MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 OPINION A19 government and distorted mar- kets. This reinforces the message that there is a good deal of overlap Cities make between city competitiveness and national competitiveness. My role models are Hong Kong and Singapore. Both regularly top the rankings of the Global Compet- itiveness Report, the World the wealth Bank’s Doing Business Index and the Simon Fraser Institute’s Eco- nomic Freedom of the World In- dex. Government is relatively small, of nations clean and efficient, and markets are relatively competitive and highly globalised. Nowadays, Hong Kong and Singapore are the logistics and services hubs for By RAZEEN SALLY part are intertwined and mutually Asian trade. Modern global supply FOR THE STRAITS TIMES reinforcing. chains plug them into other cities The map of the global economy in Asia and beyond. Singapore (above) and Hong Kong have set the standard for Asian cities to follow, says the writer. They are the logistics DAM Smith called it most of us have in mind is one of These two cities may be excep- and services hubs for Asian trade, and global supply chains plug them into other cities around the world. ST FILE PHOTO the wealth of nations. nation states connected to each tions, but they have set the stand- Two centuries later, other via trade and the movement ard for other Asian cities to fol- A we talk about “nation- of capital, people and technology. ulation) lived in the world’s 600 practice better than nations do. 100 will come from China alone. low. al competitiveness”. That is still highly relevant. But most populous cities and account- This is even true of cities and What are the ingredients that To me, free markets and free The World Economic Forum’s an- throughout history, the most in- ed for a GDP of US$30 trillion state governments in the United make cities more productive? trade produce a virtuous trinity: nual Global Competitiveness Re- tensive cross-border economic (S$37.6 trillion) – well over half States at a time when politics in Some vital municipal policies are L They promote growth and pros- port, for example, identifies the transactions have been between the global GDP. The top 100 cit- Washington, DC, remains grid- parochial: urban planning and zon- perity – the economic imperative. policies and institutions that cities – mostly cities located on ies, with a GDP of US$21 trillion, locked. In the EU, national govern- ing, housing, water, sanitation, po- L They expand individual free- boost national productivity, coastlines. accounted for 38 per cent of glo- ments and EU institutions are licing and so on. But the most suc- dom – the moral imperative. which determines competitive- It is therefore useful to think of bal GDP. stuck in sclerotic political cartels cessful cities, like the most suc- L Cities, more than anything else, ness and economic growth. a different map of the global econ- In 2025, McKinsey reckons that with failed policies. Can Europe’s cessful nations, also have stable sustain peaceful international rela- Perhaps we should also focus omy: one of cities connected the top 600 cities will have 25 per cities break out of this straitjacket public finances; low, simple and tions – the geopolitical impera- on cities. More than ever, cities – across land borders, seas and cent of the world’s population and and unleash long-delayed re- competitive taxation; and trans- tive. especially existing and aspiring oceans through the exchange of nearly 60 per cent of global GDP. forms? parent business regulations. They I think of cities in this context. “global cities” – are the lifeblood goods and services, foreign invest- What does this mean for the Perhaps. But this century’s sto- are also characterised by strong They might indeed be the best of the global economy. The com- ment, workers and border-hop- “competitiveness of cities” and ry of cities and the wealth of na- and impartial rule of law, open- available political-economic units petitiveness of cities – what ping technologies. the “wealth of nations”? tions will more likely be scripted ness to trade and foreign invest- to promote prosperity, freedom makes them more productive and Unprecedented levels of urbani- Most productive policy innova- in the emerging world – outside ment, and a welcoming environ- and peace – better perhaps than successful – increasingly deter- sation make this city-based map tion is happening in cities and the West. Asian cities, stretching ment for foreign talent. Other fac- nation states, and certainly better mines the wealth of nations, re- especially relevant. Three years sub-national regions. It is not hap- from India to China and tors include good “hard connectiv- than most mechanisms of global gions and the whole world. ago, for the first time in history, pening at the level of national gov- North-east Asia via South-east ity” – roads, transit systems, governance. But the competitiveness of a over