Is Singapore too risk-averse for the digital age?

A product that insures against Grab price surges when it rains? Such a small-scale approach sums up why entrepreneurship is stifled here.

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Singapore is justly renowned the world over for its many public policy successes, particularly in the realms of education and planning. The country boasts world-renowned universities, and younger students consistently excel in the influential Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) examinations, for example.

Policy wonks everywhere laud the Government for its patient investments in human capital and research and development, and for its long-term economic, infrastructural, and social planning. With these considerations in mind, Singapore seems well positioned to participate in, and benefit from, the fourth industrial revolution, as it is known.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 05, 2018, with the headline Is Singapore too risk-averse for the digital age?. Subscribe