The economy of Singapore and their advancement in Asia and their new positioning in the world

Singapore is one of the 4 countries that constitute the tigers in Asia. Their economic scheme is almost the same. Countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea are those sharing the characteristics allowing some of us to classify them in this group of countries currently named the tigers. One of the things is their economic model and their history. Their past is not that different, most of them were whether dependent or part of a country and maybe not that rich as today. They all have passed by the deep reform in their educative system. Singapore is right now of the best place on earth to execute free economic activities that are highly paying off. Science has played a lot, specifically in the financial field. It’s also a place where touristic activities are flourishing.

Presentation of Singapore at a larger scale

www.tripsavvy.com pictures Singapore as: “a small-but-prosperous island nation, both a city and a country, located just off the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia. Singapore is an anomaly, and they’re quite proud of it”.

Singapore is an Asia based country which is observed as a global financial center. Some even add that their climate is a tropical one a high quality to turn to touristic activities, it can be tremendously fruitful for their economy. Their actual currency is the Singapore dollar (SGD). Actually, the prime minister of Singapore is Lee Hsien Loong. Basically, it was a trading colony established by the British in 1819. As a multicultural community, they speak many languages such as English, Tamil, Malay, and Mandarin. As we might guess it their capital is also Singapore city. By mentioning tourism we might consider visiting Singapore is very interesting and people might find some destinations where the real fun can be found. For instance, some destinations in Singapore might be the following ones: Marina Bay Sands, Sentosa, Gardens by the Bay, Merlion, Universal Studios, Night Safari, Orchard Road, Singapore Flyer, and finally Singapore Zoo.

Note that compared to most of the advanced countries it’s a small place based on their area (size), Singapore is only 719.9 km2. For some people their cooking is extraordinary. I even remember hearing someone say that it’s the only place in the world where they cooking restaurant in the street (people who cook in the street) have received with a Michelin Star. The Michelin star is an award for best cooking; it’s an award highly valuable in gastronomy.

What are the different challenges faced by Singapore?

Some sites have mentioned issues faced by Singapore, between those challenges we can list the following ones which are: air, water pollution, and deforestation. However, those are not the only challenges that Singapore is facing are the current period. Based on their economic challenges we can highlight their minister of trade and industry who is Chan Chun Sing. Based on one of his speech we can list some challenges that are mapped out:

·        The tit-for-tat tariffs between the United States and China (which is affecting whether indirectly or not their GDP) as Singapore is an open economy and is somehow dependent on trades.

· There are some external challenges, one of them is the new digital economy (where companies such as Uber are rising) which is affecting the rules that should adapt to the pace of change.

·        There’s also the limitation in labor and land ( As Singapore has a small area which can also be accompanied by a low birth rate)

·        Global production

·        Value chain

While they are posing the different challenges they took the times to search for opportunities where they can take advantage of. So, they’ve also pointed out some opportunities that can be enumerated below:

- Emergence of technology

-A stable and pro-business economic environment in Singapore

 -The potential of a rising Asia where there’s fast growth

 www.channelnewsasia.com provides much more about challenges, opportunities, and strategies that are projected to be applied for more economic evolution. By the way, the different challenges and opportunities enumerated before are just a summary of their article on the Singapore economy.

How the hell in the world Singapore has become this successful economically?

Historically Singapore was a poor country at the beginning. They’ve been through a lot of uncomfortable situations. But since the beginning, they were a country that was looking for something. And one of the reasons why they are considered as one of the tigers it’s because as the other four countries they have spent a lot in developing their skills in such advancing things like technologies and finance. By the way, the blueprint was with England using their territory as a financial trade location. So they start tasting the modern world and how wealthy they could become if they improve this system. Now voila, here they are. Singapore is one of the wealthiest places in the world for doing finance. Their internet system is one of the strongest and they are one of the best economies in the world even though most people would say that their area is small and could be an advantage for them. But believe it or note there are smaller places that can even manage themselves and are placed under other countries.

This can’t prevent us to respect they’ve done in a very short period of time what a lot of great countries have taken a lot of decades to do and get where there are nowadays. What I can also think if people would choose to say that they are rich because of their small area, I would also say that their GDP isn’t the best because of their small population as there are skilled individuals (an assertion that I would say untrue and really biased). A larger population or area doesn’t really mean a large change in whether their GDP or their economy. However, those would have importance depending on some conditions such as government involvement, people skills, people salaries, and productivity of every citizen and how they will affect exports.

Let’s highlights some numbers of Singapore displayed internationally

Even though currently their growth is slowing down, they still display great numbers comparing to the rest of the world. And some index or even numbers related to competitiveness will showcase what we’ve said about them:

·        First of all, their Human Development Index is very high: 0.92(2017)\

·        Still in 2017, their IHDI was 0.816

·        Their estimated revenue in 2017 was $69.45 billion Dollar Singaporean

·        Their gross national income per capita was $54,530 USD in 2017

·        GDP growth: 2.8% (2016) 3.9% (2017) 3.2 (2018) and 2.3 (2019)

·        GDP per capita rank: 7th (nominal,2018); 3rd (PPP,2018)

·        Singapore economic freedom score is 89.4 (2019)

·        Ease of doing business rank: 2nd (2019)

·        And finally, GDP rank: 36th (nominal,2018), 36th (PPP.2018)

PS: Believe it or not most of those data I took them from Wikipedia, so I want to give them credit. And sorry if that bothers you or if you feel betrayed.

Finally, in my opinion, those countries such as South Korea, Singapore Hong Kong, and Taiwan are an example of targeted goals that could seem impossible but everything depends on strategies and priorities. They’ve done of advanced education a target that was not easy to achieve and they’ve done it. They were and are still focus on advancement, trade, technology so now there are. Other countries should fix the goals that can help them moving forward and get to their next level and ultimately display tremendous numbers.

Widley Marcelin

References

www.worldbank.org

www.heritage.org

www.sgs.gov.sg

www.wikipedia.com