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In-Singapore.biz
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Singapore, officially
the Republic of Singapore , is an island city-state and the smallest
country in South-East 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.
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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 industrialization
has since created an economy which relies on exports of electronics and manufacturing
primarily from its port.
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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. 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.
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Singapore consists of 63 islands,
including the main island itself. There are two connections from Singapore to
the Malaysian state of Johor — a man-made causeway known as the Johor-Singapore
Causeway to the north, crossing the Tebrau Straits, and Tuas Second Link, a
bridge in the western part of Singapore that connects to Johor. Jurong Island,
Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's
many smaller islands. The highest point of Singapore is Bukit Timah Hill, with
a height of 166 metres (538 ft).
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The urban area used to be only
concentrated on the southern part of Singapore around the mouth of the Singapore
River and what is now the Downtown Core, while the rest of the land
was tropical rainforest or used for agriculture. Since the 1960s, the
government has constructed new towns in outlying areas, resulting in an entirely
built-up and urban landscape, although the Central Area, the central business
district, remains the densest. The Urban Redevelopment Authority is
a government agency responsible for the urban planning of Singapore that
concentrates on efficient land use and distribution, as well as transport flow.
It has released a Development Guide Plan which details specific land use
for each the 55 urban planning areas of Singapore.
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Singapore has reclaimed land
with earth obtained from its own hills, the seabed and neighbouring countries.
As a result, Singapore's land area grew from 581.5 square kilometres (224.5
sq mi) in the 1960s to 697.2 square kilometres (269.1 sq mi) today, and
may grow by another 100 square kilometres (38.6 sq mi) by 2030. About 23% of
Singapore's land area consists of forest and nature reserves.
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The architecture of Singapore
is extremely varied and diverse. Due to the lack of available space, few historical
buildings remain in the urban areas of Singapore. However, Singapore has become
a centre for modern architecture as older buildings are cleared away to make
space for newer, larger buildings. Historically, the demand for high-end buildings
has been in and around the Central Business District (CBD). After decades of
development, the CBD has become an area with many tall business buildings. These
buildings comprise the skyline along the coast of Marina Bay and Raffles Place,
which is a famous tourist attraction in Singapore. Due to the air restrictions
in Singapore, no building in Singapore is to be taller than 280 metres. The
three tallest buildings in Singapore, namely Republic Plaza, UOB Plaza One
and OUB Centre, are all 280 metres in height.
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Singapore is the second most
densely populated independent country in the world excluding Macau and Hong
Kong which are parts of PRC. Eighty-four percent of Singaporeans live in public
housing provided by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).The largest
group in the population of 4.35 million (as of June 2005) are the Singaporean
Chinese who account for 76.8% of Singaporeans, making it one of the largest
Chinese cities outside of China. Nearby Malaysia is also home to many ethnic
Chinese. Singapore is also diverse, with the Singaporean Malays, who are
the indigenous native group of the country, constituting 13.9%, though this
number includes many Malay ethnic groups from other parts of the Malay archipelago
including the Javanese, Bugis, Baweans and Minangkabau. Indian
Singaporeans are the third largest ethnic group at 7.9%, consisting of several
groups — Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils, who form the largest Indian
group, and others such as Malayalees, Punjabis and Bengalis. The
rest are made up of smaller groups such as Arab Singaporeans, Jews, Thais,
Japanese, European and the Eurasian Singaporean community.
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Singapore is also a multi-religious
country, due mainly to its location on one of the world's major transportation
routes. More than 40% of Singaporeans practice Buddhism. About 15% practice
Christianity (mostly Chinese and Indians), and 15% profess no religion.
Muslims (mostly Malays) account for 14%. A smaller minority practices Taoism,
Sikhism, Hinduism, Baha'i Faith, and others.
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Singapore is a major Asian
transportation hub, strategically lying on major sea and air trade routes. Its
history has been closely tied to the growth of its transportation industry since
the establishment of its port. The transportation industry comprises over 10%
of Singaporean GDP despite an increasingly diversified economy. The Port of
Singapore, managed by port operators PSA International and Jurong Port,
was the world's busiest port in 2005 in terms of shipping tonnage handled with
1.15 billion gross tons handled, and in terms of containerised traffic,
with 23.2 million Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled. It was also
the world's second busiest in terms of cargo tonnage, coming behind Shanghai
with 423 million tons handled. In addition, Singapore is the world's busiest
hub for transhipment traffic and the world's biggest ship refuelling hub.
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Singapore is a major aviation
hub and an important stopover point for the 'Kangaroo route' between Australasia
and Europe. Singapore Changi Airport has a network of 81 airlines connecting
Singapore to 179 cities in 57 countries (2005). It is one of the top five airports
in Asia in terms of passengers handled, with 30 million passengers passing through
in 2004. It has been consistently rated as one of the best international airports
by numerous international travel magazines. It was also rated as the world's
best airport in year 2006 by Skytrax, defeating its long time rival, Hong
Kong International Airport.A low-cost terminal, the Budget Terminal, which
started operation in March 2006 and a third passenger terminal now under construction
will increase the airport's total annual capacity to 66.7 million passengers
by 2008. The national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) is internationally
renowned for its service and will be the first airline in the world to fly the
new Airbus A380 commercially.
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The backbone of domestic transport
infrastructure is the road transport system which includes a network of
expressways that form the arteries between distinct towns and regional centres
as laid out in Singapore's urban planning. Following a government study
assisted by the United Nations Development Programme which foresaw problems
with private transport such as traffic congestion and air pollution
as the city grew, the Land Transport Authority began a series of measures to
develop the use of the public transport system such as improving the nation's
bus service and liberalising the hired vehicle market to allow for more
taxi operators. Since 1987, the heavy rail passenger Mass Rapid Transit
(MRT) metro system has been in operation. MRT was later augmented by and
linked to the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) light rail system, which provides
service to several expanses of housing estates. The EZ-Link system allows
contactless smartcards to serve as stored value tickets for use in the public
transport systems. More than 2.8 million people use the bus network daily, while
more than 1.3 million people use either the LRT or MRT as part of their daily
routine. Approximately 900,000 people use the taxi services daily. Private vehicle
use in the Central Area is discouraged by tolls implemented through an Electronic
Road Pricing system which operates during hours of heavy road traffic.
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