Singapore: An intelligent city‐state

Abstract

This paper presents the growth of Singapore as a city state under colonial rule and traces the meteoric rise of its information sector. The first part documents the various telecommunications investments in Singapore and the role of information in the production and distribution processes contributing to the overall growth of GNP. The second part analyzes the impact of Multinational Corporations on the new division of labour which leads to skill formation. Despite the ownership and control vesting in the hands of the government, information technology has progressed rapidly in the island republic creating an infrastructure for the enhancement of global services like banking, finance, and the SIMEX. The paper concludes with a look at the prospect of entropy and shows that it will not affect Singapore as it did other big cities in history because the country keeps abreast of technology and preserves its cutting edge on competition and survival