Singapores Economic Tactics, Impacts of Sport on the Community - Coursework Example

THE STRATEGIC ECONOMIC PLAN: TOWARDS A DEVELOPED NATION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SINGAPORE VISION: THE FIRST LEAGUE DEVELOPED NATION In order to achieve the attributes and status of a developed nation that is in the first league in the coming 30 to 40 years, the Strategic Economic Plan establishes the programs and plans for Singapore to fulfill the vision. The main attributes of the vision include a perfect national identity, economic dynamism, an excellent life quality and international city’s configuration. The long term plans, which are also believed to have short and medium term gains to Singapore, are focused at sustaining and developing the international competitiveness of the country. The following strategic drives are believed to assist in speeding the economic and social development of Singapore towards becoming a developed nation. They include: The need to increase Human Resources The need to support domestic teamwork The need to be globally oriented The need to develop an excellent environment for innovation The need to create manufacturing and service clusters The need to head economic improvement The need to sustain global competitiveness The need to minimize vulnerability As it is in global economic environment, the planning process is believed to be troubled with risks the moment change is too fast and dynamic. In the entire period of this study, international shattering activities within the Soviet Union and the Gulf happened. These activities could not have been foreseen by anybody. Similarly, the amount of the impact, the activities would have against the current and future international economy could not have been foreseen. It is quite hard for Singapore to expect to foresee this kind of activities, both abroad and at home. However, by using scenarios and contingency plans, Singapore can consider several related factors and measure several other steady patterns in global trade, economics and politics. By considering the current history of the global economy and experience of Singapore, the revealed information is that Singapore’s economic tactics should change from a single dimensional one to a multi-dimensional one. This will assists it to remain viable within the increasingly complex surrounding. In this study, the committee for economic planning was mandated with an assignment of developing Singapore’s Strategic Economic Plan, so as to serve for both the medium term and long term. This plan seeks to: Offer economic landscape’s outline for the coming 20 to 30 years Clearly establish the economy vision and evaluate its effects Establish a consultative and evolutionary national planning process Assist in developing a common vision between business, labor and the government regarding the general economic aspirations Quantitative Growth Attaining a maximum level of efficient growth is always the main objective for any agenda of developing an economy. By considering particular assumptions, the forecasted growth rates for Singapore are provided in the following two tables. The tables are under two different scenarios as shown below. Qualitative Development The vision of Singapore is to be a developed nation in the first league. This is in relation to: Life standard International city National identity Economic dynamism Regardless of long limit, Singapore needs to currently move ahead with vigor and seriousness in attaining the goal of being developed nation in the first league. It needs to do this due to the following two reasons. The strategies such as manpower development needs longer period of at least one generation. Secondly, the move offers an excellent probable assurance on being passed by other nations that are coming up, thus avoiding economic decline or stagnation. KEY STRATEGIES: QUANTITATIVE GROWTH Full employment and the current limits that were established during the foreign worker population are the main limiting factors that work towards attaining maximum average rates of growth, which occurred in the 1980s. It is essential to note that Singapore has already attained the sea-front and sea space limits. Therefore, in order for it to enhance its growth at relatively higher rates, Singapore needs to rearrange the manner in which the management of human and physical resources is undertaken. There are two ways in which this can be done. They include: Growth Triangle Singapore has excellently linked with ASEAN’s sub-region that is rich in resources. This has been through employing the Growth Triangle initiative in supporting activities’ distribution in accordance to the three regions’ comparative advantages. The regions include Singapore, Johor and the Riau Islands. The expansion of Growth Triangle initiative will further be attained through encouraging organizations to adopt distributed processing. It will also be expanded further through doing business with local companies within the regions. Internal Redevelopment Domestic service is another area in which there is a need to improve resource efficiency. In 1989, the domestic service was approximately 39 percent of the workforce. However, it accounted for a mere 9 per cent of the entire GDP. In order to assist in the immediate improvement of this sector, a multi-agency work force will be developed. KEY STRATEGIES: QUALITATIVE DEVELOPMENT Global competitiveness is the main agenda that pushes Singapore to be economically developed nation. It is believed that Singapore has a greater competitive advantage over other developed nations due to its lower costs. Therefore, when becoming a developed nation, the cost levels of Singapore will be closer to that of other developed nations, thus eliminating the low cost advantage. How then should Singapore compete with these developed nations? The answer to this question only revolves around improving and upgrading Singapore to a position that is comparable to key areas of the developed countries. Therefore, as long as Singapore is an open economy, where MNCs is a major player, the