SINGAPORE: The economic accolades continue to roll in, the latest one having Singapore edging out perennial rival Hong Kong to emerge as the world’s second-most competitive economy after the United States.

But at a conference on transparency and governance yesterday, some speakers wondered whether the Republic would be able to sustain its competitive edge, given that political openness here has lagged behind the push for economic transparency.

In his speech, World Bank Institute director David Kaufmann said that Singapore is one of the least corrupt, most transparent and efficient when it comes to economic affairs, but scores low in terms of political openness and accountability.

The conference was organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation.

Mr Kaufmann, who spoke from Washington via videoconference, said: “There is some evidence to suggest that over time, a country that has progressed more in terms of reforms in the economic arena but still behind in the political reforms and competition, at some point, we would get diminishing returns from additional reforms.”

Murdoch University’s Professor Garry Rodan noted that since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, reforms including disclosures, accounting practices of banks, and more regular and detailed declarations have been implemented in Singapore.

However, he felt that information from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Temasek Holdings was still less forthcoming.

And although Temasek has been voluntarily publishing its annual reports since 2003, the information is limited, he said.

Questioning the idea of elected political leaders as trustees of public funds, Prof Rodan added: “(Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew) mentioned that you can trust these people, they are people of considerable integrity. In fact, that’s most likely. But the question is not simply about underhandedness.It could be incompetence ... and whether the relationship between Temasek and Parliament needs to be adjusted.”

Offering a contrarian view on the subject, Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said that the “actual, complete contributions of GIC or Temasek were never in any doubt by anybody in the financial sector”.

Said the former Singapore diplomat: “In my 10-and-a-half years in New York, I discovered that the financial sector is an amazingly well-informed sector … and in my conversation with people there in the financial centre, the thing that struck me was the number of compliments we get for GIC and Temasek.”

But Prof Rodan argued: “If we don’t have the capacity to review or expose the weaknesses and we only get (to know of) the successes, I don’t see how it’s possible to make a judgement that overall, this is still an outstanding performance.”

Speaking to reporters later, Prof Mahbubani said that in spite of the worldwide movement for freedom of information, Singapore is “clearly not going down that road”.

Describing Singapore as a “uniquely vulnerable state” that needs to be protected by a “stronger government”, he added: “Part of having a stronger government is that you give greater freedom to manoeuvre to the government, essentially, you will also have less right to know on the part of the people. Singapore actually has real secrets to worry about.” - TODAY/fa