Geography

Singapore consists of 63 islands, including mainland Singapore. The main island is widely known as Singapore Island but is officially called Pulau Ujong (Malay: transliterated as island at land's end [of the peninsula]). There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north, and the 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 is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 m (545 ft).

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. The projects sometimes involve some of the smaller islands being merged together through land reclamation in order to form larger, more functional islands, as in the case of Jurong Island.

Climate

Singapore Botanic Gardens, a 67.3-hectare (166-acre) botanical garden in Singapore that includes the National Orchid Garden, with more than 3,000 species of orchids.

Under the Köppen climate classification system, Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with no distinctive seasons, uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity, and abundant rainfall. Temperatures range from 22 to 34 °C (71.6 to 93.2 °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 36.0 °C (96.8 °F).

May and June 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 bush fires 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 position 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, such as the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Economy

The port of Singapore, one of the world's busiest, with the skyline of Singapore in the background.

Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, which has historically revolved around extended entrepôt trade. 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, which constituted 26% of Singapore's GDP in 2005 and includes significant electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences 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 and Tokyo. The World Bank ranks Singapore as the world's top logistics hub.

Singapore's economy has been ranked amongst the world's ten most open, competitive and innovative. Rated as the most business-friendly economy in the world,Hundreds of thousands of foreign expatriates work in Singapore in multi-national corporations. There are also hundreds of thousands of foreign manual workers.

Alternative view of Singapore Central Business District (CBD).

As a result of a global recession and a slump in the technology sector, the country's GDP contracted by 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 economy grew by 8.3% in 2004, 6.4% in 2005 and 7.9% in 2006.

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.

Most companies in Singapore are registered as private limited-liability companies (commonly known as private limited companies). A private limited company in Singapore is a separate legal entity and shareholders are not liable for the company's debts beyond the amount of share capital they have contributed.

Tourism

Singapore Skyline and The Merlion, a national symbol of Singapore, at night.

Singapore is a popular travel destination, contributing to the importance of its tourism industry. Total visitor arrivals were 10.2 million in 2007. To attract more tourists, the government has 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. Food has also been promoted as an attraction for tourists, with the Singapore Food Festival held every July to celebrate Singapore's cuisine. Other annual events in Singapore include the Singapore Sun Festival, the Christmas Light Up, and the Singapore Jewel Festival.

Singapore is promoting 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 states that this could create some 13,000 new jobs within the health industries.

Currency

The currency of Singapore is the Singapore dollar, represented by the symbol S$ or the ISO abbreviation SGD. The central bank is the Monetary Authority of Singapore, responsible for issuing currency. Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency in 1967 and issued its first coins and notes. The Singapore dollar was exchangeable at par with the Malaysian ringgit until 1973. Interchangeability with the Brunei dollar is still maintained. On 27 June 2007, to commemorate 40 years of currency agreement with Brunei, a commemorative S$20 note was launched; the back is identical to the Bruneian $20 note launched concurrently.

Foreign relations

Singapore maintains diplomatic relations with 175 countries, although it does not maintain a high commission or embassy in many of those countries. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, ASEAN and the Non-Aligned Movement. For obvious geographical reasons, relations with Malaysia and Indonesia are most important but the domestic politics of the three countries often threatens their relations.

Singapore also enjoys good relations with many European nations, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the latter sharing ties via the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) along with Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. Good relations are also maintained with the United States, a country perceived as a stabilising force in the region to counterbalance the regional powers.

Singapore supports the concept of Southeast Asian regionalism and plays an active role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which it is a founding member. It is also a member of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which has its Secretariat in Singapore. Singapore also has close relations with fellow ASEAN nation Brunei and maintains Army training facilities there.

Singapore is one of the first countries to normalise ties with the People's Republic of China after its opening up in 1978. It recognises the PRC's One-China policy and has extensive trade relations with the latter, although it maintains diplomatic ties with the Republic of China in Taiwan.

Languages

The Singapore government recognises four official languages: English, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil.

English is the most dominant language in Singapore, unlike neighbouring countries Malaysia and Indonesia, where Malay is the dominant language. The forms of English spoken in Singapore range from Standard English to an English-based creole known as Singlish. Amongst Singaporeans, English has the largest number of speakers. This is followed by Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil. The spelling and vocabulary used are primarily those of British English, with a few exceptions, such as the common use of the American "pants" for the British "trousers". The use of English became widespread in Singapore after 1965 when it was implemented as a first language medium in the education system. At school, children are required to learn English and one of the three other official languages as a mother tongue. Indeed, as of 1987, English was declared the official first language of the Singapore education system.

