BUSINESS AND MARKET OVERVIEW ON SINGAPORE



ECONOMY. Singapore is considered the most highly developed economy amongst the Southeast Asian countries with a GDP for each capita of US$25,207 in 2004 which happens to be akin to quite a few innovative economies in the European Union. Singapore lacks natural means but is a regional hub for international trade, shipping and air transport. Lots of US, European and Japanese multinational companies have founded Singapore as a regional workplace for their business operations.

Singapore's GDP grew at a median of 2.7% per year from 2000 to 2004 to reach US$106.9 billion by 2004 while inflation remaining under 2.0%. While Singapore's economy is easily the most highly developed between the Southeast Asian nations, unemployment amplified from 1.8% throughout the Asian economic crisis of 1997 to 5.3% in 2004. To diversify and grow the country's economy, the federal government is developing Singapore into a regional hub for finance and high engineering. click here for info - Istvan Loh Macquarie bank

The service sector accounted for sixty six.2% of Singapore's GDP in 2004 while the production sector accounted for 33.7%. Agriculture plays a nominal role in Singapore's economy and accounted only 0.1% of the country's GDP. Big industries in Singapore incorporate electronics, substances, fiscal services, petroleum refining, food processing, ship repair, offshore platform development, biotechnology and entrepot trade.

DEMOGRAPHY. Singapore's inhabitants of 4.2 million in 2004 is predominantly Chinese accounting for 77% of the inhabitants. Other ethnic communities involve Malays (14%) and Indians (8%). Key religions practiced contain Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The Chinese are normally agnostic, Buddhist, Tao or adhere to the Christian faith while Malays are mainly Muslims and Indians commonly Hindus, Christian or Muslims. Most important languages utilised are English (broadly spoken and utilised in business and because of the authorities), Chinese (mostly Mandarin and Hokkien), Malay and Tamil.

Singapore is a city-state and so just about all its populace live in an city neighborhood. Most Singaporeans live in high-rise residences or flats accounting for nearly 90% of the households while the remaining 10% live on landed property.

Singaporean customers hold the high amount of disposable income as opposed to customers in other Southeast Asian international locations. High-income homes account for virtually 27% of the whole homes while middle-income households account for 32%. Low-income homes i.e. all those earning than US$1,900 for every month account for 41% of the complete homes.

INFRASTRUCTURE. Domestic and international telecommunication services are superb and one of the best while in the location. Internet broadband services are economical and broadly available. Singapore's road system is proficiently managed and the city-state is properly served by a community transport system. Singapore has successfully managed seaports and airport which happen to be employed as regional hubs by many sea and air carriers.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE. Singapore has a single of the busiest ports in the world and a regional hub for entrepot trade. Singapore's main trading partners are Malaysia, US, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea. Quite a few of the goods imported from and exported to Malaysia and Indonesia are re-exports from other nations. Main exports from your Singapore incorporate electrical and electronic products, machineries and equipments, processed foods, purchaser goods, chemicals and mineral fuels. Major imports contain machineries and equipments, mineral fuels, chemical compounds and foods.

Consumer USAGE OF Technology. Over 90% of all houses have mobile phones putting the nation on par with Sweden, Norway, Austria and Norway. Almost all residences have at the very least a fixed-line phone, television and refrigerator. The penetration of computers can be high with 70% of all households obtaining a pc and you will find practically 2.five million internet customers for a populace of four.three million. Additionally, you will find greater than 2.five million credit cards in the county and online payments are well established. Nonetheless, only 35% of all houses very own a car because of the really high cost to own a car in Singapore.

RETAIL MARKET. Singapore has just one of the greatest benchmarks of residing in Asia right after Japan and Singaporeans are keen shoppers. Estimated retail product sales in Singapore in 2004 were US$11 billion. Unlike other nations in Southeast Asia, retail chains dominate around the industry by profits value. These include procuring malls, hypermarkets, supermarkets, shops, advantage merchants and speciality merchants. Singapore has many established international stores and brands attracting travelers from Southeast and Northeast Asia. Several purchasing malls have also sprouted from the suburban regions existing side-by-side together with the "mom and pop" institutions.

FOOD CULTURE. Singapore's multi-ethnic communities has had motivated on Singapore's food culture. Moreover, Singaporeans are accustomed and infrequently repeated numerous western and Japanese food service establishments which include quickly food retailers. Eating out is popular among the Singaporeans and the current pattern should be to consume out as opposed to at home. So, Singaporeans expended 9% of their income on foods for cooking at home and 12% for eating out.