Tourism in Singapore

Marina Centre at Marina Bay at night

Singapore is a popular travel destination, making tourism one of its largest industries. About 7.8 million tourists visited Singapore in 2006. The total visitor arrivals reached around 10.2 million in 2007. 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 legalise 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 Bangkok, 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. Cuisine has also been heavily promoted as an attraction for tourists, with the Singapore Food Festival in July organised annually to celebrate Singapore's cuisine.

Singapore is fast positioning itself as a medical tourism hub — about 200,000 foreigners seek medical care in the country each year and Singapore medical services aim to serve one million foreign patients annually by 2012 and generate USD 3 billion in revenue. The government expects that the initiative could create an estimated 13,000 new jobs within the health industries.

The Merlion in Merlion Park

Singapore now is a true melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Arabic communities. Tourists will see women with Chinese features wear sarongs and Arabic dress, and this cultural aspects contribute to making Singapore one of the unique destinations to visit.

Under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Wireless@SG is a government initiative to build Singapore's infocomm infrastructure. Working through IDA's Call-for-Collaboration, SingTel, iCell and QMax deploy a municipal wireless network throughout Singapore. Since late 2006, users have enjoyed free wireless access through Wi-Fi under the "basic-tier" package offered by all three operators for 3 years.

There are approximately 30,000 registered hotel rooms available in Singapore, and average occupancy is around 85%.

Economy of Singapore

Singapore's Financial Centre

Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, which has historically revolved around extended entrepôt trade, in other words an export driven economy hugely dependant on export of goods to other countries. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, Singapore is one of the Four Asian Tigers. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing. Manufacturing constituted 26% of Singapore's GDP in 2005.The manufacturing industry is well-diversified with significant electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences manufacturing sectors. In 2006, Singapore produced about 10% of the world's foundry wafer output. Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world and 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,^[46][47] with thousands of foreign expatriates working in multi-national corporations. Singapore is also considered to be one of the top centres of finance in the region and the world. In addition to this, the city-state also employs tens of thousands of foreign blue-collared workers from around the world.

Alternate view of Singapore's Central Business District (CBD)

As a result of a global recession and a slump in the technology sector, the country's GDP contracted 2.2% in 2001. The Economic Review Committee (ERC) was set up in December 2001, and recommended several policy changes with a view to revitalising the economy. Singapore has since recovered from the recession, largely due to improvements in the world economy; the Singaporean economy grew by 8.3% in 2004, 6.4% in 2005 and 7.9% in 2006. On 19 August 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% 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%, which is the lowest in a decade, having improved to around pre-Asian crisis level.^[5Employment 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 figure of 176,000 for the whole of 2006. For the whole of 2007, Singapore's economy grew 7.5% and drew in a record S$16 billion (US$10.6b, €8.3b)of fixed asset investments in manufacturing and projects generating S$3 billion (US$2b, €1.6b) of total business spending in services.

Orchard Road is decorated for Christmas, 2005

Singapore introduced a Goods and Services Tax (GST) with an initial rate of 3% on 1 April 1994 substantially increasing government revenue by S$1.6 billion (US$1b, €800m) and stabilising government finances. The taxable GST was increased to 4% in 2003, to 5% in 2004, and to 7% on 1 July 2007.

Due to the economic recession, Singapore's economy expanded by only 1.1% in year 2008, much lower than the expected 4.5% to 6.5% growth, while the unemployment rate was at 2.8%. The economy is expected to contract greatly by up to 8% in 2009 and unemployment could rise to 5% this year as forecast by several private sector economists.

The Economic Development Board is a statutory board of the Government of Singapore. It has been tasked to plan and execute strategies to sustain Singapore as a leading global hub for business and investment.

Geography and climate of Singapore

Singapore Downtown as seen from the DHL Balloon

Singapore Botanic Gardens, a 67.3-hectare (166 acre) Botanic Gardens in Singapore that includes the National Orchid Garden, which has a collection of more than 3,000 species of orchids

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. The Urban Redevelopment Authority was established on 1 April 1974, responsible for urban planning.

