How China’s belt and road can show Singapore the route to greater prosperity

Feng Da Hsuan and Liang Hai Ming say setting up diaspora finance and green supply chain systems, plus focusing on the China market, are how Singapore can become an irreplaceable part of the Belt and Road Initiative

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For Singapore to become one of the belt and road leaders, it needs to grasp the opportunities that come its way. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 5:01pm, 21 Aug 2017Updated: 7:06pm, 21 Aug 2017

At the recent Business China Awards in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasised that the Belt and Road Initiative welcomes participation and planning from all nations. As an important belt and road node, he said, Singapore can and will benefit from it.

Indeed, Singapore’s political, business and academic communities seem collectively convinced that, by participating in the initiative, the city state can increase its future connectivity in the real-world, digital, financial and people-to-people spheres.

No doubt, Singapore can benefit by engaging in these arenas. Yet, in the long run, sustainability could be an issue, especially since Singapore faces competition.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets the visiting chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, during her visit to the Istana presidential palace on August 3. Photo: AFP

Thus, in order for Singapore to receive the greatest benefits and dividends in its belt and road effort, it needs new moves and mindsets, with the aim of becoming irreplaceable. To reach this goal, we suggest the following.

First, Singapore should establish an unprecedented belt and road financial centre for the global diaspora; that is, all the people working away from their home country.