Taiwan's leaders look to emulate Singapore

On Monday, Kaohsiung county chief Yang Chiu-hsing said he aims to turn the southern port city into a second Singapore, as he announced his bid for Kaohsiung mayorship in the year-end elections.

“I want to turn Kaohsiung into a second Singapore,” said Yang, who also declared that he is leaving the opposition Democratic Progressive Party to contest the polls as an independent candidate.

He added that he would visit Singapore next month to learn how to transform Kaohsiung into a top international port city.

Tellingly, a rival already had similar ideas. Huang Chao-shun, a candidate of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), had announced earlier that she would cut taxes and globalize Kaohsiung — following Singapore's path to success.

Of late, scarcely a day goes by without government leaders, academics or commentators calling for Taiwan to learn from Singapore — be it in building world-class ports and airports, fighting corruption, treating water or creating a cosmopolitan city.

On Sunday, President Ma Ying-jeou praised Singapore's fight against corruption.

“Singapore has been tough on corruption since it became independent. This is something I admire very much,” Ma, who is also KMT chairman, told a meeting of the party congress.

Other admirers of the Lion City include the Council for Economic Planning and Development, which said last week it would learn from Singapore's water resources policy, and Kao Hsi-chun, publisher of Commonwealth magazine, who penned a commentary titled “Lessons from Singapore.”

Such plaudits for Singapore formed the backdrop of the announcement by the two sides last week that they would launch talks later this year to explore the feasibility of a free trade deal.

If completed, the deal would be a fillip for Taiwan in its efforts to increase trade with South-east Asian countries.

Observers interviewed by The Straits Times say Singapore is the “safest” role model for Taiwan.

Comparing Taiwan with Hong Kong and South Korea, the other economies that make up the erstwhile “Four Little Dragons” of Asia's emerging economies, would grate on the island's sensitivities.

“Singapore has a lot of success stories when it comes to sectors that Taiwan hopes to promote, and at the same time there is little conflict of interest. For example, Singapore has no agriculture. It also recovered very quickly from the global financial crisis,” said Assistant Professor Lee Leong Sze, a South-east Asia scholar at National Kaohsiung Normal University.

South Korea competes closely with Taiwan in many areas, such as business relations with China and high-tech industries.

Taiwan's government has long warned that the island would be overtaken by South Korea if it did not sign a free trade pact with China, noted Professor Chen Hurng-yu of Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of Asian Studies.

The pact, known as the economic cooperation framework agreement, was eventually signed in June.

As for Hong Kong, said Assistant Professor Lin Juo-yu of Tamkang University, political sensitivity is an issue because the city is now part of China.

“One country, two systems has been completely demonised in Taiwan,” she said.

The love affair with Singapore will only deepen — with upcoming trade talks between the two sides and candidates presenting their visions ahead of November's elections, she added.

For Kaohsiung resident Lu Kuan-cheng, it is not a moment too soon.

“If only, one day, we could drink Taiwan Beer with foreigners from all over the world in a place like Clarke Quay; have a casino where international gamblers come to try their luck; a shopping street as bustling as Orchard Road; and multicultural, multiracial harmony as exemplified by Little India and the Malay Village,” he mused in a letter published Wednesday in the mass-circulation United Daily News.

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