half the world’s population ernments or in international fo- Asia, will be the main players. ports and airports; and good “soft [email protected] city does not stand in isolation. lived in cities. Urban areas also ac- rums like the United Nations, the McKinsey’s list of the top 600 cit- connectivity” – education, skills The writer is visiting associate professor Cities are still linked to their im- count for over 80 per cent of glo- European Union and the G-20. ies contains 220 from developing and technology diffusion. at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public mediate hinterlands and embed- bal gross domestic product (GDP). Policymaking is more flexible and countries. But it estimates that, Like nations, cities with limit- Policy, National University of Singapore, ded in their nations. In other According to McKinsey Global In- practical the closer it is to the citi- by 2025, 136 new cities will join ed – but effective – government and chair of the Global Agenda Council words, the competitiveness of a stitute, as of 2007, 1.5 billion peo- zen. Cities often emulate each oth- this list – all from developing and competitive markets do bet- on Competitiveness of the World city and the nation of which it is a ple (22 per cent of the world’s pop- er and adopt best international countries. Of the new entrants, ter than cities with big, inefficient Economic Forum. Are human beings hard-wired for war? By DAVID P. BARASH self – because they represented such a beguilingly close fit to our AR is in the air. predictions about the likely posi- Sad to say, tive correlation between early hu- there’s nothing man violence and evolutionary fit- new about this. ness. W Nor is there any- In retrospect, even though I thing new about the claim that have no reason to doubt Yanoma- war has always been with us, and mo ferocity, at least under certain always will be. circumstances, I seriously ques- What is new, it seems, is the tion the penchant of observers degree to which this claim is (scientific and lay alike) to general- wrapped in the apparent acquies- ise from small samples of our un- cence of science, especially the questionably diverse species, espe- findings of evolutionary biology cially about something as complex with respect to a war-prone “hu- as war. man nature”. I have little doubt that the per- This year, an article in The Na- spective of many evolutionary tional Interest titled What Our Pri- biologists and some biological an- mate Relatives Say About War thropologists has been distorted answered the question “Why by the seductive drama of “primi- war?” with “Because we are hu- tive human war”. Conflict avoid- man”. In recent years, a piece in ance and reconciliation – al- New Scientist asserted that war- though no less “natural” or impor- fare has “played an integral part tant – are considerably less atten- in our evolution” and an article in tion-grabbing. the journal Science claimed that Yet peacemaking is, if any- “death in warfare is so common in thing, more pronounced and wide- hunter-gatherer societies that it ly distributed, especially among Kopassus members (from left) Kodik, Sugeng Sumaryanto and Ucok Tigor Simbolon were sentenced to six, eight and 11 years in prison respectively, following the was an important evolutionary groups of nomadic foragers who killing of four detainees in a March 9 raid on a Yogyakarta prison by Kopassus troops. PHOTO: CIARA SEMBADRA FOR THE STRAITS TIMES pressure on early Homo sapiens”. are probably closest in ecological The emerging popular consen- circumstance to our hominin an- sus about our biological predispo- cestors. The Hadza people of Tan- sition to warfare is troubling. It is zania have interpersonal conflicts, Discipline of Kopassus in question not just scientifically weak; it is get angry and sometimes fight, also morally unfortunate, as it fos- but they assuredly don’t make ters an unjustifiably limited vision war and apparently never have. vice after serving their sentences. taken against the superiors of the military chain of command in of human potential. The Moriori people, original inhab- The punishment handed down vengeful soldiers for failing to 1999. Although there is considerable itants of the Chatham Islands off on Sept 5 by the Yogyakarta mili- stop them leaving the training Only weeks before the prison reason to think that at least some the coast of New Zealand, em- tary court was lighter than the ground of Kopassus Group 2, one raid, truckloads of out-of-con- of our hominin ancestors engaged ployed several methods (including minimum term of 20 years’ im- of two Red Beret regiments spe- trol troops burned down a police in warlike activities, there is also social ridicule) that prevented indi- prisonment demanded by prose- cialising in counter-insurgency station in South Sumatra in an comparable evidence that others vidual disputes from escalating cutors, leading to renewed de- and unconventional warfare.