I recall, as a kid, growing in Singapore, the geography textbooks of that time would say that the factors contributing to Modern Singapore were primarily the Port and the People.
That was way back when Singapore was recategorized and shoved into the developed country category in 1995.
We did a little of muddling and 'monkeying' around, riding the still ascendant Asian wave before crashing against the rocks in 1997 and were nowhere really, until the effects of the late nineties industries consolidation and late 2000s infrastructure boom culminated in a more dynamic and diverse racial landscape.
The need for FDI draws backward chains into the need for cultural draws and it couldn't have come in a better time with the economic turmoil and political standoff about.
You could say that the real draw of the country .. nay .. city is really the governance, infrastructure and operational culture (honed hammered through the decades through tripartism 'soft' influence).
In fact, this is probably the ONLY factor keeping us relevant.
In a world of warring countries, left to rot bankrupt american auto cities, economically asleep western europe, in-the-midst-of-transition chinese-indians, deflated japanese and selfserving/corrupt governments, we probably appear as a bastion of reasonableness and getting things done.
My friends, we compete against all cities with our City.
http://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/da-nang-set-singapore-vietnam.html/
And because our City is our only competitive advantage against all others for our basic survival, we open with our Sicilian Dragon.
