Singapore’s enduring competitive advantage
When Singapore Foreign Minister K Shanmugam spoke recently of the vision of Singapore as the New York of an integrated ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations), that reminded me of past calls for Singapore to become the Geneva of the East or the Switzerland of Asia.
In the recently released 2013 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Global Competitiveness Report, Switzerland retained its ranking as the world’s most competitive economy; Singapore was No 2.
Based on “hard metrics”, the WEF assessed that Singapore boasts one of the world’s best institutional frameworks, a world-class framework, and sound macroeconomic environment and fiscal management.
But what these metrics do not measure are the “soft” metrics of what makes a nation competitive. Like all things qualitative, this is more difficult to pin down in hard numbers.
THE ‘SOFT METRICS’ THAT MATTER
More than two decades ago, the Singapore Government set its sights on becoming the Geneva of the East with a Swiss standard of living. Today, the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization has its Asian office in Singapore. According to WEF data, Switzerland’s per capita income (at purchasing power parity) was US$81,161 (S$101,023) as of last year, while Singapore was at US$49,271. So, is Singapore on the way? Not really — it all depends on what you perceive as the “Swiss standard of living”.
Still, when you look at how Singapore has evolved as an economy and as a society, you will see that the soft metrics that define the quality of national leadership, as well as the strategic ability to respond to a more fluid and complex world, are actually the more enduring source of our competitive advantage.
Nassim Taleb, in his seminal book on antifragility, talks about the critical importance of agility and flexibility to survive unpredictable change. “Fragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility,” he says. “Deprive your bones of stress and they become
In the recently released 2013 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Global Competitiveness Report, Switzerland retained its ranking as the world’s most competitive economy; Singapore was No 2.
Based on “hard metrics”, the WEF assessed that Singapore boasts one of the world’s best institutional frameworks, a world-class framework, and sound macroeconomic environment and fiscal management.
But what these metrics do not measure are the “soft” metrics of what makes a nation competitive. Like all things qualitative, this is more difficult to pin down in hard numbers.
THE ‘SOFT METRICS’ THAT MATTER
More than two decades ago, the Singapore Government set its sights on becoming the Geneva of the East with a Swiss standard of living. Today, the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization has its Asian office in Singapore. According to WEF data, Switzerland’s per capita income (at purchasing power parity) was US$81,161 (S$101,023) as of last year, while Singapore was at US$49,271. So, is Singapore on the way? Not really — it all depends on what you perceive as the “Swiss standard of living”.
Still, when you look at how Singapore has evolved as an economy and as a society, you will see that the soft metrics that define the quality of national leadership, as well as the strategic ability to respond to a more fluid and complex world, are actually the more enduring source of our competitive advantage.
Nassim Taleb, in his seminal book on antifragility, talks about the critical importance of agility and flexibility to survive unpredictable change. “Fragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility,” he says. “Deprive your bones of stress and they become