THREE IMPERATIVES
The first imperative is for Singapore to sharpen its value proposition and focus on where it can create the most “hard-to-replicate” advantages.
"Our strategy has always been to focus on areas that matter and to do them well," said Mr Gan.
Singapore should continue to attract high-quality investments and frontier activities in sectors where there are strong foundations, such as advanced manufacturing, modern services, logistics, finance and technology.
Second, Singapore should enhance its agility and adaptability as the pace of change accelerates. This will help the country reinvent itself.
"In a world of rapid change, competitiveness will depend not only on the strengths we have today, but on how quickly we can respond, renew and redeploy," said Mr Gan.
Firms must be able to seize new opportunities, workers must be able to acquire new skills, and capital and talent must move to more productive areas, he added.
Third, Singapore has to build resilience along with efficiency because it will always be exposed to external shocks.
Singapore's role as a hub remains important, but must evolve, said Mr Gan.
"Our resilience must come from being competitive and connected, but connected in a more trusted, reliable and diversified way," he said.
To this end, the review committees said Singapore should secure economic growth through four “thrusts”, and create good jobs and opportunities through another four thrusts. The 32 recommendations are grouped within these eight prongs.
Each thrust has between three to five recommendations on the direction Singapore should take, and the government
BUILDING GLOBAL LEADERSHIP, BECOMING AN AI HUB
The first four thrusts on securing Singapore’s economic growth include a recommendation for Singapore to refresh its investment promotion approach to attract cutting-edge activities and capabilities.
Singapore has built a position of global leadership in the semiconductor value chain, and should aim to do the same in other industries, according to the executive summary.
Firms that are already here should also be supported to upgrade and transform so that they remain competitive even when costs rise.
"The aim is simple. We don’t want to just be in the supply chain. We want to be the part of the supply chain that nobody can afford to take out," said Acting Minister for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Finance Jeffrey Siow at the same event. Mr Siow co-chairs the ESR committee on global competitiveness.
On artificial intelligence, the review had three recommendations on positioning Singapore as a trusted hub for AI solutions.
Singapore cannot compete to build the biggest frontier AI model or host the largest AI data centres, but can bring the government, industry and research institutions together to create “the most enabling environment” for breakthrough innovation, the report said.
Singapore should develop leading firms as “Champions of AI” and accelerate AI adoption throughout the economy.
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