Podium: Goh Chok Tong - How to succeed in the 21st century

From a speech by the Prime Minister of Singapore marking his country's national day

WHEN I spoke to you last year, the sky was overcast and the outlook bleak. Asia was then in the middle of its worst financial crisis. Fortunately for us, the weather has turned out better than we had feared. The financial storm has subsided. Nonetheless, this crisis has been a major test for Singapore. It will be a long time before the region regains the giddy growth and excitement before the crisis. Investors will be more careful and funds will be less plentiful. Also, eradicating corruption, collusion, and nepotism will prove very difficult. These and other structural weaknesses contributed to the crisis. If they are not got rid of, our economies will remain vulnerable to future crises.

A powerful force is sweeping across the world: globalisation, because of technology and the Internet. Technology has broken down national boundaries. The Internet has turned the world into one global shopping mall.

Many Singaporeans now buy through the Internet instead of from the shops . It is not just books and CDs. I know of a sports car enthusiast who buys spare parts for his Porsche through the Internet. He saves 20 to 30 per cent of the costs.

With trade liberalisation, multi-national companies (MNCs) now look at the world as one single market, not separate markets divided by national borders. One Singapore manufacturer who supplies components to MNCs has described how he has operations both in Singapore and China. When MNCs need components, they fax suppliers all around the world to invite them to bid for the job. Then suppliers from Mexico, China, Malaysia, and Singapore all submit bids. The job goes to the one who can supply at the lowest cost. The difference in quotes between a Chinese and a Singapore supplier may be just 1 or 2 per cent, but that is enough to win or lose a job. For the next job, they all bid again.

With this regional and global backdrop, it is no longer good enough just to be the best in the region. We have to transform ourselves - from a regional economy to a First World economy.

A First World economy means adopting world-class standards. The first strategy is to build world-class Singapore companies. We have already made the Singapore brand world famous in several areas. Singapore Airlines, PSA and Changi Airport are widely acknowledged as among the world's best airlines, seaports and airports.

You do not always have to be big to go global, or hi-tech to show entrepreneurship. Small companies can do it too, even in non hi-tech areas.

Very few of us are aware that we have a 30 per cent market share of the world market for ornamental fish. Last year, our breeders exported some 600 varieties of fish, worth $72m (pounds 46m), to 68 countries. One of their top exports is the dragon fish or arowana. It is very popular among the Japanese and Chinese because its scales resemble shiny gold coins. Fish breeding is a knowledge-based industry.

We must provide a good English-speaking environment - one where people speak standard English, not "Singlish". Different kinds of pidgin English or Creole are spoken in Africa, in the Caribbean, and in the South Pacific. For example, in Jamaica they say: "Him go a school every day last year; now sometime him go, sometime him no go". In Samoa when a person is very ill, he says "Mi siksik" These examples are not to make fun of anyone. This is simply the way people speak in these countries.

The examples have a serious lesson for us: if we carry on using "Singlish", the logical outcome is that we too will develop our own type of pidgin English, spoken only by three million Singaporeans, which the rest of the world will find quaint but incomprehensible.

We are not like the Israelis, who are already naturally talented, and furthermore draw on a large pool of talented Jews from all over the world, to be artists, musicians and writers. After the Soviet Union collapsed, 600,000 Russian Jews emigrated to Israel. Every Russian immigrant coming off the plane in Tel Aviv carried some musical instrument - either a violin or cello, or perhaps a french horn. Occasionally you would see somebody carrying nothing. He was probably a pianist. It is talent that counts. We can be neither a First World economy nor a world-class home without talent. We have to supplement our talent from abroad.

I believe that Singaporeans are proud of our country. So let us work together, to make Singapore a First World economy. This way, the Singapore heart will beat on and we will flourish in the new millennium.