Episode 48
Singapore Budget 2025 is a landmark one, coinciding with the year Singapore turns 60, and arriving ahead of the General Elections. This is also the first Budget under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. But beyond the headline-grabbing incentives, does Budget 2025 truly create opportunities for all?
The team at the Social Inclusion Project (SIP) host this podcast special. Moderated by SIP’s Nessa Swinn Yap, and led by SIP’s lead, Dr Ng Kok Hoe (Senior Research Fellow, NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy), they speak to guests Dr Stephanie Chok (Executive Director, Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME)), and Lim Jingzhou (Community Worker, Cassia Resettlement Team) to explore the Budget’s implications for lower-income groups, migrant workers, and caregivers.
Episode 47
Dr Reuben Ng is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and a behavioural scientist who also spent 16 years in government consulting and research. He's an expert in ageism, social gerontology, and quantitative social science. It's in that context that we spoke to him about the ongoing longevity revolution and how our AI and agency are helping to reframe ageing in a positive light. Thank you for joining us. Could you start by just telling us how you describe the longevity revolution?
Episode 46
Dr Denis Hew is Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Prior to taking up his current appointment, he was director of the APEC Policy Support Unit, PSU, from 2011 to 2022. Dr Hew also spent two years in the Asian Development Bank, ADB in its Southeast Asia department, where he managed technical assistance programmes on regional cooperation and integration.
Episode 45
Professor Eduardo Araral, is a distinguished academic and practitioner with over 30 years of experience in academia and government. His research primarily focuses on institutions for collective action. As a prominent figure in the field, Professor Araral has contributed to significant projects with various governments and international organisations, including the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. He has engaged in over 250 executive education programmes, sharing his insights with thousands of government officials, business leaders, and NGOs across more than 50 countries.
Episode 44
Assistant Professor Tan Soo Jie Sheng primarily uses micro econometrics techniques combined with economic modelling to conduct empirical research in the areas of environment, health, and development. Recently, he and his co-authors published an article titled, “Using Cost–Benefit Analyses to Identify Key Opportunities in Demand-Side Mitigation.”
Episode 43
The world’s largest democracy, India, has recently concluded its six-week long election, counting 640 million votes. India’s incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected but his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost their majority and are now in a coalition with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). What does this mean for India, Asia and the world?
Episode 42
A new book, Building Urban Resilience: Singapore's Policy Response to Covid-19 is one of the first few books to discuss the Covid-19 crisis as an urban phenomenon. Written by our guests—J.J. Woo who is a Senior Lecturer at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Debbie R. Loo, who is an architect by training with a background in professional practice, urban studies research, and teaching—the book takes a look at how pandemics have shaped urban planning for centuries, and how we can learn from the experience to improve our population centres in many different ways.
Episode 41
Indonesian voters in Southeast Asia’s largest democracy elected the ticket of former military general Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka in February 2024, but not without controversy. Gibran is the son of outgoing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is accused of manipulating the courts to allow Gibran to run despite being below the constitutional minimum age.
There are even charges of vote rigging that are being handled by Indonesia’s Election Supervisory Agency or Bawaslu and The General Elections Commission known as KPU.
Associate Professor Suzaina Kadir is Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and an expert on politics in Southeast Asia.
As an avid Indonesia watcher, we wanted to get her take on what the upcoming administration means for Indonesia domestically, regionally and globally.
Episode 40
From booming GDP growth and low interest rates to raging inflation and a shrinking economy, most of us have a sense of how the macroeconomic ups and downs can affect our lives. But have you ever considered what it takes to keep an economy healthy?
Our guest certainly has. Ramkishen S. Rajan is Yong Pung How Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He has been a Visiting Fellow at various regional research institutes, including the Asia Competitiveness Institute, the Institute of Policy Studies as well as the Asian Development Bank Institute.
Episode 39
The last time we spoke to Leong Ching, Vice Provost for Student Life, NUS, and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, we discussed the "yuck factor" which describes people's visceral aversion to drinking recycled water. Today, we'll be expanding on that topic to look at the rationale behind irrational environmental behaviour in general.
As an institutional economist, Professor Leong uses narratives, perceptions and stories to understand collective public behaviour as well as environmental identities.
