State-Owned Enterprises in Singapore: Performance and Policy Recommendations

The Singapore economy is characterised by a strong interventionist government and planning. It showed ‘plan and market’ in a creative partnership in which government control, export-oriented manufacturing, government direction of the labor market, state-owned enterprises and government-forced saving co-exist and help the economy excel and prosper. A supply-side analysis showed that foreign talent through employment passes and work permits were an integral building block for the economic success and contributed 41% of GDP in the 1990s (Ministry of Trade and Industry 2001).