Why Singapore is steaming ahead

Having recently returned from my old stamping grounds in Asia, I am again impressed.

When they came first emerged from the colonial era in the middle of the last century, many of these countries were not doing too well.

That has all changed and while Australia is progressing very nicely at a hundred miles an hour, Asia is steaming ahead at a thousand miles an hour.

There is a newly-found will that is being fuelled by the emerging confidence of the countries in the region. In addition to economic confidence Asia is also drawing on its long and rich cultures for added strength.

After my last visit, I read Lee Kuan Yew's autobiography and now better understand the complexities and difficulties of building a multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-language country in a place with no natural resources on which to base an economy.

But build it they did.

Singapore is claimed to be the only country that moved from a third world to a first world economy in the last century and is often held up as a model for us to follow.

The scale and variety of industries that have relocated to their tiny island make this is a hard proposition to argue with.

But to get where they are, Singaporeans have depended on big government. Basing an economy on this sort of political intervention is, and always will be, risky.

There is an old political adage that goes: 'Always dance with the one what brought you' and it means that political debts must be always be repaid.

Once adopted, this sort of government philosophy places businesses in a very strong position and that is not always in the national interest.

I heard a very similar Asian saying: 'This country is rich, but the people are poor. Our country is good for business but not for people; when we were getting independence we offered the government a wing but they took the whole chicken.'

That saying made more sense when I read the Straits Times and noted that a four-room flat with no parking or amenities cost $770,000 singapore dollars ($AUD693,140) for a 99-year lease. After that time the flat reverts to government control.

The same newspaper laid out the cost of a government-issued Certificate of Entitlement. I had never heard of such a thing until it was explained to me that Singaporeans have no right to own a car without one.

To purchase a car, it is necessary to first obtain one of these certificates and the cost is quite extraordinary; a 1600cc car certificate for December 2013 was $SGD73,160 ($AUD65,857) and it only lasts ten years.

In the same month there were only 364 1600cc certificates issued and 591 bids to buy them. The cost of the certificate is additional to the purchase cost of the car.

Somehow I cannot see such a system working in Australia, nor do I think that their vast migrant labour programs or their rigid and controlling civic laws would be acceptable to us.

The transformation of Singapore is still amazing - its transport system and attractions are great - but accommodation has become expensive, food portions have shrunk and prices have gone in the opposite direction.

Singapore is still a very enjoyable, but expensive, place and I left it this time with very mixed feelings.

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