Saving the CPF - Restoring public trust in Singapore's retirement savings system

Abstract

This part covers the current challenges facing policymakers in light of slowing global demand and future technological disruptions to jobs and employment. Many of these challenges stem from policy responses to other problems in the past, such as rapid industrialisation through foreign investment to tackle high unemployment during the immediate post-independence years; suppressing domestic costs in order to remain competitive as other economies in the region mimicked Singapore’s export-oriented growth strategy; and the drive to maintain high GDP growth rates through large labour and capital imports. Singapore’s current policy challenges in labour productivity demonstrate how policymaking is extremely path dependent, and that care has to be taken when designing interventions to current challenges to minimise unintended consequences for future policymakers.