Welcome Speech by
PROFESSOR EUSTON QUAH
PRESIDENT, ECONOMIC SOCIETY OF SINGAPORE
Economic Society of Singapore Annual Dinner 2015
Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore
Tuesday, 5 May 2015
Our Annual Dinner Speaker and Guest of Honour, the Honourable Dato’ Sri Mohammad
Najib Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, and Mrs Lee.
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
A very warm welcome to this year’s Economic Society Annual Dinner, our 59th year.
About the Economic Society of Singapore
Established in 1956, the Economic Society of Singapore is a non-profit organization of
economists, professionals, academicians, bankers, and policy-makers interested in
economics. The primary objective of the Society is to raise public awareness, and
stimulate public interest and debate in economic issues. To achieve this goal, the Society
publishes the academic journal, the Singapore Economic Review, as well as organizes
conferences such as the bi-annual SER conference, talks, seminars, workshops, career
talks, and public lectures. Distinguished speakers in past Society events included Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong; Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam; former
Prime Minister and Minister Mentor, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew; President Tony Tan
Keng Yam; Mrs Lee- Ms Ho Ching, CEO of Temasek Holdings; Mr Timothy Geithner,
former United States Secretary of Treasury; Professor Edward Lazear, former chairman
of the US Presidential Council of Economic Advisors; Minister for Education, Mr Heng
Swee Keat, and last year’s speaker, the then Minister for Social and Family
Development, Mr Chan Chun Seng, just to name a few.
In actively promoting a series of activities and events, the Society has drawn in
economic players from students to members of the economics profession in academia,
the government, and corporate sectors. A testament to this is the society’s Singapore
Policy Forum that is held annually in October. A leading platform for economic policy
discussion in Singapore, the Forum allowed a large number of policy-makers, scholars,
business professionals, students, and interested members of the public to exchange
views on contemporary economic issues facing Singapore and Asia. The three
universities, NTU, NUS, and SMU, take turns to co-organise this forum with the society.
The Society also continues to place a strong emphasis on education and nurturing young
talents. The Society’s education committee actively engages teachers and students of
economics through the annual Junior College Seminar Series in which professional
economists and university academicians participate as speakers on various
contemporary economic issues. In addition, the Society organizes student essay
competitions with the original sponsorship, which has been continued to this day by the
Monetary Authority of Singapore, Gold Medal Awards for outstanding graduates in
Economics, and study tours. Our essay competitions are an important means of
engaging students and the broader community. Through the essay competitions, the
Society furthers our aim of encouraging members of the public and particularly the
youth to learn about the role of economic thought and analysis in public policy in
Singapore. Recent essay competitions which focus on non-traditional areas of
economics were launched; one was sponsored by the National Climate Change
Secretariat (NCCS), and an additional essay competition was sponsored by the
Competition Commission of Singapore. To all our essay sponsors, a big thank you.
I am pleased to inform you that the Society has recently launched the Young
Professionals’ Career Wing. This new initiative aims to attract young economists to
participate in the Society’s activities and at the same time bring in fresh and new ideas
to further develop and diversify the Society’s mainstream activities into relevant and
contemporary issues of the young. The activities of this group include informal
gatherings and social interactions among themselves with guest speakers and invitees
from senior and well-known professionals in government and industry with the
occasional appearances by distinguished academia. I welcome those of you in the
audience tonight who are young professional economists to join us in this endeavor to
create and rejuvenate a rich, established and historically old society, into one that is
thriving and of continued relevance to Singapore.
There are many activities in the Society throughout the year, and this can be found in
the President’s Report each year. For those of you who want to know more about the
Society, please go to our website and we appreciate suggestions and constructive ideas
to further strengthen and liven the Society’s mission and activities.
