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Opinion
Andy Mukherjee

Bye Bye Boring Singapore

A spate of megadeals suggests the shackles are coming off.
Fireworks, Marina bay Sands
Photographer: Nanut Bovorn/Getty Images

For all its riches, the one thing Singapore lacks is honest-to-goodness risk-taking.

Back in 2002, as the city-state was emerging from its worst recession since 1964, the government was getting impatient over the economy's disproportionate reliance on multinationals and a handful of globally competitive state-backed firms like Singapore Airlines Ltd.