Does China still have anything to learn from Singapore?
- The Lion City has long been the top training ground for Chinese officials, but enrolment is dwindling
- In some areas – like mobile payments and artificial intelligence – the pupil has become the teacher
Singapore has since become Beijing’s top overseas training ground, with more than 50,000 Chinese officials and cadres having flocked to the city on study trips and training programmes since the mid-1990s, according to Singapore’s foreign affairs ministry.
But enrolment has taken a dip in recent years, something analysts attribute to China’s economic rise and technological advancement.
Bo Zhiyue, a professor at the Xian Jiaotong University in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi, said Beijing had “its own characteristics and it is no longer viable to duplicate the Singapore model”.
He said there had been a shift in the focus of Chinese officials; once they flocked to Singapore to learn about its economic policies and urban planning, because China was interested in how to plan and manage cities.
“But now, interests have diversified. They recognise Singapore as pretty good in finance, banking and tourism,” he said.
