Rola nauki i nowoczesnych technologii jako podstawa sukcesu gospodarczego Singapuru

ROLE OF SCIENCE AND OF HIGH TECHNOLOGIES IN THE SUCCESS OF SINGAPORE’S ECONOMY

The economical success of Singapore is based on its exceptional political stability. All the development plans for this island are founded on a rational vision of its leaders, who are sure that these plans will be carried out also by their successors. Longterm development is thus reinforced by “soft” authoritarianism which facilitated the implementation of far-reaching strategies based on investments in science and wide use of high-tech. In this model of development the state has gradually assumed the role of a “manager in charge” of a social and economical prosperity.
Since the beginning, the government of Singapore was dedicated to achieve an aligned set of policies, which can be divided into two groups:

• economic, focused on the economical indicators;
• structural, which aimed at integrating Singapore with the global circulation of goods and services

Both of them were supported with substantial funding focused on science and education. The government dedicated great efforts to education. Its profile has been strictly adapted to the needs of the foreign investors. Thus the system of education supplies the demanded professionals, and on the other hand, it doesn’t “produce” unemployed people.
The research and development sector is one of the government priorities. The government agency A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) acts in the fi elds of chemistry, electronic equipment, computer science, mathematics, physics, and biology with biotechnology. Most of the projects are satisfy business demands, so they make the research profi table and effective.
Hence the key factors of the Singapore’s success could be enumerated as follows: political stability, long-term planning and the high level of investments into education and science.