[Editor’s Note]

New york, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, these first-tier international metropolises, what urban grand strategies have been formulated in 2023? These strategies or measures indicate the direction and thinking of the transformation of foreign metropolises, and represent the top-level thinking of these head cities. The series of articles "International Metropolis Strategy 2023" written by the Metropolitan Dynamic Tracking Group of Shanghai Development Strategy Research Institute will comprehensively sort out and deeply interpret the urban strategies of six first-tier international metropolises, and provide reference for Shanghai to better build a socialist modern international metropolis with world influence.

This article is the sixth in a series of articles, and looks at how Singapore formulates urban development strategies in the aspects of digital economy and digital security, green and digital shipping, economic and urban recovery, and overseas strategies of enterprises.

Singapore. Vision china data map

Singapore is located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and at the entrance and exit of the Straits of Malacca. In 2022, it has a total population of 5.64 million, covering an area of 733 square kilometers, with a GDP of 468.12 billion US dollars and a per capita GDP of 83,000 US dollars. According to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund, the growth rate is expected to be 1.5% in 2023, exceeding 470 billion US dollars. In 2023, Singapore’s key strategies mainly focus on digital economy and digital security, green and digital shipping, economic and urban recovery, and overseas strategies of enterprises.

1. Singapore’s digital economy strategy has achieved remarkable results, and the scale of digital economy accounts for 17.3% of GDP.

Singapore released the first "Singapore Digital Economy Assessment", which showed that the scale of Singapore’s digital economy reached 106 billion yuan, accounting for 17.3% of GDP. Singapore is establishing a digital economy accounting system to measure the scale of the digital economy. In 2022, the scale of Singapore’s digital economy will reach S $106 billion, including S $33.1 billion in the information and communication industry.

In terms of digital industrialization, e-commerce, games and network services have the fastest growth rate. In terms of industrial digitalization, financial and insurance, wholesale trade and manufacturing industries have the fastest digital transformation. In addition, in 2022, there were 201,100 digital talents in Singapore, accounting for 5.2% of the total labor force, and the number of digital management and product developers grew the fastest.　

Figure 1 Singapore Digital Economy

2. Singapore Port cooperates with Los Angeles Port and Long Beach Port to establish a green and digital shipping corridor.

In April 2023, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB) signed an agreement to establish green and digital shipping corridors between port complexes under the framework of the international city association (C40 city) to support the decarbonization of the shipping industry, improve efficiency through digitalization, and support the ships docked at the port complexes in San Pedro Bay, Singapore and Los Angeles to transition to low-emission and zero-emission fuels. The agreement also identifies digital shipping solutions and sets standards and best practices for green ports and alternative marine fuel refueling, including sharing experiences on international platforms such as IMO.

By the end of 2022, there are 21 green shipping corridors in the world, including the ports of Shanghai and Los Angeles. Ports, shipping companies, fuel suppliers and other shipping industry chain stakeholders in the green shipping corridors have signed up to cooperate, and by introducing innovative technologies and adopting new fuels, greenhouse gas emission reduction or even zero emission targets can be achieved on specific routes.　

3. Singapore will build an employment skill system centered on engineering training to enhance the employability of green economy.

As of June 2023, the unemployment rate in Singapore remained at a low level of 2.1%, and many indicators monitored by Singapore, such as the number of employed people in 2023, the long-term unemployment rate of residents, the number of laid-off people and the re-employment rate of laid-off residents within six months, were better than those in 2019. The Employment Skills Insight Report released by Singapore will build an employment skills system centered on engineering training, focusing on the energy levels of engineers and technicians in the green economy. The report emphasizes that from 2023 to 2030, Singapore’s national skills will focus on engineering training to support Singapore’s Green Plan 2030.

4. Singapore actively builds the world’s leading national digital trust center to enhance digital security and cross-border mobility convenience.

Singapore has established the National Digital Trust Center, with an investment of S $50 million. It will build a world-leading digital trust technology center from four aspects: trust technology research, trust technology innovation, new sandbox environment and new digital trust talents. At present, the center has cooperated with Britain and other countries on cross-border data flow and digital contracts. Singapore’s move is also regarded as an important measure to build a global digital financial center.

