INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Dragon’s ken: foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt praised Singapore’s business acumen when he opened BT’s new premises there in January
recruiting a more diverse group of employees at Nicoll Curtin, we started to be viewed in Singapore as a ‘local international business’. Many competitors of ours that used British expats instead of hiring locally went home after a few years.” British fi rms will fi nd a familiar commercial environment that’s relatively free of both regulation and corruption. Until it was usurped by New Zealand in 2017, Singapore topped the World Bank’s “Ease of doing business” league table for a decade. “If you accidentally overpay tax here, you’ll soon receive a refund and a letter from the government informing you of your mistake,” Acconci says. Tempting as it may be to see Singapore as a business-friendly utopia, the state remains under the iron grip of the People’s Action Party, which has been in power here ever since LKY secured the fi rst of his eight consecutive election wins in 1959. Its draconian approach to even the pettiest of crimes moved novelist William Gibson to describe it as “Disneyland with the death penalty”. Vandalism and overstaying a visa are both punishable by caning, while offences such as feeding pigeons, failing to fl ush a public toilet and annoying people with a musical instrument will attract fi nes. In 2017, for instance, a 60-year-old “prankster” was fi ned £2,000 for sticking toothpicks into bus seats. The judge spared him the one-year jail term he could have served. “These situations are very tempting for journalists to talk about,” Acconci says. “If you’re a civilised person in Singapore, you won’t have any problems. But, yes, it will be tough if you want to spray graffi ti or litter the place with chewing gum.” Howie warns that Singapore’s painstaking methods of maintaining public order can sometimes be refl ected in its approach to business. Wicks Manor Farm ships its meat to Singapore in refrigerated containers, a voyage that takes about 25 days. “They’re very fastidious on paperwork,” he says. “If you make one small spelling mistake on a form, they will post it back to you. You could end up with your goods sitting on the docks for days while you wait to receive documents to sign and return. That can represent a huge cost for a small business.”
The eye-watering cost of living is another thing that’s likely to shock the unwary newcomer to Singapore. Last year the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked it as the world’s most expensive city.
Yet Acconci believes that it’s a price worth paying when you compare Singapore against other potential bases for British fi rms in the Asean bloc. “Setting up can be expensive for start-ups and SMEs, thanks to Singapore’s high wages and costly real estate, but the time you’d save by avoiding the day-long traffi c jams that clog up cities such as Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur makes coming here worthwhile,” he says. “Yes, Bangkok may be cheaper, but it wouldn’t offer the same effi ciency, stability or logistical advantages.” Braca agrees, adding that not everything in Singapore is pricey. “Public transport is good and inexpensive. An MRT ride costs 80 pence, so you don’t need a car. And the food sold at the hawker centres [outdoor food courts] is great value. I’d eat it every night.” Indeed, a stall called Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle was awarded a Michelin star in 2016 for its £1.10 lunches. Can the UK learn some salutary lessons, as Jeremy Hunt suggested, from Singapore’s singular approach to enterprise?
“Living here has taught me tons,” Braca says. “Singaporeans have such an indomitable spirit – a true never-give-up mentality. Their outward- looking nature is truly amazing. Singapore sees every country as a partner and a friend. For a nation with few natural resources, that’s essential.” One of Raffl es’ long-term goals for Singapore was for it to become an “emporium of the east”. Two centuries on, that vision is a reality, from its vibrant markets to the Louboutin-heeled materialism of its crazy rich. This probably wouldn’t have happened, however, without the decidedly non-populist policies of LKY (who died in 2015) and his successors. In 1999, President Habibie of Indonesia referred to Singapore as a “little red dot” on the atlas. It’s telling that Singaporeans, proud of their nation’s ability to punch well above its weight, adopted it as a nickname when they could have taken umbrage. Today, the Little Red Dot is glowing like never before as a beacon for trade and inward investment.
Singapore’s population grew from
2.08 5.08
MILLION in 1970 to
MILLION in 2010. In that time the proportion of immigrants grew from 2.9% to 25.7%
Putting the ‘AI’ in airport: Changi’s new fourth terminal is cleaned by robots
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