will no longer work in today's world where the those who know, those
who don't have the same 1 vote.
03 SEPTEMBER, 2011 20:53
KUSENI DLAMINI
BUSINESS TIMES
Singapore's success worthy of emulation
The South African government, business and civil society need to craft
and execute a compelling vision of the future to make the country a
first-world nation.
Image: Picture: GALLO IMAGES
A view of Singapore financial district. The country has managed to
move from third-world status to first- class economy in just two
generations
" The island state has an unemployment rate of about 3%
We need to talk about strategies to reach full employment, 100%
literacy, total eradication of abject poverty, housing for all, a
decent healthcare system, a crime-free society, massive investment in
research and development, promoting a savings culture, a world-class
knowledge economy underpinned by global centres of excellence in
mining, financial services, manufacturing and innovation.
This is the strategic conversation that we should be having. But what
does it take to move from third world to first world, or in our case,
from developing to developed status within a generation?
Singapore! That's the answer.
As I write this in the lovely and very clean green garden city state
of Singapore, I'm compelled to say it takes very strong, bold and
visionary leadership that Singapore has had since its independence.
When the British left Singapore in 1965, it was in more or less the
same state and level of development as other African countries such as
Ghana and Zambia.
Now Singapore has a GDP of $285-billion, a GDP per capita of $37600
and an unemployment rate of about 3% and a mature financial services
sector dominated by the big names in global finance.
It has the ninth highest GDP per head in purchasing power parity terms
and an impressive human development index of 94.4% which is higher
than the Brics and countries such as Portugal and Greece.
Singapore is a living example that the shackles of poverty and
underdevelopment in former colonial states can be overcome. Lee Kuan
Yew, a great visionary and statesman, took over and started the
journey of modernising and developing his country. The Singapore model
of development is common sense but requires disciplined and sustained
execution to implement.
Lee Kuan Yew instilled confidence and discipline among his people.
This is a critical success factor for any nation or organisation. More
importantly, Singaporeans have a very strong work ethic worthy of
emulation.
Singapore is now a magnet for 10million tourists each year who come to
enjoy what most can only dream of in their home countries.
Their number of tourists per year is double their population.
The central plank of Lee Kuan Yew's strategy was to unleash the full
potential of Singaporeans by harnessing their skills, talent and sense
of patriotism.
Singapore has no natural resources and only 1% of its land is arable.
Agriculture as an industry is non-existent and yet Singapore has more
than enough food to feed its entire nation. It's a failure of
leadership that some countries have abundant arable land in Africa and
yet their people die of hunger and starvation.
The country's 94.5% literacy rate is a vindication of its sound and
prudent policies. If we can focus on developing and leveraging the
skills and professional passions of our people there is a lot that we
can achieve in making South Africa a first-world country within a
generation.
There are many shining examples of global excellence that need scaling
up to make South African leadership in global and local business to be
the norm.
In the ultimate analysis countries are as good as their leaders in
both commerce and government.
Dlamini is the CEO of Old Mutual Emerging Markets.
