Singapore Must Not Be Complacent In Her Achievements

"We cannot be complacent. We have a special and close relationship with China. We have to continue to work at it, bring it to new levels, upgrade it, recognise the new changes in Singapore and in China, and bring our bilateral cooperation to new levels."

- President Tony Tan Keng Yam, on Singapore's relationship with China

Singapore and China are inter-dependent. Under the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA), there are more than 6000 Chinese companies in Singapore and thousands of Singapore companies in China. Singapore has to work hard to improve to maintain a strong relationship China. If Singapore is complacent and stops improving, China will develop much faster and eventually cease cooperation with Singapore. Singapore would lose one of its largest business partners and it will have great negative impacts on our country's economy.

"China is different today. This is the second largest economy in the world, with dynamic enterprises, and much bigger than ours... They've caught up with Singapore and, in fact, one must expect that they'll surpass us in many ways because of their talent and resources."

- Dr Tan

China has developed China's is the second largest economy by nominal GDP, whereas Singapore is ranked at the 37th place. Shanghai (China) also retained its title as the world’s busiest container port for a fifth consecutive year, after widening the gap with its closest rival, Singapore. China has constantly evolved and adapt to improve, and has even surpassed Singapore.

"We could become irrelevant if we do nothing." - Dr Tan

Improvement should be constant. If Singapore becomes complacent and stops improving, other countries will catch up with and surpass Singapore, and we will be left behind. In order to keep developing as a country, Singapore must not be complacent in her achievements and keep moving forward in constant improvement to achieve even greater heights.