5. Singapore has built a large language model to meet the needs of multiculturalism and multilingualism, and is committed to building a language network.

Singapore took the lead in launching the flagship artificial intelligence project costing S $70 million to develop the first large-scale language model ecosystem in Southeast Asia to meet the diverse cultural and language needs of the region, and at the same time help Singapore become the global leader in artificial intelligence solutions in 2030. At present, Singapore Artificial Intelligence (AISG) has launched the first Southeast Asian Language Network (SEA-LION) system to support Singapore to become the language and voice center of Southeast Asia.

6. Singapore launched artificial intelligence strategy 2.0 to enhance its economic potential.

Singapore’s artificial intelligence strategy 2.0 aims to meet the challenges of today’s era and enhance Singapore’s economic and social potential in the next three to five years. Version 1.0 of artificial intelligence strategy was released in 2019, focusing on the application of artificial intelligence in education, medical care and social security. Version 2.0 of artificial intelligence will focus on the artificial intelligence ecosystem and support innovation and economic development through artificial intelligence, with the theme of "AI for public good, for Singapore and the world".

7. The HDB system in Singapore will be greatly adjusted and optimized, and the inclusiveness will be further enhanced.

In August 2023, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that he would further reform the HDB system, including changing the classification of HDB from the existing "mature/immature areas" to "standard/preferred/golden areas", and setting stricter resale conditions and holding periods for the latter two HDB. For example, the minimum holding period (MOP) of HDB in gold and preferred lots will be raised from 5 years to 10 years, and the purchase allowance will also be refunded at the time of sale. To achieve "ensuring that people of all salary classes can afford HDB flats, ensuring that every town and region has a good social mix, allowing people of different classes to live in HDB flats, and ensuring that the system is fair to all." The new classification of HDB is expected to curb the rapid rising trend of existing HDB prices and ease the contradiction of demand.

Figure 2 Distribution of various new types of HDB under the new system

8. Singapore Enterprise Development Board has established overseas sub-centers to continuously expand its overseas network.

During Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to the United States, the Singapore Enterprise Development Agency opened an overseas sub-center in San Francisco to serve the innovative activities of Singaporean enterprises in San Francisco. Singapore took a fancy to San Francisco’s innovation system and ecology, focusing on enhancing the cooperation between the two innovation systems and ecology. At present, about 200 companies in Singapore have set up regional headquarters in the United States, covering medical care, financial technology, consumer technology, manufacturing and retail. In the past five years, the number of Singaporean companies in the United States has increased by 23%.

9. Singapore has gradually expanded its digital Singapore dollar electronic money experiment.

The Singapore government outlined the infrastructure needed to digitize the Singapore dollar, and announced that it would expand the experiment in digital currency. Monetary authority of singapore (MAS) will also issue a real-time central bank digital currency (CBDC) for batch settlement, and plans to start developing CBDC for batch interbank settlement in 2024. The expanded digital currency experiment will cover four areas: token bank liabilities, wallet interoperability, supplier financing and institutional payment control. These will be carried out with industry participants including various commercial organizations and financial institutions to check related infrastructure components and business models. At the same time, Ant International, Fazz(Note: a digital payment financial service platform, which was formed by the merger of Indonesia Payfazz and Singapore Xfers Company)And Grab(Note: South Asia Network Car Rental and Food Delivery Platform Company provides services including online car rental, food delivery, hotel reservation, online banking, mobile payment and insurance. )The pilot will be launched around the concept of special currency to facilitate Alipay users to pay GrabPay merchants.

10. Singapore started to formulate relevant technical standards after completing the first marine methanol fuel replenishment.

Replacing low-carbon fuel with methanol is a strategy to decarbonize the shipping industry, which accounts for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Singapore carried out the first methanol filling operation in July 2023, which may pave the way for methanol to be used as marine fuel. With the global delivery of methanol ships, more methanol filling operations will be planned in the coming year.

