The Singapore economic model - VPRO documentary - 2009

What is the secret behind the Singapore economic model? If non-Western economies around the world are gaining more and more weight, what economic model could they possibly impose on us in the future? VPRO Backlight is getting enlightened and highlighted in Singapore, which is, according to some, the most successful economic model in the world.
VPRO Backlight makes an exploration based on a number of encounters with political and business leaders.

Singapore, the city-state in South East Asia, was not much more than a swamp 40 years ago. It had no raw materials, no hinterland and a low-skilled workforce. It is now one of the most successful economies in Asia with a state fund (Temasek) that owns billions and a per capita income that is higher than in the Netherlands: about $ 48,000 against about $ 37,000. The economic model is such a formula for success that even the Chinese leader Deng Xiao-Ping visited Singapore in 1978 to learn from this model, with all its consequences.

What is the secret behind the Singapore economic model? VPRO Backlight makes an exploration based on a number of encounters with political and business leaders, including the founder of modern Singapore, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (prime minister between 1959 and 1990), political scientist and Asia expert Kishore Mahbubani (from the Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy), Singapore-based American super-investor Jim Rogers and former CEO of AkzoNobel Kees van Lede.

How do they explain the success of the Singapore model and will this model point the way to Asia and ultimately to the rest of the world towards a future-proof economy?

Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2009.
© VPRO Backlight February 2009

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Credits:
Director: Shuchen Tan
Research: William de Bruijn
Production: Judith van den Berg, Nellie Kamer
Editors in chief: Doke Romeijn, Jos de Putter, Henneke Hagen

Leading theme: 'Toekomst' by Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács
Music: Coparck
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.