The Island at the Center of the World
Sameer is partner at August Capital Partners, a VC fund focused on early stage consumer products and services businesses. You can follow him on Twitter @sameernarula.
Doing_Business_singapore
From IFC's 'Ease of Doing Business' survey
Founded in the 14th century as Sinhapura, by King Parameswara and turned into a major trading center, in the 1800’s by Sir Raffles – Singapore has been at the crossroads of global commerce and culture for centuries. My earliest memories of the city are from the late 1980s. The nation was in its baby boomer days, young citizens were moving into HBDs high-rise towers, gleaming new infrastructure in places like Sentosa was being built, and there was a general sense of optimism in Singapore’s young population about what their country could become.
Almost a quarter of a century later, I am happy to see that Singapore has been one of the developmental success stories of our region. Singaporeans have shown the world what a small multi-ethnic island without any natural resources or military prowess can achieve through just human endeavor and visionary leadership.
I believe that the country now stands at an important juncture in its story. It could, like parts of the west, walk into the sunset with its aging population, or it could leverage the physical, social and economic infrastructure it has built, and become a symbol of economic hope for a new, confident and resurgent Asia.
今この国はそのストーリーの重要な分岐点に立っていると私は考える。シンガポールが一部の西洋諸国と同様、人口の老齢化という黄昏に向かって歩みはじめるか、あるいはこれまでに築き上げてきた物的・社会的・経済的インフラストラクチャにてこ入れして、新しく希望に満ちた再生アジア経済の星となるかの分岐点に。
シンガポールは今、歴史の中で重要な岐路に立っていると思っている。欧米のいくつかの地域のように、高齢化社会に進むかもしれない。もしくは、これまでに構築した物質的、社会的、経済的なインフラを利用し、新たな自信に満ち、蘇ったアジアの経済的希望のシンボルとなることもできるかもしれない。
シンガポールはこの歴史の中で今、重要な局面に立っていると思う。西側諸国のように人口の高齢化に伴いゆっくりと勢いが落ちていくか、あるいは築き上げてきた社会的、経済的なインフラまたは存在しているインフラそのものを活用していけば、新しく自信にあふれ復活していくアジアへ向けて、経済的に活力のある希望を持った象徴になるだろう。
The convergence of opportunities
The Economist recently wrote about how our world is increasingly divided into three socio- cultural spheres of influence [1], the Anglosphere, the Indosphere and the Sinosphere. The article quotes a study by Pankaj Ghemawat, ‘Why the world isn’t flat,’ [2] that two countries which share a common language trade 42 percent more with each other than two otherwise identical countries that lack that bond and countries with former imperial ties trade an astounding 188 percent more often. The article ends with a reminder on the enduring ties of tribes and how this will continue to shape the cultural and economic future of our globalized world in this new ‘Asian century.’
ザ・エコノミストは最近、私たちの世界が３つの社会文化的世界（つまりアングロ世界、インド世界、中国世界）に分化する傾向が強まっているという記事を書いた。この記事ではパンカージュ・ゲマワット氏による「なぜ世界は平たくないのか」という研究を引用している。この研究では、共通の言語を持つ２国間の通商は、共通の言語という結束のない２国間の通商よりも42％も通商量が多く、前者の帝国というつながりがある国の間では驚くべきことに通商量が188％も多いというのだ。この記事は種族間の強い絆を思い起こさせ、それが新しい「アジアの世紀」におけるグローバル化した世界の文化的経済的将来をどう形作っていくかということでしめくくられている。
最近のエコノミストの書物によると、世界は、３つの社会－影響の文化領域（１）、英語圏、インド文化圏と漢字文化圏に、いよいよ分割されてきている、という。Pankaj Ghemawatによる研究「なぜ世界はフラットではないのか」という研究から引用している記事では、共通語を持つ国同士の貿易は、そういった繋がりのないまったく違う国同士の貿易よりも４２％も多い傾向があり、過去に帝国的なつながりがあった国同士では、驚くべきことに188％も多いという。この記事では、種族間の不朽のつながりに言及しており、これが、現在の新アジア世紀ともいうべきグローバル化された世界の文化、経済の未来をどのように形作っていくだろうか、と括っている。
Along with its administrative advantages, Singapore’s unique cultural, linguistic and historic linkage to all three of these spheres is creating a situation where the country now offers some of the same ingredients that made cities like London, New York, Bombay and Shanghai great economic centers in the past.
I believe that the current environment in Singapore makes it inevitable that more than a few great global businesses will emerge from here in the coming years. Whether “natives” or immigrants start all of these is a moot point.
On a recent visit, I had the opportunity to attend Startup Asia, a regional summit for startups in Singapore and the ASEAN region. The international nature of the entrepreneurial ecosystem was evident from the various companies I came across, with Indian, Malay, Japanese, Indonesian, American etc entrepreneurs or key team members.
Based on the 25+ companies I met while in Singapore, the strong Web 2.0 bias of purely Singaporean teams seemed evident. On the other hand, more international teams seemed to have a greater depth of focus on addressing regional and global consumer opportunities within healthcare, security, education and environmental technology. This is hardly surprising. In a country with the cleanest air in Asia, negligibly low crime rates and radio taxis that arrive within minutes, there don’t seem to be many visible problems to solve. When there is a cross-pollination of ideas from around the region, a more robust and interesting business focus seems to emerge within the company.
In addition to government investment programs like SPRING Seeds, IDA’s Infocomm fund and numerous incubators, there seems to be an active Angel, VC and PE investor ecosystem in the country. These investors are increasingly investing in local start-ups to target regional and international markets. LPs seem to be supporting this trend eyeing cleaner corporate governance and greater exit potential of portfolio companies based out of Singapore.
On the talent front, competitive salaries ensure that graduates from respected local institutes like SMU, NUS, NTU are joined by top graduates from India and Australia. The protracted slow-down in western markets, Chinese political challenges and Indian uncertainty also seems to be accelerating the brain-gain [3] into Singapore. On this one trip alone, I met at least four seasoned entrepreneurs who were relocating into Singapore from the west to take advantage of the Asian markets.
A few hurdles to overcome
As is usually the case, all this has come at some cost. From an increasing disparity among its ethnicities, an often over-bearing government and recent distaste for skilled immigration, the city-state has some tough issues to address. Add to this its aging population and rising regional competition from cities like Shanghai and Dubai, success is not as imminent as it once seemed.
