SINGAPORE, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) on Thursday outlines seven strategies for the next decade for Singapore's economy development.
The seven recommendations are mutually-reinforcing and aim to help the country stays open and relevant, ensure its people get updated with deeper skills for future jobs, and strengthen companies' capabilities to scale up through innovation and transformation.
Against this backdrop, the CFE's report highlighted a global shift in the external environment. Specifically, there are significant structural shifts, global productivity and growth have been sluggish and global value chains are also changing.
Despite the challenging global environment, CFE noted that there are "many opportunities" for Singapore to innovate, deepen its capabilities, remain connected and stay relevant to the world.
It said that the US and Europe continue to have innovative companies and people that Singapore can work with. There is also strong potential in many Asian markets.
The report added that Singapore companies are well-poised to tap into several growth sectors including finance, hub services, logistics, urban solutions, healthcare, the digital economy and advanced manufacturing.
Looking ahead, it forecasted that collective efforts should enable Singapore to grow by 2-3 percent per year over the next decade.
Speaking at a press conference, co-chair of the 30-member CFE, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat underlined that Singapore has to develop the agility and adaptability to cope with change and to seize new opportunities.
Heng said that in order to continue to make a good living, Singapore must remain relevant to the world and the seven strategies for the recommendations ultimately revolve around this.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a letter to the committee that the government will pursue all the strategies proposed in the report and will adopt a "hard-headed and pragmatic" approach in implementing them.
The CFE was convened in January 2016 to develop economic strategies. It has over 9,000 stakeholders, including trade associations and chambers (TACs), public agencies, unions, companies, executives, workers, academics, educators and students who are involved in the consultation.
