Singapore's PM's Inaugural Policy Address: No Fireworks

Wong recharges existing policies and fundamentals

Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, in his first National Day Rally speech since May succeeding Lee Hsien Loong, the son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, delivered a largely on-script report in Malay, Mandarin, and English on the city-state’s current domestic and future agenda, with some hints of policy direction changes considered relatively radical, at least by local standards, that in effect widen the social safety net.

Analysts say the changes represent a recharge of existing policies and fundamentals, rather than a complete reset. Those expecting a windup in advance of the general election that must be held before November 2025 didn’t get it. Two policy announcements were clearly in line with the decades-long unsuccessful attempt to rescue Singapore’s flagging birth rate, which at a record low 0.97 in 2023 leaves the country one of the top three in the world in failing to naturally replace its population demographic through reproductive efforts. The government, having spent decades starting in 1966 rigorously seeking to control population growth, discovered in the 1980s that it had to dramatically reverse course and seek to entice women to have babies. But as many other governments including China have discovered, there seems no answer to falling birthrates…