social backgrounds and occupations have achieved significant upward advances in their educational levels, income, and life expectancy and experienced other social indicators. Singapore's rapid industrialisation between the 1960s and the 1990s has lifted numerous people out of poverty and has created a broad middle class for many Singaporeans. During the period of rapid economic growth in the process, many Chinese began to experience upward social mobility for the first time in their lives. In 2000, Chinese Singaporeans represented the second-highest proportion of university graduates after the Indian Singaporeans and their new citizenship holders. In 2008, 86.2% of Chinese Singaporeans students achieved a minimum of 5 passes at O-level, the exams taken by 15- and 16-year-olds, compared to 59.3% for Singaporean Malays and 73% for Singaporean Indians. According to the 2010 Census, 22.6% of Chinese Singaporeans have achieved a bachelor's degree, a figure below the national average of 22.8% and remained the second highest after the Indian Singaporeans because Singaporean Indians had a larger increase in the proportion of university graduates compared with Chinese Singaporeans and Singaporean Malays. The increase in the proportion of Indian university graduates was mostly due to the inflow of Indian permanent residents with university qualifications. Some 60 per cent of Indian permanent residents were university graduates in 2005, up from 51 per cent in 2000. Employment As of 2005, 47.3% of Chinese Singaporeans work in select white-collar occupations compared with the national average of 44.8%. The labour force participation rate was 63.6% contrasting towards the national average of 63.0%. This figure was up from 46.2% in 2000 and was highest participation rate during that year in the white collar workforce among the three major ethnic groups in Singapore. Economics While constituting nearly three-quarters of the Singaporean population, Chinese Singaporeans are estimated to control 81% of the Singaporean's publicly listed companies by market capitalisation as well as contributing to 80% of Singapore's GNP. Chinese Singaporean businesses are part of the larger bamboo network, a network of overseas Chinese businesses operating in the markets of Southeast Asia that share common family and cultural ties. With China's growing economic strength, a number of Chinese Singaporean businessmen and investors have turned to their ancestral roots through clan associations to rekindle with their Chinese heritage as well as pursue overseas business and investment opportunities in the country. Many have begun taking hold of their ancestral roots by reining in on the