No safety net for S'pore
Singapore cannot afford to ever land in the kind of debt crisis that Iceland and Greece found themselves in, as no white knight will come to its rescue, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said. -- PHOTO: ZAO BAO
WASHINGTON - SINGAPORE cannot afford to ever land in the kind of debt crisis that Iceland and Greece found themselves in, as no white knight will come to its rescue, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said.
He said: 'We can't afford to have a disastrous bump in the night, whether it is a financial crisis, government misbehaviour, or a security problem.
'We have only one chance to make a go of it. You can succeed in many battles, but if you fail once, it is finished.'
Mr Lee was speaking during an hour- long interview in Washington with veteran television journalist Charlie Rose which was broadcast in the United States on Wednesday night and in Singapore on Bloomberg Television last night.
Mr Lee said that while he is happy that Singapore is often held up as an example of good governance, he and his colleagues remind themselves constantly that the country has no safety net, and that the consequences of a wrong decision can be severe.
He said: 'Supposing we were in the situation of Iceland or Greece, where would we be? 'Iceland is a friend of the European Union. Greece is in the EU. So the Germans come riding to the rescue. But Singapore... how would you ever come back?
