How did Singapore become an insanely rich country despite having pretty much zero resources that it can exploit?
In: 12
Their leader for much of late 20th century, Lee Kuan Yew, focused heavily on education, on attracting multinational companies to set up factories there, workers got training, grew skills, more sophisticated manufacturing/industry came in to take advantage of more highly skilled workers, skills complementary to manufacturing like engineering and finance developed internally to support their manufacturing, but eventually Singapore began to attract such industries looking for such workers. Free market / free trade, low taxes also helped draw international trade and finance to Singapore.
They literally became a sort of city-state because nobody (Malaysia, Indonesia) didn’t wanted this poor city as part of their country, and it ended up an economic powerhouse within 40 years.
As a Singaporean, I’d say our founding leaders started pretty strong with a very clear emphasis on rule of law and zero corruption. They then focused on the core issues when the country was first getting started – education, housing, healthcare, maintaining multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious harmony. These kept things that would normally cripple a young country out of the way.
Over time even up till today, we focus heavily on trade and being business-friendly over honestly anything else. Slightly debatable governance methods such as having almost total media control and emphasizing on individual self-reliance instead of social welfare have basically created generations of people that continue to keep this well-oiled machine going.
As a Singaporean, I’d say our founding leaders started pretty strong with a very clear emphasis on rule of law and zero corruption. They then focused on the core issues when the country was first getting started – education, housing, healthcare, maintaining multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious harmony. These kept things that would normally cripple a young country out of the way.
Over time even up till today, we focus heavily on trade and being business-friendly over honestly anything else. Slightly debatable governance methods such as having almost total media control and emphasizing on individual self-reliance instead of social welfare have basically created generations of people that continue to keep this well-oiled machine going.
As a Singaporean, I’d say our founding leaders started pretty strong with a very clear emphasis on rule of law and zero corruption. They then focused on the core issues when the country was first getting started – education, housing, healthcare, maintaining multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious harmony. These kept things that would normally cripple a young country out of the way.
Over time even up till today, we focus heavily on trade and being business-friendly over honestly anything else. Slightly debatable governance methods such as having almost total media control and emphasizing on individual self-reliance instead of social welfare have basically created generations of people that continue to keep this well-oiled machine going.
One thing I’m not seeing called out in the comments yet: urbanized trade-centric global cities are wealthy in general. Singapore is rich as a “nation” in that it’s a wealthy sovereign city-state without any rural land to have to upkeep.
The Londons, the Tokyos, the New Yorks, the LAs, the Seouls, the Shanghais of the world in turn help financially to support the lesser populated rural areas.
Sure fertile land can help you grow an excess of food to sell, but where’s the real money? Controlling the marketplace itself where *all* of said food (or oil or minerals or….) in the region changes hands. [London is basically 1/4th of the UK’s entire GDP.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_London) [Seoul and the surrounding region (Gyeonggi-do) are almost half of South Korea’s GDP.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeonggi_Province) Which makes Singapore having a GDP the size of the nation (Malaysia) it once belonged to, actually pretty normal.
Trades, max Millionaires/country, Expats … More fun-facts here ( quick google search ) – [https://www.holidify.com/pages/facts-about-singapore-2099.html](https://www.holidify.com/pages/facts-about-singapore-2099.html)
One thing I’m not seeing called out in the comments yet: urbanized trade-centric global cities are wealthy in general. Singapore is rich as a “nation” in that it’s a wealthy sovereign city-state without any rural land to have to upkeep.
The Londons, the Tokyos, the New Yorks, the LAs, the Seouls, the Shanghais of the world in turn help financially to support the lesser populated rural areas.
Sure fertile land can help you grow an excess of food to sell, but where’s the real money? Controlling the marketplace itself where *all* of said food (or oil or minerals or….) in the region changes hands. [London is basically 1/4th of the UK’s entire GDP.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_London) [Seoul and the surrounding region (Gyeonggi-do) are almost half of South Korea’s GDP.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeonggi_Province) Which makes Singapore having a GDP the size of the nation (Malaysia) it once belonged to, actually pretty normal.
Step 1: start as an international trade hub (even if a former colony).
Step 2: super stable and conservative government focused entirely on business, enforcing the law, and stability.
Step 3: have a population of highly educated, high industrious people who are willing to embrace a business focused and lawful lifestyle.
The end result is that a society that suffers very little “drag” from drug addicts, violent crime, corruption, “useless” members of society.
And the stable government with stable laws is great for international companies, which has flocked to Singapore.
Trades, max Millionaires/country, Expats … More fun-facts here ( quick google search ) – [https://www.holidify.com/pages/facts-about-singapore-2099.html](https://www.holidify.com/pages/facts-about-singapore-2099.html)
Step 1: start as an international trade hub (even if a former colony).
Step 2: super stable and conservative government focused entirely on business, enforcing the law, and stability.
Step 3: have a population of highly educated, high industrious people who are willing to embrace a business focused and lawful lifestyle.
The end result is that a society that suffers very little “drag” from drug addicts, violent crime, corruption, “useless” members of society.
And the stable government with stable laws is great for international companies, which has flocked to Singapore.
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