evaluation of the factors that are essential is quite crucial to the companies’ judgment. By considering companies’ survey in small developed nations and evaluation of essential researches, the identified major areas in which Singapore should improve its abilities are: Business profile of the developed nation International city Economic resilience Human resources Soft infrastructure Business profile of the developed nation The characteristics of developed, NIEs and developing nations can be categorized within the following parameters: Management Marketing Business function Equity capital Resource efficiency Business role It is essential for Singapore to know where the developed nations are regarding the above mentioned parameters so as to head towards those limits. However, it should be noted that the size of Singapore makes it hard to reach certain levels. For instance, basic research is an area where a country’s economies of scale and a great number of interdisciplinary talents are quite essential. However, in the case of Switzerland, there are many places where it specialized and attain a living standard of a developed nation. Singapore therefore should identify and improve the necessary areas. It should further develop the areas towards attaining the developed nation standards. Human Resources Development of human resources is quite essential in attaining the standards of developed nation. It is believed that people are the most essential determinant of attaining developed nation status in Singapore. They need to be equipped with: An excellent competence level An excellent basic education An excellent level of industry relevance in programmes training Efficient programmes for mid-career training Developing essential qualities for human resource, such as creativity and ethic Soft Infrastructure For the past 25 years, Singapore has concentrated on massively investing on physical infrastructure. Currently it is rated among the best in the world on infrastructure development. Attention needs to be directed towards soft infrastructure. The soft infrastructure includes: Technological infrastructure Social environment and institutional arrangement that promotes innovation National system that encourages a high co-operation level among the government, labour and business Global City In Singapore, being effectively arranged is still inadequate. Due to its small size, Singapore can only a developed nation status if it attracts the best technology and talent around the world, explore outside markets and look for other business opportunities around the world. Therefore, in order to attain all these, Singapore should: Establish immigration policy that will allow highly skilled and professional individuals to come into the country. This will assist in promoting the prevailing low rates of growth in the labour force. Advice the domestic companies to establish their operations in several parts around the world. This will assist in exposing Singapore’s citizens internationally, thus making them like and be attracted to live and work in other countries for a while Formulate a globalization plan in which both the Economic Development Board and other government agencies supports the local organizations to invest globally and stabilize businesses via business synergies. Economic Resilience It is quite hard for Singapore to overlook the economic challenges when developing clear strategies that will enables it progress towards certain direction. Contingent scenarios might arise, which in turn might impact the capability of Singapore economy to enhance. The identified three categories of contingencies are described below. Alternate economic scenarios It is believed that the major strategies should be tested against the alternate economic scenarios. Therefore, it is essential to set up a Scenario Analysis Group. Scenario Analysis Group evaluates essential scenarios more sufficiently with an aim of understanding the implications of each. The obtained information need to be availed to agencies of the government so as to allow them evaluate their individual strategies within the light of the scenarios. An erosion of short-term or long-term economic competitiveness that might result to a recession So far, there are mixed signals for competitiveness’ indicators that have been collected for Singapore. According to one of the indicators, danger zone prevail in the late 1990. The other indicator suggests the danger zone prevail on the horizon. However, regarding the current trends, Singapore will avoid entering this zone until the year 1992 or 1993. The evidence needs to be viewed with a lot of keenness even if it might not be conclusive. Regions that dependency is high on a given nation or a given business group Several high dependency regions are of little concern. This is because it is not hard to change to a different source. In case this is not possible, particular strategies need to be developed so as to reduce the risk of hostile occurrences. Sports has today infiltrated each sector of life, subsequently due to the existing passion in sports, other industries have ventured into the sports industry to manage, manufacture and also to support these global multibillion dollar enterprise. Some initiatives have adopted the position of quasi religious organizations. A case in point is the Olympic Games and the World cup which are perhaps the two most watched occasions across the world. The games have kindled passion, helped diverse people of the world to celebrate together and offered communal attention. Although the events transpire just for a short while, they depict the best way in which human beings can sacrifice themselves to show their athletic competence. Despite the intense celebrations that occur during the events, we also see demonstrations of personal sacrifice, willpower and bravery. Furthermore, we often see strategy and team work and also how human beings can use the latest technologies in sports. The apparent impacts of sports have spread out and influenced various avenues of human existence. Research reveals