A Global City on Singaporean Soil: Growing the Economy, not the Gap

Abstract

Singapore is a small, resource-scarce state without a natural hinterland or a large domestic market to generate sufficient jobs and economic sustainability. Responding to these constrained circumstances, generations of policy-makers formulated and implemented economic strategies to integrate Singapore into the global economic system, and steer it towards becoming a ‘Global City’, in order to achieve long-term survival and prosperity. This case examines how Singapore’s ‘global city’ strategies affected equality outcomes in the country, and seeks to facilitate a discussion about how, or even whether, Singapore’s policy-makers should adjust these long-held strategies to safeguard equality in the country