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A few years ago, at the Forbes CEO conference in Singapore, I asked Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, a question: what lessons could other third world countries take away from Singapore's rise to prominence?

The question came out a little wrong - obviously I was referring to Singapore's historical position (the position referred to in Lee Kuan Yew's memoir "From Third World to First"), not modern Singapore - but after we got past that, he gave an answer that essentially summed up Singapore's success formula: create a self-sustaining economy that supports fair dealing.

This is what Singapore has done from the beginning of its modern era. One of the first moves by singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, was a radical increase in pay for the public sector, a strategy that over the course of five decades has resulted in an almost complete absence of corruption.

In Singapore, government ministers are paid extremely well for two excellent reasons - to ensure that really smart people make it into government, and to remove the need for "additional income". Citizens of other countries that complain about the high salaries of government officials are missing the point - there are benefits to ensuring that your public sector is well-paid.

A second innovation, the creation of an employee and employer-funded Central Provident Fund - a mandated superannuation facility designed to provide support for home ownership and retirement - has resulted in one of the highest home ownership rates in the world, and a self-funded social security system that is the envy of governments everywhere.

A third innovation (possibly the result of the race riots of the sixties) has been the successful mingling of races, religions, and business cultures through a policy of protecting each culture while ensuring that each public housing block or facility does not overly represent one particular group.

Given Singapore's success, it seems strange that more countries have not followed. As I travel, and listen to people from countries such as Argentina, Lebanon, Guatemala and Nigeria, I'm always astounded that more leaders do not seem to be paying attention to Singapore's example.

Singapore, you might say, has the advantage of being a small place. But while that presents an organizing advantage, it presents a huge disadvantage in terms of natural wealth. The path that Singapore has cut has not been easy - but the strategy has created enormous wealth for its people, and one of the best places to live, anywhere in the world.

Why can't/won't other countries do the same for their people?