During our webinar, we asked about Singapore's future economy - how to measure success and comparative advantage. Some of the ideas captured from the responses included calls for greater equity, attention to meaningful definitions of success looking at a human being from a health and well-being centred approach rather than superficial, wasteful measures of wealth and consumerism. That well-being for society should not only be measured by the averages but also the distribution, the margins of society, valuing all types of work including care workers, arts, manual labor in balance with knowledge work and other forms of contribution to society. The nature of how we interact matters - whether we interaction with selfish, exploitative competitive or a cooperative, collaborative nature. Valuing nature, biodiversity and being environmentally sustainable is a neglected goal that needs to be elevated. When we look to the future, Singapore should consider the opportunities of digital technology, education, healthcare, local, circular production, and cooperation within the ASEAN region.
These responses will set the frame for the open letter to MTI. If you would like to get involved in the open letter, do let us know your interest by signing-up using this form.
Measuring success
What does it mean for the Singapore economy to succeed in the 21st century?
How should Singapore policy makers measure and communicate its success (or failure) to the public? How would this improve from the current de-facto metric - Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?
Comparative advantage
What will be the future needs and demands of the global, domestic economy and what will be Singapore’s comparative advantage in supplying those services? How would that be compared to the current economy which is a mix of refining and petrochemicals, manufacturing, import-export, financial services and tourism?
The procedure was explained in an earlier post. The intention of the exercise is to identify those ideas surfaced which attracted a rough consensus (>60% agreement). Each discussion generated responses to the question and then the responses were evaluated. Each person was given the choice to respond with a + with agreement or a - with disagreement, or a ? if the response was too uncertain to decide. Below is a summary of the top 3 responses that had crossed the criterion for rough consensus from those that responded (7x).
Measuring success
What does it mean for the Singapore economy to succeed in the 21st century?
How should Singapore policy makers measure and communicate its success (or failure) to the public? How would this improve from the current de-facto metric - Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?
These are four themes identified from the 3x rough consensus statements
Human capital - Health, well-being (physiological and psychological) and education
Character, values of interactions - more altruism, cooperation and less exploitation
Equity - outcomes - define success based on the performance of the least well-off - forms of contribution - manual labor, knowledge work, etc..
Environment
Two clarification dialogues emerged from the first question
How to balance qualitative with quantitative measures when it comes to the subjective nature of human lived experience?
Is minimum wage the best policy to achieve these generic outcomes?
Well-being - physical and psychological
Evaluating Singapore Economy as well-being of people vs. possessions/wealth.
Place emphasis on individuals’ mental well-being and physical health.
Education, innovation
With a strong educational system - more innovation on economy should be pushed for/expected.
Values/norms shift from exploitation to collaboration
Move away from capitalism. Take/exploiting/power go hand in hand. Move more towards collaboration/circular economies.
Inequality, measure success based on the least well-off
Success should focus more on well-being, equality and vulnerable populations. Empower those who have been marginalized. Value them in society. Reward people who help the marginalized and create opportunities for them.
Measure how bottom strata are managing. How are less fortunate groups doing. Mental health/suicide/nutrition.
Equitable value for diverse forms of service - ex manual labor vs knowledge work
Respect individuals in terms of their effort and labour as well as altruism. The current evaluation of the elitist and intellectual is off balance and extremely biased.
There is no value of real contribution of individuals in society.
Pay attention to all strata of work. Pay workers fairly in terms of their effort; skills and time they have devoted.
Environmental footprint, biodiversity
Includes environment - footprint/climate change, natural land/wildlife protection.
Comparative advantage
What will be the future needs and demands of the global, domestic economy and what will be Singapore’s comparative advantage in supplying those services? How would that be compared to the current economy which is a mix of refining and petrochemicals, manufacturing, import-export, financial services and tourism?
Four themes from the top responses:
Meaningful, sustainable industries and consumer behavior
Digital
Local self-sufficiency, regional integration
Equity and cooperative character over competition
There were no clarifying questions identified in the second topic.
Move away from unsustainable, towards meaningful industries
Shift from emphasis on industries which are unsustainable now.
Embrace what sustains us (Arts, restoration work, care work, advocacy work, etc.).
Provide space and opportunities for people to come up with creative innovations.
Less corporate driven. Empower social services and arts and culture which have been ignored because they are less able to generate profits.
Shift consumer behavior direct to enhancing well-being, less waste
Move away from consumerist culture. Many things we produce today do not improve quality of life.
Too much wastage in Singapore, especially food wastage. Should provide incentives for people to reduce wastage or recycle them.
Environmental sustainability
Put more energy and resources into areas that can improve humans’ and nature’s well-being.
Needs a sustainable model instead current mode of use of plastics.
The importance of conserving the environment. This should be incorporated into all sectors of economy including the MNCs.
Digital, virtual services
Needs of global economy will be technology driven. There will be a lot of virtual services and products. Singapore will have comparative advantage in this.
Local self-sufficiency, regional economic cooperation.
Singapore - hope to have increase in consumption of local products instead of overseas products.
Singapore may need to help invest in other countries that have the land capacity to produce more ‘locally’ (e.g. Malaysia/Indonesia).
Justice, equality
Hope to see a demand for justice. Want equality. Realize mistake in this pandemic period.
Justice should not favour those who are wealthy and powerful but should protect the populace equally and fairly.