SINGAPORE, Aug 23 2012 (IPS) - Singapore was recently ranked as the world’s richest country. But there is much scepticism about such rankings among average citizens here.
Manu Bhaskaran, co-author of a recent policy paper on a new social compact for Singapore published by the government-funded think tank Institute of Policy Studies, argues that a country can be rich and still have high income inequality.
“The drivers of growth in Singapore – high finance, high-end tourism and highly capital-intensive manufacturing – tend to benefit high-income earners more than the average worker,” he told IPS.
“A growth model overly focused on achieving high GDP growth fuelled by a huge increase in foreign workers meant that the average citizen has not benefited as much from GDP growth as they desired,” Bhaskaran argues. Full story
