Dateline Singapore

Singapore has now been my winter retreat for the third consecutive year. With each visit here I see great things happening. One can see how the right choices with appropriate timing have turned around the life of this nascent nation. Pursuing first survival and then success need good foresight. Reflecting on our own state of affairs, one cannot but help feel pained at the catalogue of opportunities that were lost and the precious time that was squandered over trivial matters.
Bedok, a suburb in the eastern part of Singapore, is the place I am lodged in. It seems familiar as the father of the nation, Lee Kuan Yew, fondly talked about it in his memoirs. As a child, he used to visit his maternal grandparents living here on a bullock cart. Today, the area is connected through a fast-moving metro rail and efficient road transport with all critical nodes of the city. Across the road is a huge water reservoir in the midst of a fairly large park. The reservoir speaks of the relentless effort on part of Singaporeans to efficiently harness clean drinking water for domestic use in a water-deficient country. Part of the reservoir, with a circumference of over four kilometres, is open for water sports as long as such activities take place under the stringent pollution control regime.
Water management in Singapore is a distinct example of an efficient public sector project. The provision of clean water for human consumption had been an issue for the survival of the country. Much of the water was brought from neighbouring Malaysia under a 50-year agreement signed in 1961 which expired in 2011. Thereafter, another agreement was signed in 2011, which will expire in 2061. Through a well thought-out approach, the country is now able to cater to its water needs with less reliance on imported sources. New sources of supply were developed and heavy investments were made in desalination and extensive reuse of waste water while at the same time enhancing the water catchment infrastructure. There has also been investment in research and technology development. A proper price tag has been attached to the precious resource through a progressive tariff regime. Policy design also focuses on the institutional framework. Singapore’s Public Utility Board has been given the task to manage the entire water cycle. Earlier, it was responsible for managing water supply, gas and electricity. Additional responsibility of sewerage and drainage was also entrusted to it, which it performed effectively. Desalination plans were only taken up when their cost became bearable.
Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Despite a skyline dominated by high rise buildings, availability of land has been an inherently restricting factor. This limitation has been partially off-set by reclaiming nearly one-fifth of land along its shore. Reclaimed land has been put to productive use with great value-addition. The Changi Airport, for example, which handles around 6,000 flights to over 200 destinations every week with an annual handling capacity of over 55 million passengers, has been built on imported rock and earth-filled reclaimed land. Another landmark in this regard is the Jurong Island which is now a leading hub of petroleum business and world class refineries. It has grown three times its original size from 10 square kilometres to over 30 square kilometers through strenuous reclamation efforts.

In the early 1970s, the country focused on building a container port. This was mainly on account of the critical importance of trade to Singapore's development. It soon became the world's leading transhipment hub, providing frequency and link for major shipping lines in the Asia Pacific region. The earlier leadership of Singapore was deeply aware of the country's vulnerabilities. Its small size and lack of resources impelled the leadership to make best use of whatever it had. Foundations were laid to nurture it as a trade and investment centre, a money spinner that could provide an adequate financial base. Creative solutions were devised to overcome vulnerabilities and add to its strength in various areas. Here, Singapore’s civil service played a critical role. Recruitment, placement and retention of civil servants are guided purely by merit with complete autonomy provided through a well laid-out institutional framework. There is a strong premium on integrity with zero tolerance for graft and sleaze. Civil servants are retained through market-driven salaries while their performance is viewed through clear benchmarks. Management practices in the public sector have been corporatised. Traditional government departments have been transformed into statutory boards. Singtel, for instance, was a telecom authority which was turned into a corporate entity and is now publicly listed.
Talent hunt begins at an early stage and prospective civil servants are identified through a scholarship scheme at an early stage before grooming them through different stages till they joins the official cadres. Academic excellence alone is not enough unless an aspirant has analytical skills along with a strong problem-solving ability.
The story of Singapore is one of challenges that were successfully turned into opportunities. Irrespective of the scale, there are lessons that Pakistan can learn from it. For instance, downstream at Kotri on the Indus, over 10 million acre feet (MAF) of water fall into the sea. In the water accord of 1991, it was agreed to commission experts to work out the actual flow required downstream as a lifeline for the mangroves of Thatta and other deltaic areas. There had been conflicting opinion regarding this requirement, which ranged from 3.5MAF to 10MAF. There has been no headway on this despite the lapse of so much time. There is need to ponder over how best we could leverage our resource endowment. For example, we are blessed with enormous hydel potential  but our overreliance on imported fuel underscores our skewed thinking and distorted priorities for the past so many decades.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th,  2014.

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