Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has taken a break from his busy political schedule and posting viral cat pics to publish a book entitled Prosperity.
Besides providing a survey of Western economic history, the book details the economic challenges facing Belgium and Europe, including the great uphill struggles of demographic aging and steadily rising social spending.
So far, so European. What’s new is the source of inspiration De Wever suggests for tackling Belgium’s woes: the policies of Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. De Wever praises the late founder and longtime Prime Minister of Singapore for having instituted a culture of “order and respect,” created a “healthy national sentiment,” and “fought against communism, corruption, and drugs.”
Singapore-Belgium: an absurd comparison? Singapore is so business-friendly and well-run that it has become the richest country in Asia. The city-state is, by European standards, authoritarian, including draconian (but effective) measures against crime. (While Brussels struggles with bike theft, burglaries, and rising drug and gun violence, Singapore is so safe that shops often don’t bother to lock up at night.)
In contrast to Singapore’s uniform technocratic government, our Plat Pays is run by an extraordinarily complex, multilayered democratic system of governance (try to explain to the 6 million Singaporeans that Belgium’s 12 million people have not one but twelve ministers of health).
But let’s have a go and take De Wever at his word on trying to Singaporianise Belgium, starting with the territory most like a potential city-state: the Brussels-Capital Region. Here are four ways to create Singapore-on-the-Senne.
1. Make English an official language of Brussels
Lee Kuan Yew’s imposition of English as the working language of Singapore was a bold move that simultaneously met two goals. First, it provided a neutral working language for Singapore’s diverse population of Chinese, Malays, Indians, and others. As such, English was key to the success of Singapore multiracialism. Second, it positioned Singapore globally as a natural place to do business for multinational corporations and international investors.
English can play a similar role in the Brussels Region. The administrative recognition of English for interactions with municipal authorities and the State would obviously be a huge boon for international businesses and top researchers looking to set up shop in Brussels.
English could also, in time, unite Brussels’ ultra-diverse population. After all, over 75% of Brusselers are of neither Flemish, nor Walloon origin. This does not mean abandoning French or Dutch, which would continue to be used by the administration and be required for residents to become citizens.
2. Run Brussels like a city-state
Brussels today is run (or not run) as a chaotic patchwork of 19 communes and a regional administration requiring a Calhounian concurrent majority of both “Francophone” and “Flemish” parties to form a government. The difficulty of forming such a double majority across linguistic groups is part of the reason the Brussels Region it took over 600 days for the current Boris Dilliès Government to take office.
I put the communities in scare quotes because these supposed affiliations are partly fictitious, as with the minority-interest Team Fouad Ahidar registering as “Flemish” in order to benefit from extra seats per vote in the Brussels Parliament (the number of seats per community is fixed).
Suffice to say, the Region’s governance is a baroque mess produced by Walloon-Flemish inter-ethnic negotiation. Why shouldn’t Brusselers run their affairs themselves as they see fit? It’s time for a simplified system of pan-Regional government reflecting the will of the city’s residents.
The Arizona Coalition’s merger of police zones in Brussels is a good start. We need to go further with sovereign pan-Regional development and infrastructure authorities empowered to grow and organise Brussels on a rational basis, not following the communes’ often bizarre boundaries.
3. YIMBY Brussels
Singapore routinely ranks among the top countries—often the top country—for Ease of Doing Business, according to the World Bank. The same cannot be said for Belgium, which currently ranks 46th; worse than Serbia and only slightly better than Belarus. Brussels must do better. To be sure, the Region cannot eliminate Belgium’s punitive regime of taxes and social charges—one of the heaviest in the world—nor can it reform Belgium’s over 344-page labor code.
What the Brussels Region can do is say yes: Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY), meaning yes to development opportunities, both for housing and industrial sites. As the OECD points out, the Region suffers from the “Brussels Paradox” of having poor social conditions and a shortage of affordable and quality housing, despite being a high performer economically.
Instead of Brussels’ current multi-layered permitting approach for development—often requiring separate approval from the commune, Bruxelles-Environnement, Bruxelles Urbanisme & Patrimoine, and other organisations.
Brussels should take inspiration from Singapore’s CORENET system, whereby agencies coordinate automatically on assessing a single digital application for permitting. Developers need certainty on permit timelines and consistent interpretation of rules, not improvisation by each government bureau.
4. Zero tolerance for littering
Lee Kuan Yew liked to emphasize the importance of having a clean and green city to make a positive impression on all international visitors. If your city streets are pristine and your gardens well-tended, visitors will know this is a good place to work with, as well as being pleasant. Brussels doesn’t need to adopt Singapore’s harsh criminal punishments to have clean streets. The key is, again, consistency.
Bruxelles-Propreté and the unified police authorities should be empowered across all 19 communes to enforce identical cleanliness rules with stiff and immediate fines. Enforcement should be visible, consistent, even boring, starting with the most high profile areas: the city-center tourist area and the EU Quarter.
Once people know punishment is predictable, behavior will change. The authorities should also communicate widely on the new approach and ensure bins are strategically positioned and frequently emptied.
Ceci n’est pas une cité-État. Not yet, but by taking the right actions, Brussels can be a well-run, clean, and open city-state and a hub of global excellence. So why not Mr. De Wever? Singapore-on-the-Senne: this is no dream, but a reality we can work towards.
