Building assets from birth: Singapore’s policies

ABSTRACT

Singapore has created innovative, inclusive and comprehensive asset-building policies designed to promote social stability and development. Asset building from early childhood is an important part of this overall strategy. In 1993, Singapore’s government initiated a universal child asset-building policy, Edusave, which provides resources for improving educational outcomes. Since then, three additional asset-building policies for children have been implemented: the Baby Bonus and Child Development Accounts (CDAs), Post-Secondary Education Accounts (PSEAs) and Medisave, a health savings account. We discuss each of these asset-building accounts for children in Singapore. We point out distinctive features and assess key elements in overall policy design.

KEYWORDS:

• Singapore
• child development account
• asset building
• CDA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vernon Loke

Vernon Loke, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Professor of Social Work at Eastern Washington University. He is also a Faculty Associate at the Center for Social Development, Washington University in St Louis. His scholarly interests include asset building and economic empowerment of disadvantaged populations, and the advancement of financial capability in Social Work.

Michael Sherraden

Michael Sherraden is the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director, Center for Social Development and Next Age Institute, Washington University in St. Louis.