Singapore Reserves: The Untold Story

S01E02

Episode 2

How did a tiny island nation, with hardly any natural resources, end up having reserves that's estimated to be well over a trillion US dollars? To many people living in Singapore, that sum is often thought of as the accumulation of government surpluses over the years. But there is so much more to the story. This is the untold account of how Singapore might have lost chunks of its reserves in the early years of independence, if not for a few geniuses unafraid to break a few rules and step on the toes of countries bigger and stronger than Singapore. Since then, there has been successive armies of people working to guard and grow these reserves. They have been so successful, that the tiny nation, now boasts not one, but two state-owned investment entities that are giants among their global peers.