Singapore is an island and a smallest country in Southeast Asia. Singapore is one of the “Four Asian Tigers” where the world major cargo seaport occurs. Despite the small size of the nation, Singapore economy have strong international trade link with capitalist mixed economy when the government intervention in the market is minimal (Economy watch, 2011).
Since Singapore gained sovereignty in 1965 from Malaysia, its politics has been dominated by the People Action Party. Under the leadership of People Action Party, Singapore has a “distinct political culture: authoritarian, pragmatic, rational and legalistic.” Economic growth and political stability were maintained by the People Action Party’s guidance. Thus, Singapore is corruption- free government where power is gained through skill and performance that attracted investments from other countries (“Introduction to Singapore’s political system”, 2011). Singapore scored the point of 1.33 in the 2009 World Bank’s governance indicators for the factor political stability. The government also opens a number of sectors such as financial services o, telecommunications, power generation, and retail to increase competition and foreign firms (eStandardsForum, February 2010).
Since it lacks of natural resources, Singapore needs to import mainly its sources from Malaysia especially fresh water. Malaysia also is the second largest export market after Hong Kong (11.6%). Other major trade partners are United States, Indonesia, China, and Japan. The major exports are machinery and equipment (including electronics and transport), consumer goods, chemicals, telecommunication apparatus, pharmaceuticals, and mineral fuels. With the activeness of the government in negotiating the eight free tra...
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Economy watch. (2011) Singapore economy. Retrieved April 4, 2011 from http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/singapore
International human development indicators. (2010). Singapore. Retrieved April 4, 2011 from http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/explanations/SGP.pdf
Janus Corporate Solutions. (2011) Introduction to Singapore’s economy. Guide me Singapore. Retrieved April 4, 2011 from http://www.guidemesingapore.com/relocation/introduction/singapores-economy
Janus Corporate Solutions. (2011). Introduction to Singapore’s political system. Guide me Singapore. Retrieved April 4, 2011 from http://www.guidemesingapore.com/relocation/introduction/singapores-political-system
U.S. Department of State. (2010, October 9). Background note: Singapore. Retrieved April 4, 2011 from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2798.htm
Industrial relations always play an important role in economic development of every country in the world. Singapore’s labor industrial relations have become a solid foundation for the dramatic improvement of Singapore’s economy for the last 50 years. However, just because it was very successful in the past does not necessarily mean that it will continuously bring similar outcomes in the future. The rapid transformation of the world will provide new challenges and shape a different set of environment. The ability to adapt to the new challenges and capture new opportunities will be crucial for the survival of the individual as well as organizations and nations.
Mark Fenn, T. (2014). Singapore’s Foreigner Problem. The Diplomat. Retrieved 18 April 2014, from http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/singapores-foreigner-problem/
Before applying the social capital concept to Singapore, I believe it is safe to state that Singapore is not a “complete” democracy and therefore the lack of social capital will not destabilise the state. Singapore is a Confucius society with meritocracy. Every individual is working hard for himself and for his/her family. Individuals do not have the luxury of time to participate in civic engagements. Hence they are not able to come together and resolve the collective action
Singapore thrives on the fact that they are a very business oriented economy. Singapore is seen by people “as a leading global financial center” giving them quite a good reputation amongst the world (Heritage 2014). Singapore, for such a small country has
Singapore still benefit from the current boom in Asian travel and tourism but the journey ahead is packed with challenges. The country has to deal with physical limitations, slowing labour force growth and competition from a fast-growing neighbourhood.
Upon independence, Singapore had a workforce consisting of three million people and a huge proportion of them were unemployed. More than two-thirds of the city state’s population was living in slums and squatter settlements. (Zhou) It lacked natural resources, sanitation, proper infrastructure and adequate water supply. Then, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew tried to seek for international assistance but it was to no avail, leaving Singapore to bootstrap itself out of its adverse situation. Learning from Israel’s ability and success to bypass its Arab neighbors who boycotted them and trade with Europe and America, Singapore knew that we have to connect with the developed world and convince their multinational corporations to invest in Singapore. That is when globalization was experimented and it has been officially embraced as one of the state policy in Singapore.
