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Abstract
State-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds have ‘insured’ Singapore's domestic economy against financial crisis and restructuring interventions from multilateral institutions, engendered elite cohesion and political stability, binding middle class employees to the political system. This essay analyses paths by which the Singapore government established state-owned enterprises and transformed them into global enterprises. It also examines how sovereign wealth funds contribute to government social expenditure without increasing taxes. Such redistribution through state capitalism resonates with the People's Action Partys social democratic origins, inviting comparisons with contemporary developments in Chinese state-capitalism.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
2. Detail figures are taken from http://www.sembcorp.com/en/about-quick-facts.aspx.
3. Details on the evolution of Chartered Industries to the present Singapore Technologies is drawn from http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1042_2011-03-19.html.
4. Numbers retrieved from Singapore Airlines 2010-2011 Annual Report. http://www.singaporeair.com/pdf/Investor-Relations/Annual-Report/annualreport1011.pdf. Accessed on 19 September 2011.
5. http://www.swfinstitute.org/swfs/government-of-singapore-investment-corporation/; assessed on 23 April 2014.
6. Temasek has attributed much of its successful globalization to the appointment of Ho Ching as an executive director in 2002 and as the Chief Executive Officer in 2005 (Temasek Press Release 6 February 2009). As Ho Ching is the wife of the incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, her appointment was not without public controversy.
7. Minister of Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill, Parliamentary Proceedings 20.10.2008.
8. It has been suggested that this 2% GDP contribution has been less than the 50% investment returns that the government is entitled to draw down annually; thus a greater percentage of contribution is available should the need arise.
9. The most recent example is: after breaking way from Ukraine, the head of Crimea Affairs Ministry is reported to have said, ‘I blew the dust off the book Singapore: From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yes to have another read when I became minister…We will pursue Singapore's model in Crimea, we will ensure a comfortable business environment here’ (Straits Times 24 May 2014).