Allow me now to say briefly on the Society’s economic journal. The Singapore Economic
Review, formerly the Malayan Economic Review, is the journal of the Economic Society
of Singapore. It is one of the oldest and leading economic journals in Asia and has a long
history of publication on a broad range of economic and social issueaps with
contributions from many eminent economists. SER publishes scholarly work of
contemporary interest on all the fields of economic science. Apart from economic
theory, economics and public policy, political economy and development, health and
environmental issues, the journal places special importance on the Asian economies and
in particular on Southeast Asia, that is ASEAN, the rise of China and the economic
resurgence of India. Published four times a year by Singapore’s World Scientific, one of
the world’s premier scientific publishers with a large stable of social science journals in
its fold, the journal also produces special issues focusing on topics of a contemporary
nature and special themes. Three most recent special issues were on income
distribution and inequality; labour unions and the economy; and in March 2015, a
special issue on economic, financial and policy challenges in emerging economies. I am
happy to inform you that in conjunction with Singapore’s 50th year anniversary
celebrations , a Special Issue on The Singapore Economy will be available soon with
Guest Editor , Professor Linda Lim of the University of Michigan . A copy of the flyer
information is provided tonight and you can see that the Special Issue covers a wide
variety of major issues confronting Singapore’s economy over the last 50 years as
discussed by prominent Singapore academic economists.
The Singapore Economic Review also publishes papers of an interdisciplinary nature and
welcomes this academic interface.
The journal is indexed in all major economic indices. In fact, SER is one of the only few
journals based in Asia to be indexed in the Social Science Citation Index. The SER
remains a shared enterprise of four universities in Singapore (NTU, NUS, SMU and
UniSIM), with the editorial office residing in the Division of Economics at Nanyang
Technological University. The journal organizes a very successful bi-annual international
conference, and usually attracts more than 250 to 300 participants from all over the
world. Speakers include Nobel Laureates, eminent economists, central bankers and in
2013, 14 editors and co-editors of top and leading field journals attended. The 2015
conference is scheduled for 5 to 7 August.
This year will also see the launch of a new economic bulletin, titled ‘Economics and
Society’, targeted at schools and the general public. The aim of this new economic
bulletin of the society is to complement the Singapore Economic Review, but providing
readibility and accessibility to the general public, and one which allows for contributions
by non-academic economists, such as economists working outside the universities.
Articles in the economic bulletin will be on contemporary issues, especially the
understanding of economic policies, finance, and economics of social issues. The bulletin
will also include interviews with prominent economists, special sections on
understanding economic and statistical indicators, as well as teaching pedagogies on
certain economic subjects. To make economics more engaging, the publication will also
make use of human-centered stories and visual arts in the discussion of socioeconomic
issues. Some information pertaining to this new economic bulletin can be found in the
flyers available in tonight’s dinner.
Singapore’s Economy and Environment
As Singapore celebrates our 50th year of independence in 2015, we look back at our
economic achievement with much pride. Per capita GDP at constant market price grew
from S$5,300 in 1965 to S$69,600 in 2014, an increase of 12 times. The increase in
absolute affluence in Singapore also translates into an increase in relative affluence of
Singapore in the world. In 1965, according to available data from the World Bank,
Singapore ranked 41st in the world in terms of per capita GDP. Today, we are ranked
among the Top 10.
The past economic success of Singapore had relied on one key factor: competitiveness.
Singapore is ranked among the world's most competitive economies. Due to our poor
resource endowment and our very small domestic market, we need to be very
competitive in order to survive. Our goods and services exports must be competitive so
that they could be sold in the global market place; our production structure must be
competitive so that the choicest industries and companies would choose to operate in
Singapore.
So, what had contributed to Singapore's competitiveness? Some of you would suggest
factors such as law and order, property rights protection, well built up infrastructure,
educated labour force, or even the multitude of FTAs that have facilitated cross-border
trading.
I would say that the most important factor that had contributed to Singapore's
competitiveness in the past is our pro-business policy. Low corporate tax rate, efficient
goods and labour markets with minimal government intervention, and a conducive
foreign worker policy which allowed flexibility in supply, and also making available
talented employees from all over the world.
However, just as our economic landscape had transformed, our social landscape today is
also vastly different from that in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, we have an aging
population and an increasing expectation of government intervention to reduce market
failures and to address any undesirable outcomes arising from competitive markets.
The introduction of subsidies such as Workfare and GST Voucher, the introduction of
progressive and higher taxes and duties on assets such as cars and property, the
increase in CPF contribution to Medishield Life, the reassessment of the foreign worker
levy and quota, and most recently, an increase in personal income tax since 1965. While
these changes may be most socially appropriate, we need to be keenly aware that they
may also affect our economic competitiveness and social burden.
