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Singapore Policies for the Future
Although the Singapore government took a long-range
economic
view, it steadfastly refused to draft five-year economic
plans of
fixed targets and objectives. Rather, its leaders
preferred the
freedom to change and adapt--coping with unforeseen crises
or
reacting to sudden global opportunities--a system that
worked more
often than it failed. As needed, detailed plans were
formulated,
policies reorganized, and programs implemented. According
to the
1986 Report of the Economic Committee, however, economic
planning
for the 1990s and beyond would require new strategies.
Certain
fundamental goals, including "good government, efficient
infrastructure, education, free enterprise, and
flexibility," would
remain, but long-term competitiveness would depend on new
initiatives. As a result of the report, Singapore
announced plans
to become an "international total business center for
manufacturing
and services" and a major exporter of services, focused on
information technology
(see Information Technology
, this
ch.).
To lay further groundwork for the next century, the
National
Productivity Board in 1989 instituted Productivity 2000, a
plan for
adjusting management styles and work attitudes to deal
with a
variety of factors expected to exert pressure on the
economy in the
coming decades. These anticipated factors included slower
economic
growth resulting from stiffening trade barriers and
increasing
world competition for foreign investors and markets,
slower
productivity growth and pressure to tie wage increases to
productivity increases, the need to increase capital
investments
for technology and machinery, the changing labor force
profile, and
increased standards of living resulting in higher
expectations for
improvement in the quality of work-life
(see Manpower and Labor
, this ch.).
In planning for the economic future, the government
placed the
ultimate burden for continued sacrifice on all
Singaporeans: "It is
true," an article published in the national magazine
Mirror
in 1988 informed citizens, "that in the past few decades
we have
all been too easy in choosing the soft options. We gave in
to
demands without insisting on responsibilities...
specifically
responsibilities of productivity. This is true both
domestically
and internationally. It is not possible anymore."
Data as of December 1989
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