that sports has the ability to influence traditions and customs, fashion, language, development, interpersonal relations and property values, essentially within the framework of the family. In addition, it is suggested that sports also greatly affects the economy (Noll and Zimbalist, 1997; Tomlinson and Sugden, 1996; Nunn and Rosentraub, 1997). Another arising argument is that sports affect the quality of life and has the ability to impact how people feel regarding themselves, their nation and states. Within the international context, when evaluating sporting events such as the World cup or the Olympics, it can be stated that the exposure that is gained by a country on the world stage is frequently perceived as a sufficient reward for every investment that the country used in order qualify to the esteemed global event. Consequently, the privilege of hosting such world class occasions makes a country to benefit from the experience. Although, the immediate economic benefits may not bee seen, however, the exposure that is gained from the venues finally translates to other gains which include; good will towards the host country and increased revenue from tourism. Objectives of the Study Although various theoretical materials have been presented concerning the benefits, virtues and the general effects of sports, not much has been undertaken on the political, environmental, economic and social spheres that quantitatively measure the manner in which people view the effects of sports. And the existing link between the quality of life, sports and prosocial behaviour. It is therefore the objective of this particular exploratory project to examine how sports affect the society in areas such as; infrastructure, environment, property values, international promotion, employment, image and the economy. Review of Literature Impacts of Sport on the Community Noll and Zimbalist (1997) highlight that the impact of sports has gained increased attention essentially from economists than any other category of scholars. Studies on economic impacts emphasize on various losses or benefits for the societies in which the professional teams are situated. The effects of the existence of professional teams in such communities include; new jobs, an increase in revenues, taxes and increase in the spending rate of people in the community or city. Researchers on tourism on the other hand have undertaken considerable investigations on the environmental and social cultural effects of the tourism industry, comprising of the perspectives of residents (Rothman, 1978; Munasinghe and McNeely, 1994 and Lankford and Howard, 1994). This area of study has been based on perceived cultural, social and economic impacts of tourism like commercialization of increased traffic, cultural sites and the type of job developed for locals within the tourism industry. In the event that the individuals living in the community host high profile or professional sports teams like influential collage sports teams, for instance as temporary visitors, the implications of sports may be prolonged to tourism. Nunn and Rosentraub (1997) conducted a study to investigate the effects of sports on the community that is hosting or accommodating the professional sports teams. The findings of the study revealed that the supposed benefits derived from sports are actually none- exist. The purported new jobs that are frequently linked to the professional team, fundamentally high skill jobs, were actually not generated at all. Furthermore, no substantial increase in food, beverage, pay roll expenditure and rental hotel rooms was recorded by the communities as a result of the existence of sports team. The study further revealed that even the number of residents in the host community increased at a lower rate than in other communities within the area. A fascinating aspect is that the benefits that were derived from the team included; opportunities for entertainment, an increase in civic pride and the improvement of the image of the community. Nunn and Rosentraub (1997) argue that with the existence of a small amount of economic benefits, the major reason for hosting a professional team is attributed to the social cultural sphere. A study conducted by Johnson (1986) to evaluate the economic impacts of baseball and football on Baltimore, revealed that if the financial losses and profits of the previous seven years were added, the city precisely gained a net profit. In addition, if a comparison was done on the expenditures on professional teams and the budget of the entire city, it can be concluded that a relatively small amount of cash was used on the teams. Consequently, even though the teams were not able to generate money, as they had in three out of the seven years that were studied, they still brought a positive contribution to the society. More precisely, the teams benefited the city they were hosted though intangible contributions such as enhancing the psychological health of the people and increasing the identity of the community. According to Sugden and Tomlinson (1996) in a study to examine the impacts of the 1994 World Cup on the residents of United States, there are various impacts brought about by the event. These include; entertainment benefits, social experience, civic pride and economic factors such as costs linked to hosting the team, business advertising and income. Furthermore, additional findings indicated that spectating gave the people a chance to express their political perspectives and also assisted in increasing the participation of children. Sugden and Tomlinson (1996) also reveal that the American people continued to be skeptical concerning soccer; this therefore undermined the ability of the game to continue past the high school level. In a study of 600 inhabitants of Connecticut, Yiannakis (1994) disclosed that the University of Connecticut’s male and female basket ball program brought about a substantial effect on the lives of residents. The residents revealed that having the team in their state gave them more excitement; it also assisted in improving