The point was and is: Singapore is not a complete economy. It's a city state which has its hinterland in Malaysia and Indonesia.
I'm not sure what to make of the free trade agreement between Japan and Singapore except to say it makes sense because they have so few trade issues to disagree about.
As for the term, 'heavily managed economies', do you mean they have too many managers? Or do you mean the national government plays a heavy role in managing the national economy? In the case of Japan, this is always a 'given' in any discussion of Japan, but it's hard to see how Japan is more managed by its national government than many other OECD countries.
Charles Jannuzi