WHEN SINGAPORE SEPARATED from Malaysia, says Tan Kong Yam, an economist at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, it was as if a brain had been deprived of its lungs and legs. An urban centre with a hinterland became a country with none, depending on Malaysia for its water supply and on the outside world for its food. As a country, it was acutely short of space. One solution has been to add some: since independence Singapore has expanded by over one-fifth, from 58,000 hectares (224.5 square miles) to nearly 72,000, by filling in the sea with imported sand. Marina Bay Sands itself, a number of massive office blocks and a golf course are all on land that used to be sea. The government expects the land area to grow by a further 8%, or 5,600 hectares, by 2030. But there is a natural limit to this growth.
Another option—to seek a hinterland elsewhere—has proved tricky. Wong Poh Kam, an economist at the National University of Singapore’s business school, points out that Johor, the Malaysian state just over the strait, could be to Singapore what southern mainland China has been to Hong Kong, offering land and labour at far lower prices. Johor and...
from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1Gonz76
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