Singapore Is Spending Big to Future-Proof Its Slowing Economy

Singapore rose to be one of the world’s most advanced cities by using its position as a trading hub to attract technology and investment. Now, caught in the squalls of a shift in global trade and technological change, the nation is pouring money into ideas that could define the way cities are built and run in future, making it a test bed for urban innovation.

The island has few natural resources, hardly any land and faces many of the challenges that beset bigger developed nations such as Germany and Japan -- an aging society, resistance to immigration, reliance on global trade. More than a third of the nation’s exports go to Greater China or the U.S., putting it on the front line in the trade war and battering its latest export figures.