Choose your own future economy

Singapore

WHAT if each one of us could plan Singapore's next long-term economic strategy? That is the question that The Business Times asked as the 51st National Day approached. Our answer is an online-only "Choose your own future economy" feature at http://bt.sg/igJ.

Modelled after books that offer readers multiple outcomes, our feature presents readers with certain choices, and each decision will determine the story's next step. The hope is that readers will gain a better appreciation of the issues at hand through the experience.

The national economic blueprint is currently being crafted by the high-powered Committee of the Future Economy, which is expected to give its recommendations by the end of the year. This BT feature gives the common folk a chance to have a go at future gazing as well.

Circumstances suggest that this is as good a year as any to start thinking about the next chapter of Singapore's economy. The industries that provided jobs and growth in the 1990s and early 2000s are on the decline. Manufacturing contributed just 19.8 per cent of GDP in 2015, compared to 27.7 per cent in 2000. Transportation and storage contributed 7.4 per cent of GDP in 2015, down from 10 per cent in 2000. But new industries are on the rise. Finance and insurance was on par with transportation and storage in 2000, but in 2015 its share of GDP had grown to 12.6 per cent. Business services, at 11.5 per cent in 2000, had grown to 15.5 per cent in 2015.

The global balance of power and trade relationships is also changing. Developed economies in the United States and Europe are dealing with long-term lacklustre growth, while in Asia the China miracle has been brought back to earth.

Disruption is the buzzword for current markets, with technology forcing radical changes to business models in various industries. And sustainability issues are gaining prominence as cities deal with the challenges of urbanisation, demographics and climate change.

The path ahead has many forks, detours and dead ends. To our readers we say, here, you take the wheel and give this economy a spin.