From the financial contagion of the 2007 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to viral contagion in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore has been severely impacted by ripples and shockwaves that have emanated from global financial and healthcare crises. At the same time, it has proven to be highly resilient amidst such instability. This book provides an in-depth account of Singapore's policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and GFC. It focuses on the policy capacity-building efforts that have taken place in the aftermath of earlier crises such as the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak and the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.


Linked across time and space, these four crises - SARS, COVID-19, the AFC and GFC - reflect a consistent pattern in Singapore's approach to crisis management. This is a pattern that involves policy learning and capacity-building after each crisis, and the application of these lessons and capacities to subsequent crises. In focusing on the role of policy capacity in Singapore's crisis response measures, this book will provide policymakers and practitioners with a useful framework that can be used to plan for future crises and pandemics.