|
 |
AIT's Energy and Projects Division, specializing in providing project logistics management solutions to oil production, gas, drilling, refining and procurement organizations around the world, is starting up a bi-weekly consolidation service from Texas to Singapore via Dallas and Houston. In support of this service, our feature city this month is one of the strongest "Asian Tigers," a beautiful city located in the South China Sea, and hub of international logistics activity:
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometers (85 mi) north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At 707.1 km² (273.0 sq mi), Singapore is one of three remaining true city-states in the world. It is the smallest nation in Southeast Asia.
Prior to European settlement, the island now known as Singapore was the site of a Malay fishing village at the mouth of the Singapore River. In 1819 the British East India Company established a trading post on the island, which was used thereafter as a strategic trading post along the spice route. Singapore would become one of the most important commercial and military centers of the British Empire, and the hub of British power in Southeast Asia. The city was occupied by the Japanese during World War II. Eighteen years later the city, having achieved independence from Britain, merged with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia. However, less than two years later it seceded from the federation and became an independent republic on 9 August 1965. Singapore joined the United Nations on September 21 that same year.
Since independence, Singapore's standard of living has been on the rise. Foreign direct investment and a state-led drive to industrialization based on plans drawn up by the Dutch economist Albert Winsemius have created a modern economy focused on electronics manufacturing, petrochemicals, tourism and financial services alongside traditional entrepôt trade. English is the administrative language of the country.
 Singapore River in Downtown
History
Etymology
The name Singapura comes from the Malay, Singapura, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit words singha ("lion") and pura ("city"). According to the Malay Annals, this name was given by a 14th century Sumatran prince named Sang Nila Utama, who, landing on the island after a thunderstorm, spotted an auspicious beast on the shore, which his chief minister erroneously identified as a 'singha' or lion. Recent studies of Singapore, however, indicate that lions have never lived there, not even Asiatic lions; the beast seen by Sang Nila Utama was most likely a tiger, probably the Malayan Tiger.
First settlement
The first records of settlement in Singapore are from the 2nd century AD. The island was an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya Empire and originally had the Javanese name Temasek ('sea town'). Temasek (Tumasek) rapidly became a significant trading settlement, but declined in the late 14th century. Between the 16th and early 19th centuries, Singapore Island was part of the Sultanate of Johor. During the Malay-Portugal wars in 1613, the settlement was set ablaze by Portuguese troops. The Portuguese subsequently held control in that century and the Dutch in the 17th, but throughout most of this time the island's population consisted mainly of fishermen.
Colonial rule
On 29 January 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles landed on the main island. Spotting its potential as a strategic geographical trading post in Southeast Asia, Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah on behalf of the British East India Company on 6 February 1819 to develop the southern part of Singapore as a British trading post and settlement. Until August 1824, Singapore was still a territory controlled by a Malay Ruler. Singapore only officially became a British colony in August 1824 when the British extended control over the whole island. John Crawfurd, the second resident of Singapore, was the one who made Singapore a British possession. He signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah on 2 August 1824 in which the Sultan and the Temmenggong handed over the whole island to the British East India Company thus marking the start of the island's modern era. Raffles's deputy, William Farquhar, oversaw a period of growth and ethnic migration, which was largely spurred by a no-restriction immigration policy. The British India office governed the island from 1858, but Singapore was made a British crown colony in 1867, answerable directly to the Crown. By 1869, 100,000 lived on the island.
World War II
During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Malaya, culminating in the Battle of Singapore. The ill-prepared British were defeated in six days, and surrendered the supposedly impregnable fortress to General Tomoyuki Yamashita on 15 February 1942. The surrender was described by British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill as "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." The Japanese renamed Singapore Shonanto, from Japanese "Showa no jidai ni eta minami no shima", or "southern island obtained in the age of Showa", and occupied it until the British repossessed the island on 12 September 1945, a month after the Japanese surrender.
