As a newly minted father with a “SG60 baby”, I listened to the discussions at the SG60 conference with both trepidation and hope.
Everything about Singapore is changing. Yet, amid the sweeping uncertainties of the future, offers a distinctive value proposition to the world: a model of quiet, consistent functionality.
In the opening dialogue, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong outlined this idea of ordinariness. He said, “Some say we (Singapore) are boring and yes, we will never have the same offerings like New York and Paris. We can try to be more exciting, more lifestyle offerings, but let’s be realistic. We will not be the same, but at the same time, we are stable, we are predictable, we are reliable, and we are trusted.”
Singapore, in short, is the global standard-bearer of business-as-usual normalcy – i.e., ordinary.
This idea isn’t new. In fact, Singapore’s role as a global city has always meant to serve as a dependable node.
The conference theme, Global-City Singapore: SG60 and Beyond is a throwback to what Singapore’s first Foreign Minister S. Rajaratnam told the Singapore Press Club on Feb 6, 1972. In that speech, Mr Rajaratnam crystallised Arnold Toynbee’s idea of the global city for Singapore. He began by noting that gloomy predictions about independent Singapore’s precarious existence are unfounded. This is because Singapore is not just any city, but a new type of city — the Global City.
Unlike other forms of cities, global cities are part of a network of global cities, linked via technology and economics, and sustained by the world as its hinterland. And it is to those systems and flows that Singapore depend on to prosper or decline.
Since independence, Singapore has plugged into everything — ports, finances, and businesses – and become a reliable point for various global networks and international systems. This is how three generations of Singaporeans and partners have manifested the global city idea and found prosperity.
Today, this global order is fragmenting. The SG60 conference laid bare new dangers and weaknesses in what used to be thought of as immutable systems and processes. The foundations of the global city are experiencing a seismic shift as the post-Cold War international order experiences the push and pull of new geopolitical tensions.
Closer to home, the model of the global city is also changing with the rise of general-purpose technologies like AI. There will be a great reshaping of how we live, work, and relate to one another. Meanwhile, in the background of these changes, rising temperatures and sea levels indicate that the climate change is now our default reality.
The speakers and panellists at the SG60 conference offered good solutions to these changes. Many sought to refresh and reimagine Singapore the global city in new ways.
The first bundle of ideas centred on re-positioning and actively fostering new types of globalisation to support Singapore’s role as a global connector — in trade, finance, ideas, and emerging fields like data and digital governance. The next bundle focuses on evolving Singapore’s economic roadmap. By becoming more agile and dynamic, Singapore could meet new needs, trends, and growth.
These are good and reliable strategies. However, the anxious and nervous questions from the young people at the conference suggest that these strategies did little to quell their unease.
Much of their collective nervousness likely stems from the unpredictability of the future. But this mindset places the cart before the horse. It is precisely because there is so much volatility in the future that Singapore’s ordinariness will become cherished. Short of a global collapse, there will always be a need for a place where pragmatism, rationality, and stability is routine.
Almost every speaker points to aspects of it.
IPS’ 9th S R Nathan Fellow, Ravi Menon, put it succinctly: “The most important enabler of globalisation…is sound economic and social policies domestically to deliver shared prosperity”.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong also assured young Singaporeans by pointing out that Singapore will not be a passive bystander in the new world. Young Singaporeans will continue to have the agency to shape the future of globalisation, perhaps even more so than the pioneer generations did. Singapore’s pioneering generations have succeeded in making the exceptional feel ordinary. Accessible healthcare and education, multiracial neighbourhoods, clean streets, and competent governance are not one-hit wonders, but the product of constant refinement and maintenance.
Young Singaporeans will have the opportunity to do more and make Singapore’s ordinariness a radical act of resistance. Mr Tan Chong Meng, IPS’ 14th S R Nathan Fellow, spoke about playing “the long game” to offer stability in a world with short-term turbulences. Increasingly, there will be an added premium for Singapore’s quiet, hardworking strategy. Its young people cannot expect predictability, but must work towards creating and re-creating Singapore’s ordinariness. This means ensuring that Singapore plays an active role in actively pursuing multilateralism and making rule-based systems the norm.
I am, however, not suggesting that Singapore do more of the same.
To survive the future, Singapore needs updating and refreshing to meet new complexities. Active collaboration will be key to future success. As Mr John Denton, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce, noted at the SG60 conference, “Singapore stands tall, not through might, but through clarity, not by imposing, but by convening”.
Take the AI Verify Foundation for example. The not-for-profit foundation is an initiative of the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA). At its founding, IMDA established a platform with 17 organisations (including tech titans such as Amazon, Dell, Google, IBM, Microsoft) across 10 different sectors to tackle pressing issues arising from artificial intelligence (AI).
Using AI in real-world scenarios such as hospitals were tested, allowing people to interpret its results. These collaborations enabled Singapore to spearhead the development of global standards for the safe deployment of generative AI applications.
This means learning to work within “network governance” — where the public, private, and people sectors work together not only to develop policy but to implement and evolve it.
This ethos should extend beyond business. Singapore society, too, must become more agile and participatory. One model we can learn from is tripartism — a uniquely Singaporean partnership that thrives on trust and shared responsibility. If we can broaden that approach to include more voices across society, we will be better equipped to address complex challenges like inequality, ageing and social cohesion.
Building these kinds of governance will be essential, especially as technological change accelerates.
As political scientist Jeffrey Ding argues, innovation isn’t just about invention — it’s also about how leading innovations diffuse. A country’s success with general-purpose technologies like electricity — or AI — depends on how well it diffuses them across society, he adds. That requires a “skills infrastructure”: not just technical training, but systems that support continuous learning and adaptation. Initiatives like SkillsFuture, when paired with strong collaboration between government, employers and workers, will be vital for young Singaporeans to thrive in the decades to come.
Young Singaporeans should embrace the future, not by chasing after novelties, but by sustaining and reinventing the ordinary. In a noisy, uncertain world, there is immense value in Singapore-style ordinary: where dreams are pursued, promises kept, and trust earned.
That is the future that I wish for my newborn daughter.
Joshua Sim is Associate Director (Strategic Planning) at the Institute of Policy Studies, and the proud father of a SG60 baby.
Top photo from Pexels