While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide problem, it certainly does not affect all countries equally.

Remarkably, one of the places most dependent on international travel, trade and business -- Singapore -- not only appears to be among the least negatively impacted, but it is literally turning the crisis into gold (or at least money and golden business opportunities).

In the past few months, I have highlighted how the city-state has actually gotten richer, thanks to rapid appreciation of assets its vast reserves are invested in -- yielding a net gain (even accounting for over S$50 billion in various pandemic relief packages) of a few hundred billion dollars.

But stock market inflation, triggered by loose fiscal and monetary policies around the world, is not the only positive outcome the virus has brought to Singapore.

As it turns out, Singapore's carefully managed response to the pandemic -- neither too strict nor too loose -- is winning it even more favours with the international community.

Singapore's pragmatism deals another blow to Hong Kong

In a CNN report published yesterday, contrasting city-state's policies with those enacted in Hong Kong -- which is still pursuing a strict zero-COVID strategy -- representatives of foreign companies present in the Chinese city warned that the status quo is untenable and is already driving many away to greener pastures in Singapore…

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