In addition to this concern, there is also the continual interplay and trade-off between
economic growth on the one hand, and conservation and protection of the environment
on the other. There is often tension between these two elements. Should the
government prioritize economic growth over environmental preservation? Or should
environmental preservation take precedence over growth? As an environmental
economist and a cost-benefit analyst, I can say that these seemingly innocent questions
have major implications on public policy choices.
In the early days of independence when incomes were low and the marginal utility of
income was presumably higher, it was obvious that economic growth should be, and
was indeed, the priority. The question that follows is whether with present high levels of
income (and presumably lower marginal utility of income), it necessarily holds true that
preserving the environment would now dominate.
Given the uncertainty of the future, arising from the possibility of Singapore’s economic
competiveness being challenged, as well as external factors, it is not necessary a given
that the environment will always dominate over the economy. Should there be some
prolonged economic stagnation or even decline in the future, Singapore might protect
employment and income first, before continuing to protect the environment.
In this regard, I have edited a volume, titled Singapore 2065, to discuss what would
happen to Singapore’s economy and the environment 50 years from now. A gathering of
50 Singapore icons provided some leading insights to this subject. A copy of the flyer
information is available in tonight’s dinner, and part of the proceeds from the sale of the
book will be donated to an educational charity and also to the Economic Society of
Singapore. The authors of this book are well known, and some are in the audience
tonight. I hope in the course of tonight’s dinner , many of you will consider ordering a
copy of the book by completing the relevant section on the flyer information .
Completed forms can be handed to any of our assistants at any time should you choose
to do it tonight, or drop your form into the boxes provided at the reception desk just
outside this ballroom.
The Economic Society of Singapore shares the joy in celebrating the country’s 50th
anniversary. The Society, however, would like to place on record our appreciation for
the contributions to the nation by the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee
Kuan Yew. While Mr Lee is no more with us, we rejoice in his significant contributions
and achievements which had allowed and facilitated greatly what Singapore has
become today. Discussions on how best to remember Mr Lee Kuan Yew, while
extremely important, and on-going , there is, in my view, no better way than to reflect
and see Singapore’s vibrant economy, thriving living environment in our dynamic
metropolis as evident of his remarkable achievements. Furthermore, the garden city
and the painstaking efforts by Mr Lee to ensure a clean and green Singapore, are all
hallmarks of his belief and conviction that a country’s growth must ensure sustainable
development and that includes the conservation and protection of the natural
environment.
Endnote
While that leaves us much food for thought, we are now physically in need of food. I
would like to end off by thanking the Society’s members and corporate sponsors for this
year’s dinner, and in particular, our platinum sponsor, Maybank Singapore, and of
course, everyone present at the dinner for your generous support. I welcome a new
Corporate Member tonight , Eco-World and thank them for joining us .
A lot of effort has gone into making tonight’s dinner possible , and I wish to express the
Society’s appreciation to the Malaysian High Commission , the Singapore’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs , Shangri-La Hotel , and to all our helpers , a big thank you .
I would also like to make a special mention that as with recent past years’ dinners, we
have invited all living past presidents of the Economic Society of Singapore, 3 of whom
are with us tonight. They are Professor Lim Chong Yah, Dr Teh Kok Peng, and Professor
Basant Kapur. The remaining 2 living presidents, Professor Augustine Tan and Dr Khor
Hoe Ee are away.
Finally on behalf of my fellow council members and the Society, I thank our Annual
Dinner Guest-of-Honour and Distinguished Speaker, the Honourable Dato’ Sri
Mohammad Najib Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, for his encouraging
presence, and we look forward to hearing from him later. We also thank Prime Minister
Lee for his gracious attendance as well as so many of our Distinguished Guests from
both Malaysia and Singapore present tonight.
Collaborations between Singapore and Malaysia have generated much socioeconomic
benefits over the years , and there is immense potential in working even more closely
together for greater benefits . The Economic Society of Singapore has over its very long
history been a supporting partner in this bilateral development of socioeconomic
relationship , and the Society will continue to play this important role .
Please enjoy your dinner and the social interactions that follow.