Singapore's Economy In Singapore, The Republic Of Singapore

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Singapore, officially named the Republic of Singapore, is an island country, composed of 63 islands, and city-state in Southeast Asia, located just off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and only 85 miles north of the equator. Singapore has made a name for itself as one of the world 's most important commercial hubs, financial centers, and busiest ports.

The economy of Singapore primarily depends on trade, particularly manufacturing. “Singapore’s economy is vibrant, competitive, and innovative. It is a mixed economy with government providing most of the infrastructure and exercising noticeable control over the pace and direction of development. This is no small feat in an economy so internationally dependent that its foreign trade is …show more content…

After tossing his crown into the water, the storm abated, and on the shores of nearby Temasek island, he sighted a good omen: a lion. Coming ashore, he established a thirving settlement and renamed the island Singapura, after the Sanskrit for lion (Singa) and city (Pura).” (Rae, 119) Recent excavations found evidence indicating that Singapore was an important port, even in the 14th century, and it still is one today. “Once the premier port in colonial Southeast Asia and one of the foremost in the British Empire, Singapore now ranks as the world’s fourth busiest port, tonnage-wise, with the second highest per capita G.D.P. in Asia.” (Ken, …show more content…

A Chinese traveler, Wang Dayuan, visited the island around 1330 and described the places he’d seen. “Here lived and roved the notorious “Tan-ma-hsi (Temasek) barbarians”, the Orang Laut of the region. The most striking feature of this description is the statement that “the natives and the Chinese dwell side by side”, which seems to be the first record of a Chinese community in Malaya.” (Colless, 2) This shows that the multiculturalism of Singapore dates all the way back to when the area had just been discovered.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, the Malay Archipelago, composed of Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Singapore, was gradually taken over by European colonial powers, staring with the arrival of the Portuguese. Later on, in the 17th century, the Dutch came to control most of the ports in the region and established a monopoly over trade within the Malay

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