“Middle-income Trap” and China's Way Forward: Experiences and Insights from Singapore

Abstract

Singapore relied on its effective government administration, social governance, human capital development, industrial transformations and technological innovation to achieve rapid economic development in the decades after independence, and became a typical country that successfully crossed the "middle-income trap". China is at a critical stage in its progress towards becoming a high-income country. Active industrial transformation to support the development of new industries, creating a higher level of openness to the outside world to enhance international competitiveness, cultivating multi-level and high-quality talents, and promoting technological innovation and progress are the paths that China should take to cross the middle-income trap.