Author: Wang Tai Peng, Vancouver

‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ China’s Premier Wen Jiabao told the annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing in January as it met in the midst of a global recession and financial crisis.

By quoting former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Chinese leader was clearly not just citing for rhetorical sake but alluding to what that US President did, initiating a New Deal for America in the midst of the Great Depression and creating social security in 1935, which ensured every citizen had a welfare safety net.

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Author: Wang Tai Peng, Vancouver

Singapore is turning 45 this year. With a humble beginning, a small territory, and a population of only 1.5 million, it has become an undisputed regional economic powerhouse. As a centre of the new global economy, it is in the same league as New York, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Toronto, Amsterdam, Milan, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul.

As Anthony Tung, author of Preserving the World’s Great Cities, and a critic of Singapore’s authoritarianism, candidly admits: ‘Few societies in the world have created such shared economic prosperity’. Read more…