Singapore – As Singapore’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations draw to an in depth on Saturday evening, an enormous fireworks show will illuminate the town’s extraordinary skyline.
The quite a few skyscrapers and futuristic buildings stand as a tribute to the nation’s exceptional improvement after separating from Malaysia in 1965.
This tiny Southeast Asian state, with a inhabitants of simply over six million folks, has one of many highest charges of wealth per capita on the planet. Its superior financial system additionally attracts staff from throughout the globe.
The monetary hub is famed for its stability, excessive way of life, forward-thinking strategy and notorious for its centralised model of governance.
Whereas Singapore will delight 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 development, with its most well-known landmark – Marina Bay Sands – set to deal with a brand new fourth tower of resort rooms in 2029, whereas a 15,000-seat indoor area can even be constructed on the website.
Changi worldwide airport, which was ranked this yr because the world’s greatest for the thirteenth time, can even achieve a fifth terminal by the mid-2030s.
Residents of the “Lion Metropolis” clearly have loads to sit up for, however the street forward can also include some potholes.
Al Jazeera has been looking 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 susceptible 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 widespread prevalence.
Whereas the city-state has to this point dodged the sort of climate disruption that plagues a lot of its neighbours, the federal government is making ready for the worst.
Rising sea ranges are of explicit 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 could be linked by tidal gates and sit larger than the mainland, appearing as a barrier.
Benjamin Horton, former director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, mentioned the nation might come to a standstill if catastrophic rain have been to mix with a excessive tide.
“If it flooded a whole lot 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 could be crippled,” Horton mentioned.
The already-sweltering Southeast Asian monetary hub can even have to deal with even hotter circumstances.
A 2024 authorities research discovered that the day by day common temperature might rise by as much as 5 levels Celsius (9 levels Fahrenheit) by the top of the century.
Horton, who’s now dean of the Faculty of Vitality and Atmosphere at Metropolis College of Hong Kong, mentioned this might affect the nation’s financial productiveness.
“Singapore is all the time growing and is reliant on immigrant labour that works outdoors in the course of the day. Local weather change goes to affect that considerably,” he mentioned.
But, Singapore, Horton mentioned, 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 fast fee.
By 2030, it’s estimated that nearly one in 4 residents shall be aged 65 and above.
The life expectancy for a Singaporean born right now is a bit underneath 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 staff.
“The ensuing pressure won’t solely check the resilience of healthcare establishments but in addition place important emotional, bodily, and monetary stress on household caregivers,” mentioned 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 want to increase and strengthen healthcare amenities, they’re additionally urging residents to make higher way of life decisions with a view to keep more healthy for longer. New advertising 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 help psychological wellbeing, detect early indicators of scientific deterioration and help in prognosis and illness administration,” Foo advised 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 fee, which measures the typical variety of youngsters a lady is anticipated to have in her lifetime, fell under 1.0 for the primary time in 2023 and reveals little signal of accelerating.
That determine is even decrease than Japan’s fertility fee of 1.15. This week, Japan reported its sixteenth consecutive yr of inhabitants decline, with almost one million extra deaths than births in 2024.
Kalpana Vignehsa, a senior analysis fellow at NUS’s Institute of Coverage Research suppose tank, mentioned the Singapore authorities is “swimming in opposition to a cultural tide” in its efforts to reverse the decline in births.
“Now could be the time for expansive motion to make parenting cheaper, much less nerve-racking, and most significantly, a extremely valued and communally supported exercise,” mentioned Vignehsa.
An unstable world
Singapore is famend for its impartial strategy to international coverage, balancing sturdy ties with each China and america.
However as relations between the world’s two largest superpowers develop into more and more strained, the Lion Metropolis’s neutrality might be challenged.
Any pivot in direction of Washington or Beijing is prone to be delicate, mentioned Alan Chong, senior fellow on the S Rajaratnam Faculty of Worldwide Research.
He mentioned that this example occurred in the course of the COVID pandemic, when Washington was not forthcoming with help for Asian economies.
“Nearly all of Southeast Asia, together with Singapore, tilted in direction of Beijing for financial help with out saying it,” mentioned 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 international locations, 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,” mentioned Chong.
Stability at dwelling
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 Social gathering (PAP) has been in energy for the reason that nation was shaped and reveals no indicators of dropping management.
In Could’s election, the PAP, led by new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, gained all however 10 seats in parliament with simply over 65 p.c of the vote.
Whereas the nation’s leaders are prone to keep the identical within the near-term, Teo Kay Key, analysis fellow on the Institute of Coverage Research Social Lab, mentioned youthful Singaporeans will quickly need a completely different model of politics, one that’s extra open and extra participatory.
“They’re extra prone to favour discussions and alternate of views,” she mentioned.
“There may be additionally a rising development the place the choice is to conduct open discussions, with a extra democratic alternate of concepts,” she added.
