[deleted]
Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
21–30 of 298 posts
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#22Cool? Out of all the major world commercial hubs, wasn't it always the hottest and muggiest?
Ironically, UAE and Qatar have nicer weather in the winter than Singapore.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#23I think Singapore's immigration policy is still interesting and relevant to western countries, but it's true it's also kind of similar to the UAE. Essentially it's (relatively) easy to get work visas for areas where there's a genuine shortage but difficult to get permanent residency and almost impossible to get citizenship. That's still a very different policy to what most western countries have right now. The UAE ha…
Do they get to vote? Also in general elections? Are they typically organised in unions?
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
SG's value-add was as a door into China (and India and ASEAN). China has strict capital controls so it makes FDI risky. During the 1990s when there were open questions about HK's status, a lot of the business community (and at least 10% of HKers) immigrated to SG to operate there. During the 2000s, the PRC made some good faith attempts at assuaging investor sentiment in HK, and that slowed the business and financial…
And during the 2010s-2020s the flow from HK moved back to SG since China started their major changes in HK.
I'd say it went 50-50 Mainland-Singapore.
By 2019, if you were a Chinese company that only intends to operate within China, you had no reason not to move legal and leadership operations to Shanghai.
On the other han, I'd you were a foreign investor, HK de facto become "yet another Chinese territory" which meant it's not a good hedge for an ExChina/China+One strategy which is executed in ASEAN or India, which made Singapore become somewhat attractive.
Basically, the only loser was HK.
That said, this is all business and financial services - no one was actually dedicating serious effort building sustained R&D capacity in either HK or SG when you can hire the people who you would have had to apply PRs (no one who is worth hiring would accept a work visa when they could work for an American company and L1/2 to America) for directly in China, India, and increasingly Vietnam.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#25I think it is due to China. I remember Singapore was a large financial center for Asia, but China's rapid growth overshadowed Singapore. I also think Hong Kong is going through the same thing, plus I believe China is trying to make Shanghai into its main Finance Center, letting Hong Kong's center fade away.
It's hilarious that we think of Singapore as competing with China where China has 1000x more people. Singapore is pretty impressive.
Look at the map, all ocean travel between East Asia and India/Europe basically has to go past Singapore. They've been a trade and financial center with a substantial chinese population for a long time.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#26TIL detention without trial is a thing in Singapore [^1], ministers love to brag about increasing the severity of detention without trial [^2], and that the longest someone was held in detention without trial in Singapore was 23+9 years [^3]. That person was never charged. [^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Law_(Temporary_Provis... [^2]: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/my-views-on-... [^3] h…
There’s a reason William Gibson called it “Disneyland with the Death Penalty”
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
And during the 2010s-2020s the flow from HK moved back to SG since China started their major changes in HK.
I'd say it went 50-50 Mainland-Singapore. By 2019, if you were a Chinese company that only intends to operate within China, you had no reason not to move legal and leadership operations to Shanghai. On the other han, I'd you were a foreign investor, HK de facto become "yet another Chinese territory" which meant it's not a good hedge for an ExChina/China+One strategy which is executed in ASEAN or India, which made Sin…
> If you were a Chinese company that only intended to operate within China, you had no reason not to move legal and leadership operations to Shanghai.
Where's the example where you're a Chinese company with most revenue in China (for now) but do sell elsewhere and anyhow, there are lots of reasons to not 100% stick to China,
e.g. gaming companies have moved to Singapore in masses (at least some capacity) due to time and time of gaming crackdowns and censorship
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#28There's an extremely low fertility rate paired with a rapidly aging population. When I visited there were endless advertisements for geriatric type care / end-of-life type planning / etc, and a notably older population working quite low wage jobs in a place where everything was crazy expensive, especially relative to its northern neighbor. It felt depressing.
It seems like one of those places that is probably quite nice if you're loaded, but it seems like a pretty rough place if you're not already well off. I was also surprised that many of the stereotypes about 'one fine city' were not quite on the mark. Jaywalking, crossing against a cross-walk light, and various other little infractions were ever-present which left me feeling a bit odd as when in Rome do what the Romans do, but yeah... not gonna risk that.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#29TIL detention without trial is a thing in Singapore [^1], ministers love to brag about increasing the severity of detention without trial [^2], and that the longest someone was held in detention without trial in Singapore was 23+9 years [^3]. That person was never charged. [^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Law_(Temporary_Provis... [^2]: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/my-views-on-... [^3] h…
There’s a reason William Gibson called it “Disneyland with the Death Penalty” https://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/
Well, to get the death penalty you have to be charged. I actually think Singapore laws on what could get you the death penalty are pretty clear, and you'd be stupid to violate them. Being detained without trial seems scarier imo
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#30OP's critique feels like a celebrity economist's variant of those travel magazine pieces that tell us why Zermatt, Phuket or Nantucket is no longer a "cool" vacation spot. On some sort of momentary buzz meter, sure. But the factors that help Singapore be an Asian or often global hub in so many respects are still running strong, no? Worrying about whether a couple dozen X/Twitter legends are hyping you today feels sil…
> celebrity economist's
That is what MarginalRevolution is. It's fairly heterodox by most standards, but not in the good way.
> the factors that help Singapore be an Asian or often global hub in so many respects are still running strong, no
Nope.
If I can now IPO in China or India with Singapore level valuations and attract Singapore level deal sizes, why would I as a Chinese or Indian want to dedicate significant capital in Singapore beyond what is needed to build an operating shell to interface with western capital markets?
Similarly, if I'm GS, JPMC, Citadel, etc and I'm seeing significant dealflows in China and India, I should concentrate on building an organization within their borders as much as possible - which is what they have been doing since the mid-2010s.
Singapore will remain a major financial hub, but it is losing it's relative advantage to other hubs within Asia.