Independence
Singapore became a self-governing state within the British Empire in 1959 with Yusof bin Ishak its first Yang di-Pertuan Negara, a ceremonial post that replaced the British colonial Governor, and Lee Kuan Yew its first Prime Minister. It declared independence from Britain unilaterally in August 1963, before joining the Federation of Malaysia in September along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as the result of the 1962 Merger Referendum of Singapore. Singapore left the federation two years later after heated ideological conflict between the state's PAP government and the federal Kuala Lumpur government. Singapore officially gained sovereignty on 9 August 1965. Yusof bin Ishak was sworn in as the first President of Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew remained prime minister.
While trying to be self-sufficient, the fledging nation faced problems like mass unemployment, housing shortages, and a dearth of land and natural resources. During Lee Kuan Yew's term as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, his administration tackled the problem of widespread unemployment, raised the standard of living, and implemented a large-scale public housing program. It was during this time that the foundation of the country's economic infrastructure was developed; the threat of racial tension was curbed; and an independent national defense system centering around compulsory male military service was created.
In 1990, Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as Prime Minister. During his tenure, the country tackled the impacts of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak, and terrorist threats posed by Jemaah Islamiyah after the September 11 attacks. In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the third prime minister. Amongst his more notable decisions is the plan to open casinos to attract more foreign tourists.
Government & Politics
Singapore is a parliamentary democracy with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing different constituencies. The bulk of the executive powers rests with the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, currently Lee Hsien Loong. The office of President of Singapore, historically a ceremonial one, was granted some veto powers as of 1991 for a few key decisions such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judiciary positions. Although the position is to be elected by popular vote, only the 1993 election has been contested to date. The legislative branch of government is the Parliament.
 Parliament House
Parliamentary elections in Singapore are plurality-based for group representation constituencies since the Parliamentary Elections Act was modified in 1991. The Members of Parliament (MPs) consist of either elected, non-constituency or nominated Members. The present Parliament has 94 Members of Parliament consisting of 84 elected Members of Parliament, one NCMP and nine Nominated members of Parliament.
Singapore has a successful and transparent market economy. Government-linked companies are dominant in various sectors of the local economy, such as media, utilities, and public transport.
Singapore has consistently been rated as the least corrupt country in Asia and among the world's ten most free from corruption by Transparency International.
Geography & Climate
Singapore consists of 63 islands, including mainland Singapore. There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia - Johor-Singapore Causeway in the north, and Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's many smaller islands. The highest natural point of Singapore is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 m (545 ft).
The south of Singapore, around the mouth of the Singapore River and what is now the Downtown Core, used to be the only concentrated urban area, while the rest of the land was either undeveloped tropical rainforest or used for agriculture. Since the 1960s, the government has constructed new residential towns in outlying areas, resulting in an entirely built-up urban landscape.
Singapore has on-going land reclamation projects with earth obtained from its own hills, the sea-bed, and neighboring countries. As a result, Singapore's land area grew from 581.5 km² (224.5 sq mi) in the 1960s to 704 km² (271.8 sq mi) today, and may grow by another 100 km² (38.6 sq mi) by 2030.
Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with no distinctive seasons. Its climate is characterized by uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity, and abundant rainfall. Temperatures range from 22 ºC to 34 ºC (72º to 93 ºF). On average, the relative humidity is around 90 percent in the morning and 60 percent in the afternoon.
 Singapore Botanic Gardens
About 23 percent of Singapore's land area consists of forest and nature reserves. Urbanization has eliminated many areas of former primary rainforest, with the only remaining area of primary rainforest being Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. A variety of parks are maintained with human intervention, such as the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Economy
Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, which historically revolves around extended entrepot trade. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, Singapore is one of the Four Asian Tigers. The economy depends heavily on exports refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing. Manufacturing constituted 26 percent of Singapore's GDP in 2005. The manufacturing industry is well-diversified into electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences manufacturing. In 2006, Singapore produced about 10 percent of the world's foundry wafer output. Singapore is the busiest port in the world in terms of tonnage shipped. Singapore is the world's fourth largest foreign exchange trading centre after London, New York City and Tokyo.
