In a recent interview with Dwarkesh Patel, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair He spoke about the policies of Lee Kuan Yew, the father of modern Singapore. He suggested that Lee made three key decisions early in his tenure that helped Singapore achieve a high level of economic development:
1. Singapore adopted English as its national language.
2. Singapore has become very open to foreign capital and talent.
3. Singapore has adopted a zero tolerance policy on corruption, and salaries for senior officials are above the usual public sector level.
This got me thinking about the similarities between Singapore and Swiss-based businesses. Many businesses in Switzerland use English as their official language, despite the fact that the main ethnic groups in their country (Germans 62.1%, French 22.8% and Italians 8%) all speak other languages. Singapore also has a complex ethnic mix, including Chinese (75.9%), Malays (15.1%) and Indians (7.4%). Blair noted that Lee’s decision to adopt English in Singapore was quite controversial at the time.
Switzerland is a very open economy, welcoming foreign investment. About 30% of the Swiss population is foreign-born, well above the 10-20% typical in Western Europe. Singapore is also welcoming of foreign talent and investment, with 37% of its population being foreign-born. Again, Lee’s policy was controversial at the time, as import substitution was in vogue at the time of Singapore’s founding (in 1965).
Like the Singapore government, Swiss companies do not tolerate corruption and pay their top executives relatively high salaries. Lee’s policy on corruption and public sector salaries is quite unusual in developing countries.
Ethnic conflict is a very common problem in many parts of the world. Switzerland has used political decentralization to reduce the risk of conflict between regions speaking different languages. Decentralization would not be as feasible in a small city-state like Singapore, but by adopting English as its language, Singapore has been able to at least somewhat reduce the importance of ethnicity.
I don’t know if Lee Kuan Yew had Europe’s most prosperous country in mind when he adopted these policies, but whatever the motivation, Lee ended up creating a Singaporean model that looks suspiciously like a successful Swiss multinational.
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