The comparison with Hong Kong is inevitable. Both are thriving ports and financial centres; both have Chinese-majority populations and legal systems inherited from the British. But in the past 30 years Singapore and Hong Kong have trodden very different economic paths. With the opening of China, Hong Kong's manufacturing industry shifted over the border, falling from about 20% of gdp in 1980 to just 1% now (see chart). In Singapore, it has dropped from about 28% a decade ago, but only to 19%. That is far below the 30% or so seen in places such as China, South Korea or Taiwan, but far above the levels in other developed countries such as America, Britain, France or Spain, let alone Hong Kong.
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