S’pore ranked most trade-friendly nation: Who benefits most?

S’pore ranked most trade-friendly nation: Who benefits most?

According to the World Economic Forum, Singapore is the most trade-conducive economy in the world.

Its Global Enabling Trade Report cited the open market, highly efficient and transparent border administration, well-developed transport and communications infrastructure, and an open business environment.

The WEF highlighted that the Singapore Government is highly transparent and efficient, while exporters face relatively low tariffs in target markets.

As usual, the state media has been quick to attribute Singapore’s “achievement” to the efforts of the PAP government.

However, it has conveniently chosen to leave out the key question: who benefits the most from Singapore’s economy?

In summary, the three main groups of people who have reaped tremendous benefits from Singapore’s economic growth are:

1. The PAP ministers and senior civil servants whose bonuses are linked to the country’s GDP growth.

2. Employers, businessmen and bosses of MNCs and local companies whose profits are maximized by the low tariffs.

3. Foreign talents who flocked to Singapore to seek job opportunities.

Of course, it is undeniable that ordinary Singaporeans have benefitted greatly from the nation’s robust growth especially in the 1980s and 1990s.

In recent years, the wages of Singapore workers, in particular the lower-income group have remained stagnated while rampant inflation depreciates the value of their savings.

With their CPFs tied up mostly in mortage loans for their 99 year public housing flats, many Singaporeans are ill prepared for their twilight years.

Singaporeans are at the bottom of a ranking of retirement income from pensions in the Asia-Pacific region, says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Pensions at a Glance study, which also involved the World Bank, found that Singapore’s average gross replacement rate - the value of the pension as a percentage of earnings when working - is just 13.1 per cent.

Singapore also has one of the highest income disparity, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, amongst developed countries. It is closer to Kenya, Senegal and Ivory Coast than to Japan, Australia and Korea.

This can only mean that over the years, the richer have become richer and richer with the poor becoming poorer.

The economic pie is not divided equally amongst all citizens of the country. Only a select group of elites with better qualifications and connections are really benefitting from Singapore’s status as the world’s most ‘trade friendly’ nation.

WEF’s report is of interest primarily to academicians and economics. It has little relevance for the ordinary Singaporean struggling daily at work to bring the bread home.

Is it little wonder that Singapore is ranked 49th in the Happy Planet Index 2.0 survey conducted by the New Economics Foundation even though it was ranked fourth highest per capita income in the world by the International Monetary Fund last year? (read article here)

The economy, GDP growth, per capita income, conduciveness of trade and other economic indicators count for little if citizens are unhappy and do no not have a sense of belonging to the nation.

We need to move from being overly obsessed with material growth to caring and nurturing our people in our governance to ensure that no Singaporean is left behind.

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