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Singapore

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Singapore a small country with nearly 5 million people located in the south of Malay Peninsula, has been considered one of the most powerful global economies. Despite of the remarkable growth experienced during the period 2000-2007, in 2008-2009 coinciding with the financial crisis, the economy constrained causing a sharp deceleration in the GDP growth. Surprisingly, the country recovered so fast achieving an unprecedented growth of 14.8% in the year 2010. How can a small country like Singapore avoid the economic recession and become one of the world-fastest growing economies? This study tries to response these questions analyzing different social, economic, political and cultural aspects.
Manufacturing industry and exports driving growth recovery
Singapore´s economy is very dependent on the global trade. In contrast with other recessions, this one has affected all the industries and services sectors globally, damaging the economy of the country.
Manufacturing is the most important industry and the cornerstone of the country economy, accounting for 20% of Singapore´s GDP. In the course of the economic downturn Singapore evidenced a substantial downtrend in the manufacturing industry. Having overcome the worst of the global crisis, 2010 marked a strong change in the productive trend of Singapore when the Industrial production Index rose by 29.7% over the previous year mainly led by the biomedical manufacturing sector especially by pharmaceutical products. In addition other sectors such as semi-conductors that accounts for more than 10% of global production and chemicals, one of the most significant clusters in the economy of the country have acted as catalyzers of this unprecedented growth.
Furthermore, during the global recession the number of exports was drastically reduced when demand from the OECD countries and China plunged from $477bn in 2008 to $391bn in 2009. However, in 2010 the global economy started to recover and exports grew by 22% led by Machinery & Equipment, Mineral Fuels and Chemical sectors, which together accounted for 73% of total exports equivalent to $404bn.
Key exports include electronic integrated circuits, automatic data processing machines, printers and photocopiers. Additionally, Singapore is a hub for energy across Asia and is known as one of the top three export refining centers.
Innovation and technology
As the manufacturing industry is a key pillar in Singapore's economy, competitiveness and innovation within the business ecosystem is crucial to sustain economic growth. Public expenditure during the period 2002-2012 grew at a CAGR of 8% totaling $2.83bn in 2012. Moreover, in order to boost research, the Government has committed $16.1bn for the period 2011-2015 ambitioning to reach 3.5% of GDP in Research & Development expenses by 2015. Likewise, business expenditure in Research & Development grew at a CAGR of 7.8% in the same period that corresponds to $4.4bn in 2012.
As a result, Singapore is one of the top research-intensive countries having a representative pool of scientist, Phd´s and engineers, being one of the countries with more talented and skilled people.º

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