Singaporean Exceptionalism - an irresistible draw for tech firms?

Some of you may have come across the term "American Exceptionalism" before, loosely defined as "the special character of the United States as a uniquely free nation based on democratic ideals and personal liberty ... underpinned by material differences brought about by the wealth/resources of the United States, sometimes seen as a direct product of the freedom of the American people, but by others as the product of the inheritance of the North American continent’s abundant resources".

With all the technological, academic, economic, societal and other marvels that have sprung forth from the USA throughout its history, there's certainly a case to be made for American exceptionalism. This brief article seeks not to comment about the USA, which I am no subject matter expert in. The source of the concept of "exceptionalism" is important, as I am borrowing it to describe a possible Singaporean Exceptionalism - might it exist, and if so what is its substance.

My inspiration comes from observing the numerous recent examples of a keen interest by some of the world's largest tech companies in this tiny country (which may have arisen from being a fiercely proud Singaporean, and also a product manager in a tech startup).

Singapore is a city-state with 725 square kilometers of land, and 5.8 million people. In comparison, Lake Superior in North America is 82,100 square kilometers large. We have virtually zero natural resources to our name, and no hinterland to fall back on during a crisis.

In spite of this (I did some homework so you don't have to), in

2018,

• Netflix established its first Asia chapter in Singapore (this was in 2016, but I wanted to complete the FAANG set)
• Facebook invested US$1bn in a data centre slated to open in 2022. 
• Google similarly invested US$350m to build its third data centre here, with investments totalling US$850m 
• Razer announced its new S$100m HQ in Singapore;

2019,

• Dyson moved its global headquarters to Singapore
• Grab announced its new S$181m headquarters and R&D centre in Singapore
• Salesforce also announced its first AI research center outside of the US in Singapore, and has two offices here
• Microsoft moved into its new office, calling it its “benchmark” and “showcase office”;

and 2020 (the articles which were the motivation for this piece), 

• Alibaba bought a 50% stake in a Singapore office building, stating that Singapore is “an important market for Alibaba”
• Not one to lose out, Tencent also announced that it would open its regional hub for SEA in Singapore 

(for completeness, Xiaomi setup its international HQ here in 2014, Baidu since 2012, and Huawei set up a cloud and AI innovation lab in 2019)

• Twitter announced its first Asia Pacific engineering centre in Singapore, and we also house its APAC HQ
• Zoom, which has seen its stock grow nearly 250% and user base grow by 100m in a few days at the height of the pandemic, has opened a new data centre in Singapore
• Tesla, Elon Musk’s most famous brainchild and producer of the world’s best-selling plug-in electric car, is ramping up hires here
• ByteDance, the owner of the massively popular TikTok social media platform, is planning to invest billions and recruit hundreds, and is moving to a new office in One Raffles Quay
• Hyundai is building a $400m innovation centre and car manufacturing facility
• Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc is set to open a office here in 2020
• Amazon is also reportedly further expanding the size of its operations here
• Famously, Apple also opened their floating store at Marina Bay Sands. In their recent reveal of the Apple Watch Series 6, they announced a bespoke partnership with the Singapore government on a new health initiative, LumiHealth

I'm citing the most recognizable names for convenience, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. The Singaporean Economic Development Board reports that 80 out of the world's top 100 tech firms have operations here. Even as a Singaporean born and raised here, these figures are news to me, and can only be good and exciting signs.

What is it about Singapore that drives these firms to set up shop here, out of the much larger and more populous countries in Southeast Asia? It's unsurprising that I'm not the first to ask this question - Alex Capri of Forbes offers five reasons why, which I summarize and will briefly reinforce with my experience (in [brackets]) :

1. Openness and connectivity: a central location in Asia, transparent and consistent rule of law, and success from the government in building trust with the international community. [A large part is attributable to our political stability, and recognition that without any resources of our own, we must look outward to thrive.]
2. Free trade agreements: we have 22 bilateral and regional FTAs, the EUSFTA and CPTPP, which open all the world's major markets to companies here. [Since the days of Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar in Singapore, our status as a hub for entrepot trade has always been a key factor contributing to our strategic value. That has not changed.]
3. Digital trade and data-friendliness: SG has no requirements requiring foreign firms to store data locally, which some other Asian countries may have. It also supports regional frameworks, standards, and platforms for digital trade. [Also why many tech companies prefer to use the Singapore servers in Amazon Web Services for their data needs.]
4. Human capital and talent: The Singapore government devotes significant resources to attract and develop a tech-savvy workforce, connecting its universities, local and foreign businesses, incubators, and VCs. [We welcome talent from all over the world, be it from the US, China, India, or closer to home like my friends from Indonesia and the Philippines - while nurturing home-grown tech talent in the likes of SUTD and SIT. Xendit, the digital infrastructure company where I work at, also found it beneficial to set up a base here for local hires as well as many of my colleagues who are based here. We're hiring!]
5. Geopolitically safe: Singapore takes pains to remain neutral amidst Sino-US, regional or any other rivalries, without impractical export controls and protocols. [We've modelled ourselves after Switzerland in this regard, and thus far have done a pretty decent job.]

There are of course a host of other reasons that one could identify as being a factor behind our exceptionalism. One may even disagree with the premise that it is at all exceptional, and I'd love to hear your perspectives on any of these!