Prior to analyzing the situation of Hong Kong and Singapore, it is important to be cognizant of the fact that predictions of the future economic trajectories of these two city-states is certainly not an uncontested arena in the academic world. There are perhaps a few competing explanations for why Hong Kong might lag behind Singapore in terms of development in the long term, but unfortunately they do not concretely and convincingly sway the argument towards their favor. Some scholars argue for low fertility rate as an increasingly troublesome phenomenon for the Hong Kong economy going on into the future. Hong Kong’s fertility rate is one of the lowest in the world, and remains far below the replenishment rate. If fertility rate were low, then the government would inevitably have to divert resources away from long-term economic development projects and towards healthcare for the growingly ageing population. However, the problem with such an argument is that Singapore too is experiencing a similar issue. The average age of brides was 26.8 years old in 1998, and the trend has been upwards ever since. A later marriage means the likelihood of having fewer children increases, and thus family sizes are at risk of shrinkage. In fact, the 2012 figure puts Singapore and Hong Kong at an equal 1.3, meaning 1300 live births for every 1000 female. Consequently, it does not appear that either country has an advantage on this particular front.
Corruption can also be dismissed as a possible explanation after a close scrutiny of the available data. Marie Chêne, a program director for Transparency International, which is a non-profit organization dedicated towards monitoring corruption internationally, has hypothesized a relationship between cor...
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...hrough the straits, and in particular the deep water ports near Singapore’s waters. This belief is concurred by W.G. Huff in that “the importance of geographical consideration in its most recent…development emphasizes the continuity that has run through the island’s history”. For Huff, Singapore has historically been, and in the future likely to, fully utilize the natural advantages of Singapore’s geographical position in the world. It is clear that both countries are endowed with respective geographical advantage, with Hong Kong occupying an important position as the southern door towards Mainland China, and Singapore is positioned at the crossroad between Asia and the rest of the world. Therefore, the “locational advantage” theory cannot concretely conclude whether Hong Kong or Singapore would be more favored in terms of future economic planning and development.
Though the events of the past certainly have a direct influence on the world today. The ardent relationship that lies between Canada and the Netherlands can be referenced to the pretentious days nearing the end of the Second World War. Where Canada had played a significant role as liberators in Holland during this misfortunate time. Canada had provided the Dutch Royal Family with a safe haven. Canadians fought battles through France, Belgium, the Scheldt, and Germany before being sent back to the Netherlands.
Probable Causes of Corruption – Different things motivate different people. Some can motivate people to perform beyond expectations and some can lead astray from moral and ethical values.
Corruption consists in the illegitimate agreement between a corruptor and a corrupted, in which they abuse of their public power in order to obtain personal benefit. Bribery and corruption is something that has been going on for years. According to Allen, “officials perceive themselves as immune to any penalties for demanding and receiving bribes” which she states that it is one of the main reasons for bribery and corruption in underdeveloped countries. According to Transparency International, an organization committed exclusively to end corruption, three of the most corrupt countries in the world are Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan. This does not mean that corruption is only seen in underdeveloped countries. In international business, corporate employees often find themselves dealing with corruptors in foreign countries and, in most cases, they will give in.
Chetwynd, Eric, Frances Chetwynd, and Bertram Spector. "Corruption and Poverty: A Review of Recent Literature." Management Systems International (2003): n. pag. Print.
Feng Wang and Cai Yong stated that the fertility rate was already declining and the policy wasn’t necessary for the Chinese people, especially because of the enormous costs. The fertility rate, which is the number of children the average woman has in her lifetime, in China started at 2.7 in 1979 and decreased to 1.7 in 2008. The article “China’s One Child Policy at 30” argued that the policy did not need to be introduced in China because the rates were already lower than Brazil at 4.2 and Thailand at 3.6.
