The Political Economy of Development in Singapore

Abstract

Singapore has gone through a rapid transformation during the last forty-five years. From an entrepot predominantly towards commerce and services in the mid-1960s into an economy, which presently specialising in high value manufacturing activities, and regional financial hub for business services in East Asia. This paper aims to overview the issues of the role of state and foreign investment, which has played an important role in achieving rapid economic growth. For instance, in 2002 Singapore's GDP was 24 times compared to 1965 levels. The average annual growth rate for GDP between 1965 and 2006 was nearly 8 % and GNP increased slightly higher over this period. The study examines the international environment and how it contributed to achieve higher rates of growth. It seems that these aspects are overlooked by the researchers. And with the end of the Cold War and with the recent surge in globalisation of production Singapore's economy is being affected. The study will also argue that the historical factors seem to be important in determining a country's development strategies.

Exploring causality in trade and air passenger travel relationships: the case of Asia-Pacific, 1980–2010

“…Singapore obviously occupies a central role in the region's trade networks. In addition to its small size, the importance of trade stems from its persistent role as a regional 'entrepôt' economy (Siddiqui, 2010). For instance, Singapore continues to function as Japanese firms' component supply base and service center for the ASEAN region (Watanabe, 2004).…”

Foreign Capital Investment into Developing Countries: Some Economic Policy Issues

“…For instance, during the last decade, sub-Saharan Africa and most of the Latin American countries received smaller amounts of foreign capital, while the high saving countries of East Asia received higher amount of inflow of foreign capital, especially south-east Asian countries. For instance, Japan and South Korea did not rely on foreign capital, whereas Singapore and Hong Kong and most recently China have relied on foreign capital for their industrialisation and development (Siddiqui, 2010a).…”

“…Additionally, inward flows of capital between 1985 and 1996 amounted to less that 1% of gross domestic capital formation in South Korea and less than 4 % in Taiwan (Siddiqui, 2013). However, Singapore, Hong Kong and most recently China have relied on foreign capital for their industrialisation and development (Siddiqui, 2010a). Overall in most of these countries the government played a critical role in creating a favourable environment for the production of goods and services.…”

“…Also the foreign companies, apart from Singapore and more recently China and Malaysia, have been less important in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in their early years of industrialisation (Siddiqui, 2010a). On the question of exports, for instance, between 1960 and 1983, the rate of growth of South Korea's exports was twice as big as that of Japan.…”

Experiences of Capitalism in India and Pakistan

“…In Pakistan, the utter neglect of increase in productivity of the workers through training and education to the possibility of moving from the production of simple consumer durables towards the production of more sophisticated consumers and high tech capital goods, which could be sold to the Western markets. As such successful transformation did happen to countries of East Asia such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan etc (Siddiqui, 2010a).…”