Singapore—In April, Bloomberg declared Singapore “the world’s best place to be during Covid.”
A scant six months later, the country ranked 39th, its lowest ranking ever on Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking scale, amid record-high Covid infections and deaths.
It also noted that Singapore fell 20 places in one month and that 39th is the lowest a formerly top-ranked country—the list includes New Zealand and current number one Ireland—has sunk to.
On Bloomberg’s list Singapore is now ranked lower than South Africa, with its nearly three million Covid cases and 90,000 deaths, and whose vaccination rate is yet to reach 20 per cent.
The reasons why the island-nation rated poorly are the stringent local measures that have limited people’s mobility, the slow travel reopening and flight capacity recovery that is far less than that of the US and Europe, even though Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
Region-wise, however, it’s still far outpacing its nearest neighbours, with Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines still in the bottom six for the third month in a row.
Moreover, another Bloomberg piece acknowledged Singapore’s “trail-blazing, but polarizing, shift to living with the virus.”
It also recognized that the hard place the country finds itself in now is likely to be a temporary one, “as Singapore forges an unprecedented path to being among first Covid-Zero countries to pivot to treating the virus as endemic. If it succeeds, it will have the distinction of being one of the only places in the world to normalize without waves of death.”
However discouraging Singapore’s Covid resilience rating is at present, the country received some good news on the economic front on Thursday (Oct 28).
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that the economy should be back on the path of recovery and is expected to grow at a “slower but still-above trend” pace next year.
In its most recent macroeconomic review, MAS said the economy can be expected to expand by “6 to 7 per cent” this year.
“It should register slower but still-above trend growth in 2022, barring the materialisation of downside risks arising from the evolution of the virus or other global developments,” MAS added.
On an even brighter note, for the third quarter of the year, the overall economic output returned to its level before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also, on Oct 21, the Port of Singapore was announced as the “Best Global Seaport” at the 2021 Asia Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards (AFLAS) held in Hong Kong, the first time the Port of Singapore has received the prestigious award.
Singapore’s efforts amid the supply chain crisis have not gone unnoticed.
“Thanks to the robust partnership with our stakeholders, the Port of Singapore continues to stay resilient as we play our part in keeping global supply chains running, even as the world continues to face challenges from COVID-19. We are humbled by the strong affirmation. We will strive to strengthen the Port of Singapore as a leading hub port,” said Ms Quah Ley Hoon, Chief Executive of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. /TISG
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