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Full country
name: Republic of Singapore
Area: 683 sq km (266 sq mi)
Population: 4.1 million (growth rate 1.15%)
People: 76% Chinese, 15% Malay, 6% Indian
Language: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil
Religion: 42% Buddhist, 15% Muslim, 14% Christian, 9% Taoist,
4% Hindu
Government: Parliamentary democracy
President: SR Nathan
Prime Minister: Goh Chok Tong
GDP: US$85
billion
GDP per head: US$20,700
Annual growth: 5%
Inflation: 1%
Major industries: Manufacturing, electronics, chemicals, trade,
business and financial services, shipping, tourism, construction
Major trading partners: US, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, South
Korea
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Lying
almost on the equator, Singapore is a thriving city-state
that has overcome its dearth of natural resources to become
one of the juggernaut economies of Asia. In the crowded streets
of Chinatown, fortune tellers, calligraphers and temple worshippers
are still a part of everyday life. In Little India, you can
buy the best sari material, freshly ground spices or a picture
of your favourite Hindu god. In the small shops of Arab St,
the cry of the imam can be heard from the nearby Sultan Mosque.
Singapore
may have traded in its rough-and-ready opium dens and pearl
luggers for towers of concrete and glass, and its steamy rickshaw
image for hi-tech wizardry, but you can still recapture the
colonial era with a gin sling under the languorous ceiling
fans at Raffles Hotel. It is this carefully stage-managed
combination of Western modernity and treasured Eastern and
colonial past that makes Singapore such an accessible slice
of Asia.
Singapore
Flight from UK
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