Singapore in a multipolar world: An economy built on trust

Singapore’s rule of law has created a framework of laws which are predictable, regularly, and transparently enforced.

Singapore’s collaboration with Malaysia to set up the Singapore-Johor SEZ (“SEZ”) is touted as a force multiplier for both economies especially in industries such as financial industries, technology (artificial intelligence development operations is one area of promised growth with more data centres to fuel model development and AI service ops).

An oversimplistic summary of the premise could be framed as how Johor provides Singapore with the twin resources of more land and lower costs that can complement Singapore businesses. Malaysia’s own knowledge economy is also growing and this collaboration should bring foreign investment opportunities and growth.

It is also said that the SEZ is a realistic response to the pressures of the multi-polar world order developing before our eyes in real time. But more importantly, the SEZ also says something about why Singapore has something to offer a counterpart – and it’s not money or technological know-how, all of which are transient advantages.

It has to do with Singapore’s secret sauce – trustworthiness. And once we see that clearly, this makes a compelling case to double down on Singapore’s investments in “trust” related professions and industries.

Singapore’s secret sauce
For years, the Singapore story has held up her people. Hardworking, talented, law abiding, and willing to bear up hardships for the common prosperity of all regardless of race, language, and religion.  But the end result of this is Singapore’s brand of trustworthiness.

Simply put, Singapore is a place where business, visitors, and communities can place a great degree of trust in institutions and in its organisations. The cultural DNA of Singapore is wired to that quality.

And this is recognised. For instance, Singapore ranks high on corruption indices, and effectiveness of government. So whilst Singapore does not have copious amounts of land, natural resources or a huge consumer population, it is teeming with trust.

It’s safe to walk the streets, raise your children, and expect legal redress if you are wronged. That is no accident but is the work of many. It also explains why Singapore has grown as a hub for wealth, technology, and as a place where talent aspires to be.

The value of trust in today’s world
It took a mere three months into 2025 to up-end the long-established global trade and security order that took 80 years after World War 2 to build.

The reality of the multi-polar world has fully landed. The new acronyms say it all. In business, the US has GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook (now Meta), Amazon and Microsoft), whilst China has BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi). In politics BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) forms an alternative to the G7.

In the meantime, every country in MINT (Mexico, Indonesia. Nigeria, and Türkiye) hails from a different continent. And there is AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States), and SIDS (Small Island Developing States), of which Singapore is a member.

In a multi-polar world, where old security assurances are at risk, and the economic order has to be reimagined, the world economy needs places where trust can be found.

Trust helps bridge gaps between countries, and to create a safe neutral and non-agenda-ed common space for competing powers to coexist and thrive.

The rule of law
Neutrality is one thing. The trust that laws will be followed is another.

Recently, news reports surfaced of prosecutions being brought to the fullest extent of the law for the alleged misdirection in the supply of Nvidia chips to evade national security controls. This has more significance for the nation than merely being a curio in the Sunday newspapers.

This “routine” enforcement of laws is the reason why Singapore is a trusted forum to do business and to deal in technology.

And in this direction, Singapore’s rule of law has created a framework of laws which are predictable, regularly, and transparently enforced.

Even where areas are not fully legislated – e.g. there is no generally applicable law as to the use of AI at scale – there is an approach that can be described as persuasion by pragmatic multi-stakeholder informed principles such as Singapore’s Model Framework on AI or Generative AI. Other examples include Singapore’s participation in developing a framework for regional cross border data flows through the ASEAN Model Contract Clauses for personal data. Not by accident, Singapore is also the country after the Convention on Mediation– the process of helping disputants resolve their differences by negotiation rather than conflict.

All these and more.

Conclusion
Logically, this means Singapore should double down to excel in industries whose business is trust – i.e. law, medicine, accounting, finance, Information Communications Technology, R&D, cybersecurity, assurances and validation.

Perhaps this should be written fully into the DNA of the investment landscape in Singapore. Incentives for investments into these industries may move the needle more for Singapore than perhaps another REIT (as useful as REITs are undoubtedly in helping to optimize land use).

The Singapore government, to its credit, is pushing this – such as in the work done by the National Research Foundation. But the government should not be alone.

Nation states that deal in trust is neither novel nor unique in world history. Late medieval Venice as a nation state whose mercantile prowess was backed by a track record public order and reputation for trust.  

But even if it is not unique, it is not as common as it might sound.