Episode 38
Urban environments, from infrastructure to green spaces, play a crucial role in shaping lifestyle choices, social dynamics, and overall quality of health. This intricate relationship between urban spaces and health underscores the need for comprehensive strategies that address the challenges posed by modern city living while fostering conditions that promote healthier, happier communities.
Tan Shin Bin is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). She previously worked as an urban planner at Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the government body tasked with guiding the physical development of Singapore in a sustainable manner.
She joins us to discuss how urban environments impact health, as well as the opportunities and challenges faced when developing policies to promote healthier lifestyles within urban spaces.
Episode 37
Dr Marina Kaneti is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Her area of research centres on global governance and questions of migration, climate and geopolitical developments.
She has explored the influence of China around the world, including the Belt and Road initiative. Recently, she produced a two-part documentary series titled “The Seas That Bind Us and Define Us”, exploring maritime heritage and its significance in Asia.
She joins us to talk about maritime heritage, exploring the shaping and impact of narratives, and implications for the present and beyond.
Episode 36
In an increasingly interconnected world, the advent of mobile banking has ushered in a transformative era. Access to mobile banking can have a profound impact on people in developing economies. The impact of mobile banking extends beyond individual lives – it ripples through entire communities, affecting aspects such as migration and inequality.
Dr Saravana Ravindran, Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, studies challenges and potential policy solutions relating to migration, including mobile banking and digital financial services. He has conducted research into whether mobile technology can reduce inequality by modernising traditional ways to transfer money. He joins us to explore the socio-economic impact of mobile banking on communities.
Episode 35
ASEAN aims to create a highly integrated regional economy by 2025. Known as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the initiative faces obstacles that may hinder the achieving of its goal. To understand the challenges and opportunities, we speak to Dr Denis Hew, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Episode 34
Singapore is world-renowned for its urban planning. While it is enjoying the success of the good planning of the past, it finds itself in the middle of an important shift to be prepared for the environment of the future. To understand the challenges and opportunities, we speak with
Dr Woo Jun Jie. Dr Woo is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where he heads the Governance and Economy department. His work focuses on urban policy, economic development, and crisis management in Asia.
Episode 33
Visiting Professor Emmanuel Skoufias served as a Lead Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank Group, from 2004 until his retirement in 2022.
His area of expertise includes the use of microdata to analyse the determinants of poverty and household welfare, the impacts of risk and risk management strategies, and the targeting of social protection programs.
He joined us for a deep dive into how microdata informs policy planning and decisions.
Episode 28
Terence Ho is an Associate Professor in Practice at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Over the past decade, Professor Ho has held various policy research and leadership positions in the Singapore public service, including as an economist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Divisional Director of Manpower Planning and Policy at the Ministry of Manpower.
A frequent commentator for publications such as the Straits Times and Channel News Asia, Professor Ho specialises in economic and manpower policy, fiscal policy, public sector management, and organisation, social security, inequality, and social mobility. He joins us to discuss Singapore's economy in this time of volatility and uncertainty.
Episode 27
Vinod Thomas is Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Previously he served as Director General of Independent Evaluation at Asian Development Bank, where he worked to institute change. In his role, he assessed ADB’s development effectiveness while providing lessons to help inform ADB’s actions. This was instrumental in making green growth and action on climate change more integral to ADB’s strategy. This is just one example of Professor Thomas' deep understanding of issues affecting climate change and the environment. So he's in a perfect position to help us answer this question “Renewable Energy – how real is this for Asia?”
Episode 26
Francesco Mancini, Vice Dean (Executive Education) and Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy has an extensive background in the prevention and settlement of armed conflict. He was a senior director at the International Peace Institute in New York, a think tank that works very closely with the United Nations and its member states. He has been working in and around conflict, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and negotiation for close to 20 years. In that light, we've asked him to share his views on the current military conflict in Ukraine.
Episode 25
“What is public policy?” It has often been broadly defined as a set of actions the government decides to take when approaching a problem that affects society as a group. When Global-is-Asian decided to explore the question of public policy and its impact on Singapore, one faculty member stood out as the perfect person to speak with to get their input: Lim Siong Guan is Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, instructing on leadership and change management, and his depth of experience is impressive.
