MA-IBP Students Discuss the Global Economy with Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States

Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, hosted Master of Arts in International Business and Policy (MA-IBP) students of Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at the Singaporean embassy in Washington, D.C., as part of the course, “Future of the Global Economy’, taught by Professor Ricardo Ernst. Mirpuri discussed Singapore’s economic and diplomatic trajectory, as well as its current and future challenges.

The ambassador talked about the country’s economic success as the result of government policies to attract multinationals to invest in Singapore, and how the country has become a destination for global companies exploring opportunities to establish their Asia headquarters.

“Singapore is an attractive location due to its connectivity to the Asia region and its highly trained, English-speaking population,” said Mirpuri.

For student Moises Morera (MA-IBP’18), who also is a Spanish diplomat stationed in Morocco, the visit was the perfect way to conclude the globalization course.

“It was great to hear from the ambassador the incredible transformation Singapore has gone through over the last 50 years,” said Morera. “The country has taken the best of globalization and opened up to the world. This visit helped me discover a small yet powerful country that has overcome various challenges and has offered lessons to many other geographies.”

Jolene Fredericks (MA-IBP’18) asked the ambassador about the country’s policies to mitigate the inequality gap.

“The government is working to provide equal opportunities such as subsidized family housing, access to public health care, and public education, with our public schools ranked as some of the best in the world,” said Mirpuri.

He also touched on population issues and how the government is addressing them.

“With one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, our government encourages short-term work migration,” said Mirpuri. “Also, the increased use of robots in different industries such as hotels and hospitals is expected to help offset the population imbalance.”