Singapore At 50: What Lies Ahead?

This volume will be a useful complement to the book series 'World Scientific Series on Singapore's 50 Years of National Building' as well as the book 'Singapore 2065' — both by World Scientific Publishing. It pulls together in one volume some of the key areas that must be considered when readers think about the future of Singapore the modern day miracle of economic and social development. Being small and lacking natural resources, it would have been difficult to imagine that Singapore would have been able to effect the sort of transformation that many of the volumes published under the Series describe. But as 'Singapore 2065' indicates on the other hand, the country is purposeful in setting goals for its development; that many, other local as well as global thought-leaders are tapped for their best ideas on how to ensure that Singapore thrives well into the future. At 2015, that orientation prevails and in this proposed volume ideas in four key areas of endeavor are cited — economic development, geopolitical security and stability; ecological sustainability and effective governance — and ideas and strategic goals are offered not just by local and global thought-leaders but also discussed by Singapore's political leaders — the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam. In one short and handy volume, Singaporeans but other readers interested in Singapore and in thinking about the future of Southeast Asia as well as the future of small city-states will get a quick and accessible feel of what lies ahead and how to think about that.It is an important book in the Policy Studies space not for the specific content of the trends discussed but also for what the political leaders of Singapore have said about the governance principles that should apply or should not apply in shaping the country in its journey beyond its 50th anniversary of Independence.