JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013 - 15

Market

Singapore

Singapore –
a promising market
In the 48 years since gaining its independence in 1965, Singapore’s economy has grown consistently and is one of the sustained success stories of South East Asia. This has occurred in
spite of Singapore being a small country, in terms of land area
and a population of some 5 million, and not having any significant natural resources.
highly ranked in the regular BERI business environment survey as a place of high
business potential and the best place to
do business in the South East Asia region.
GDP per capita in 2011 was in first position at around US$60,000 and was some
five times higher than the next highest
country in the region. Singapore has also
Andrew Mafeld
established its reputation in holding the
Managing Director
number one spot among countries in
Connectra Global
South East Asia and the world as a whole
for lowest level of corruption (as measuhe Singapore government took
red by Transparency International). FDI
advantage of two major assets of the rankings put Singapore, in spite of its
country, namely its geographical
relatively small size, as the place with the
location and industrious population, and
third highest number of FDI projects in
coupled that to a coherent set of economic the region after China and India.
and business policies that led to a close to
6% yearly average GDP growth rate from Manufacturing
1999 to 2011.
in Singapore
In 2011, manufacturing (including
The Singapore economy
construction & utilities) accounted for
These key government policies were
some 26% of Singapore’s GDP, while sercentred on being pro-business, being pro- vices, at approximately 64%, made up the
foreign investment, being export-oriented bulk of the remainder. Total manufactuand focusing state-directed investments
ring output grew some 4.6% in 2011 from
in strategic government-owned corporaS$ 260 billion in 2010 to S$ 272bln in
tions. In addition, there has been a strong 2011. Figure 1 shows that manufacturing
emphasis on building an advanced and
is relatively concentrated with five sectors
efficient infrastructure and on turning
making up 87% of manufacturing output
Singapore into a centre for technology
in 2011 (source: Singapore Government
and innovation.
Statistics).
The result of these policies is that the
country has the highest ratio of trade to
With the country’s target to be one of the
GDP (around 200%), higher even than
top ten petrochemical sites in the world
Hong Kong; Singapore is also consistently by 2020, the combination of two sectors,

- Singapore
- a promising market ... p15
- Mainstreaming
composites in the
university system ...... p19
- The French supply
chain for technical flax
and hemp fibres gets
organized ................... p26
- Biocomposites:
double-digit growth
per annum over the
next 10 years ............. p28

No80 April 2013 /

jec composites magazine 15

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013