INTRODUCTION : a brief overview of the current situation regarding the security issue in the Pacific region
Today Malaysia and Singapore are geographically the same rich tropical and dynamic economy, with the same geographic problems. A health problem, with some endemic malaria, has been checked, which transformed their economy and way of life by understanding their environment. Almost eradicating malaria from their land shows what an understanding of geography and history can do.
The rapid growth rates in Singapore can be attributed to the various economic and political factors such as the role of the state, debacles between states and countries and effect of the international environment. What we expect is that, at the end of an influential dispute there will be many changes in the international environment which may end, leading to huge effects related to globalization in production. Singapore is a unique city-state without a rural population (Shatkin, 2014). The implication is that it will be difficult to understand the difference in the situation between rural and urban sector, which are important prerequisites in the study of...
Singapore acts as a role of an entrepôt for Southeast Asia due to their strategic location, port infrastructure and highly skilled workforce. Singapore also purchases raw materials from other country and then refine the product into a better product to re-export. The reason for Singapore to do this is because of the lack of human and natural resources.
Second, overpopulation leads to the result of a rather low SOL( Standard of Living) in China. SOL means GDP per person, and it is an important index of the real national economic status. Although China makes great economic achievements and improvements every year, the economic achievements is not that glorious when divided by the large denominator of population. B...
Singapore is an island and a smallest country in Southeast Asia. Singapore is one of the “Four Asian Tigers” where the world major cargo seaport occurs. Despite the small size of the nation, Singapore economy have strong international trade link with capitalist mixed economy when the government intervention in the market is minimal (Economy watch, 2011).
The UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) (UN General Assembly 2003) is the first international attempt to establish a standard of anti-corruption policy in order to reduce problems related to corruption (Hechler et al. 2011) like an adverse impact on economic growth (Mauro 2004). In spite the fact that the approach of UNCAC is based on large empirical evidence about the causes of corruption (Judge, McNatt, and Xu 2011) corruption remains in some countries a persistent problem (Hechler et al. 2011). A ex ante analysis by Hechler et al. (2011) identified the lack implementation as one of the major pitfalls of the UNCAC and this essay seeks to find a theoretical explanation by drawing on the literature of policy diffusion, which applies for UNCAC as the policy choices of signing countries affect the policy choices of other countries (Meseguer 2006). This constitutes an interesting case for testing the assumptions of the two main mechanism identified by Gilardi (2003), who distinguishes between mechanisms of diffusion focused on rational problem-solving or symbolic purposes (Meseguer 2006). However, this essay narrows the field of possible answers by arguing that the concept of rational learning (Meseguer 2006) does not apply and therefore advocates a critical assessment of the underlying premise of mimetic isomorphism that countries imitate each other but are more concerned about legitimacy rather than functional efficiency (Hall and Taylor 1996). Testing mimetic isomorphism against the implementation process of UNCAC will highlight under which conditions the theoretical framework is more likely to explain the outcome of anti-corruption policy. This may yield key insights on the antecedents of failure in decreasing...
Kearney, A.T. (2001). Corruption and the Globalization Index. Last access on 27 March 2005 at URL: http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/download/gcr2001/data_and_research.pdf NAIM, Mois´s (1995). Corruption Eruption. Last accessed on 2 April 2005 at URL: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=648 MORAN, Robert T. and RIESENBERGER, John R. (1994)
Montesh, M. (n.d.). Conceptualizing Corruption: Forms, Causes, Types and Consequences. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from
Looking back on the history of Singapore its hard not to sit back and rivet at all the progression and improvement that have made Singapore a more relaxing and astonishing haven and must-see destination. Starting chronologically, from the Sanskrit words “simha” (lion) and “pura” (city) Singapore or Singapura, the “lion City” shows the rich history and the beginning of a new era that Singapore went through, and describes the city-state and the city life of people whom live or visit Singapore. We then move into how the city-state flourished as a trading post for a lot of sea vessels, which include Chinese junks, Portuguese battleships, and Indian vessels. The nineteenth century was an important time for Singapore because it was when modern Singapore was founded. On January 29, 1819 Sir Thomas Raffles (the...