DEVELOPMENT: Singapore Refuses to Join Rich Man’s Club

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 1996 (IPS) - The world’s fastest-growing nation has no intention of breaking ranks with the Third World and joining the rich man’s club in Paris.

“We are a not a developed country and we don’t want to apply for membership in any organisation incompatible with the Group of 77 (G-77),” said Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan of Singapore.

Kausikan laid to rest widespread speculation that Singapore may abandon the 132-member G-77 developing nations in favour of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which promotes the interests of the world’s 26 richest nations.

“We will stay with the G-77. We take our membership in the G- 77 very seriously, politically as well as economically,” Kausikan told IPS, “Our membership in the G-77 is how we define ourselves in the world.”

In 1994, Mexico walked out of the Group of 77 and joined the OECD. South Korea plans to join the OECD some time next year, but Seoul has not given any indication that it will leave the grouping which represents the collective interest of developing nations.

Singapore was declared the front runner in the global economic race in May by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), edging out Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States.

The WEF singled out Singapore for its role as an exporter of manufactured products and for attracting the highest flow on foreign direct investment as a percentage of gross domestic product.

By mid-1996, Singapore had accumulated a staggering 72 billion dollars in international reserves, ranking far ahead of Italy (49 billion dollars), Britain (40 billion dollars), France (28 billion dollars), Norway (25 billion dollars), and Sweden (21 billion dollars).

With a population of only 2.9 million people, Singapore’s reserves are the world’s highest on a per capita basis.

Among the countries ahead of Singapore are Japan (208 billion dollars), Taiwan (100 billion dollars), China (90 billion dollars), Germany (84 billion dollars) and the U.S. (74 billion dollars).

Currently, Singapore has a per capita income of more than 22,000 dollars annually and an average economic growth rate of more than 8.5 percent per annum. In 1994, the growth rate was 10.1 percent and in 1995 about 8.9 percent.

In January, the OECD elevated Singapore from an aid recipient nation to one ineligible to receive aid because of its strong economy. “But we haven’t taken any aid from any country. So it is a very theoretical question,” Kausikan said.

He also said there were erroneous media reports that the OECD had ranked Singapore a developed country. “This is not true,” he asserted.

“The OECD later clarified that the change in status was a technical one because it now considers Singapore an advanced developing country — which we are,” Kausikan said.

Since the 1960s, Singapore has provided technical assistance to other developing nations as part of a South-South initiative.

Under the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP), established in 1992, Singapore also has set up a Third Country Training Programme (TCTP) to provide joint training to developing countries with assistance from Japan, Germany, the Britain, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and Norway, as well as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

“We have a triangular relationship under which Singapore and another country will get together to help a third country, say in Africa, Latin America or the Caribbean,” Kausikan noted.

Singapore has sponsored training visits for about 2,000 individuals annually from more than 60 developing nations in Africa, the Caribbean, the South Pacific and Latin America.

Asked if Singapore should serve as a model for successful economic development, Kausikan said, “Singapore does not impose itself as a model for anybody but only shares its experiences if the recipient thinks they are relevant.”

“Our message is that every country must find its own way, but there is no need to reinvent the wheel in every case,” he said. “We have been lucky and we have been growing.”

“When we started, we got technical training from many countries. Now, we would like to share our experiences. There is no single model that can be applied universally throughout the world. We made many mistakes on the way. Come and learn from our mistakes,” he said.