Second, as a consequence of its liberal immigration policy, Singapore’s population has increased by 3.6 times from 1.58 to 5.61m during the same period. First, Singapore’s land area has increased by 137.7 km 2 from 581.5 km 2 in 1959 to 719.2 km 2 in 2016 as a result of land reclamation efforts. The tremendous changes in Singapore’s policy context from 1959 to 2016 are shown in Table I. On that 9th day of August 1965, I started out with great trepidation on a journey along an unmarked road to an unknown destinationįortunately for Singaporeans, Lee’s fears were unfounded as Singapore has not only survived but has been transformed from a Third World country to a First World country during the past 53 years. We faced tremendous odds with an improbable chance of survival.
We had been asked to leave Malaysia and go our own way with no signposts to our next destination. When Singapore was forced to leave the Federation of Malaysia and became independent in August 1965, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was concerned about Singapore’s survival. Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has increased by 56 times from S$1,310 (US$428) in 1960 to S$73,167 (US$52,962) in 2016 ( Department of Statistics, 2017, p. Its transformation from a small fishing village in the early nineteenth century to a modern and prosperous city-state today is an incredible story of from rags to riches. When Singapore was founded by Stamford Raffles in January 1819, it was a small fishing village inhabited by a thousand Malay fishermen and a few Chinese farmers ( Turnbull, 1977, p. But it certainly is an example of an extraordinarily successful small country in a big world Singapore’s success says a great deal about how a country with virtually no natural resources can create economic advantages with influence far beyond its region. Singapore is the smallest of Asia’s four “Little Dragons” but in many ways it is the most successful.
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