Singapore Loses Status as Most Open Economy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 11, 2002

Singapore Loses Status as Most Open Economy

Singapore slipped two notches to third place in a ranking of the world's most open economies in 2000, with Ireland and Switzerland ahead of it among the 62 nations surveyed.

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Singapore slipped two notches to third place in a ranking of the world's most open economies in 2000, with Ireland and Switzerland ahead of it among the 62 nations surveyed.

The globalisation index, assembled by Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine and Electronic Data System's global consultancy, AT Kearney, measures economic integration, cross-border personal contact, transnational political engagement and technology usage to reach its conclusions.

While Singapore remained the world's top trading nation, it struggled to take full advantage of global portfolio capital flows, said the report on the magazine's website.

'A reorganisation of its main stock exchange helped to pull in some additional capital and position the country as a future financial centre, but the country evidently proved less attractive than others with larger or more dynamic economic hinterlands, including the combined euro-zone.'

Thus, while portfolio inflows to Ireland grew by some US$26 billion (S$48 billion) between 1998 and 2000, Singapore saw only US$1.3 billion in additional inflows.

The United States ranks 12th on the list, scoring high in the technology and political engagement measures, but low on economic integration.

It also scored low on the personal contact measure as most of its citizens do not travel abroad or have foreign contact via telephone or e-mail.

Countries such as Ireland, Singapore and Switzerland, which depend on trade, foreign investment and tourism scored highly.

The top 10 most globalised countries in 2000 by rank were: Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark, Austria and Britain.

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