• 2019-08-08

Countries are progressing through the progress of their economy in various levels, such as reliance on industrialization and improving their trade balance represented by increasing their exports and reducing their imports, improving their gross domestic product, eliminating poverty and unemployment among their population, controlling inflation rates, and no less important is education, which is an effective thing in progress. In fact, this may appear to be an economic reality carried out by the economies of several countries in an attempt to reach excellence and achieve growth rates that are respected by all, which in turn is reflected in the country, its population, its standard of living and the development of its infrastructure.   Most of the countries’ economies start from a destitute and weak point, completely destroyed, such as Germany and Japan after World War II, or when countries with their current civilizational concept emerged, such as the Arab Gulf states upon their independence in the early seventies of the last century, or when countries continue to grow diligently even when global setbacks occur as an economy The United States of America when it faced the setback of 1929 and the mortgage crisis at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 (you can find it in our article "The Mortgage Crisis 2007: Behind the Story and Results") History of Singapore   Singapore was under the control of Britain in 1819, which established a sea port to achieve its commercial purposes, which helped the immigration of many Chinese and Indian residents to work in Singapore, which helped in the development of the island's economy. Singapore subsequently gained independence from British rule in 1959 due to widespread famine.   After the spread of famine, Lee Kuan, then Prime Minister, turned to seeking international aid, but his attempts were unsuccessful. He realized that his country’s progress would only be achieved through self-reliance with the aim of building a prosperous homeland. It merged with Malaysia in 1963 until Malaysia abandoned it due to its backwardness and poverty, so it separated from the Union Malay. At that time, more than two-thirds of Singapore's population was unemployed after secession, i.e. about three million unemployed people living in slums lacking natural resources and sanitation. The best solution to these problems was the trend towards industrialization, so thought of industrialization and adoption of labor-intensive projects began.   But there was a problem. Most of the population was able to work in the commercial and service fields, but they had no experience in other fields, so the country was forced to search for job opportunities outside its borders for industrial development, so it established trade relations with Europe and America in what is known as the "Economic Development Board", which Its mission was to attract foreign investment to Singapore, as it invited foreign companies to invest in it without restrictions or import duties.   It has been able to reach globalization through the Arabs, establishing many multinational companies and attracting many investors through tax cuts, and then Singapore made a giant historical leap from a backward country full of demonstrations in which injustice and looting spread when the “Malaysian Federation” abandoned it — which was its hope The only way to get rid of its crises — to a developed country and one of the richest and most advanced countries in the world, and the following economic indicators prove that:   The GDP in Singapore amounted to $364.16 billion. The GDP size is high for a country like Singapore with a small population size of 5.5 million, with an unemployment rate of only 2.1%. It exports many industries such as electronics, communications, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, in addition to mechanization and equipment. Its exports amount to 329.7 million US dollars, and its imports are mostly oil and canned food.   Revenues amounted to 22.6 billion dollars, while expenditures amounted to 20.9 billion dollars, meaning that there is no cash deficit in the general budget of the state, while the public debt in Singapore is 104% of the gross domestic product, and this figure is dangerous because it exceeded the safe limits. Singapore is a developed country that relies on manufacturing for export, which gives it a surplus that it can pay.   In addition to the fact that the inflation rate reached 0.6% in 2019, which is a good rate for its decline a lot, it may rise slightly, up to 0.8 or 0.9 due to the increase in the prices of food commodities and oil, and the economic growth rate has reached 3% of the total GDP and is expected to grow By 3.5% in the following years, which is more than a wonderful rate for the population, which grows at a rate of 1%, and therefore the rate of economic growth grows three times the rate of population growth.   It is worth noting that Singapore does not suffer from poverty because it did not set the poverty line, and the per capita income in Singapore is 57,000 dollars just like the United States of America, and it is an amazing fact that out of every 34 Singaporeans there is a millionaire.   Finally, education is the cornerstone on which progress in Singapore is built. Lee Kuan was interested in teaching students creative thinking skills, away from traditional patterns of education. He established an integrated educational system to eliminate illiteracy and unemployment to provide the country's needs of labor.   The state also allocated a fifth of its budget to education (i.e. 20% of it), in addition to pushing teachers to improve and develop their skills and involve them in developing school uniforms. Globally ranked by the British Times. Singapore is also one of the fastest growing Asian economy in the world. It is the fifth trading partner of the United States of America and ranked second in economic competitiveness in the world.   What has Singapore done to reach those satisfactory levels of previous economic indicators?   Achievements in Singapore are no coincidence