Singapore has handed out licenses to more foreign banks and has allowed unfettered competition with former monopolist Singapore Telecommunications Ltd as it seeks to turn the island into a regional hub for services. Future growth areas may include health care and education, Lee said.
The government, which guided Singapore's development by setting up companies such as DBS Bank and SembCorp Industries Ltd, is likely to reduce its role in the economy and speed the sale of shipyards and other state-controlled companies, Lee said.
"I don't see us setting up banks and airlines anymore," Lee said, adding that selling state assets, which account for about 12 percent of the economy, "is something we'd like to push." Still, Singapore will maintain some control. Key assets such as Singapore Airlines won't be sold, he said. And even though restrictions on foreign shareholdings in banks have been removed, "what we will not have is foreign control of domestic banks," Lee said.
Loosening restrictions on free speech isn't on the Economic Review Committee's agenda, Lee said. Foreign investors have questioned whether entrepreneurship can flourish in a nation where all domestic media companies are controlled by the government, films are subject to censorship and unlicensed public speech is allowed only on Speaker's Corner, in a municipal park.
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