Tanzania, June 11 -- Dar es Salaam. In 1961, Tanganyika was richer than Singapore.

At the time, Tanganyika, which later merged with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964, had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $2.82 billion and a GDP per capita of roughly $285.

Singapore, then still part of the Federation of Malaysia, had a smaller GDP of about $765 million, although its economy was already expanding at an estimated annual growth rate of 8.1 percent. Its GDP per capita stood at around $449.

Within a few years, however, the trajectories of the two economies would begin to diverge sharply following Singapore's independence in 1965.

What followed has often been described as one of the most remarkable economic tran...