Singapore

Singapore, an island city-state located in Southeast Asia, occupies a critical role in global commerce. [Page 1546]Along with Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, it represents one of the major world cities within the Pacific Asia region.

A former British colony, Singapore is also recognized for its development as a city-state since having gained full independence in 1965. Led by founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the People's Action Party (PAP), Singapore has achieved remarkable economic growth over the succeeding decades. It is considered one of the four “Asian Tigers,” along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, that developed into advanced economies as a result of the rapid industrialization and foreign investment that accompanied the global transfer of production jobs to the region. Singapore is also characterized by the government's relatively tight control of society and personal liberties.

For most of its history, Singapore was a minor trading and fishing island with a small population. In the early 1800s, Sir Stamford Raffles and the British East India Company established a trading post, with its geographic location and natural deep-water harbor making it ideal for this purpose. The British assumed power over the island, and Singapore was officially colonized by the mid-1800s. World War II interrupted Singapore's role as colonial trading post, when Japanese forces took control from the British in 1942 and occupied the island until 1945. Britain reclaimed sovereignty after the war, and Singaporeans began to gain a degree of autonomy during this period. The PAP was founded in 1954, and by 1957 residents were granted Singapore citizenship for the first time, no longer being British subjects. The PAP was voted into power in 1959 and has exerted an effective monopoly of political control over Singapore to the present day. Lee Kuan Yew was elected prime minister, a position he would hold until 1990. Lee's influence over the development of Singapore was significant. He is largely credited for shaping and guiding the developmental city-state model that came to eventually build Singapore into a world city.

The economic development of Singapore has followed that of other developmental states in terms of the government granting the highest priority to economic growth. The economic growth of Singapore was taken by the state to be not only an end in itself but also a means for the city-state to break away from its former colonial status and to survive as an independent nation. Once the PAP assumed power, significant growth took place due largely to an economic transformation from a sectoral emphasis on entrepôt trade to export-oriented manufacturing. During the 1960s, Singapore benefited from the global division of labor and export manufacturing in the region to develop as a hub for electronics and petrochemical firms exporting to Western markets. It helped found the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967 as a means to enhance regional economic ties. Per capita income increased markedly over the following decades, significantly enhancing the standard of living for Singaporeans.

The evolution of Singapore into a world city can be attributed to the tight economic control of the state. It has been able to effectively structure, guide, and modify Singapore's economic development in order to achieve its present status as a global financial center. This has been accomplished through attracting high levels of foreign direct investment from North American, Japanese, and European multinational corporations. Foreign multinational corporations also comprise a sizable number of regional headquarters and affiliate offices within the city-state, accounting for much of Singapore's economic activity and employment. Multinational corporations have come to adopt a regional focus in their operations with the expansion of the global economy, and, for many firms, Singapore has served as an ideal hub for the Southeast Asian region. Singapore has taken the role of an administrative and service center for manufacturing production that takes place within a periphery of comparatively lower wage nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. The PAP government has played a pivotal role in the growth of Singapore into an international business center through the development of a world-class communications and transportation infrastructure, a highly efficient government where English was made the official language, and by effectively eliminating corruption among officials.

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