Singapore aiming to be global air hub

Singapore, long seen as a powerful commercial and shipping hub, now plans to specialize in the manufacture of pharmaceutical goods and build a global air hub.

“We want to specialize in the production of pharmaceutical goods in the region and build a global air hub network in future with enhance airport facilities, shopping complexes and transit lounges that link to other destinations to make sure that no international flight or a budget airline will bypass Singapore,” said Prof. Ho Yew Kee, Head of the Department of Accounting of the National University of Singapore in his keynote address at the National Management Accounting Conference 2016 and ‘Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards’ held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in Colombo. He said managing Singapore is much easier than managing Sri Lanka which was about ninety times bigger than Singapore. “We were able to develop Singapore from being a backward economy in the 1960 to a modern economy of what we are today,” he said.

Prof. Ho, referring to organizations, said that certain things are essential for organizations to keep afloat such as having a vision and a mission along with a strategy and an operational plan. “If you do not know where you are going you may not reach your ultimate goal. The roadmap for success is to know where you are going. When a country is fragmented by an ethnic divide it cannot prosper.” He said no country in the world can harp on development when its trade route is bypassed. Although Singapore was the production hub for goods, other countries in the region such as Vietnam Cambodia and Logos and China have now joined the bandwagon and Singapore has other plans for the future. Referring to scarcity of water in Singapore, he said 60 per cent of Singapore’s water is supplied by Malaysia and plans are now afoot to produce drinking water by recycling used water.