Singapore as a model of stakeholder government

World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab cites Singapore as an example of a society which has worked in the interests of all stakeholders in his new book, launched recently. This is an edited excerpt from Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works For Progress, People And Planet.

World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab in Singapore on Tuesday. In his book, he says the Republic takes decisive action to ensure its population benefits from quality access to education, healthcare and housing, but steers clear from doing so in an ideological way or by seeing itself as the primary stakeholder. ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN

It is hard for a government to get its core functions right. But some, such as the Nordic nations, New Zealand, or Singapore, do manage to do significantly better than others, and their model provides lessons for (much bigger) economies too.

The most remarkable blueprint, in fact, may come from Singapore. The city-state was one of the Asian Tigers, which starting in the 1960s underwent an incredible technological and economic transformation. It is now the prime tech and trade hub of Asia. To get there, its efforts to provide high-quality education, healthcare and housing to all its citizens, played a crucial role that may come as a surprise to those who think of Singapore as a collection of flashy skyscrapers, reserved for the happy few among the international jet set.

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