LOW TAX COUNTRIES
Andorra
Anguilla
Antigua & Barbuda
Aruba
Australia
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Cyprus
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Gibraltar
Hong Kong
Isle of Man
Jersey & Guernsey
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malta
Mauritius
Panama
Singapore
St.kitts & Nevis
Switzerland
Turks & Caicos
Vanuatu
Index of Articles
|
|  |
|
SINGAPORE
About Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and the smallest country in South-East Asia. It is located on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, south of the Malaysian state of Johor, and north of the Indonesian Riau Islands. It lies 137 kilometres (85 miles) north of the Equator.
Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years later and became independent.
Singapore subsequently became one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe
According to the quality-of-life index assembled by the Economist Intelligence Unit,
Singapore has the highest standard of living in Asia, and is ranked 11th in the world. In the United Nations Human Development Index, Singapore holds the 25th place, behind only Japan and Hong Kong in Asia. Measured by GDP per capita,
Singapore is the 22nd wealthiest country. The geographically small nation has a foreign reserve of S$197b (US$119b).
| Singapore |
|
| Capital |
Singapore
1°17′N 103°51′E |
| Official languages |
English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil |
| Area |
699 km² (190th)
270 sq mi |
| Population
|
4,480,000 (120th) |
| GDP (PPP)
|
$123.4 billion (57th) |
| per capita
|
$28,368 (22nd) |
| Currency |
Singapore dollar (SGD) |
| Time zone |
(UTC+8) |
| Dialling code |
+65 |
SINGAPORE ECONOMY
Singapore, a highly-developed and successful free-market economy,
enjoys a remarkably open and corruption-free environment, stable
prices, and a per capita GDP equal to that of the four largest West
European countries. The economy depends heavily on exports,
particularly in electronics and manufacturing.
The Singapore government hopes to establish a new growth path that will be less vulnerable to the external business cycle and will continue efforts to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia's financial and high-tech hub. Fiscal stimulus, low interest rates, a surge in exports, and internal flexibility led to vigorous growth in 2004, with real GDP rising by 8% - by far the economy's best performance since 2000 - but growth slowed to 5.7% in 2005
Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, and is a developed nation. It ranks 25th on the Human Development Index which measures standards of living, and second in the Index of Economic Freedom. Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP), per capita, is equal to that of the major European countries.
Singapore is also the fourth largest foreign exchange trading centre in the world after London, New York City and Tokyo.
Singapore has been rated as the most business-friendly economy in the world. According to a World Bank-IFC report, Singapore beat previous winner New Zealand for the top spot in the 2005/2006 rankings, while the United States came in third. Within Asia, Hong Kong was Singapore's closest competitor, in fifth place. The economies were evaluated on 10 key parameters that included the ease of starting a business, getting licences, sourcing staff, and enforcing contracts.
The city-state also employs thousands of foreign workers from around the world. It requires talent from outside to fill the various jobs the economy is generating, most of which are in the IT and financial sectors. The variety of workers predominantly hired are local Singaporeans, Indians, Malaysians and Filipinos. The government is aggressively pushing for the permanent assimilation of these foreign workers by offering easier processing time for permanent residency or citizenship.
The economy depends heavily on exports produced from refining imported goods in a form of extended entrepot trade, especially in manufacturing. Manufacturing contributes around 28% to GDP in 2005. The manufacturing industry is today well-diversified with electronics, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences manufacturing. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, Singapore's fast-paced industrialization earned it a place as one of the four original 'East Asian Tigers'.
In 2001, a global recession and slump in the technology sector caused the GDP to contract by 2.2%. The Economic Review Committee (ERC), set up in December 2001, 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 itself grew by 8.3% in 2004 and 6.4% in 2005.[31] In the long term, the government hopes to establish a new growth path which will be less vulnerable to the external business cycle, as compared to the current export-led model.
However, the government is unlikely to abandon efforts to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia's financial and high-tech hub. The per capita GDP in 2005 was US$26,833[32] and the unemployment rate was 2.7% in October 2006, down from 2.8% in June the same year.
81,500 new jobs were created from January-July 2006, the highest number in a
decade within a 6 month period. The economy is expected to grow by 7.5% to 8% in
the year 2006 as announced by the Singapore government on 20 November 2006,
after a strong 9.4% growth in the first half of Year 2006 (Jan-Jul 2006), and a
7.2% growth in the third quarter of 2006.
On 5 October 2006, the government announced that Singapore recorded its highest employment rate in 15 years with improvements, particularly, in the hiring of older workers. The Manpower Ministry's Research and Statistics Department said that in June this year, 76 percent of its resident population, aged 25 to 64, were employed. This was up from 73 percent last year and 72 percent in 2004.
Singapore introduced a Goods and Services Tax (GST) with an initial rate of 3% on 1 April 1994. This has substantially increased government revenue by $1.6 billion, stabilising the government's finances. The government has used revenue from the GST to reorient the economy around services and value added-goods to reduce dependence on electronics manufacturing. The taxable GST was increased to 4% in 2003 and to 5% in 2004. The GST could be increased to 7% in Year 2007
~ Books About Singapore ~
Be sure to check out our range of expert reports from The Property-Seekers Tax Bookshop
Property-Seekers has teamed up with Taxcafé to bring you a variety of useful resources to help you pay less capital gains tax, inheritance tax & other taxes.
Though written originally for the UK market, this acclaimed informative series, written by highly qualified tax authors and tax experts, is equally relevant for residents of North America, Europe and Australasia.
 ...if you are looking for a new home, an investment or somewhere to rent
 ...if you have a property to sell or to let (including vacation properties)
Whether you are a buyer or a seller, whether you have a property to let or want to rent somewhere for your next vacation, Property-Seekers is here to help.
P.S. Special low-cost deals available at Property-Seekers.com until midnight,
Real Estate Investing For Real | A BiggerPockets Investment Property Blog
Learn, Network, Invest
• Real Estate News by the Numbers: Week of January 28 ? February 3
by Douglas Lazovick
4 Feb 2012 at 11:29am
A quick rundown of the important real estate news from the week of January 28 ? February 3, by th...
• How We Improved Our Facebook Ad?s CTR by 2,000%
by Jeff Logue
3 Feb 2012 at 10:44am
Recently we started running some split tests for our Facebook real estate marketing ads, and one ...
• Even Note Investing Has Guru Traps
by Kevin Kaczmarek
3 Feb 2012 at 10:19am
Our education in any business is infinite, and my passion in note investing has given me the oppo...
• Investment Property Valuation: Residential vs Commercial
by Spencer Cullor
2 Feb 2012 at 12:30pm
A man and his realtor walk down the street and the man says ?Realtor, I want to buy that house,? ...
|