Episode 24
Dr. Marina Kaneti specialises in questions of global development, including the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, environmental governance, human rights, the sustainable development goals and for the purpose of this discussion – migration. I started by asking her what made her interested in migration in the first place.
Episode 23
Episode 22
Assistant Professor Taha Hameduddin at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy says, "if you want to sell a talk or a speaker or a class, you have to put the word leadership in it". But the fact is, leadership matters.
Episode 21
“It’s time for ASEAN to act and lead the de-escalation and mediation process in Myanmar.” That’s the main message of a paper published by The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, co-authored by our guest, Yongwook Ryu, Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, together with Bernard Minn and Myat Myat Mon, who are both Master in Public Policy candidates at LKYSPP.
Episode 20
In the 21st century, terrorism continues to be a phenomenon that plagues countries all around the world. In this Foreseeable Podcast, Professor Francesco Mancini gives us insights on terrorism and how it could change in the future.
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Episode 19
There was a lot of media attention when a Pew Research Center study came out in late 2020 saying that 61 percent of citizens in 14 major economies hold unfavourable views of China.
But what about public opinion inside China? How did Chinese citizens view these same 14 countries? That’s exactly what our guests found out. Their survey revealed that the negative feelings are largely mutual, particularly Chinese views of the US, which 77 percent responded was “very unfavourable" or "somewhat unfavourable".
Episode 18
After a tense and controversial election period, Joe Biden is now set to become the next president of the United States. We asked Assistant Professor Yongwook Ryu to give us his perspective on the past four years under the Trump administration, as well as on what the Biden administration has in store for China and the rest of Asia.
Episode 17
Episode 16
Episode 15
Razeen Sally is Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies, the main economic-policy think tank in his native Sri Lanka. His research and teaching focuses on global trade policy and Asia in the world economy. He has also written on the history of economic ideas, especially the theory of commercial policy.
Episode 14
James Crabtree sheds light on his latest book, "The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age" with an in-depth look at the “…billionaire class in a radically unequal society” where the country’s top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth.
Episode 13
Episode 4
Ong Ye Kung, Singapore's Minister for Education has been a Member of Parliament since 2015 and has held a wide range of government positions, including Deputy Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress - NTUC, Chief Executive of Singapore Workforce Development Agency - WDA, and Deputy Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
Minister Ong recently spoke at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's Festival of Ideas
2019, where he shared his views on what he considers the key governance issues of our
time; like technology disruption, inequality, and climate change.
Global-is-Asian met up with the Minister to follow up and have a deeper discussion:
Episode 3
Thomas Friedman, noted author and foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, believes the world is being reshaped today by three simultaneous accelerations: in technology, globalisation and climate change. He presented his ideas in a panel at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's Festival of Ideas 2019, then sat down for a discussion with Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute. Later, Global-is-Asian sat down with both of them for this podcast interview.
Episode 2
Singapore's national pledge recited daily by school children states, "regardless of race, language or religion" - yet discussing racial integration remains a touchy subject.
Dr. Mathew Mathews is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Social Lab at the
Institute of Policy Studies where, among other things, he conducts research in race, religion, immigrant integration, family aging, and poverty.
Episode 1
Danny Quah is a noted economist, teacher and writer. He is currently Dean and Li Ka Shing professor in economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His work focuses on income inequality, economic growth, and international economic relations.
Lately he's been studying the global power shift and the rise of the East and alternative models of global power relations.
Episode 19
Australia's Lowy Institute “ranks 25 countries and territories in terms of their power” in their 2019 Asia Power Index — which highlights China's rise.
Episode 19
At the heart of India’s water crisis is the pollution of the Ganges — a river not only rich in culture, but waist-deep in man-made hazards that continue to plague the sacred stream.
Episode 19
Economist Professor Elinor Ostrom believed the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ could be avoided. But collective action is still a problem especially when it comes to governing global public goods. A former student of Elinor Ostrom's - Associate Professor Eduardo Araral - shares some insights.
This podcast was developed as part of PP5908 Global Governance in a Changing World, a core course for the Master in International Affairs (MIA) programme at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Episode 19
Vinod Thomas, Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, joins Adam Cotter, head of Asia at OMFIF. They discuss countries’ increasing exposure and vulnerability to climate change, its impact on economic growth and the challenges facing policy-makers in implementing appropriate strategies to mitigate climate change.