Is a Singaporean-modelled developmental approach viable for other African nations? Lessons from Rwanda

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the implementation of a Singaporean-modelled developmental state approach in Rwanda in order to offer lessons and recommendations that can be used by other African countries. Rwanda's Vision 2020 has been implemented through the Singaporean-modelled developmental state since 2000 and is now almost 19 years old. The threefold objectives of this article are to critically analyse (a) what the theory of a developmental state entails, (b) what the similarities and differences are between the implementation of the developmental state model in Rwanda and Singapore, and (c) what the successes and failures of Vision 2020 have been in the past 19 years of implementing the developmental state model in Rwanda. This study is qualitative in nature and is based on secondary data sources, such as journal articles, books, disciplinary magazines, and related websites, with the intention of achieving a more objective discussion and conclusion on the topic in this article. The results of this research show that Rwanda has successfully implemented the Singaporean-modelled developmental state and has in theory become a developmental state. It has, however, failed to achieve the same developmental objectives achieved by Singapore in the 19 years after its implementation of the Singaporean-modelled developmental state, and it is not likely to achieve middle-income status by 2020. It is recommended that other African countries seeking to achieve middle-income status base their economic development goals on realistic plans and take their particular social and economic conditions into account when doing so.