I don't really know much about him or Singapore outside of some cursory reading on wiki about the state, history, and economic data of the micro-country, because an animator/comic maker that I like (RandoWis) mentioned that he was doing another forced stint in their military reserve, and how every Singaporean has to serve in active duty like occupied Korea, and also having a forced 10 year stint in the reserves.

My conclusion on the cursory examination is that it's a capitalist taxhaven hellhole that's like Dubai, and :biden-troll: New Jersey rolled together. It's one of the most wealthy nations in ASEAN, and has a disgusting level of wealth inequality. It prides itself on being one of the most free places on earth for corporations, yet its government is strong (and smart enough) to utilize its taxes to build an intricate welfare state to keep the poor Singaporeans above water.

Knowledge on the country is well out of my depths, so anyone else either from there or studied the region would know more

Singapore being one of the busiest ports for China due to geography while being such a tiny country with such a low population makes it incredibly easy to become wealthy

Its simple, Singapore was "chosen" to be "prosperous" because that serves the interest of global capital the best

No real natural resources so no need for resource extraction

Good port, ideal for a trade and finance hub

Very little to do with people running it

Same as Hong Kong

They're like super dependent on cheap labor from Malaysia and other SEA countries. Also a great place to setup shell companies for tax evasion.