Singapore has on-going land reclamation projects with earth obtained from its own hills, the seabed, and neighbouring 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.^[40] The projects sometimes involve some of the smaller islands being merged together through land reclamation in order to form larger, more functional islands, such as in the case of Jurong Island.

Under the Köppen climate classification system, 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 °C to 34 °C (72° to 93 °F). On average, the relative humidity is around 90% in the morning and 60% in the afternoon. During prolonged heavy rain, relative humidity often reaches 100%.The lowest and highest temperatures recorded in its maritime history are 19.4 °C (66.9 °F) and 35.8 °C (96.4 °F) respectively. June and July are the hottest months, while November and December make up the wetter monsoon season. From August to October, there is often haze, sometimes severe enough to prompt public health warnings, due to bushfires in neighbouring Indonesia. Singapore does not observe daylight saving time or a summer time zone change. The length of the day is nearly constant year round due to the country's location near the equator.

About 23% of Singapore's land area consists of forest and nature reserves. Urbanisation 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.

Government and politics of Singapore

Parliament House

Main article: Politics of Singapore

See also: Law of Singapore

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 Mr 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 majority of the Members of Parliament are elected into Parliament at a General Election on a first-past-the-post basis and represent either Single Member or Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs).

The elected Members of Parliament act as a bridge between the community and the Government by ensuring that the concerns of their constituents are heard in the Parliament. The present Parliament has 94 Members of Parliament consisting of 84 elected Members of Parliament, one NCMP and nine Nominated members of Parliament.

The Istana, the official residence and office of the President of Singapore

The People's Action Party (PAP) has been the ruling party in Singapore since self-government was attained.^[34] There are several opposition parties in Singapore, the most notable being the Workers' Party of Singapore, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA). The Economist Intelligence Unit describes Singapore as a "hybrid regime" of democratic and authoritarian elements. Freedom House ranks the country as "partly free".Although general elections are free from irregularities and vote rigging, the PAP has been criticized by some for manipulating the political system through its use of censorship, gerrymandering, and civil libel suits against opposition politicians.

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.

Although Singapore's laws are inherited from English and British Indian laws, and includes many elements of English common law, the government has also chosen not to follow some elements of liberal democratic values. There are no jury trials and there are laws restricting the freedom of speech that may breed ill will or cause disharmony within Singapore's multiracial, multi-religious society. Criminal activity is often punished with heavy penalties including heavy fines or caning and there are laws which allow capital punishment in Singapore for first-degree murder and drug trafficking. The Singapore government argues that Singapore has the sovereign right to determine its own judicial system and impose what it sees as an appropriate punishment, including capital punishment for the most serious crimes.

Independence Republic of Singapore

An enlargeable basic map of Singapore, published in 2003

Following the war, the British government allowed Singapore to hold its first general election, in 1955, which was won by a pro-independence candidate, David Marshall.

Demanding complete self-rule, then Chief Minister David Marshall led a delegation to London, but was refused by the British. He resigned upon return, and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock, whose policies then convinced the British. Singapore was granted full internal self-government with its own prime minister and Cabinet overseeing all matters of government except defence and foreign affairs.

Elections were then held on 30 May 1959 with the People's Action Party winning a landslide victory. Singapore eventually became a self-governing state within the British Empire on 3 June 1959 and Lee Kuan Yew was sworn in as the first prime minister of Singapore two days later.^[28] Then Governor of Singapore, Sir William Allmond Codrington Goode, served as the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara from 3 June 1959 until 3 December 1959. He was succeeded by Yusof bin Ishak, who would later become the first President of Singapore.

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 after heated ideological conflict between the state's PAP government and the federal Kuala Lumpur government. Singapore officially gained sovereignty on 9 August 1965.^[4] Yusof bin Ishak was sworn in as the first President of Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of the Republic of Singapore.

