Welcome to Singapore!
Singapore is known to be one of the smallest countries in the whole of South East Asia. With a land area totaling up to roughly 700 square kilometer, Singapore has a total population around 4.84 millions people (in 2008) and also, Singapore has one of the highest population densities with 6389 people per square kilometer. Although the total area of Singapore is small, the GDP per capita of Singapore, $28228 ranked at the upper quadrant when compared with other countries around the world.
After splitting up with the Federation of Malaysia during the year 1965 and gaining the country’s own independence, Singapore is now a republic country with a Westminster system of a unicameral parliamentary government. Currently, the President of Singapore is known as Sellapan Ramanathan with Lee Hsien Loong, the well known successor of Lee Kuan Yew as the Prime Minister of Singapore. Although Singapore has been a well known developed country, some of the policies adopted by the government of Singapore still spark a lot of controversy, even until today. For the economy of Singapore, the country relies heavily on exports produced from refining imported goods in a form of extended entrepot trade as the size of the country can not provide for agricultural or mass manufacturing activities within the country. However, despite having a slight handicap in terms of natural resources, Singapore still emerges as one of the four Asian Tigers due to the strategic and easily accessible locations making it one of the largest transport hubs in the whole of South East Asia.
Generally, the culture in Singapore doesn’t differ too much when compared to its neighboring country, Malaysia. However, the main race that constitute to the majority of the population in Singapore is the Chinese race, with a dominant percentage of more than 70%. In addition to the Chinese, Singapore also has a diversified ethnic group including Malay, Indian and also the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a mix of Malay and Chinese descendants). Because of the unique mix of ethnicity in Singapore, one of the tourism attractions at Singapore revolves around the ethnic neighborhood of Little India and Chinatown. Aside from that, various delicacies from different ethnics are also one of Singapore’s main tourism attractions. Just like its neighboring countries, Singapore has a tropical climate so therefore weather in Singapore is humid and rain occurs every now and then throughout the year.
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