Singapore’s experience is enviable and motivational, however, it shouldn’t be idealized
168.am interviewed Vahagn Vardanyan, representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Armenia in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, international relations expert, covering Singapore’s economic miracle, acceptable and non-acceptable sides for Armenia, productivity of civil society service, fight against corruption with.
Former Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan was the first to touch upon the use of Singapore’s experience in Armenia, even the author of Singapore’s economic miracle Kuan Yew visited Armenia, and currently it’s anticipated from incumbent PM Karen Karapetyan, that he’ll turn Armenia into a Singapore. In your opinion what is instructive to us from Singapore’s experience?
Throughout recent 50 years achievements of Singapore are almost unsurpassed on account of the circumstance, that the country doesn’t have any natural resources or fossils, and practically whole basis of development is human resource. For many countries, maybe Singapore’s experience is enviable in a good sense and is a motivation for aspiration, however, at the same time, nothing should be idealized, i.e. any state, any country, had preconditions, on the basis of which it developed, and it’s conditioned by their difference on how productively one may reach success. Of course, this doesn’t exclude that we need to accept, that some positive sides, at least identically, can be adopted.
To understand what should be applied, first and foremost, one should comprehend what the pledge for Singapore’s speedy success is. Since Singapore’s independence they consistently sought not only high economic growth, but also applied integrated approach, i.e. in economy, country’s domestic and foreign policies, social policy, they succeeded to find the bridges in all fields, connecting one to another. And through that means, through a rather persistent work, they recorded great economic success, and today, of course, the indices, by which Singapore is singled out from other countries in the region.
By Gayane Khachatryan