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 programme. 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 defence system centering around compulsory male military service was created.

In 1990, Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as Prime Minister. During his tenure, the country faced the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak, and terrorist threats posed by Jemaah Islamiyah after the September 11 attacks in the United States. In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the third prime minister.^[31] Amongst his more notable decisions is the plan to open casinos to attract tourism.

Japanese occupation of Singapore

World War II

The Japanese Army marching in downtown Singapore

Years before the rise of the Japanese, the British noted that Japan was building its forces rapidly. Wanting to protect its assets in Southeast Asia, the British decided to build a naval base on the Northern end of Singapore. However, due to the war with Germany, all warships and war equipment were brought over to Europe.^{[citation needed]}

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Malaya, culminating in the Battle of Singapore. The ill-prepared British, with most of their forces in Europe, were defeated in six days, and surrendered the supposedly impregnable fortress to General Tomoyuki Yamashita on 15 February 1942. The surrender was described by the British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, as, "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." The British naval base (see above) was destroyed before the Japanese could take over the base and make use of it. Widespread indiscriminate killing of the Chinese population occurred (see Sook Ching massacre). The Japanese renamed Singapore Shōnantō (昭南島^?), from Japanese "Shōwa no jidai ni eta minami no shima" ("昭和の時代に得た南の島"^?), or "southern island obtained in the age of Shōwa", and occupied it until the British repossessed the island on 12 September 1945, a month after the Japanese surrender.^[27] The name Shōnantō was, at the time, romanised as "Syonan-to" or "Syonan", which means "Light of the South".

Colonial modern Singapore

Statue of Thomas Stamford Raffles by Thomas Woolner, erected at the location where he first landed at Singapore. He is recognised as the founder of modern Singapore

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 Sultan. 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 officially 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.

The early onset of town planning in colonial Singapore came largely through a "divide and rule" framework where the different ethnic groups were settled in different parts of the South of the island. The Singapore River was largely a commercial area that was dominated by traders and bankers of various ethnic groups with mostly Chinese and Indian coolies working to load and unload goods from barge boats known locally as "bumboats". The Malays, consisting of the local "Orang Lauts" who worked mostly as fishermen and seafarers, and Arab traders and scholars were mostly found in the South-east part of the river mouth, where Kampong Glam stands today. The European settlers, who were few then, settled around Fort Canning Hill and further upstream from the Singapore River. Like the Europeans, the early Indian migrants also settled more inland of the Singapore River, where Little India stands today. Very little is known about the rural private settlements in those times (known as kampongs), other than the major move by the post-independent Singapore government to re-settle these residents in the late 1960s.

First settlement of Singapore

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. There are few remnants of old Temasek in Singapore, but archaeologists in Singapore have uncovered artifacts of that and other settlements. 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 18th, but throughout most of this time the island's population consisted mainly of fishermen.

Etymology of Singapore

The English language name Singapore comes from Malay Singapura, "Lion-city", but it is possible that one element of its name had a more distant original source. Pura comes from Sanskrit puram, "city, fortress", and is related to Greek polis, "citadel, city". Singa- comes from Sanskrit siṃha, which means lion. Today the city-state is referred to as the Lion City. Recent studies of Singapore indicate that lions probably never lived there, not even Asiatic lions; the beast seen by Sang Nila Utama, the founder of Singapore who gave it the name meaning "Lion City", was most likely a tiger, probably the Malayan Tiger. Alternatively, it could simply be a reference to the ancient Sinhapura as described in the Mahabharata

