The background of Singapore's reform after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Singapore is a country and a city. When it gained independence from Malaysia in 1965, it was still a run-down port town. In less than 50 years, the whole country has become a "garden city" and once became the "Four Little Dragons of Asia" economically, with per capita GDP ten times that of China. In order to explore the success of Singapore's rise, scholar Kuang Daoqiu had the honor to participate in the "Zhou Lianying Memorial Scholarship" project two years ago, went to Singapore to study and inspect, and published his research result "The Rise of Sing Tao: Singapore's Founding Wisdom".

For the public, the honest and efficient work style of civil servants directly affects the image of the government. Honesty is an essential quality of civil servants, and the basis of honesty is that civil servants cannot have selfish desires and be emotional. If civil servants think for themselves and make their own small calculations, they will inevitably harm the interests of the public when performing official duties. Of course, Singapore's civil servants are clean and honest, and institutional constraints are the premise. As the saying goes, professional people do professional things.

It is precisely because Singapore advocates the professionalization of civil servants that it is efficient in performing official duties. However, a few people in our country have no professional skills and rely on contacts to enter the civil service. They are not good at many specific public affairs, giving people the impression that "laymen lead experts", and they are careless in official handling and do not fully consider the factors in official decision-making. Such people will only add negative energy to the establishment of the government image.

Adjust the economic development model for the future

Generally speaking, the mode of economic development determines the revitalization of a country. However, any economic development model in the world is based on the exploration and practice of its own national conditions. From the external environment, in addition to the advantages of geographical location and port traffic, Singapore has more obvious disadvantages, such as small land area, poor natural resources and even difficult fresh water supply. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Singapore had a depressed society, a weak industrial base and a large number of unemployed people. Faced with this reality, under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, the Singapore government did not copy the western economic development model, but combined with Singapore's regional characteristics and reality. In the early 1960s, when the People's Republic of China was founded, it positioned its economic development as an "export-oriented, open economic development model".

In the first chapter of this book, The Course of Struggle, the author introduced that the world was in the tense period of the Cold War at that time, and many entrepreneurs in Europe and America were worried about not finding a suitable investment market. It is in this situation that Singapore has abolished more than 300 kinds of tariffs, vigorously introduced foreign capital, and given preferential treatment in land and taxation. Almost overnight, Singapore has become a global "investment paradise" and "world factory". Relying on the vigorous promotion of foreign capital, Singapore has achieved a magnificent turn of national modernization in just over a decade. In fact, China's reform and opening-up has gained a lot of enlightenment from Singapore's economic development model, and China's economic development has maintained a high momentum for many years by relying on the export-oriented economic development strategy.

However, the genius of the Singapore government lies in its ability to assess the situation. When the export-oriented economy led by manufacturing developed to a certain extent and the contradiction between people's livelihood was effectively solved, Singapore decided to get rid of the old model of low wages and low production and put forward the development concept of "secondary industrialization". The core of this concept is to promote economic transformation and industrial upgrading, so as to complete the leap from labor-intensive manufacturing to capital and technology-intensive industries and services. It is by adhering to this concept that Singapore's high-tech economy and knowledge economy have begun to take shape in the early 1990s. Why should Singapore realize the transformation of its economic development model? In fact, the reason is very simple: the shortcomings of manufacturing industry in environmental pollution are obvious, and Singapore can't bear the "environmental pain". In addition, if the country wants to achieve sound economic development, it must cultivate high-tech industries and service industries with industrial added value.

When reading this book, I deeply feel that China's current economic development model and current situation are particularly similar to those of Singapore in the 1990s. Economic development should change from extensive to intensive, and the state should invest a lot of money in scientific and technological research and development to boost the development of enterprises with scientific and technological innovation. However, China has a large population and huge employment pressure, so it is obviously unrealistic to suddenly shut down those industrial and mining enterprises with serious environmental pollution but good economic benefits. The reform of the economic system really needs the courage to "break a strong man's wrist", and economic transformation and upgrading is a process with pain.

The cornerstone of building a "happy village"

As a country, only by taking out the fruits of economic development for the people to enjoy, can the state power be truly supported and loved by the people and the cohesion of the country be truly enhanced. At present, in Singapore, the government has put forward the concept of "the fruits of development are enjoyed by the people". The government has invested a lot of money to eliminate poverty, constantly improve the level of people's livelihood issues such as housing, medical care, education and food, and move towards the development goal of a "happy country". In order to build a "happy country", Singapore has made bold explorations in three aspects: "a sense of security for the elderly, a sense of security for the elderly and medical care for the sick". This book also analyzes these three aspects respectively, providing experience for China to continuously improve people's livelihood. Especially housing and old-age care, the author is more concerned.

As we all know, due to the limitation of land space, housing prices in Singapore have been running at a high level. However, in order to make ordinary wage earners affordable, the Singapore government has introduced a central provident fund system characterized by "self-accumulation and self-protection". Singapore's provident fund is different from China's. China's provident fund has strict management procedures. Even if it is used to buy a house or decorate it, it has to go through countless complicated procedures to take it out. In addition, in today's soaring housing prices, everyone's provident fund is just a drop in the bucket. And Singaporeans have a large amount of provident fund, so it is very convenient to withdraw money, and they can also use it for medical treatment, education and so on. In order to let every family have a house to live in, the Singapore government has launched a strategy of unified planning and construction of housing led by the state.

The issue of "providing for the aged" is another thorny issue facing many countries. People can't enjoy their old age, and a happy life is empty talk. In the fifth chapter of this book, "Self-reliance, Help by Others", the author believes that the problem of providing for the aged not only needs to be solved within the family, but also the policy orientation of the government is more critical. A very simple truth: when people are old, they cannot work or create wealth. Only by relying on the strength of family, society and government can they shoulder the heavy responsibility of providing for the aged. The central provident fund system originally introduced in Singapore is aimed at "providing for the aged". After retirement, people have the right to take away all the deposits in the "personal pension account" at one time, with interest, for personal pension.

In the book The Rise of Sing Tao: Singapore's Founding Wisdom, the author introduces many successful development experiences in Singapore, and at the same time, he often makes a rational comparison with the development status of China, which can bring more room for thinking. In short, as a rapidly rising emerging country, Singapore has written a legend of the rise of an island country with the overall idea of overall planning and collaborative innovation as its development. There are many aspects of Singapore that China can learn from, but China's national conditions are different from Singapore's historical background, economic base, population composition and natural environment elements, so it is impossible to find the answer to China's development in Singapore. The road to China's rise depends on the exploration of the people of China.