There is a persuasive economic argument for Singapore to utilise its location in South-east Asia to better advantage. Seeing the lever it should use as a cultural proposition - as did academic Linda Y. C. Lim recently - also deserves to be examined.

The Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) highlighted last year the many opportunities in Asia, fed by burgeoning middle-class consumers and urbanisation. That field, of course, is a broad one. Inevitably, entrepreneurs will have to be more geographically and sectorally nuanced. They must find niches that will allow them to play to their strengths. In projecting that Asia will account for over half of world gross domestic product by 2050, Professor Lim sees South-east Asia as the star performer, outpacing all other regions in GDP growth, except South Asia. As Indonesia becomes the world's fourth-largest economy over time, Asean might match the economic heft of the European Union.