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Singapore
Relevant information about Singapore.
One of Singapore´s largest industries is tourism. More than 7.8million tourist visited the island in 2006, and over 10 million in 2007. Orchard Road commercial district it´s the most visited attraction. In order to attract more tourists, the government decided in 2005 to legalize gambling and to allow the construction of two casino resorts. Singapore´s Food Festival, held every July, it´s a nice excuse to visit the area. The festival has been very promoted lately, and Singapore´s cuisine has being fastly developed. There´s also a colonial zone of Singapore: Riverside. Museums, statues and theatres are spread all over the area.
Singapore has the particularity of being the 6th country with the highest percentage of foreigners. Almost 45% of the population in Singapore is foreigners. The most important amount of this foreigners come from China, Malaysia, Philippines, North America, Middle East, Europe, Australia and India. The country is densely populated. Actually, it´s the second most populated country in the world, only surpassed by Monaco. According to statistics of the government, the population of Singapore as of 2009 was 4.99 million, of whom 3.73 million were Singaporean citizens and permanent residents. Various Chinese linguistic groups formed up to 75% of Singapore's residents, Malays 13.4%, Indians 9.2%, while Eurasians, Arabs and other groups formed 3.2%. Total fertility rate in 2008 was only 1.28 children per woman. This represents the third lowest in the world, and it´s a lot below the 2.1, which is the rate it´s calculated as minimum to naturally replace the population. In 2008, 39,826 babies were born, compared to around 37,600 in 2005. This amount of births, however, is not sufficient to maintain the population's growth. To overcome this problem, the government is encouraging foreigners to immigrate to Singapore. These large numbers of immigrants have kept Singapore's population from declining. The culture in this country is very influenced by the whole occidental way of life. Many Singaporeans are bilingual. Most of them speak English and another language, generally Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil. English is Singapore´s first language. They speak Singapore Standard English, which uses British spellings and grammar. However, there is also a local dialect of English, Singlish, that is unique to Singapore. It´s a multi-lingual nation and lots of languages coexist. In 2005, 36% of Singaporeans spoke Mandarin at home. 30% spoke English at home and 13% spoke Malay while 3% speak Tamil at home. Most of the Singaporeans who do not speak English as their home language normally speak it as their second language. There is not just one popular sport in Singapore: football, badminton, squash, tennis, swimming, table tennis and bowling are all of them very practiced. Singapore is a secular multi religious country. Respect and tolerance are heavily emphasized. This could be caused by the fact of being such an important port and for receiving so much people from so many places. There are three religions which are mostly practiced: Buddhism (to which 40% of Singaporeans adhere, most of them emigrated from China), Crhistianity (which is followed by a 14% of the population) and Islam (which is practiced by 15%). Taosim, Confucianism, Hindus, Sikhs and Jewish complete this cultural mosaic. There is also a big percentage of habitants that do not adhere to any religion.
Singapore´s prosperous and free market economy is characterized by its stable prices and one of the highest PIB per capita in the world. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan, Singapore is considered one of the “five Asian tigers”. The economy mainly depends on the exports and the refinement of imports, particularly those of the electronic and industrial sector. The manufacturing sector constituted over 25% of PIB of the country on 2005, and is growing each year. It´s also diversifying itself into new sectors: petroleum refinement, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences, among others. As well, Singapore counts with the seaport that handles the greatest volume of annual loads, as much in tonnage as in number of containers of the world.
Riverside is an amusing place to visit. It is the colonial zone of Singapore. Museums, statues and theatres all spread all over the area. Singapore´s Rriver, Merlion Park, Little India and the Chinese town are places no one should miss.
At least 200,000 foreigners visit each year this islands seeking medical services. It is considered that in 2012, over a million visitors will demand this medical cares. The secret resides in offering health treatments at cheaper prices but with the same quality and security that in first world countries. In Europe or U.S.A., simple controls can be a heavy slab for an average pocket. Singapore´s health care services are constantly improving. And they keep getting great qualifications in internationals reviews. Singapore´s government announced health industries grow will create over 13,000 jobs.
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