Goh Cheng Liang’s business partnership with now-ubiquitous coatings specialist Nippon Paint began in the late 1950s, when the Japanese brand approached him to become its main Singapore distributor. Goh signed up with a 60-40 holding, in a joint venture named Nippon Paint Southeast Asia Group, or Nipsea. Under Goh’s astute leadership and diligence, the firm rose to become the largest paint maker in Asia.

In the late 1970s, Goh grew his own Wuthelam Holdings group, investing in property, electronics, logistics, manufacturing and trading. In late 2020, Wuthelam struck a US$12 billion deal with Nippon Paint, allowing it to buy out both companies’ joint ventures in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, China and South Korea, and take over Wuthelam's wholly-owned Indonesian business. In turn, Wuthelam would raise its stake in the Tokyo-listed company from 39.6 per cent to almost 60 per cent.

Goh is also a philanthropist and donated SG$50 million to the National Cancer Centre Singapore for medical research in 2014.