The Future of Singapore: What new industries could sustain and grow Singapore’s economy, and create good jobs?
Executive Summary
Against the backdrop of slowing international trade, it has become imperative for maritime hubs like Singapore to invest in new industries. This paper seeks to explore the industries that may catalyze economic growth in the city-state whilst providing high-quality jobs for its citizens in the coming years. We believe that Singapore’s unique position as the sole financial hub in the rapidly growing Southeast Asian region will serve as the driver for further economic, employment and wage growth in the coming years
Chapter 2 looks at key issues hampering economic growth in Southeast Asia, namely the lack of credit facilities, the prevalence of cash as a primary form of payment and a lack of wealth-management solutions. It then explores how local fintechs and established banks can solve these problems synergistically and quantifies the billions in additional revenues that stand to be gained by doing so.
Chapter 3 analyzes how companies can integrate DLT into cross-border payments and settlements (CBPS), to result in real-time settlements and how successful firms stand to capture the $200 billion in revenues associated with CBPS. Additionally, it explores how DLT can be integrated into our capital markets to tokenize assets, resulting in real-time securities settlement. By doing so, Singapore will be able to attract both the outflow of funds from Hong Kong and Asian firms looking to go public.
Chapter 4 looks at how the creation of fintechs in Singapore, as well as the relocation of fintech divisions of global banks like Standard Chartered to Singapore is primed to create a large number of high-quality jobs given that the sector’s headcount is expected to increase 45% YoY.
Finally, Appendix A uses Funding Societies as a case study on how local fintechs can drive job growth and huge shareholder value in Singapore by leveraging the city-state’s unique strengths
To download the full paper, please click here
