SINGAPORE: Singapore’s economic success has always depended on its ability to adapt quickly to a changing world, and that approach must continue as global uncertainty intensifies, said Economic Strategy Review (ESR) committee co-chair Jeffrey Siow.
Young Singaporeans should not fear an increasingly volatile global landscape but instead view it as one filled with opportunities, he added.
“I want to get young Singaporeans to feel that you don’t have to fear … You will have a strong base to work on,” he said.
“As a young person, if you're just following a tried and tested path, at the end of the day, what we have achieved, we just have walked the road that others have walked – but why not we just walk a new road for ourselves? I think that is the measure of the man.”
Mr Siow was speaking to CNA on Friday (May 22), following the release of the five ESR committees’ recommendations earlier this month on how Singapore can steer its economy forward.
The 32 recommendations – which focused on emerging growth areas such as artificial intelligence – came after nine months of consultations involving more than 7,700 stakeholders, including businesses, unions and workers.
The recommendations are aimed at positioning Singapore for long-term growth in a more fragmented, contested and fast-changing world.
Mr Siow, who co-chairs the ESR committee on global competitiveness, said Singapore’s core strengths remain relevant even as the global economy becomes more protectionist.
“The characteristics that have propelled Singapore's success over the last couple of decades, whether it's trust, connectivity, openness to talent and capital – all these remain relevant in the new world, where it's more volatile and more uncertain,” he added.
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Among the emerging sectors identified by the ESR are AI, quantum technology and the space industry.
Singapore has already signalled ambitions to become a leading AI hub, with the government investing heavily in AI infrastructure and adoption across sectors.
The ESR also called for Singapore to position itself as a preferred base for companies to develop, test and scale AI solutions.
Mr Siow – who is also Acting Minister for Transport – said these new sectors are not random gambles, but “calculated bets” that build on Singapore’s existing capabilities.
“These are adjacent technologies to sectors we are already in. For example, quantum computing is very much adjacent to the semiconductor industry,” he pointed out, adding that space technologies also build on Singapore's established aerospace capabilities.
Still, he acknowledged that not every investment will pay off.
“Of course, not all bets will succeed. That's the nature of it. But I think we are confident that these are investments that are worth making,” he noted.
Mr Siow pointed to industries such as finance, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as examples of previous “bold bets” that eventually became pillars of Singapore’s economy.
“Singapore's history is littered with examples of bold bets that have succeeded,” he added.
“There's no intrinsic reason why Singapore should be (a) pharmaceutical or finance hub, but we were, because we made a deliberate decision to say: ‘These are the industries we want to go in’, and we built the ecosystem around it.”
Even as Singapore pursues emerging technologies, Mr Siow stressed that economic growth itself is not the ultimate goal, but that the objective is “always to create good jobs for Singaporeans”.
“We do not grow the economy for its own sake; we do not invest in technology for its own sake,” he added.
“We do it so that we create good jobs for Singaporeans, both today and also for the Singaporeans of tomorrow.”
The ESR committee’s recommendations also highlighted the need to help workers adapt to AI-driven changes and ensure the benefits of technology are shared broadly.
Office workers in the central business district of Singapore. (File photo: iStock)
Mr Siow acknowledged there are difficult trade-offs involved in adopting AI rapidly while ensuring safeguards remain in place.
“We want to move as fast as possible on AI, but we also have to be conscious that we want to have sufficient guard rails,” he said.
Another challenge, he noted, is ensuring workers who are slower to adapt are not left behind.
When asked how Singapore decides when to stop backing a particular industry or technology, Mr Siow said that agility and the ability to pivot are crucial.
He cited coding as an example of how fast-moving technology trends can evolve unexpectedly with the rise of AI.
“A few years back, maybe five, six years back, coding was all the rage. We were telling our kids, go and take some coding classes …. With AI, that part has disappeared,” Mr Siow noted.
“Was it the wrong bet? I think you can, in hindsight, say it was a wrong bet. Was it useful for us to have gone into the sector and understood how coding evolved, and to be involved in the companies that were also investing in these areas? I think there were benefits in doing so,” he added.
Still, he said there is value in participating early and learning from those shifts.
“It is not always the case where you make a decision and then it goes horribly wrong,” he added.
“It's more the case of having the ability to pivot and adjust and to be agile in shifting your resources when you realise that things are not going in the right direction.”
Singapore’s small size can be an advantage as well, said Mr Siow.
“We are not a particularly large population, so the ability for us to make quick changes and decisions is an advantage for us, and we should lean into it.”
