Singapore’s financial market landscape will have a new player by the end of August – the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), the first pan-Asian multi-product exchange. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) granted ‘Approved Exchange’ (AE) status to SMX on 12 August 2010, the final approval needed to operate as a regulated and licensed exchange.

Emerging out of the global economic crisis businesses and investors around the world are revving up to capitalize on the economic momentum of the Asian region, especially China and similarly the Asian businesses, a significant number of Chinese are gradually venturing out into markets that are farther away from the regional hot picks. Singapore is the preferred location for such businesses due to the world class infrastructure, international banking facilities and ease of incorporating a Singapore company.

The Singapore government has recently launched a new program that would provide training to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the manufacturing industry in an effort to boost the country’s economic growth.

The program, which was developed by the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), will focus on providing managers from SME with trainings that would raise productivity and promote “excellent business operation”.

Singapore’s economy grew at a slightly slower pace in the first half of the year mainly because of the continued threat of the global financial crisis and the worsening economic condition in the United States and Europe, the government reported on Sunday.

In his televised speech on the eve of Singapore ’s 45th National Independence Day celebration, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reported the country’s economy, as measured by its gross domestic product (GDP), has increased by 17.9 percent from January to June this year from 6.5 percent in the same period last year.

Singapore’s Franchising and Licensing Association plans to launch an assistance package to boost the franchise industry in Singapore.
The Singapore Franchising and Licensing Association has announced plans of introducing an assistance package in order to enhance the growth of the franchising industry in Singapore. The ‘Franchise Assist’ package aims to address key issues facing most franchisees such as access to funding, advise on manpower planning, marketing, branding and protection of intellectual property rights. The package is expected to be implemented within six month’s time.

Emerging out of the global economic crisis businesses and investors around the world are revving up to capitalize on the economic momentum of the Asian region, especially China and similarly the Asian businesses, a significant number of Chinese are gradually venturing out into markets that are farther away from the regional hot picks. Singapore is the preferred location for such businesses due to the world class infrastructure, international banking facilities and ease of incorporating a Singapore company.

Singapore has ample space for more global pharmaceutical and medical technology companies and the Economic Development Board (EDB) is anticipating prospects for further investments in the sector.

Despite the recent dip in figures in biomedical output, EDB is hopeful that research-focused initiatives here will help Singapore gain an edge over other locations in the region.

EDB is looking at a 5 to 10 per cent increase in biomedical production this year.

Singapore has remained to be the top destination in the world in terms of attracting immigrants and workers, beating other neighbouring and western economic powerhouse, a recent Gallup survey told.

The survey, which aims to calculate the member countries’ Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI), was conducted among 350, 000 people in some 148 countries from 2007 to 2010.

To calculate each country’s PNMI, Gallup has subtracted the number of adults who wish to leave the country to the estimated number of people who wish to immigrate and work there.

The Singapore Parliament on Monday has passed the second reading the new Rapid Transit Systems Bill, which aimed to facilitate timely expansion of its railway network and to cater needs of the country’s growing population.

In her speech, Land Transport Authority (LTA) Minister Lim Hwee Hwa said that the Singapore government is seriously considering building new MRT lines, citing the financial viability of the entire railway network.

Singapore, Aug 25, 2010 - (ACN Newswire) - Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ: OTEX), the preeminent provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software, today announced that it has expanded its solutions in the global legal market including introducing key integrations between Open Text Document Management, eDOCS Edition (eDOCS DM) and Open Text Social Workplace available this fall.