Republic of Singapore

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Majulah Singapura" (Malay) "Onward, Singapore"
Anthem: Majulah Singapura
Images, from top, left to right: Merlion by the CBD, Singapore Zoo entrance, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Gateway of Sentosa, Statue of Thomas Stamford Raffles, Downtown Core of Singapore, Raffles Hotel
Capital		City of Singapore (Downtown Core, Central)1 1°14′N 103°55′E / 1.233°N 103.917°E / 1.233; 103.917
Official languages		English (main)[1] Malay (national) Chinese Tamil
Demonym		Singaporean
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	President	S.R. Nathan
-	Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
-	Speaker of Parliament	Abdullah Tarmugi
-	Chief Justice	Chan Sek Keong
Legislature		Parliament
Formation
-	Founding	29 January 1819[2]
-	Self-government	3 June 1959[3]
-	Independence from the United Kingdom	31 August 1963[4]
-	Merger with Malaysia	16 September 1963
-	Separation from Malaysia	9 August 1965
Area
-	Total	710.2 km2 (187th) 274.2 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.444
Population
-	2008 estimate	4,839,400[5] (114th)
-	2000 census	4,117,700
-	Density	6,814/km2 (3rd) 17,649/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2008 estimate
-	Total	$238.755 billion[6]
-	Per capita	$51,142[6] (4th)
GDP (nominal)		2008 estimate
-	Total	$181.939 billion[6]
-	Per capita	$38,972[6] (22nd)
HDI (2008)		▲ 0.918 (high) (28th)
Currency		Singapore dollar (SGD)
Time zone		SST (UTC+8)
Date formats		dd/mm/yyyy
Drives on the		left
Internet TLD		.sg
Calling code		+652
1	Singapore is a city-state.
2	02 from Malaysia.

Singapore (Chinese: 新加坡; pinyin: Xīnjiāpō; Malay: Singapura; Tamil: சிங்கப்பூர், Cingkappūr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At 710.2 km² (274.2 sq mi),^[7] Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast Asia. This is orders of magnitude larger than Monaco and Vatican City, the only other surviving sovereign city-states.

Before European settlement, the island now known as Singapore was the site of a Malay fishing village at the mouth of the Singapore River. Several hundred indigenous Orang Laut people also lived along the nearby coast, rivers and on smaller islands. In 1819, the British East India Company, led by Sir Stamford Raffles, established a trading post on the island, which was used as a port along the spice route. Singapore became one of the most important commercial and military centres of the British Empire, and the hub of British power in Southeast Asia.

During the Second World War, the British colony was occupied by the Japanese after the Battle of Singapore, which Winston Churchill called "Britain's greatest defeat". Singapore reverted to British rule in 1945, immediately after the war. Eighteen years later, in 1963, the city, having achieved independence from Britain, merged with Malaya, Sabah, and Sarawak to form Malaysia. However, the merger proved unsuccessful, and, less than two years later, it seceded from the federation and became an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations on August 9, 1965. Singapore was admitted to the United Nations on September 21 of that year.

Since independence, Singapore's standard of living has risen dramatically. 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 industry, education and urban planning.^[10] Singapore is the 5th wealthiest country in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita.^[11] In December 2008, the foreign exchange reserves of this small island nation stood at around US$174.2billion.^[12] The Singapore government, with approval from the President, announced in March 2009 that it would tap into their official reserves for the first time ever and withdraw some S$4.9 billion. The funds were then used as part of the S$20.5 billion resilience package unveiled by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on 5 February 2009. As of January 2009, Singapore's official reserves stands at US$170.3 billion.

In 2009, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Singapore the tenth most expensive city in the world in which to live—the third in Asia, after Tokyo and Osaka. The 2009 Cost of Living survey, by consultancy firm Mercer, has ranked Singapore similarly as the tenth most expensive city for expatriates to live in.

The population of Singapore including non-residents is approximately 4.86 million. Singapore is highly cosmopolitan and diverse with Chinese people forming an ethnic majority with large populations of Malay, Indian and other people. English, Malay, Tamil, and Chinese are the official languages.

Singapore is a parliamentary republic, and the Constitution of Singapore establishes representative democracy as the nation's political system. The People's Action Party (PAP) dominates the political process and has won control of Parliament in every election since self-government in 1959.