In a recent interview with Dwarkesh Patel, former Prime Minister of Great Britain Tony Blair discussed the policies of Lee Kuan Yew, the father of modern Singapore. He suggested that Lee made three key decisions early in his reign, which led to Singapore achieving a high level of economic development:
1. Singapore has adopted English as its national language.
2. Singapore became very open to foreign capital and talent.
3. Singapore had a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, combined with salaries for top officials that were an order of magnitude higher than usual in the public sector.
This reminded me of the similarities between Singapore and companies based in Switzerland. Many companies in Switzerland use English as their official language, despite the fact that their country’s main ethnic groups (German 62.1%, French 22.8% and Italian 8.0%) all speak other languages. Singapore also has a complex ethnic mix, including Chinese (75.9%), Malay (15.1%) and Indian (7.4%). Blair noted that Lee’s decision to have Singapore adopt English was quite controversial at the time.
Switzerland is a very open economy, which welcomes foreign investment. About 30% of the Swiss population is foreign-born, much higher than the 10% to 20% typical in Western Europe. Singapore also welcomes foreign talent and investment, with 37% of the population born abroad. Again, Lee’s policies were controversial at the time, as import substitution was in vogue when Singapore was founded (in 1965).
Like the Singapore government, Swiss companies do not tolerate corruption and pay relatively high salaries to top managers. Lee’s policies regarding corruption and salaries in the public sector are quite unusual in the developing world.
Ethnic conflict is a common problem in many parts of the world. Switzerland has used political decentralization to reduce the danger of conflict between regions that speak different languages. Decentralization would not be as feasible in a small city-state like Singapore, but by adopting English as its language, Singapore could at least somewhat reduce the salience of ethnicity.
I don’t know if Lee Kuan Yew had the most successful country in Europe in mind when he adopted this policy, but whatever the motive, Lee ended up creating a Singaporean model that looks eerily similar to a successful Swiss multinational.