After the first operation, the Singapore Chemical Industry Council and the Standards Development Organization of Singapore Maritime Safety Administration (MPA) will formulate technical references for the operation and safety requirements of methanol filling. The Singapore Maritime Bureau will also lay a further foundation for the establishment of commercial methanol operations, including licensing and infrastructure requirements. As the shipping industry moves towards full decarbonization, methanol is an important substitute.

The proportion of digital economy and green economy in Singapore has increased, and HDB reform has been carried out.

Over the past two years, Singapore has become the "online celebrity City" in Asia. Excellent urban management, stable political system, never-absent scientific and technological layout and forward-looking overseas strategy make Singapore an "investment paradise".

In 2023, the exchange rate of Singapore dollar against Malaysian ringgit rose all the way, and the enthusiasm of Singaporeans for spending across the Johor Strait to Johor Bahru and other places continued to rise. Tharman shanmugaratnam won with 70.40% of the vote and became the ninth Singaporean president.

In 2023, the proportion of digital economy and green economy in Singapore’s urban strategy increased significantly. In particular, the digital economy has enabled Singapore to once again break through the restrictions of narrow space (the last breakthrough was the establishment of major industrial parks overseas) and play a greater role in the virtual space. Singapore’s path to developing green economy has always been clear: if it can’t completely win from technology and economies of scale, then it should participate in the global green economy competition in the formulation of standards and frameworks.

Finally, talk about the HDB system in Singapore. Since the era of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore has adhered to the concept that "people’s livelihood is the greatest democracy". Du Fu’s poem-"There are thousands of buildings in Ande" still hangs in the hall of Singapore Housing Bureau. HDB has solved the housing problem of 70% Singaporeans. Singapore has also reserved the area around the subway station with the best location, the most mature facilities and the most complete facilities for HDB. Compared with other metropolises, Singapore is a veritable "people’s city". In 2023, the detailed measures of Lee Hsien Loong’s HDB reform were obviously to improve the inclusiveness of HDB and strengthen the residential property of HDB again.

(This paper is one of the series of research results of the research group of metropolitan dynamic tracking of Shanghai Development Strategy Institute, and the members of the research group include Dai Yuehua, Grace Wai Wong and Liu Ziyu.)

　

　　Poster of Ex-3: Goodbye to Ex-3

　　Beijing, Jan. 6 (Reporter Zhang Xi) Recently, the small-budget movie Ex-3: Goodbye to Ex-3 (hereinafter referred to as Ex-3) stood out as the box office champion on New Year’s Day, far ahead of popular movies such as The Legend of the Demon Cat and Worry-Free Grocery Store. Although some netizens questioned the suspicion of water injection, both the producer and the distributor denied it, and some film critics believed that a big factor that made the film a dark horse was that it poked the audience’s own emotional experience.

　　— — It broke 800 million in 8 days.

　　"Former 3" became a dark horse at the box office on New Year’s Day.

　　Precedent 3 is the third film in the Precedent series, directed by Yu-sheng Tian and starring Han Geng, Ryan, Romy and Kelly, which continues the comedy style of the previous two films.

　　Image source: screenshot of Cat’s Eye Movie Professional Edition

　　Since its release, the film has topped the single-day box office list for three consecutive days. According to the data of Cat’s Eye Professional Edition, as of 4:00 p.m. on the 5th, the box office of "Former 3" exceeded 800 million, and the number of films ranked as high as 33%, second only to the Hollywood film "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" on the first day of release.

　　In contrast, Chen Kaige’s The Legend of the Demon Cat and Karry’s The Worry-Free Grocery Store, which have high hopes, all have a mediocre box office, especially The Legend of the Demon Cat, which has just broken 500 million at the box office for 15 days, with only 2% of the films arranged, which is obviously insufficient in stamina.

　　It is worth mentioning that the first two works of the "predecessor" series, Predecessor Raiders and Predecessor Raiders 2, were released in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and won 129 million yuan and 251 million yuan at the box office. The current performance of Predecessor 3 has surpassed the sum of the box office of the two previous works.

