The Economic Strategy Review (ESR) Committees have submitted their recommendations to the government in a final report dated May 2026. The report sets out an economic strategy for Singapore to stay competitive, and create good jobs so workers and businesses can be resilient, and seize opportunities in a fundamentally changed global environment.
Since its formation in August 2025, the ESR Committees have conducted over 80 engagements and consultations with trade associations and chambers, unions, businesses, and workers, engaging more than 7,700 stakeholders across various sectors. These engagements surfaced important perspectives on the challenges facing businesses and workers, and opportunities to be seized.
SECURING FUTURE GROWTH AND JOBS
Growing geopolitical tensions, rapid advances in technology especially artificial intelligence (AI), the transition to a low-carbon economy, and slowing workforce growth have profound implications for economic growth and jobs in Singapore.
Building on the mid-term update in January 2026 and the government’s responses during the 2026 Budget and Committee of Supply debates, the ESR Committees have articulated three imperatives to guide how Singapore should respond.
Three imperatives
- Sharpen Singapore’s value proposition
This is how the country can establish its advantage. Without the critical mass and scale of larger economies, Singapore must focus on where it can create the most hard-to-replicate value for others.
- Enhance agility and adaptability
The pace of change is accelerating. Singapore’s institutions, firms and workforce must have the capacity to move faster, take calculated risks and solve problems quickly.
- Build resilience alongside efficiency
Shocks will be more frequent. The country must be able to absorb disruptions, diversify risks and build strategic buffers where needed, to bounce back quickly.
Eight thrusts
The three imperatives underlie eight thrusts and their recommendations. The eight thrusts work together as one strategy, with every recommendation coming back to one vision – a Singapore that stays competitive and resilient in a changed world, committed to creating good jobs and opportunities for its people. Here are the eight thrusts and ESR’s recommendations:
- Build global leadership in areas of strength, and take bold bets for future growth
- Sharpen Sinagpore’s ability to attract and anchor leading industries
- Accelerate the transformation of existing operations
- Entrench investments deeply into our ecosystem
- Invest in emerging technologies to create new growth engines
- Expand into high-value trust-based services
- Make Singapore a global leader in AI solutions, and an AI-empowered economy
- Make Singapore a location of choice for high-impact AI solutions
- Develop leading firms as “Champions of AI”
- Accelerate economy-wide AI adoption
- Strengthen Singapore’s role as a connected and trusted hub
- Build next-generation physical and digital connectivity in an integrated manner
- Capture more value from/by orchestrating flows
- Build leadership in trusted data flows and digital infrastructure
- Reinforce and extend Singapore’s role as an energy hub
- Foster a more dynamic enterprise ecosystem so that more Singapore-based companies can start, scale, and succeed globally
- Expand access to growth capital and strengthen support for startups
- Anchor and grow the next generation of leading enterprises
- Strengthen support for Singapore-based firms to internationalise
- Enable firms to restructure and transition more smoothly
- Create more and a broader range of good jobs
- Stay open while building deeper Singaporean capabilities in growth sectors
- Advance an AI strategy that complements workers
- Raise quality and attractiveness of jobs in resilient sectors
- Strengthen entrepreneurship as a viable pathway
- Establish a stronger system for career transitions and worker support
- Create “career bridges” to support workers in at-risk roles
- Enable earlier intervention in retrenchment support
- Strengthen support for professionals, managers and executives (PMEs)
- Closely monitor the impact of AI on workers and adjust policies where needed
- Empower workers to learn for life and take charge of their careers
- Deepen SkillsFuture support for career transitions and lifelong learning
- Integrate learning with work and employer needs
- Invest in future-ready skills, namely, AI, human skills, and global exposure
- Build a more nimble ecosystem of career and employment services
- Build economic resilience as a core capability
- Build energy resilience through strategic buffers and diversification
- Prepare for a low carbon and climate-resilient future
- Identify and mitigate critical supply chain vulnerabilities
- Expand Singapore’s network of trusted partnerships
The Executive Summary of the ESR Final Report sets out the thrusts and their recommendations in detail.
NEXT STEPS
The government will study the ESR recommendations and work together with industry partners and unions, business leaders and workers, to translate these recommendations into action.
