Introduction
During 2003, President George W. Bush signed the U.S. – Singapore Free Trade Agreement. This agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004 and immediately created a zero tariff on all U.S. imports into Singapore. This was the first agreement by any Asian nation with the United States.( http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/ Fact_Sheets/2003/Quick_Facts_US- Singapore_Free_Trade_Agreement.html) With a population of just over 4 million and an area just a little over half the size of Los Angeles, Singapore is a very big player in commerce and economics in South-East Asia and around the World. It's centrally located port operations handle more material than any other port in the world. A stable political system, strong economy and focus on education have made it the best country to do business with in the World.
Local Facts
Demographics
Singapore is a city-state located on the southern border of Malaysia and north of Indonesia. It is one of only a few city-states remaining in the world. The entire country covers only 272 square miles, and comparatively, is about 3 times the size of Washington D.C. (Wikipedia, Singapore) The population of this island nation is roughly 4.68 million people. The population is very diverse in that 3.7 million people are actually Singaporean. The other million people are made up of Chinese (75.2%), Malays (13.6%), Indians (8.8%) and Eurasians and others (2.2%).(ustr.gov)
Education
The primary language in Singapore is English. Other common languages are Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. Nearly half of the children learn English before they learn their native language. Due to the diversity of the population, many other languages are spoken as well. For example, some schools receive financial aid to t ...