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SINGAPORE – To stay ahead of the competition in the next stage of its economic development, Singapore has two critical tasks on its hands, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Wednesday (December 30).
First, you have to mobilize people to act upfront in the face of challenges, continually guarding against complacency, and developing a nation of people and companies that are not afraid of global competition, but seek to thrive in it.
“We have to assume that we can be easily overtaken by others who are hungrier and who can overtake us,” he said, noting that this has happened in some areas of ICT, finance and advanced manufacturing.
“We will not only play defensively to try to get back to where we were. Instead, we constantly challenge ourselves to generate new ideas and value propositions to capture new markets before others amid the pandemic,” he added about Covid. -19 economic recovery.
Second, Singapore must manage the long-term challenge of pay disparity by equipping people with skills for the future, enabling them to compete globally, and having a collective social conscience in which those who have succeeded help those who have not. .
“We must take tangible and sustained action to level our people and businesses in the long term, rather than simply resorting to populist actions as elsewhere to block foreign competition or carry out an unsustainable redistribution of a shrinking pie,” said.
“The real competition is not between local and foreign workers or businesses here in Singapore. The real competition for our five million people is with the seven billion people outside of Singapore.”
Chan spoke at the EDB Society’s 30th anniversary commemoration event, which was held in a hybrid format at the Capitol Kempinski Hotel, before a closed-door dialogue with the society’s alumni.
In his speech, Chan described how the Economic Development Board (EDB) has been a key driver of Singapore’s economic development. It secured $ 13 billion of fixed asset investment commitments in the first four months of 2020, despite the pandemic. By comparison, it attracted $ 15.2 billion in commitments for all of 2019.
He also touched on three global trends and how Singapore plans to respond to them.
First, while changes in global supply chains have accelerated through the Covid-19 crisis, they present opportunities for Singapore, he said, noting that the ability to create trusted environments and systems to attract capital and talent as well how to generate and protect intellectual capital. , are areas that the country can capture.
Second, the growth disparity between economies, as well as in corporate earnings and wages, is likely to continue to widen, Chan said. But economies and companies that can adapt to technology trends and global changes will stand out, as will workers with the right skills and in the right companies and industries, he added.
Singapore is not immune from such inequality, he said, adding that governments must muster the political will and resources to distribute the fruits of trade and help businesses and individuals adapt to new realities and seize new opportunities.
Third, great powers such as China, the European Union, and the United States are likely to be more cautious in assuming global responsibilities for further integration, given their own domestic challenges, and other countries may need to step up their efforts to strengthen the rule-based system. by which the world operates.
“The responsibility for maintaining and updating the world trading system cannot be the sole prerogative and responsibility of the two major powers,” he said, adding that Singapore cannot afford to be passive given the serious repercussions of a withdrawal from multilateralism.
“We must work with like-minded partners to be an integrating force, deepen ties between countries and establish high-level global rules with partners to allow businesses to prosper,” Chan said, noting Singapore’s role in regional cooperation. and its efforts to engage both China and the US and keep them invested in this region.
Covid-19 may be the crisis of a century, but he is confident that Singapore is in a good position to come out of it stronger, Chan said. “Not only that, if we do things right, we can also turn this into a generation’s opportunity, for us to step away from the competition and distinguish ourselves as a nation (with) how we care for each other through the thick and thin. Thin.”
On Wednesday, the Distinguished Fellow of the EDB Society award was presented to two former EDB Presidents: Mr. Teo Ming Kian and Mr. Lim Siong Guan.
Mr. Teo served from 2001 to 2006, while Mr. Lim was President from 2006 to 2009. Former recipients of the award include Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the late President SR Nathan.
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