the necessary technology and to help develop the skills needed to be competitive.