　　"Ex 3" poster

　　— — Question: Is there anyone to see it when it snows heavily?

　　The film retorted: The budget is so low, how to inject water?

　　For the unexpected box office of "Previous 3", some netizens questioned it on the Internet and published screenshots. "Did someone go to see it under heavy snow?" "Is there a booking in the middle of the night?" However, some netizens responded that "there are more people at 10 o’clock than at 7 o’clock" and "I can’t buy tickets after work".

　　In this regard, the reporter contacted and interviewed the person in charge of Beijing Infinite Freedom Culture Media Co., Ltd., one of the producers, and the other party denied it: "There is no possibility, our budget is so low, how can we inject water?" The person in charge of the distributor said that the film’s high ranking and good box office are due to the good quality of the film, and "good content is the first".

　　In addition, the reporter found from the professional version of Cat’s Eye that the film is the most popular in second-tier cities, with an attendance rate of 19.2% and female audiences accounting for 60.8%, which shows that the film playing emotional cards is still more popular with female audiences.

　　Data Map: Starring Han Geng is enthusiastic about fans at the scene. Photo by Zhong Xin

　　— — Good luck or schedule?

　　Poke the audience’s own emotional experience

　　Why can this small-budget film stand out in the New Year’s Day schedule?

　　Rao Shuguang, secretary-general of the China Film Association, bluntly said in an interview with reporters that on the one hand, the audience in the holiday schedule are willing to watch relatively relaxed movies. "Now the social attributes of movies are getting stronger and stronger, so the probability of winning comedy films in the holiday schedule is relatively high"; On the other hand, he thinks that "Ex 3" is very grounded. "Breaking up was a very heavy topic, but it eased everyone’s anxiety through comedy, which is also one of the elements of box office success."

　　Some media also commented that when watching movies has become the daily entertainment of the public, ordinary audiences need not only large-scale production with swords and shadows, but also empathy experience. "The audience who gave praise generally thought that although the film was mediocre, it poked its own tears and made people feel emotional. They were not moved by the plot, but the film inspired their own emotional experience. "

　　Judging from the film reviews on Douban, although many fans didn’t give a high rating, the topic of "predecessor" still sparked discussion. Rao Shuguang said that this is the biggest advantage of "predecessor 3", "making the audience feel brought in and have emotional identity".

　　"Ex 3" poster

　　— — Dilute the director’s personal color

　　Division of labor to write scripts to find the audience’s resonance point

　　Unlike some movies, Ex-3 has a screenwriter team, and everyone has a different division of labor: some people are responsible for the paragraphs, some are responsible for the structure of the film, and some are responsible for the lines, and finally they are handed over to the director Yu-sheng Tian, who will summarize and write.

　　"The disadvantage is that it is difficult to unify and the speed is very slow. The advantage is that there are many different colors in it. I quite like this kind of collective creation, because it may be fast or easy for a person to create, but it will be too personal. " Yu-sheng Tian told reporters that he not only played down the director’s personal color, but also strengthened the authenticity. Many plots came from the real experiences of friends around him. "For the theme of urban love comedy, the most important thing is to find the resonance of the audience. People will not accept things that are too fairy tales or too fairy." (End)

On November 15th, bilibili released "2022 bilibili Automobile Ecological Report" (hereinafter referred to as "Report"). In the past year, the number of car videos played in bilibili reached 14.5 billion, up 116% year-on-year, with over 40 million monthly active users.

From learning to buying a car, a multi-cultural community with car interests.

The report shows that at present, bilibili has gathered practical strategies from driving test study, new car information, car purchase evaluation, car sharing and other aspects, and has become a multicultural community with diverse car interests for young people. In the past year, 10.84 million people have watched driving test videos many times in bilibili, and the number of car purchase evaluation videos has exceeded 1.7 billion times. More and more people share their first cars in bilibili, and the number of contributions to the vlog for car lifting has increased by 156%. In addition, new energy vehicles are also widely concerned in bilibili, with the number of searches increasing by 199% year-on-year.

