The Singapore government, in releasing the final report of its high-powered Economic Review Committee, painted a vision of the island as a global city. And you don't need to have it spelt out explicitly to know that means outdoing Hong Kong or even Shanghai as an Asian hub.
But if it is to realise its ambitious strategy, Singaporeans are going to experience an unfamiliar chill. They will have to compete with an even greater influx of 'foreign talent' than that to which they have hitherto been exposed.
Releasing the Economic Review Committee's final report last week, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong suggested the government did not want to depress Singaporeans by painting too daunting a picture of the challenges. But daunting they are.
To begin with, as a young nation, Singapore's economic relevance is intertwined with the issue of sovereignty in a way not seen in many other countries. From Sukarno's violent 'neo-colonial' rant to Bacharuddin Habibie's 'little red dot' outburst and Malaysia's agitation over water, Singapore's nearest neighbours have and will continue to occasionally wish an end to its prosperity, if not its very existence.
At the wider regional level, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - on which Singapore depends for more than 20 per cent of its non-oil domestic exports - has entered a troubled phase. There's no need to elaborate on the Singapore-Malaysia relationship. Thailand reportedly nearly sent troops into Cambodia recently. And Indonesia is distracted with its domestic economic and political problems.
Ethnic kinship notwithstanding, China is now an economic threat. To rub salt into the wound, the Chinese are apparently even slightly contemptuous of 'deculturalised' Chinese Singaporeans and would prefer to deal with Westerners over Singaporeans. Economically, the global downturn in electronics has put Singapore in an uncomfortable position. Singapore depends on electronics for about a third of its manufactured products. There is even greater discomfort ahead if the slowdown proves secular rather than cyclical.