The transcript below was taken from our full interview with Singapore presidential hopeful Ng Kok Song. It’s part of a series where we discuss tech, business, and other topics with potential candidates for the upcoming presidential elections.

You can also read our detailed coverage or watch the full video of the chat with Ng.

Transcript

You see, our first generation of political leaders – Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, Mr. Hon Sui Sen, finance minister – these leaders were venture capitalists.

We normally don’t think of it that way.

But they were the first venture capitalists – and venture capitalists on a national scale because these were the people who took risks in setting up what is now perceived to be successful institutions: DBS Bank, Singapore Airlines.

We have to – I wouldn’t say recover – refresh, renew that entrepreneurial spirit that was in our first generation of political leaders and business leaders.

I think this is extremely important because Singapore is in a very good position geopolitically because the business world is reconfiguring their supply chain, the way they want to do business.

Everybody wants to have a “China Plus One” strategy.

In other words, Western companies, they want to do business in China with their China operations, but they also want to tap the rest of Asia by having an alternative location in Asia. Chinese companies, they want to go international.

So I’m very optimistic for the future.

And one of the things I want to say to the young people of Singapore is, “Don’t despair. The best is yet to come.”