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Singapore ‘must gird itself for growing global competition’: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — With countries around the world pursuing similar strategies to boost their economies, Singapore has to “fortify” itself and brace for competition, even if this oft-repeated message could be considered trite by some, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday (Sept 5).

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping  during the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China September 4, 2016. Photo: Reuters

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China September 4, 2016. Photo: Reuters

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SINGAPORE — With countries around the world pursuing similar strategies to boost their economies, Singapore has to “fortify” itself and brace for competition, even if this oft-repeated message could be considered trite by some, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday (Sept 5).

“We’re not the only ones taking this direction … We have to fortify ourselves and prepare for it,” he said. “Everybody is trying to break through along the same strategy (with) innovation, digital economy ... which means for us that we must continue to expect competition. But then, if you tell Singaporeans there’ll be competition, they’ll say, we’ve heard that speech before.” 

Mr Lee was responding to a question from the media on charting new growth paths through innovation and connectivity in the global economy, a theme discussed at the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Hangzhou, eastern China, where he was attending as a guest during his four-day visit to the country.

At this year’s meeting, Mr Lee said that the Chinese have focused on talking about innovative growth, structural changes, inclusiveness in growth, as well as a digital economy — and these are all areas where “big and small countries are all concerned with” and focusing on in different ways to restructure their economies and handle disruption from technology.

In his National Day Rally speech last month, Mr Lee highlighted that the defining challenge facing Singapore “in this era” is the unrelenting disruptions to businesses due to technology and globalisation, where old models may no longer work, and people would have to adjust and keep up with new models that are “coming thick and fast”. Some technological disruptions he raised were ride-hailing apps such as Grab and Uber having an impact on the transport industry, and e-commerce affecting the retail sector. 

On taking part in an international forum with the big economies, such as the G20, he said it allowed countries to compare notes with others and leaders to learn from each other’s experiences on how to manage “the difficulties for our people”, citing the glocal financial crisis in 2007 when countries discussed how to work together to restore confidence, growth and employment. 

Coordination is still needed now, he added, even if the focus is not quite so narrow as before and progress slower, but there are significant issues raised and Singapore hopes to “further the progress of the discussions”.

“One of the areas which G20 process has been discussing has been the question of taxes ... what they call BEPS (or) base erosion and profit sharing. And we have a concern because we want to make sure that it works out fairly and we don’t get inadvertently disadvantaged by the new rules, and we’ve been participating actively in that,” Mr Lee said.

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