“Kopi lah,” says the elderly Singaporean man, leaning against the counter of the café. The stall holder hands him a bag filled with thick, creamy coffee sweetened with condensed milk. “Do people ever ask for healthier options?” I ask the woman behind the counter. She laughs. “Getting better,” she says, suggesting that people are creatures of habit.

As I wander through the market, the air dense with the smells of noodle soup, barbequed pork and sweet satay, I notice red stickers dotted on various stalls. “Healthier options available here”, reads one. “We use healthier oil”, reads another. It’s part of the Health Promotion Board’s Healthy Dining Programme where food and beverage providers get a grant if they provide healthier options for diners. It’s an indication of the small but not insignificant ways the government ‘nudges’ the population to make better choices.

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Ever since the city state on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula passed the ripe old age of 50, the administration has been keen to look outwards, to learn from and collaborate with other countries in order to shape its future. One such strategy has been to collaborate with the UK government’s Behavioural Insights Team, nicknamed the “Nudge Unit”, which uses the Nobel Prize-winning concept of “nudge theory”. This is based around the idea that people can make better choices through simple discreet policies while still retaining their freedom of choice. Nudge theory is certainly de rigeur among policy makers across the world at the moment but Singapore has actually been using similar strategies long before it became fashionable. And to understand why, you have to look back at the country’s history.

It is known for being the epitome of order and efficiency and, more importantly, the place where chewing gum is banned. Today it is one of the financial centres of the world but this has been hard-won. Following its expulsion from the Federation of Malaysia and subsequent independence in 1965, Singapore was left riddled with many socio-economic problems. Along with unemployment, lack of education and sub-standard housing, it was also a country lacking natural resources and land.

The man who took on this gargantuan task was the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. He recognised that Singapore had to change in order to thrive. "We knew that if we were just like our neighbours, we would die. Because we've got nothing to offer against what they have to offer. So we had to produce something which is different and better than what they have. It's incorrupt. It's efficient. It's meritocratic. It works,” he told the New York Times.