Singapore – As Singapore’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations draw to an in depth on Saturday evening, an enormous fireworks show will illuminate town’s extraordinary skyline.
The quite a few skyscrapers and futuristic buildings stand as a tribute to the nation’s exceptional growth after separating from Malaysia in 1965.
This tiny Southeast Asian state, with a inhabitants of simply over six million individuals, has one of many highest charges of wealth per capita on the earth. Its superior financial system additionally attracts employees from throughout the globe.
The monetary hub is famed for its stability, excessive way of life, forward-thinking method and notorious for its centralised type of governance.
Whereas Singapore will indulge in some success this weekend, as soon as the flags are taken down and the SG60 merchandise is faraway from the cabinets, the island-nation will get again to work and start considering its future.
Plans are already in movement to proceed Singapore’s progress, with its most well-known landmark – Marina Bay Sands – set to accommodate a brand new fourth tower of resort rooms in 2029, whereas a 15,000-seat indoor area may even be constructed on the web site.
Changi worldwide airport, which was ranked this yr because the world’s finest for the thirteenth time, may even acquire a fifth terminal by the mid-2030s.
Residents of the “Lion Metropolis” clearly have loads to look ahead to, however the highway forward may comprise some potholes.
Al Jazeera has been having a look at a number of the challenges that Singapore might face within the subsequent 60 years and the way they is perhaps tackled.
Local weather change
As a low-lying island, sitting simply north of the equator, Singapore is especially weak to the specter of a altering local weather. The nation’s former prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, as soon as described it as a matter of “life and dying”.
Rising seas and elevated rainfall might result in flooding, with excessive climate occasions set to be a extra frequent incidence.
Whereas the city-state has up to now dodged the form of climate disruption that plagues lots of its neighbours, the federal government is getting ready for the worst.
Rising sea ranges are of specific concern, with alarming estimates that the waters round Singapore might rise by greater than a metre (3.2ft) by 2100.
To counter the risk, plans are being thought-about to construct three synthetic islands off the nation’s east coast. These areas of reclaimed land can be linked by tidal gates and sit greater than the mainland, performing as a barrier.
Benjamin Horton, former director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, stated the nation might come to a standstill if catastrophic rain had been to mix with a excessive tide.
“If it flooded a number of the infrastructure in Singapore, closing down MRTs [mass rapid transit], shutting down emergency routes, flooding an influence station and the electrical energy went down – Singapore can be crippled,” Horton stated.
The already-sweltering Southeast Asian monetary hub may even have to deal with even hotter situations.
A 2024 authorities examine discovered that the each day common temperature might rise by as much as 5 levels Celsius (9 levels Fahrenheit) by the tip of the century.
Horton, who’s now dean of the Faculty of Power and Setting at Metropolis College of Hong Kong, stated this might affect the nation’s financial productiveness.
“Singapore is all the time growing and is reliant on immigrant labour that works outdoors throughout the day. Local weather change goes to affect that considerably,” he stated.
But, Singapore, Horton stated, has “the potential to be the lead in the way you adapt to local weather change and to be the chief in coastal safety”.
Demographic time bomb
Singapore’s inhabitants is ageing at a speedy charge.
By 2030, it’s estimated that just about one in 4 residents will likely be aged 65 and above.
The life expectancy for a Singaporean born right now is just a little below 84 years, with residents benefitting from a top quality of life and a world-class healthcare system.
However this demographic shift is ready to problem the city-state over the subsequent six many years.
An ageing inhabitants will inevitably require extra funding within the medical sector, whereas the nation’s workforce might face shortages of youthful employees.
“The ensuing pressure won’t solely check the resilience of healthcare establishments but additionally place vital emotional, bodily, and monetary strain on household caregivers,” stated Chuan De Foo, a analysis fellow on the Nationwide College of Singapore’s (NUS) Noticed Swee Hock Faculty of Public Well being.
Whereas the authorities need to increase and strengthen healthcare services, they’re additionally urging residents to make higher way of life selections so as to keep more healthy for longer. New advertising and marketing campaigns encourage common well being check-ups, permitting for early intervention, whereas new expertise can also be being utilised.
“AI-driven instruments are being developed to assist psychological wellbeing, detect early indicators of medical deterioration and help in prognosis and illness administration,” Foo instructed Al Jazeera.
Fewer infants
Alongside dwelling longer, Singaporeans – like many superior Asian economies – are additionally having fewer infants, including to the nation’s demographic woes.
The fertility charge, which measures the typical variety of kids a lady is predicted to have in her lifetime, fell under 1.0 for the primary time in 2023 and exhibits little signal of accelerating.
That determine is even decrease than Japan’s fertility charge of 1.15. This week, Japan reported its sixteenth consecutive yr of inhabitants decline, with practically 1,000,000 extra deaths than births in 2024.
Kalpana Vignehsa, a senior analysis fellow at NUS’s Institute of Coverage Research assume tank, stated the Singapore authorities is “swimming in opposition to a cultural tide” in its efforts to reverse the decline in births.
“Now’s the time for expansive motion to make parenting cheaper, much less irritating, and most significantly, a extremely valued and communally supported exercise,” stated Vignehsa.
An unstable world
Singapore is famend for its impartial method to international coverage, balancing robust ties with each China and the US.
However as relations between the world’s two greatest superpowers develop into more and more strained, the Lion Metropolis’s neutrality might be challenged.
Any pivot in the direction of Washington or Beijing is more likely to be refined, stated Alan Chong, senior fellow on the S Rajaratnam Faculty of Worldwide Research.
He stated that this example occurred throughout the COVID pandemic, when Washington was not forthcoming with help for Asian economies.
“Virtually all of Southeast Asia, together with Singapore, tilted in the direction of Beijing for financial assist with out saying it,” stated Chong.
US President Donald Trump’s punitive tariff coverage has additionally precipitated consternation within the Southeast Asian enterprise hub, which depends closely on international commerce.
Regardless of the risk from Washington’s more and more protectionist insurance policies, Chong believes that Singapore is ready to climate the storm after signing a commerce pact in 2020.
The Regional Complete Financial Partnership was agreed between 15 primarily Southeast Asian nations, plus main North Asian economies together with China, Japan and South Korea.
“It’s an enormous insurance coverage in opposition to any complete international commerce shutdown,” stated Chong.
Stability at house
Whereas the worldwide outlook seems more and more troubled, Singapore’s home political scene is ready for extra stability over the approaching years.
The ruling Folks’s Motion Get together (PAP) has been in energy for the reason that nation was fashioned and exhibits no indicators of dropping management.
In Might’s election, the PAP, led by new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, received all however 10 seats in parliament with simply over 65 p.c of the vote.
Whereas the nation’s leaders are more likely to keep the identical within the near-term, Teo Kay Key, analysis fellow on the Institute of Coverage Research Social Lab, stated youthful Singaporeans will quickly need a totally different type of politics, one that’s extra open and extra participatory.
“They’re extra more likely to favour discussions and change of views,” she stated.
“There’s additionally a rising pattern the place the desire is to conduct open discussions, with a extra democratic change of concepts,” she added.