But, this did not happen in an equal manner, according to an article in Equal Times. Not because of any dysfunction, but because of the very nature of the IMS-GT, adds the article which first appeared, in French, in Le Monde diplomatique.
The IMS-GT was mooted in the 1980s and began in December 1994.
Today, Singapore has the world’s third-highest GDP per capita (after Qatar and Luxembourg), amounting to USD83,066 (purchasing power parity).
Malaysia lags far behind, at USD26,638, though it is in turn far ahead of Indonesia with USD10,651.
Singapore also has the highest concentration of billionaires per square kilometre on the planet, the second-biggest container port after Shanghai and is the fourth most important financial market after London, New York and Hong Kong.
According to the article, over a decade ago, geographer Nathalie Fau explained that these disparities were not the result of dysfunctions within the IMS-GT but were fundamental to it.
He said: At the micro-regional level, [IMS-GT] typifies the principles of the international division of labour.
[It exploits to its] advantage the geo-economic hiatus created by national borders. Its operation relies on the existence of gradients, which are economic (labour costs, level of industrialisation and size of the service sector), demographic (availability of labour) and political (protectionism or free trade) among the countries bordering the straits”.
The article quotes Milica Topalovic, an associate professor at the Singapore-ETH Future Cities Laboratory, as saying: “Without the regional perspective it would be a lot more difficult, if at all possible, for Singapore to maintain the role that it has as a global city.”
On the Malaysian side, it says, local businesses and the property market are booming thanks to a Singaporean clientele who can rent or buy property and shop much more cheaply than at home.
Singapore has invested USD3.4 billion in the Iskandar Malaysia project, which includes free trade industrial and port zones, residential complexes and business centres. This massive project, launched in 2006, covers an area three times that of Singapore, and is intended to attract USD100 billion in investment and create 800,000 jobs by 2025.
According to the Equal Times article, Bintan and Batam, in the Riau Islands, have secured most of the Triangle investments that have come Indonesia’s way.
Bintan, an hour by ferry from Singapore, has specialised in tourism while Batam has become an industrial centre.
The hope of growth shared fairly among partners is illusory, as are the promises of a territory without borders, says the article.
Professor Toh Mun Heng of the National University of Singapore Business School is quoted as predicting a 5.7 per cent annual growth rate for the IMS-GT in the period 2013-20.
However, the article concludes, the current established economic hierarchy is unlikely to change.