Singapore
Singapore’s success story has been based on proactive long-range planning and a willingness to adapt to current realities in order to achieve long-term economic growth.
Area: 270 square miles Capital: Singapore Government: Republic Population: 4,6 million Language: Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil GDP per capita: USD 24,000 Monetary unit: Singapore Dollar Imports: Machinery and equipment, chemicals, mineral fuels, food. Exports: Machinery and equipment (including electronics), consumer goods, chemicals, mineral fuels
Proactive, business-friendly policies foundation for long-term growth
Economy
Khor Hoe Ee, Assistant Manager Director (Economic Research and Financial Stability) of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
Having begun to establish a world-class financial sector in the 1960s, Singapore grew to become one of the world’s top financial capitals through its winning combination of attractions: sound economic and financial fundamentals, a regulatory and business environment conducive to financial-sector growth, a strategic location, highly skilled and educated workforce, superior telecommunications and infrastructure, and exceptionally high standards of living.
Assistant Managing Director (Economic Research and Financial Stability) of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Khor Hoe Ee, points out that Singapore is globally diversified and transparent, with a government that listens to the needs of the business community. “Singapore is a highly open yet robust, responsive nation,” he says. “We are good business partners now and into the future, because we will adapt and recreate ourselves to fit the demands and challenges of the global economy.”
Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong believes that the economy will grow by three to five percent in 2004. At a National Trades Union Congress in October 2003, he told delegates that the improving economy would “make up for lost ground” as a result of the SARS crisis.
Singapore’s financial services sector accounts for 11 percent of the country’s GDP and includes a total of around 700 local and foreign financial institutions that offer a wide range of financial products and services, including trade financing, foreign exchange, derivatives products, capital market activities, loan syndication, underwriting, mergers and acquisitions, asset management, securities trading, financial advisory services, and specialized insurance services.
Yet Singapore is much more than a financial-services center. Singapore is successfully transforming itself into a knowledge-based economy and achieved USD 7.5 billion in fixed-asset investment and USD 1.9 billion in total business spending last year alone.
