Singapore, Aug 30 (IANS): Singapore must change gears from drawing down reserves to supporting people's livelihood to generating new growth, jobs and prosperity for the future, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

While delivering the National Day Rally 2021 speech on Sunday, Lee said Singapore must now refocus on the future, reports Xinhua news agency.

The city-state needs to preserve its status as a business hub, attract more foreign investments, and grow Singapore companies and entrepreneurs, so as to sustain longer term growth, he said.

According to Lee, it is important for Singapore to open up soon and allow more people to travel in and out of Singapore in a safe way.

That is because the staff of many multinational corporations (MNCs), which use Singapore as their regional base and Singapore's businessmen need to fly in and out of the country to visit operations in other countries.

"If our borders stay closed for too long, MNCs will find us less useful, Singaporean businesses also will suffer, and our economy will be permanently damaged," the Prime Minister said.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry announced earlier this month that it upgraded Singapore's GDP growth forecast for 2021 to 6-7 per cent from 4-6 per cent.

Lee said in his speech that the Ministry is more confident because the global economy is picking up.

"The US and China are growing strongly, and Europe is also recovering," he said.

"These are our major markets."