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Singapore & World Bank's friendship for business | DirectAsia

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Singapore has been voted the World Bank's friendliest place to do business, topping the international table for the eighth straight year. Rounding out the top five after Singapore were Hong Kong, New Zealand, the US and Denmark, unchanged from a year ago.

"The World Bank's extensive study, now in its 11th year, covered a record 189 economies, assessing them on measures such as the costliness of commercial regulations and the strength of public institutions. Nations are ranked based on indicators such as the time required to start a business, file tax returns and export or import goods." Ben Shenkel, livemint.com, Oct 29th 2013

Singapore's friendliness is not confined just to those wanting to start a business. The Lion City has long been recognised as one of Asia's top convention cities; for one of the smallest countries in the world, this is a major achievement. Sue Mitchell, Director at event management company Top Banana explains,

"Singapore delivers on so many fronts. It's easy to get to, and once you are there the city runs smoothly; there are many great venues to choose from; and it's a leader in innovation with many of the biggest AV and technical companies having a presence there."

These are two good reasons why Singapore is seen as THE friendly, can-do place to do business, and there are other factors that are keeping Singapore at the top of the class. Education Matters Having few natural resources, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew recognised the need to make education in Singapore a top priority for investment.

"Singapore invested heavily in education in order to build and maintain a well-educated work force. Currently, approximately 20% of government spending goes into education." BBC.co.uk

According to the latest report from The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, this investment is paying off. Based on achievements in mathematics, science and reading literature, Singapore comes second in the overall results, just behind Shanghai. Some 12.3% of students in Singapore attain the highest levels of proficiency in all three assessment subjects. Maybe we should also be thanking Starbucks, as it has fast become a local haven for our students… Getting Richer, Quicker We live in a quiet residential area, nothing like glitzy. And yet, take a walk through this unassuming suburb and you'll find a handful of luxury cars Audis, BMWs, Mercedes a Ferrari and even a Zonda (Top Gear fans will know just how super this super-car is). Bearing in mind that luxury's price tag is made that much higher when you add a car sales tax rate of 150% plus the $84,000 it costs to obtain the certificate to own a car in the first place. That's a significant trip to the Bank.

"But wealthy Singaporeans don't mind spending several hundred thousand dollars on a luxury car. Why? Because they can." Ben Shenkel, livemint.com, Oct 29th 2013

A recent wealth report from Barclays Bank found that over half of Singapore's wealthy people have taken less than 10 years to accumulate the majority of their wealth, the quickest rate across the globe. Not only does money grow faster, Singapore's concentration of millionaires is also among the highest in the world with 8.8% of the population having a private wealth of at least one million US dollars. Celebrate Singapore At DirectAsia.com, we like to celebrate all that makes Singapore a great place to live and work. We also know that you want your insurance provider to be friendly and can-do, so we place these principles are at the heart of everything. In fact we've won awards for our first-rate customer service. If you are looking for fast, affordable vehicle, home, personal or travel insurance delivered by local people who will make you their first priority, why not get a quote today?