Singapore ‘at crossroads’ in quest to remain a global city

Singapore ‘at crossroads’ in quest to remain a global city

LONDON — Singapore, like London, is at a crossroads, as it strives to keep its place among the top cities in the world while managing the stresses and strains that come with being a global city, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

BY –

MARCH 28

LONDON — Singapore, like London, is at a crossroads, as it strives to keep its place among the top cities in the world while managing the stresses and strains that come with being a global city, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

While Asia’s rise has presented opportunities “all around us”, the Republic has to pursue economic growth — that will uplift people’s lives and allow Singapore to keep up with other global cities — without risking national cohesion and unity, said Mr Lee, in a speech yesterday at a dinner hosted by London’s Lord Mayor Fiona Woolf, where he was granted the Freedom of the City of London.

London faces similar challenges, Mr Lee noted. Its global standing for talent, innovation and culture has given it and the United Kingdom an “enormous advantage”, but has also brought stresses and strains, such as higher property prices, challenges in social integration and “the nagging worry that it no longer feels an English city”.

But unlike London, Mr Lee noted that Singapore has no larger country as its hinterland, which means it must get the balance between national identity and cosmopolitan openness and between free market competition and social solidarity, “just right”.

In his speech — in which he also reminisced about his student days in the UK — Mr Lee observed how London has spent “six lean years putting things right” following the global economic crisis in 2008.

He added that London must now find a new operating model to remain a financial hub, while avoiding the excesses of the past.

To stay ahead and continue being globally competitive, London has to remain open and keep welcoming talent, whether they are “bankers or farmers”, or from Europe or the rest of the world, Mr Lee said.

Singapore, meanwhile, is pursuing economic growth based on productivity and innovation and is sparing no effort to educate Singaporeans, he added. The Republic is also addressing social needs while maintaining “our drive and elan”.

Mr Lee is the third Singaporean to become a Freeman of the city — the first was his father, former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in 1982, followed by Singapore’s current High Commissioner to the UK T Jasudasen last year.

Recalling his first visit to London in 1969, Mr Lee said the city, in the Swinging Sixties, was the “capital of cool”, but it was also a time of upheaval, with protests against the Vietnam War. Later, as a student at Cambridge, he would regularly visit his late first wife, Ming Yang, then a medical student at Middlesex Hospital in London. “London in the early 1970s held many happy memories for me,” he said.

But he noted that London was already entering difficult times, as the British Empire came to an end and Britain adjusted to its new place in the world. A big factor in Britain’s eventual revival in fortunes and London’s resurgence was helped along by financial services, Mr Lee said.

London had long been a financial centre, but it responded faster then most when banking began to change in the 1980s and the city liberalised the industry to keep up with new technology and approaches to risk as well as freer capital flows.

Singapore has tracked London’s emergence as a global financial centre closely — it started the Asian dollar market to service Asian countries, modelled on London’s Eurodollar market, Mr Lee said.

In the late 1990s, following London’s lead, Singapore liberalised its regulations, opened up its markets and accepted more risks “in a controlled way”. But Singapore, with a smaller margin for recovery should there be a major setback, did not go as far as London in “letting go”, which in hindsight was “just as well”, he said.

Mr Lee also said the historical friendship between Singapore and Britain is “stronger now than ever” — British companies, such as Rolls-Royce and GlaxoSmithKline, have made major investments in Singapore, while more Singaporean companies are investing in the UK. Temasek Holdings is opening its European office in London today and ComfortDelGro is operating buses and taxis in London.

“As your newest Freeman, I look forward to building on our close and long-standing friendship, so that this happy Tale of Two Cities will long endure,” Mr Lee said, while also giving “special credit” to Singapore’s pioneer generation for their hard work in nation-building.

Earlier in the day, Mr Lee, who is on a three-day visit to London, met British Prime Minister David Cameron and had lunch with business leaders from UK companies including Prudential, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays, BP and Rolls-Royce.