Singapore's future 5 years

I guess I am pretty paranoid, but I am very concerned for Singapore. This was exacerbated by attending 2 recent networking events. Both were very useful to me as someone interested in China and entrepreneurship.

It seems that many of my peers are in a cocoon of blissful ignorance. However, we must realise that China's impact will cause Singapore to lose certain advantages that we take for granted in 5 - 8 years time. We are no longer as advanced or as rich as we think we are. There will no longer be jobs in MNCs or banks. The moment that China's business environment becomes more stable and easier to do business, many of these MNCs will seriously contemplating uprooting their operations. My major takeaway from the event is the deadline that is ticking, a window of 5 years for us to exploit our bilingual advantage. Miss that, and we are useless. We are clearly ranked after Hongkong, Shanghai and Taiwan in the pecking order as an entrance into China.

There are a lot of attitudes towards China that I am strongly opposed to. Singaporeans seem to think that China is a hardship posting and that we can always rely on the U.S. market for jobs. Singaporeans also have a biased attitude towards the Chinese. However, I think it should be an attitude of mutual respect.

Singapore is not a gateway to Asia. It can only be a gateway to Southeast Asia, which is a geographically diverse region with many smaller regional economies. It is not a region with market economies of scale. Infrastructure and language problems plague the region, and there is no semblance of connectivity between the countries. Taking a wild shot, Indonesia, Vietnam and Phillipines seem promising. I personally would be most interested in Indonesia's and Vietnam's development over the next few years. I only know Indonesia and Vietnam superficially through holidays and short trips, but I feel that it's time to put in some effort to understand them better.

I will add on to this post with further thoughts, but I thought it's better to publish this first and get feedback.