In bilibili, many users get to know the brand and new car information through search, and the number of car brand searches has exceeded 120 million times in the past year. More and more automobile brands are active in bilibili. At present, 93 automobile brands, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Link and Wuling, have settled in. They have produced characteristic content that conforms to the tonality of users in bilibili, showing the younger side of the brand.

Go on road trip is a lifestyle that young people in bilibili yearn for, and the related videos have been played more than 1.8 billion times, up 282% year-on-year. With the rise of RV craze, more creators shared their RV diaries in bilibili, and the number of RV creators in bilibili increased by 74% year-on-year. The launch of the "camping mode" of new energy vehicles has further promoted "weekend tram camping" to become a new fashion for young people to travel.

There are a large number of car modification experts active in bilibili, who have created a wealth of car modification and play works, such as old car renovation, DIY "car making", car modification and car model play. In the past year, more than 34 million people watched videos related to refitting cars in bilibili, a year-on-year increase of 65%. In addition, in-depth car science content also performed well in bilibili, and the number of videos related to car knowledge increased by 119% year-on-year.

In the past year, the number of racing videos in bilibili increased by 132% year-on-year. UP owners created interesting racing commentary videos and created a strong racing culture atmosphere in bilibili. In addition, the "racing simulator" that can experience the pleasure of racing without leaving home began to receive more attention, with more than 150,000 searches, an increase of 81% year-on-year.

With the development of various circles of automobile culture in bilibili, bilibili has also initiated automobile content planning with various themes, such as go on road trip, automobile culture, painful car and automobile design. This year, the new energy vehicle brand cooperation plan "Coin Plan"-Automobile was also released, which built a stage for new energy vehicles to face the authors and users around the release of new vehicles, test drive experience, in-depth public testing and automobile workplace experience.

Maserati is an Italian luxury car brand with many models and different prices. Among them, the cheapest model is Maserati Ghibli, which costs 8.99 million yuan. The most expensive model is the MC12 supercar, which sells for tens of millions. In addition, there are president cars, Levante luxury SUVs, Ghibli cars and other models, with prices ranging from 86.88 million to 21.05 million. The starting price of Maserati President’s car is 140.58 million yuan, and the starting price of Levante luxury SUV is 96.18 million yuan. The GranTurismo model is Maserati’s respect for customers, and the price is between 86.88 million and 21.05 million. If you want to buy an entry-level Maserati, the price is about 800,000 yuan. The most expensive model is the MC12 supercar, which sells for tens of millions. As an ultra-luxury brand, Maserati does not have a car with a price of more than 200,000 yuan. Different models have different prices and need to be selected according to their own needs and budgets. It is worth mentioning that the exterior design of Maserati models is amazing, especially the vertical mesh design with heavy chrome trim, which leaves a deep impression on people. In addition, Maserati also launched some limited-edition models, such as COUPE models, which cost about 13.8 million yuan. Finally, it needs to be reminded that after-sales service and maintenance should be taken into account when purchasing Maserati, because the higher-priced models need to invest more money and energy.

　　On November 20 th, Zhongan Online reported to this reporter that the kindergarten where the child is located is holding the "Most Cute Baby" selection activity on WeChat. It seems to be a simple vote, but there are behaviors such as spending money to "increase tickets", which brings a lot of troubles to children and parents.

　　According to the reporter’s investigation, there is an "option" to buy gifts at a high price, and the maximum amount of gifts purchased is more than 600,000 yuan. At present, the activity has been urgently stopped by the education authorities.

　　Parents who broke the news: the selection of Mengbao made parents spend money to increase tickets.

　　The exposer reported that recently, the kindergarten where his children are located is holding the "most cute baby" selection activity. The activity started on November 16th and lasted for one week until the 22nd.

　　"Because the class teacher asked for cooperation, and the children were very motivated, parents were still very enthusiastic about it and forwarded the canvassing among relatives and friends." The informant said, but these days, his children often complain at home, saying that a relative of a certain family gave a castle and won two thousand votes, so why didn’t my family have a gift?