the universities image, improved the quality of their lives and enhanced their tendency to contribute to the university financially. Furthermore, the basket ball team’s success assisted in increasing the number of people interested in learning in the institution. Theoretical Perspectives This section examines five groups of theories that assist in explaining the impacts and the functions of sports for fans. Some of them include; stimulation seeking and stress, salubrious effects, frustration-aggression and catharsis achievement and entertainment seeking theories. The collection of theories propagate that fans will gain an increase in positive feelings after watching sports and thus they will get attracted to the sports due to the increased mental and physical well being that the sport offers. A subsection of the impact theories is referred to as the diversion theory. Howard, (1979) highlights that the diversion theory recognizes events that can be used to escape from the hardships of life and work by enhancing a new facet to peoples lives and their well being. Harris, (1973) further discloses that the attraction that fans have towards sports can also be linked to some kind of kinesthetic gratification that is derived from viewing sport. This is because the fan has an understanding of what the participant in the sport is going through, and therefore the understanding influences the fan’s attraction to the sport. Klausner, (1968) highlights that; the theory on seeking Stress and stimulation describes sport as a stressor that is looked for, when people long for a certain amount of stimulation or stress in their lives. Sports in the context of this particular function acts as a mechanism that is socially acceptable for developing and experiencing tension, stress and risk. Sport assists people to face anticipated risks, challenge stimulation and excitement. Sloan, (1979) on the other hand argues that this particular description does not put into consideration the fans that watch sports on television. The catharsis theory postulates that the action of watching aggressive sports benefits the observer by removing frustrations and pent-up aggressions. Consequently, on the side of the fan, catharsis theory forecasts that aggression will reduce after watching a violent sport, irrespective of the result (Howard, 1979). Nevertheless, Howard (1979) takes note of the fact that many actions of violence by fans of sports transpire after watching aggressive sports. Arms, Sandilands, Russell further reveal that the action of watching aggressive sports influences hostility of spectators. In addition, it lowers their social affection and also good feelings towards other people. According to (Sloan, 1979), the frustration-aggression theories recommend that violence in sport acts as a formula for attracting people. The attraction of fans to sport may actually be due to the violent nature of the activity. The theory on Frustration-aggression further postulates that the aggression of fans in sport may intensify by viewing an event that validates aggression, hence making the objective of aggression to be genuine. Such a view point gives explanation as to why after fans have watched their teams lose, they actually become more violent. This also explains why winning intensifies violence by serving to validate the losing team as targets for violence (Sloan, 1979). The theories on achievement seeking stress, describe the significance of failure and triumph and their effects on the on experience of the sports fans. In the event that a person’s team wins, pleasure and satisfaction increases, while disappointment declines. Sloan, (1979) highlights that; a major aspect of the achievement seeking premise is the idea of «Basking in Reflected Glory». BIRGing, highlights that a person tries to acquaint themselves with a successful person in order to raise his/her feelings of success. According to Sloan (1979) a person has more probability to BIRG when the team that he/she associates with wins and the person had experienced a personal failure. An additional aspect to the theory of achievement seeking entails the level of connection that a person has towards his/her team. An individual may have the feeling that the connection with a certain sports teams is actually an extension of their individual sense of self. Consequently, when their team wins, the fans participate in BIRGing and develop a sense of success as well. In the event that the team loses, fans may actually detach themselves from the team in order to not feel the effect of loss (Sloan, 1979). The involvement may go past ordinary association. Fans sometimes believe that they have an effect on the team, as a result, by belong to the team, they are actually acknowledged as part of the team, and contribute to team’s fan group (Sloan, 1979). Sloan (1979) investigated the empirical effects of sport on the fans. He measured the emotions of the fan after watching football, basketball and boxing games. The frustration aggression and achievement seeking theories were useful in explaining the effects of the three sports for the fans watching the games. Different from one aspect of the phenomenon of BIRG and achievement seeking, fans were not able to disconnect themselves from the team despite the loss. This therefore backs the idea that the fans may develop a sense that they are a fundamental part of the team, and, thus, they may be enthusiastic to share in the agony of defeat and also the pleasure of victory (Sloan, 1979). From an analysis of all the sports observed, the study revealed that fans were impacted either negatively or positively by the result if they branded themselves with one of the competitors or teams in the event. Sloan (1979) makes a conclusion that despite of the fact that frustration-aggression and the achievement seeking theories have given explanations about the experience of the fan; every theory discussed may have diverse implications for people in different sport locations. The Entertainment seeking theory, explains the effect of sport for fans in a better