China has transformed its economy very well

In 1989 or thereabouts, I visited China as a member of a minister's delegation. We were received by the vice premier.

At that time, China was very poor and backward. Singapore was advanced.

The vice premier spoke in Mandarin. He said that the biggest challenge in China was to find jobs for the millions of workers in the state enterprises. These enterprises were inefficient and overstaffed. They are developing the service sector to allow the excess workers to be absorbed into the economy.

I was struck with the clarity of their goal.

Well, as things turned out, they succeeded very well in their transformation.

Singapore now face the same challenge - the transform the economy to face the future. Can we do it?