Singapore must be Asia’s gateway, uphold social mobility at home: president

Singapore must remain a reliable base and a gateway to Asia’s dynamism in an increasingly divided world, while addressing social mobility and cohesion at home, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Friday.

Tharman, a former cabinet minister, was speaking at the opening of the 15th parliament in Singapore, during which the city state’s president addresses MPs on key issues in the fresh five-year term.

He noted that the new parliament was opening amid a more fragmented world where economic interdependence had been weaponised and “acts of aggression, coercion, or unreasonable demands are now more readily tolerated, and even appeased”.

While the rivalry between the two largest powers – the US and China – would continue to intensify, Singapore must chart its course with quiet confidence and resolve so it could shape its own destiny, Tharman said.

Internationally, he stressed Singapore would contribute to deeper Asean integration, support reforms to ensure effective multilateralism in the UN and World Trade Organization, and deepen partnerships with like-minded nations to preserve and open up trade and investment.

Yet he argued that Singapore’s success would never be measured by economic growth alone, and must instead be judged on how every Singaporean could live with dignity.