　　Parents feel strange that small voting focuses on participation, but I don’t know why there is a feeling of showing off wealth in children’s hearts. Small-scale garden selection is mixed with strong commercial factors, and the selection has become a show of wealth, which has changed in the hearts of children, and parents around are discussing this matter.

　　At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the reporter logged into the voting page and found that 31 children signed up for the selection activity, and the link reflected by the exposer was only one of them.

　　Click to enter the "Give Gifts" page, and you can see virtual gifts such as cars (1 o’clock), airplanes (10 o’clock), cruise ships (50 o’clock), rockets (100 o’clock), and golden flying cars (200 o’clock). The most expensive gift is the Dream Castle (500 o’clock). A "point" is worth one yuan for three votes, and the more points you buy, the more votes you will get. If you spend 500 yuan to send a dream castle to your child, you can increase 2000 votes.

　　As of press time, on the afternoon of November 22nd, the reporter clicked the "list" option again and found that the child with the highest number of votes had reached 10,611. Below the photo of the child with the second largest number of votes, it can be clearly seen that the child has more than 9,000 votes and 114 gifts. From the "gift list" below, you can see at a glance who gave what gift.

　　The reporter found that the second-ranked child received the most gifts, with 114 gifts.

　　Kindergarten: Parents have been reminded not to buy gifts.

　　Subsequently, the reporter contacted the garden. A teacher in the garden said in a telephone interview that there is indeed a phenomenon of spending money on gifts in the selection activities, but the garden has reminded parents not to buy them.

　　According to the teacher of the garden, not long ago, a Hengxinda advertising media company found the garden and said that there was a WeChat voting activity. Only the kindergarten provided photos, the company made links, and the parents were responsible for voting. After the selection, the first, second and third prizes were made public and gifts were distributed.

　　When learning that the selection activities can help promote the kindergarten as well as the children in the kindergarten, the garden expressed its willingness to participate.

　　After the official start of the activity, the garden found that there was a purchase of gifts in the voting link, and the garden immediately reminded parents not to buy gifts among the parents.

　　The teacher of the garden said that according to Hengxinda Advertising Media Co., Ltd., there are gifts to participate in this selection activity, and the gifts are provided by Hengxinda Company. The first prize is the brand tablet computer, and the top three have honorary certificates. At the same time, there is also a vote prize. The prize with 19,999 votes is an astronomical telescope, and with 29,999 votes, you can get an electric balance car.

　　As for the parents’ money for buying gifts, Hengxinda said that it is used for charity, and after the activity, the company will provide a list of kindergartens to explain which money for buying gifts is used for which charity.

　　As for where the money went now, the garden replied that it was not clear.

　　Competent department: Stop voting activities urgently.

　　The reporter then reflected this matter to the county education bureau where the kindergarten is located.

　　After preliminary investigation, the county education bureau believes that the selection activity of the "cutest baby" in kindergarten to send gifts and canvass is definitely wrong, and the garden has been ordered to stop the online voting of "cutest baby".

　　"The legitimacy of the selection platform is in doubt. Even if parents of students voluntarily buy gifts for their children, it is illegal. " In the interview, the head of the pre-school education section of the county education bureau said that this selection activity is likely to be an online scam. Because according to the law, it is impossible to raise votes with money in any legal selection activities.

　　After the decision, the county education bureau immediately stopped the kindergarten’s "most cute baby" selection activity and asked the kindergarten to apologize to the parents in writing immediately. For the parents of students who have paid for gifts, the garden will negotiate with Hengxinda Advertising Media Company for a refund after counting the payment amount. If Hengxinda Advertising Media Company does not refund the money, the kindergarten will refund the parents in full and call the police to investigate the legal responsibility of the online voting company.

　　As of press time, on the afternoon of the 22nd, the county had issued a notice, ordering kindergartens at all levels in the county not to participate in such activities. At the same time, all kindergartens were surveyed and found that this phenomenon was stopped immediately.

　　The county education bureau will pay close attention to the handling of this matter in kindergartens. In the future, all kinds of selection activities of this kind of education will be strictly controlled. (Reporter Gu Jiyue Intern Qin Zhou)