The health of the Singapore economy based on the analysis of its positive balance of payment is very favourable because it is shown in part (a) that Singapore economy is growing at a high rate and is assured of economic growth. Singapore has very few debts and these debts will not hinder further plans as the income generated will be more focused on research and development sector rather than repayment of debts. Additional, Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is high and this means that the production activities are also high and the people within
Singapore as a country has had various transformations throughout its history, however the period 1950 and 1970 was quite critical. Much of these changes had a lot to do with the development of trade and manufacturing. This is without forgetting the financial sector where the intention was to come up with a financial hub that could be used in economic development. Looking at the case of Singapore, we would say that it is a productive economy with a very high market competition. This observation has been further clarified by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development, going with their report that they released in the year 2001 (Chellaraj & Mattoo, 2009). In this study, we intend to evaluate the case of political economy of development in Singapore and examine the tensions between the state and various economic institutions. In additions to examining this institution, we would also like to examine how these variables have contributed towards the attainment of favorable growth rates and economic prosperity.
Objective history is purely factual and totally uninfluenced by feelings or opinions. By this definition, the Singapore Story is not an objective history.
Singapore government main focus is on technology and chemical, but they are lacked in raw resources, because Singapore does not have land to this mean you cannot build a farm. Also, they have the ocean around them they cannot use it because it is salt water, this make water a very precious resource. The reason, Singapore is a top world ranking for economics, they have the government creating and helping company to grow. While, America are the ninth richest country in the world for GPD per capita, they can create demands. Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. these companies have headquarters in America, which give them the advantage over other countries for their technologies. In addition, they create jobs for people, which means people can afford things, to create demands.
In addition, after the 2011 Singapore general election, the government of Singapore has greatly changed its economic approach and it seems to be better for the economy of Singapore so far. On the other hand, measures have also been taken to cool down the property market which has constantly affected inflation rates, also tightened the foreign labour policies that constantly influence the labour market and unfold its impacts onto the Singapore’s economy as it comes back in one round. The unemployment rate in Singapore has been maintaining itself as being one of the lowest numbers in the world. The majority of Singapore’s labour force is well educated and highly skilled. Even primary education is a must for all citizens (Economywatch.com, 2010). In addition, for the year 2010, Singapore had the 8th largest current account balance in the world at US$49.454 billion. To conclude, Singapore has come so far from its sunken economy since independence in 1965 to become a booming and prosperous economy that it is
In conclusion, it is my belief that there is a bright future for Singapore and every other country that allows the freedom of choice for their people. After all it is the people that make a nation, not the governing-few. The governing-few work for us, we do not work for them. And in reality, that is not only true for countries, but states, cities, companies, and industries.
To this day, Singapore remains important to world trade owing to its strategic location. Singapore’s port is the largest transshipment port in the world by cargo volume, accounting for close to one-seventh of world transshipment volume ("About Us", 2016), where cargo is transferred from one ship to another while docking in Singapore. Although Singapore has been diversifying its economy, building up other sectors such as the financial
Using Singapore to debate has an interesting point of view. After it separation from Malaysia at 9 of August 1965. The nation became an independent state. Singapore was on her own, a tiny island lack of natural resource such as oil and rubber plantation, and on the other hand Singapore own a strategic harbour location.
Looking back on the history of Singapore its hard not to sit back and rivet at all the progression and improvement that have made Singapore a more relaxing and astonishing haven and must-see destination. Starting chronologically, from the Sanskrit words “simha” (lion) and “pura” (city) Singapore or Singapura, the “lion City” shows the rich history and the beginning of a new era that Singapore went through, and describes the city-state and the city life of people whom live or visit Singapore. We then move into how the city-state flourished as a trading post for a lot of sea vessels, which include Chinese junks, Portuguese battleships, and Indian vessels. The nineteenth century was an important time for Singapore because it was when modern Singapore was founded. On January 29, 1819 Sir Thomas Raffles (the...