<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Want growth? Get good leaders first: SM
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>He shares his recipe for economic success as he is awarded honorary doctorate by South African varsity </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Kor Kian Beng
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->On the day he received his third honorary doctorate, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong cast his mind back to the days he spent with classmates at the Williams College in Massachusetts in 1967.
His class of 20 was a melting pot, with students from Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania, Uganda, Pakistan, Colombia and the former Yugoslavia.
All young government officials from the Third World, they were sent to the United States to pursue a master's degree in development economics, Mr Goh said.
He was speaking at a ceremony held yesterday at the National University of Singapore where he was conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration from South Africa's University of Pretoria (UP). It honoured him for his leadership role in the economic success and prosperity of Singapore and its strategic role in Asia.
In his speech, Mr Goh recalled that he and his classmates, many of them African, were eager to learn ways to solve the economic problems of their homelands.
'But 40 years on, many of my classmates never had their dreams realised. For some of them, their hopes were shattered very early on.'
The reason was simple: war and strife.
He gave the example of his Egyptian classmate whose country had engaged in the six-day war with Israel just before his graduation.
The Senior Minister recounted the different destinies of his classmates to drive home one point: Peace and stability are essential for growth and prosperity.
Drawing from his experience in a World Bank study on growth, he said it found two common factors among 13 economies that sustained a quarter-century of annual growth averaging 7 per cent or more.
These factors are effective governments and open economies.
Singapore is among the 13 countries listed in the Growth Report produced by the Bank's Commission on Growth and Development.
Mr Goh, a member of the international commission, noted that it identified 17 policy ingredients for growth but it refrained from recommending any model of development.
This was wise as the success of a development strategy or a 'winning recipe' depends on a country's endowment, social fabric, values and political climate.
Said Mr Goh: 'Besides, even if the commission had recommended a recipe, it could not produce the master chef, namely, a leader who could turn all these ingredients into a wonderful dish.'
To him, leaders make or break nations.
'I'm referring to leadership in governance,' he said, rather than charismatic, selfless leaders who are rare and thrown up by specific historical circumstances.
Singapore, he added, has a system of identifying, collecting and nurturing a group of people for effective leadership. This allows political transitions here to remain 'stable, orderly and predictable'.
Other key ingredients to nurture a strong leadership include building up public institutions like the judiciary. It is also vital to establish trust between people and the government, he added.
Professor Nick Binedell, director of the UP's Gordon Institute of Business Science, said in the citation that the Singapore 'miracle' is in many aspects - such as economy and education - the result of Mr Goh's work over the years.
Mr Goh has two other honorary doctorates to his name. He received his first in 1995 from his alma mater, Williams College. His second was conferred in 2005 by Australia's University of New South Wales.
Others who have received the UP doctorate are South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela, and its former archbishop Desmond Tutu. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>He shares his recipe for economic success as he is awarded honorary doctorate by South African varsity </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Kor Kian Beng
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->On the day he received his third honorary doctorate, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong cast his mind back to the days he spent with classmates at the Williams College in Massachusetts in 1967.
His class of 20 was a melting pot, with students from Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania, Uganda, Pakistan, Colombia and the former Yugoslavia.
All young government officials from the Third World, they were sent to the United States to pursue a master's degree in development economics, Mr Goh said.
He was speaking at a ceremony held yesterday at the National University of Singapore where he was conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration from South Africa's University of Pretoria (UP). It honoured him for his leadership role in the economic success and prosperity of Singapore and its strategic role in Asia.
In his speech, Mr Goh recalled that he and his classmates, many of them African, were eager to learn ways to solve the economic problems of their homelands.
'But 40 years on, many of my classmates never had their dreams realised. For some of them, their hopes were shattered very early on.'
The reason was simple: war and strife.
He gave the example of his Egyptian classmate whose country had engaged in the six-day war with Israel just before his graduation.
The Senior Minister recounted the different destinies of his classmates to drive home one point: Peace and stability are essential for growth and prosperity.
Drawing from his experience in a World Bank study on growth, he said it found two common factors among 13 economies that sustained a quarter-century of annual growth averaging 7 per cent or more.
These factors are effective governments and open economies.
Singapore is among the 13 countries listed in the Growth Report produced by the Bank's Commission on Growth and Development.
Mr Goh, a member of the international commission, noted that it identified 17 policy ingredients for growth but it refrained from recommending any model of development.
This was wise as the success of a development strategy or a 'winning recipe' depends on a country's endowment, social fabric, values and political climate.
Said Mr Goh: 'Besides, even if the commission had recommended a recipe, it could not produce the master chef, namely, a leader who could turn all these ingredients into a wonderful dish.'
To him, leaders make or break nations.
'I'm referring to leadership in governance,' he said, rather than charismatic, selfless leaders who are rare and thrown up by specific historical circumstances.
Singapore, he added, has a system of identifying, collecting and nurturing a group of people for effective leadership. This allows political transitions here to remain 'stable, orderly and predictable'.
Other key ingredients to nurture a strong leadership include building up public institutions like the judiciary. It is also vital to establish trust between people and the government, he added.
Professor Nick Binedell, director of the UP's Gordon Institute of Business Science, said in the citation that the Singapore 'miracle' is in many aspects - such as economy and education - the result of Mr Goh's work over the years.
Mr Goh has two other honorary doctorates to his name. He received his first in 1995 from his alma mater, Williams College. His second was conferred in 2005 by Australia's University of New South Wales.
Others who have received the UP doctorate are South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela, and its former archbishop Desmond Tutu. [email protected]
