Comparative Economic Growth

Comparative Economic Data
Sources: World Bank, World Development Report, 2002; IMF, World Economic Outlook, 1997

 Region or Country

 %GDP Growth
1979-1989

 %GDP Growth
1990-2000

 %Manufactured Exports/1999

 %High tech Exports
1999

 Per capita Income
PPP/2000
 East Asia

 6.7

 7.2

 81

 31

 4120
 Central Asia  

 -1.6

 56

 10

 6620
 Latin America  

 3.3

 48

 14

 7030
 ME/Nth. Africa

 2.2

 3.0

 17

 01

 5170
 South Asia  

 5.6

 79

 04

 2260
 Sub-Sah Africa

 2.4

 2.4

 39

 09

 1560
 Malaysia

 5.8

 7.0

 80

 59

 8360
 Singapore

 7.3

 7.8

 86

 61

 24,970
 Thailand

 6.7

 4.2

 74

 32

 6330

 

 

Source: United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 10.

 

 

Economic Development in Singapore

1. Singapore in 1958 is a city of gangs, slums and marshes

Squatters' village in Bendemeer about 1957

Queen Street about 1960



2. Strategy of working with Malaysia fails in 1965 - generates crisis

3. Singapore in 1958 has a significant communist presence, radical unions, little manufacturing, few entrepreneurs, per capita income of $500

4. Develop a strategy of attracting foreign investment (1961-1968)

5. Learn that TNCs move in groups - based on following each other

6. Firms in one nation tend to emulate each other more than those in other nations (U.S. semiconductor firms and HDD firms)

7. Attracting one firm that succeeds will bring others

8. Establish infrastructure: electricity, shipping, airport, roads, living facilities, spitting

9. Creation of economic development agency - Economic Development Board - EDB (1961)

a) Steering, catalytic role
b) Organization and integration of government actions
c) Recruitment of TNCs
d) Envision future - observe market trends and develop market strategies for Singapore
e) Direct spending

10. TNCs will export based on free trade; reject import substitution

11. Massive system of capital accumulation by the state - Central Provident Fund is based on forced savings

12. Massive investment in infrastructure, housing, and education financed by forced savings

13. State control over wages and labor rights - real wages growth small until 1978; between 1978-1990, real wages double

14. Singapore workers were roughly as productive as those in the US but in the 1960s Singapore wages were about 9% of those in the US

15. Full employment was reached in the 1970s

16. Economic growth comes with low inflation, which helps to encourage savings

17. Creation of significant SOEs in shipping, airline, banking, and international trade - these firms were profit-oriented

18. The combination of infrastructure, low wages/high productivity/ and state support shaped market forces in Singapore and its relation to global markets

19. Singapore leaders saw the importance of free trade AND were ready to managed and control markets to their advantage

20. Large pool of capital attracts transnational financial service firms - services are about as important as manufacturing.

21. Manufacturing TNCs begin to arrive in the late 1960s: Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor

22. 1992: TNCs have 75% of manufacturing and 85% of exports

23. Singapore shifts to a technological development strategy between 1985-1990

24. Use of SOEs in many services areas: shipping, airlines, telecommunications

25. By the late 1960s, Singapore's leaders understood the significance of globalization and developed a strategy for development based on it

26. Singapore's success has one big lesson for developing nations: the internal economy must be controlled so as to make it able to benefit from free trade and free capital flows. Those benefits must then be captured by local firms and institutions and used to sustain economic development.