Page 21 - Tiny Singapore News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> anthony: one-fifth of the world's shipping containers move through the port of singapore. it is the busiest transshipment point on the planet. singapore has fully embraced globalization. and that's proved in their case very rewarding. >> donald: singapore is an outsized economic port primarily because it's so attractive to foreign entrepreneurs primarily in the form of multinational corporations. so right from the start, the economic strategy was always to attract foreign capital. >> anthony: donald low is an

Same time, singaporeans are very hard working. as human beings, what we need? food to eat, clothes to wear, a place to sleep, you can get in singapore. so in other words, we have to continue work, you see. if you're working, you'll get something, once lazy, you're out. >> anthony: by some measures, singapore is a welfare state, taking care of the less fortunate, but at its heart, it's a cold blooded meritocracy. you follow the rules -- and there are many, work hard, and you will have a good life. that's the message. >> najip: we are starting to define the definition of success. i think we are ...

>> anthony: singapore. one can be forgiven for thinking it's a giant ultramodern shopping mall. an interconnected, fully wired air conditioned nanny state, where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. and those things are kind of true, especially if you read the papers or the carefully motored internet. you look around the litterless streets where everything seems to work just fine, just fine, and you think, or you can be forgiven for thinking, "gee, maybe a one party system is just what we need." you look at all the social problems and ethnic strife, street crime, drugs that

♪ ♪ >> anthony: to many, singapore is the land of opportunity. people from all over the world come here to get a good job, to find a better life. >> mike: as an overseas chinese, we have been discriminated in laos, thailand, vietnam, indonesia, malaysia, in america, australia, all over the world. suddenly, you got this guy called lee kuan yew. there's nowhere else in the chinese world have a real leader as big as lee kuan yew. >> anthony: much of singapore's success is often credited to its first prime minister, lee kuan yeu, a singaporean of chinese decent considered the founding father o...

Reigning pretty much unopposed for 30 years, he's responsible for much of the social engineering that holds singapore together, as well as the favorable economic policies that have allowed it to thrive. michael ma arrived in singapore to take advantage of its business climate, becoming an early pioneer of singapore's now famous nightlife. back then, in the beginning, at the very beginning, was it a favorable business climate in the sense that, did they look upon your early efforts generously or kindly? or were they not so sure about this guy? how was it? >> mike: oh, no, singapore is fantastic...