way essentially for people who enjoy sports that involve aesthetic movements such as athletes. Moreover, based on the fact that different theories for diverse sport environments exist, there are different fans for different sports. The attributes that attract a fan to a particular sport may be effectively described by one theory as opposed to the other, although frustration-aggression and achievement seeking do seem most applicable for fans across various sports. Lastly, the effects of sport on the fan can appear to be different from the original attraction to the sport. The fans may also learn can adopt to love a certain sport due to repeated acquaintance, however they can go through numerous consequences due to being part of the sport. Johnson and Sack (1996) evaluated the effect of sports on sports teams and sports structures. The study involved examining the non- economical effects that were experienced by New Haven, City, after the construction of a tennis facility that has the objective of hosting the Volvo International Tennis Tournament. The non-economic aspects that were deliberated on include; political conflict, pride for the community, political capital expenditure, solidarity, and the ability of sport’s promote a city’s regional and national image. Johnson and Sack (1996) further acknowledged key concerns that must be evaluated when gauging the effects of sports on communities and cities. They took note of the fact that in order to get subsidies and bonds that are essential for building of the tennis center in New Haven, local politicians were required to use political pressure at the level of the state. There is also the probability that the political capital used to secure funding for the tennis center was probably used funding for other existing projects in the city. Although the answer to this question is controversial, it is essential to put into account that the answer, when assessing the effects of sports on communities and cities. The building of a sports venue in a certain area can also bring about the negative effects of political conflict in a certain area. A case in point was in New Haven when the tennis venue was constructed. The team had the proposal to utilize the venue as a concert venue essentially during the summer period. However, a segment of the residents near the venue opposed the view of developing the tennis center. The politicians on the other hand held the view that the money for construction of the venue would have been useful in assisting the poor members of the community. The existence of such conflicts created negative publicity concerning the tennis center project and New Haven city. Civic pride and solidarity within the community are the noneconomic effects that must be accounted for when deliberating on the effects of sport on the community and city. Unluckily, sports like tennis do not actually generate loyalty among people in society. Many people develop loyalty towards sports such as football or baseball. Similarly, tennis has been perceived as an upper class and elite sport. In the context of the New Haven city, the project on the tennis center further separated the city’s ethnic and economic ties as opposed to raising the city’s civic pride and solidarity. Finally, the noneconomic effect of sport on communities and cities is the improvement of the city and attraction of various businesses in the city. There is no clear evidence, particularly in New Haven, regarding the effects of tennis center development and the Volvo International Tennis Tournament on new business attraction within the city. Moreover, the establishment of tennis center has made businesses to continuously vacate the New Haven’s downtown region. However, during the tennis tournament, the television coverage caused the public relations and visibility in New Haven to develop. The television coverage was on ESPN event and the newspaper space dedicated to the tournament. Johnson and Sack (1996) stress on the importance of studies that relates to the sports venues’ development so as to concentrate on several economic factors that affects communities and the cities. It is essential to acknowledge the noneconomic factors that are intangible and which will affect the city and the community. Political resources that are required to establish such ventures should also be included. Additional, it is essential to also give a serious consideration to the possibility of political conflict, the effect on solidarity of the community and community and city promotion. Future research recommendations According to the current research, it is believed that in spite of a number of negative impacts, sports in several parts are believed to greatly contribute to people lives. Similarly, sports are believed to greatly contribute to the pride of the community, the life quality and the economy as whole. More so, there are signs that succeeding in sports can encourage sports fanatics to participate in several kinds of prosocial conduct. Other sport’s impacts on the community are yet to be studied by the scholars. They mainly include those that directly affect people lives in intimate or personal ways. These incorporate psychological well-being, environment, national and local pride and the impacts of losing or winning on prosocial behavior. As compared to other groups of researchers, several economists have paid more attention on the impacts of sports (Noll and Zimbalist, 1997). Johnson and Sack (1996) argue that there is a need for researches on matters relating to sports venues’ enhancement so as to concentrate upon other factors that affect the communities and cities in which the venue is being constructed. It is essential to acknowledge the noneconomic factors that are intangible and which will affect the city and the community. Political resources that are required to establish such ventures should also be included. Additional, it is essential to also give a serious consideration to the possibility of political conflict, the effect on solidarity of the community and community and city promotion. Read More