Advertisement
Asian Angle | Chinese manufacturing’s coronavirus crisis gives Singapore an opportunity
- Do not dismiss as a dream a return to the glory days of Singapore manufacturing
- As countries cut their reliance on China, Singapore is perfectly positioned to serve as a regional supply chain hub
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Covid-19 made the world realise what many had long suspected. That countries around the globe had become dangerously overreliant on China as a manufacturing base.
Advertisement
When China went into lockdown and its factories shut, supply chains and logistics were deeply disrupted and many countries suffered as their access to goods dropped drastically.
In response, many nations have decided to bring manufacturing back to their shores.
Herein lies an opportunity for Singapore. Boosting manufacturing’s contribution to the economy would enable the city state to remain in control of major parts of the supply chains it relies on, helping it to react in times of emergency and remain self-sufficient in critical goods.
Doing so would be a return to the glory days for Singapore manufacturing, which has declined as a percentage of GDP over the past three decades.
Advertisement
As recently as the 1990s, Singapore’s manufacturing industry paralleled those of its fellow tiger economies of Taiwan and South Korea. By the end of that decade, the contribution of manufacturing to the three economies’ GDPs had peaked at around 30 per cent. Today, however, while manufacturing continues to contribute about 30 per cent of the GDP of Taiwan and South Korea, it makes up just 19 per cent in Singapore.
Advertisement