Malay is the national language for symbolic and historical reasons, and is generally spoken by Singapore's Malay community. The Malay language is used in the national anthem "Majulah Singapura" and printing of coins. However, around 85% of Singaporeans do not speak Malay.

Mandarin Chinese is also spoken widely in Singapore. Mandarin has spread largely as a result of government-sponsored public campaigns and efforts to support its adoption and use over other Chinese languages.

Tamil is spoken by about 60% of Singapore's Indian community or 5% of all Singaporeans. Indian languages such as Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi are also spoken by a small group of Singaporean Indians in Singapore.

Culture

Due to its diverse population and immigrant background, Singaporean culture has often been described as a mix of cultures – British, Malay, Chinese, Indian and Peranakan. Foreigners also make up 42% of the population in Singapore and they play an important role in influencing Singaporean culture.

Cuisine

Dining, along with shopping, is said to be the country’s national pastime. Singaporean cuisine is an example of the country's diversity and cultural diffusion; with significant influences from British, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Tamil cuisine, and Indonesian cuisine. Typical Singaporean food includes the satay, nasi lemak, chilli crab and Hainanese chicken rice.

Media

MediaCorp, the state-owned media corporation, operates all seven free-to-air terrestrial local television channels, as well as 14 radio channels. Radio and television stations are all government-owned entities. The radio stations are mainly operated by MediaCorp, with the exception of four stations operated by SAFRA Radio and SPH UnionWorks. The Cable and IPTV Pay-TV Service are owned by StarHub and SingTel. Private ownership of satellite dish receivers capable of viewing uncensored televised content from abroad is illegal.

The print media of Singapore include a 16 newspapers in active circulation, and several magazines. Daily newspapers are published in English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with the print media being dominated by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the government-linked publisher of the flagship English-language daily broadsheet, The Straits Times. SPH publishes almost all daily newspapers, including a free bilingual daily, My Paper – which claims to be the world's first, with equal coverage in both English and Chinese. Most of these papers have parallel online versions, including The Straits Times, The New Paper, and the Business Times. So does Today - a free English-language tabloid published by MediaCorp, and the only daily not published by SPH.

One Singapore-based radio transmitter entirely outside government control is the Far Eastern Relay Station of the BBC World Service.

The Arts

Since the 1990s, the government has been striving to promote Singapore as a centre for arts and culture, in particular the performing arts, and to transform the country into a cosmopolitan 'gateway between the East and West'. The highlight of these efforts was the construction of Esplanade, a top-class centre for performing arts that opened on 12 October 2002. Also, the Singapore Arts Festival is an annual event organised by the National Arts Council. The stand-up comedy scene has also been growing, including a weekly open mic. Singapore hosted the 2009 Genee International Ballet Competition, a prestigious classical balletRoyal Academy of Dance, an international dance examination board based in London, UK.

Transport

The Port of Singapore with Sentosa island in the background

Singapore is a major international transportation hub in Asia, positioned on many sea and air trade routes.

A C751B train at Eunos MRT Station on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, one of three heavy rail passenger transport lines in Singapore

The Port of Singapore, managed by port operators PSA International and Jurong Port, was the world's second busiest port in 2005 in terms of shipping tonnage handled, at 1.15 billion gross tons, and in terms of containerised traffic, at 23.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). It is 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 world's busiest for transshipment traffic and the world's biggest ship refuelling centre.

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 80 airlines connecting Singapore to 200 cities in 68 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 most awarded airline in the world. Singapore Changi Airport was privatised in the year 2009 and is now wholly owned by Changi Airport Group.

Domestic

The domestic transport infrastructure has a well-connected island-wide road transport system which includes a network of expressways. The public road system is served by the nation's bus service and a number of licensed taxi-operating companies. The public bus transport has been the subject of criticism by Singaporeans, the majority of whom are dependent on it for their daily commuting.

Since 1987, the heavy rail passenger Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) metro system has been in operation. The MRT system has been further augmented by the Light Rail Transit (LRT) light rail system, and increases accessibility to housing estates. Established in 2001, the EZ-Link system allows contactless smartcards to serve as stored value tickets for use in the public transport systems in Singapore.