Finance Minister
1959 – 1965
1967 - 1970
Converted Jurong from a swamp to an industrial park. When Singapore first gained independence, Dr Goh predicted a protracted recession, but he did not give up and quickly converted Singapore to an export oriented economy.
Currency Talks: While Mr Lee Kuan Yew and then Finance Minister Mr Lim Kim San favoured a common currency with Malaysia, he actually was looking at issuing the countrys own currency and reasoned that the currency talks with Malaysia will eventually reach a breaking point, which really happened. To ensure that there is a strong financial backing for foreign investors, he gave more licenses to foreign banks. The development bank was set up as a financial institution led by the government. He also set up Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) to drive the industrialistion strategy. He agreed to tax concession, an unpopular method back then as it was seen as losing revenue. He believed that the country should spend within our means, and disagrees with deficit financing, leading to a significant growth in revenue. Dr Goh set up the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) due to prudence in the usage of government revenue. Dr Goh thought that another government company should be set up to better manage reserves and this led to the founding of the Government of Singapore Investment Coporation (GIC) to better manage Singapore's foreign reserves in long term investments. This led to a drastic increase in government reserves, from 1 billion of savings in 1965, to 22 billion when Dr Goh retired from politics (1984)
As we know, Dr Goh has a very frugal nature, which led to the founding of the Jurong Bird Park first, before the Singapore Zoo. When asked, he said that seeds cost less than meat. He wanted Jurong to be more than a industrial areas, and set up the restaurants there, together with the bird park, thus making him more than an economic planner and an policy implementer.
Defence
1965 to 1967
1970 to 1979
He founded the Singapore Armed forces. He introduced NS in 1967 as he believed that we should not use other people's sufferings to defend our country. Dr Goh believed that it was the best way a developing nation can build up its defence force without spending on too much of money. He mixed the different countries' teaching methods into the different departments of the defence force: the air force, the navy and the army. When the British pulled out its army in 1971, he turned adversity into opportunity, tripling the army strength in 3 years. All this time, though there is a need to spend on defence, Dr Goh is always finding a way to reduce spending, like making equipment in Singapore and disallowing of Land Rovers for urban areas. Dr Goh set up the CIS (Chartered Industries of Singapore) which ended up housing the Singapore mint as the tools used in the mint are sinilar to those used to make weapons. He introduced the SAF overseas scholarship in 1981 to get the best brains for the defence force.
Education Minister
1979 – 1980
1981 – 1984
Dr Goh, from experiences with the defence forces, realised that the soldiers were illiterate, despite the fact that they had at least 10 years of schooling. When he was appointed as the education minister in 1979, he sent in a group of systems engineers with brilliant qualifications. The education was radically changed under the charge of Dr Goh. Streaming was introduced, and this recognises that different children have different abilities. The team also made sure that they had strong backing before making any changes. Though there was much controversy, it did raise the standard of the students' abilities.
Others
He built a Kreta Ayer Theatre, an open air theatre, to let the public watch cantonese opera. He also pushed for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) to be built.
