Comparative Economic Development: Philippines and Singapore
In Asia and even across the world, every country has distinct economic transitions.
The global economy contains contrasting progress where absolute gaps can be observed
if comparison is to be held between two countries. As there are numerous factors
influencing a country’s growth, it is relatively difficult to solve disparities and bridge the
said gap.
The World Bank tried to classify the diverse economies and aggregate them in
accordance with their status. But broadly speaking, states are labeled as developed
countries, developing or transition countries and least developed countries. This simple
division of nations is essentially useful for comparing and analyzing economic
development where we can draw out conclusions and analyses to explain and provide
solutions for the differences and inequalities.
To highlight this idea of comparative economic development, let us define
conclusions as we assess the pictures reflected above. The aim is to grasp similarities
and differences between two nations which are the Philippines and Singapore that are
both classified as developing countries according to World Economic Situation and
Prospects (2020).
Singapore, a rapidly industrialized country, has an economic standing higher than
the Philippines. In terms of Human Capital Index (HCI), Singapore was rated as the
country which has the highest productivity amounting to 88 percent compared to
Philippines which has only 52 percent. In spite of this, both countries are the same in the
part where their capital indexes for girls are higher than boys.
Comparing from the angle of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Singapore’s
rapid growth which gained a maximum of 9.2 percent has been classified as one of the
highest across the world. Conversely, Philippines economically grew only to 6.4 percent
as its upper limit. At this point, we can draw out contrast between the two where Singapore
is considered as a high-income country while Philippines is still on its way to become an
upper middle-income country.
According to World Bank, Singapore has Gross National Income (GNI) per capita
in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) valuing to 92, 270 in 2019. Meanwhile, Philippines has
only 10, 230 as its most recent value. This event speaks volume. This means that the
overall level of economic activity of Singapore is approximately 9.02% higher than the
Philippines. Thus, the summary index of relative economic well-being of people in the
former country is explicitly greater than the latter.
In line with their agriculture and rural development, Singapore and Philippines have
close ties on the index of food production earning 114.9 and 114.0 respectively. The
production trend of the Philippines’ index is increasing while Singapore’s index is
decreasing. Another economic indicator which is education where the total youth literacy
rate of Singapore is 100 in 2018 while Philippines has 99 in the year 2015.
Only Philippines has recent value on its population living on slums which is 43
percent of its urban population and it has annual consumer inflation rate of 2.5 percent
while Singapore has 0.6 percent in 2019.
Furthermore, economic development of the two countries could be attributed to
its level of trust and governance. Quah (2010) highlighted that Singapore has higher
level of trust and governance due to its efficient political leadership who effectively
facilitated the economy in contrast with Philippines where its failure is credited to
political instability and corruption.