Singapore mastered the art of attracting multinational corporations. Can it turn research, capital and talent into home-grown global technology companies?
Singapore’s economic story is often told as a journey from Third World to First. Under Lee Kuan Yew and the first generation of leaders, the country moved from a trading port and low-cost manufacturing base, once centred on garments, low-end electronics and labour-intensive industries, into a sophisticated economy known for high-value manufacturing, finance, logistics, biomedical sciences, petrochemicals, engineering and semiconductors.
In the 1980s, Singapore stood with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan as one of the four Asian Tigers. Today, two peers have leapt ahead differently: they have built technology and manufacturing champions that control the most critical parts of high-tech production stack.
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