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Young Singaporeans should not fear an increasingly volatile global landscape but instead view it as one filled with opportunities, he added.
“I want to get young Singaporeans to feel that you don’t have to fear … You will have a strong base to work on,” he said.
“As a young person, if you're just following a tried and tested path, at the end of the day, what we have achieved, we just have walked the road that others have walked – but why not we just walk a new road for ourselves? I think that is the measure of the man.”
Mr Siow was speaking to CNA on Friday (May 22), following the release of the five ESR committees’ recommendations earlier this month on how Singapore can steer its economy forward.
The 32 recommendations – which focused on emerging growth areas such as artificial intelligence – came after nine months of consultations involving more than 7,700 stakeholders, including businesses, unions and workers.
The recommendations are aimed at positioning Singapore for long-term growth in a more fragmented, contested and fast-changing world.
Mr Siow, who co-chairs the ESR committee on global competitiveness, said Singapore’s core strengths remain relevant even as the global economy becomes more protectionist.
“The characteristics that have propelled Singapore's success over the last couple of decades, whether it's trust, connectivity, openness to talent and capital – all these remain relevant in the new world, where it's more volatile and more uncertain,” he added.
CNA Games
Show More Show Less
Related:
AI, QUANTUM TECH, SPACE
Among the emerging sectors identified by the ESR are AI, quantum technology and the space industry.
Singapore has already signalled ambitions to become a leading AI hub, with the government investing heavily in AI infrastructure and adoption across sectors.
The ESR also called for Singapore to position itself as a preferred base for companies to develop, test and scale AI solutions.
Mr Siow – who is also Acting Minister for Transport – said these new sectors are not random gambles, but “calculated bets” that build on Singapore’s existing capabilities.
“These are adjacent technologies to sectors we are already in. For example, quantum computing is very much adjacent to the semiconductor industry,” he pointed out, adding that space technologies also build on Singapore's established aerospace capabilities.
Still, he acknowledged that not every investment will pay off.
“Of course, not all bets will succeed. That's the nature of it. But I think we are confident that these are investments that are worth making,” he noted.
Mr Siow pointed to industries such as finance, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as examples of previous “bold bets” that eventually became pillars of Singapore’s economy.
“Singapore's history is littered with examples of bold bets that have succeeded,” he added.
“There's no intrinsic reason why Singapore should be (a) pharmaceutical or finance hub, but we were, because we made a deliberate decision to say: ‘These are the industries we want to go in’, and we built the ecosystem around it.”
Related:
CREATING GOOD JOBS FOR SINGAPOREANS
Even as Singapore pursues emerging technologies, Mr Siow stressed that economic growth itself is not the ultimate goal, but that the objective is “always to create good jobs for Singaporeans”.
“We do not grow the economy for its own sake; we do not invest in technology for its own sake,” he added.
“We do it so that we create good jobs for Singaporeans, both today and also for the Singaporeans of tomorrow.”
The ESR committee’s recommendations also highlighted the need to help workers adapt to AI-driven changes and ensure the benefits of technology are shared broadly.
Office workers in the central business district of Singapore. (File photo: iStock)
Mr Siow acknowledged there are difficult trade-offs involved in adopting AI rapidly while ensuring safeguards remain in place.
“We want to move as fast as possible on AI, but we also have to be conscious that we want to have sufficient guard rails,” he said.
Another challenge, he noted, is ensuring workers who are slower to adapt are not left behind.
AGILITY, ABILITY TO PIVOT
When asked how Singapore decides when to stop backing a particular industry or technology, Mr Siow said that agility and the ability to pivot are crucial.
He cited coding as an example of how fast-moving technology trends can evolve unexpectedly with the rise of AI.
“A few years back, maybe five, six years back, coding was all the rage. We were telling our kids, go and take some coding classes …. With AI, that part has disappeared,” Mr Siow noted.
“Was it the wrong bet? I think you can, in hindsight, say it was a wrong bet. Was it useful for us to have gone into the sector and understood how coding evolved, and to be involved in the companies that were also investing in these areas? I think there were benefits in doing so,” he added.
Still, he said there is value in participating early and learning from those shifts.
“It is not always the case where you make a decision and then it goes horribly wrong,” he added.
“It's more the case of having the ability to pivot and adjust and to be agile in shifting your resources when you realise that things are not going in the right direction.”
Singapore’s small size can be an advantage as well, said Mr Siow.
“We are not a particularly large population, so the ability for us to make quick changes and decisions is an advantage for us, and we should lean into it.”
Continue reading...