Singapore has been rated as the most business-friendly economy in the world, with thousands of foreign expatriates working in multi-national corporations. The city-state also employs tens of thousands of foreign blue-collared workers around the world.
 Singapore's Central Business District
As a result of global recession and a slump in the technology sector, the country's GDP contracted 2.2 percent in 2001. The Economic Review Committee (ERC) was set up in December 2001, and recommended several policy changes with a view to revitalizing the economy. Singapore has since recovered from the recession, largely due to improvements in the world economy; the Singaporean economy itself grew by 8.3 percent in 2004, 6.4 percent in 2005 and 7.9 percent in 2006. In the first half of Year 2007, the economy grew by 7.6 percent. The growth forecast for the whole year is expected to be between 7 percent to 8 percent, up from the original estimation of 5 percent to 7 percent. On August 19 2007, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in his National Day Rally Speech that Singapore's economy is expected to grow by at least 4-6 percent annually over the next 5-10 years.
The per capita GDP in 2006 was US$29,474. As of September 2007, the unemployment rate is 1.7 percent, which is the lowest in a decade, having improved to around pre-Asian crisis level. Employment continued to grow strongly as the economy maintained its rapid expansion. In the first three quarters of 2007, 171,500 new jobs were created, which is close to the 176,000 for the whole of 2006. For the whole of 2007, Singapore's economy has grown 7.5 percent and drew in a record S$16 billion of fixed asset investments in manufacturing and projects generating S$3 billion of total business spending in services. The government expects the Singapore economy to grow by 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent in 2008.
Singapore is a popular travel destination, making tourism one of its largest industries. About 9.7 million tourists visited Singapore in 2006. The Orchard Road shopping district is one of Singapore's most well-known and popular tourist draws. To attract more tourists, the government decided to legalize gambling and to allow two casino resorts (euphemistically called Integrated Resorts) to be developed at Marina South and Sentosa in 2005. To compete with regional rivals like Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, the government has announced that the city area would be transformed into a more exciting place by lighting up the civic and commercial buildings.
Currency
The currency of Singapore is the Singapore dollar, represented by the symbol S$ or the abbreviation SGD. The central bank of Singapore is the Monetary Authority of Singapore, responsible for issuing currency. Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore, on 7 April 1967 and issued its first coins and notes.
Transportation
Singapore is a major Asian transportation hub, positioned on many sea and air trade routes.
The Port of Singapore, managed by port operators PSA International and Jurong Port, was the world's busiest port in 2005 in terms of shipping tonnage handled, at 1.15 billion gross tons, and in terms of containerized traffic, at 23.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). It was also the world's second busiest in terms of cargo tonnage, coming behind Shanghai with 423 million tons handled. In addition, the Port is the worlds busiest for transshipment traffic and the world's biggest ship refueling centre.
 The Port of Singapore
Singapore is an aviation hub for the Southeast Asian region and a stopover on the Kangaroo route between Australasia and Europe. Singapore Changi Airport has a network of 81 airlines connecting Singapore to 185 cities in 58 countries. It has been rated as one of the best international airports by international travel magazines, including being rated as the world's best airport for the first time in 2006 by Skytrax. The airport currently has three passenger terminals. There is also a budget terminal, which serves budget carrier Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific. The national carrier is Singapore Airlines (SIA). The government is moving towards privatizing Changi airport.
Singapore is linked to Johor, Malaysia via the Johor-Singapore Causeway and the Tuas Second Link, as well as a railway operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu of Malaysia, with its southern terminus at Tanjong Pagar railway station. Frequent ferry service to several nearby Indonesian ports also exists.
Source: wikipedia.com
|
|
Back to top