Singapore, formally the Republic of Singapore (Malay: Republik
Singapura; Chinese: 新加坡共和国, Pinyin: Xīnjiāpō Gònghéguó; Tamil:
சிங்கப்பூர் குடியரசு, Ciŋkappūr Kudiyarasu), is an island
city-state and the smallest country in Southeast 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 just 137 kilometres (85 miles) north of the Equator.
The site of several ancient port cities and a possession of several
empires in its history, Singapore was a Malay fishing village when
it was colonised by the United Kingdom in the 19th century. It was
further occupied by the Japanese Empire in World War II, and was
later part of the merger which established Malaysia. When Singapore
acquired independence, having few natural resources, it was
sociopolitically volatile and economically undeveloped. Foreign
investment and rapid government-led industrialisation has since
created an economy which relies on exports of electronics and
manufacturing primarily from its port.
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. [1] In the more well-known
Human Development Index by the United Nations, 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).
More than 90% of Singapore's population lives in housing estates
constructed by the Housing Development Board and nearly half uses
the public transport system daily [2]. As a result of efforts to
control motorised traffic, the maintenance of natural greenery,
strict regulations on industrial locations and emissions, and other
pro-environmental initiatives by the government and the private
sector, Singapore has been able to control its pollution levels to
well within World Health Organization standards [3]. The
Constitution of the Republic of Singapore established the
city-state as a representative democracy. Singapore initially
undertook a democratic socialist policy shortly after its
independence, adopting a welfare system. However, the government
has since become more conservative than it was at the founding of
the republic.
