A top Chinese economist has warned that Singapore's economy could surpass Hong Kong's over the next three decades in part because of the Singapore government’s support for local industries. Justin Lin Yifu, a former World Bank economist and current director of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, said that as a free economy, Hong Kong's per capita gross domestic product was 70% higher than Singapore's in the 1980s, but is now 30% lower. This is due in part to the support extended by Singapore's government to local industries. Lin pointed out that Singapore's industrial structure was similar to Hong Kong's between the 1950s and 1970s when Hong Kong was not only a financial centre, but also a large manufacturing hub.
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