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Industrial policy (i.e. attracting FDI); Innovation policy (i.e. promoting R&D); SME policy (i.e. policy support to SMEs); Workforce policy (hiring incentives and wage policy); Migration policy (i.e. foreigner quotas and levies); Trade policy (i.e. trade agreements, trade barriers); Internationalisation policy (i.e. support for internationalisation); Entrepreneurship policy (i.e. support for start-up ecosystem); and Education, Training and Skills policy (i.e. financing, incentives, pathways).
However, as a general starting point and based on the analysis above, the key perimeters as publicly discussed by political leaders are likely to be based on these core indicators: - GDP growth; - Capital investment; - Labour force; - Labour productivity; - Labour income. To simplify the economic policy logic further, the key indicators seem to correspond well to the economic growth accounting conceptual framework, which in principle would state that: Income = GDP = Investment + Employment + multifactor productivity (MFP) Furthermore, given the recent policy intention to limit labour force growth, as well as almost zero unemployment in Singapore which can be administratively controlled through the supply of foreign labour, the updated economic logic could be presumed as: - Keeping the labour supply growth component low or zero; - Focusing investment towards capital intensive and higher value-added (productivity enhancing) activities; - And as policy outcome using labour productivity growth, i.e. Income growth = GDP growth = Labour productivity growth An explicit statement of such interpretation was indicated in ESC report (ESC, 2010) as well as stated in some of the government statements during Budget (Committee of Supply) debates in the Parliament (MTI COS, 2016) as well as stated in the 2017 budget speech. 3.3. Strategy setting bodies and economic strategy since 2010 Further to the analysis above deconstructing the long-term economic development logic, it can be assessed to what extent this logic is also represented (or changing) in the latest national initiatives to review Singapore’s long term economic development vision and strategy. Since 2010, there were two notable efforts to set the direction and vision for economic development of Singapore – the Economic Strategies Committee and the Committee on the Future Economy. 3.3.1.Economic Strategies Committee 2009-2010 The first one, convened in 2009 and producing the final report in 2010, was the Economic Strategies Committee. It has set five notable quantitative outcome targets for the decade until 2020 (but did not provide precise definitions for those targets):
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