The Legal Janitor

So the Big Boss Man himself says that:

Western-style liberal democracy is not a prerequisite for growth; instead what is needed is stability of governments… Citing a report by the World Bank, Mr Lee said countries with different systems - from single-party governments to multi-party democracies - can achieve sustained growth, but this must come with stability.

Later on, he adds:

As for Singapore’s policy when it comes to investing its reserves, Mr Lee said the country has minimal investments in emerging markets at this point in time.

“No, I’m not considering investing in sovereign wealth funds in Russia or emerging markets. We have to take a very conservative approach to our hard-earned savings and therefore we go into mature markets where the returns are not so good, but the certainty of the returns and value of your capital will never be in doubt,” he said.

Hmm, let’s see. Think of countries that have the above criteria; stable, mature markets, certainty of return on investments, suitable for investors with conservative appetites for risk. Compare this with an approximation of countries in which our government funds [GIC][Temasek] have invested in. Oh snap! Still liberal democracies for the win.

Channelnewsasia.com - MM Lee says growth tied to stability of govts, human capital investments