There are food courts elsewhere too. The main difference is government subsidized rent, and an older generation of people who are willing to work very hard for low overall income. The former can be solved by politics but the latter cannot. It is simply not sustainable. Look at the people who are working in these hawker centers: they are almost always old, and they are willing to work hard so that their children can work less hard in a nice air conditioned office. When these people retire, there will be no one to occupy these hawker centers at this price of food.