Ms Gan had been awarded a contract in 1997 to build the basement of the new Traffic Police headquarters in Ubi.

Her partner at the time was supposed to supervise the workers while she took care of project management but, when the time came to start work, her partner decided to leave the company.

'I didn't have the experience to complete the project, so I asked the main contractor if I could return the job,' she said.

'He said, 'No problem, I can take the job back, but I will sue your company,' because by then it was already too late for him to find a replacement.'

With a potential lawsuit threatening the future of her brand new start-up, Ms Gan admitted she broke into tears.

'But I remembered why I came to Singapore and I was determined not to 'da bao' (pack up) and go back to Malaysia, so I decided to do it,' she said.

For the next seven months, Ms Gan donned safety boots and a hard hat to work under the hot sun at building sites with workers, although they did not welcome a woman in their ranks.

'I could not control them and did not know how to give instructions to them. One of my supervisors even said, 'This lady boss doesn't know anything,' but I learnt fast and sacked the supervisor later,' she recounted.

Eventually, Ms Gan successfully completed the job, and the rest, as they say, is history. Jian Huang grew from strength to strength as clients learnt of her reliability as a sub-contractor.

From just a 200 sq ft office in Clementi, Jian Huang now operates out of a new 160,000 sq ft complex in Tuas, which was completed last year.

Although the firm started out taking on mainly sub-contracting work during the construction boom at the time, Jian Huang slowly diversified into a design-and-build (D&B) contractor for industrial buildings.

By focusing on D&B in the industrial segment, Jian Huang was able to win million-dollar contracts to build logistic hubs both for local and international firms operating here.

One of its largest projects, worth $78 million, was a complex along Pioneer Walk built for A-Reit, a leading industrial real estate investment trust.

Today, Jian Huang has operations in China, Vietnam and the Middle East. But Mr Lee says that also in the pipeline are building projects in Libya, where the firm hopes to undertake project management contracts.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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