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Foreign-born Singapore resident population up from 18% to 23%

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 By Abhijit

Singapore Population (Figures in Thousands)

Singapore now has 5.07 million people. But the population is growing more slowly – by 1.8 per cent this year, down from 3.1 per cent last year – with fewer new permanent residents and a lower intake of other foreigners. Several Asian countries have even lower growth rates, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

The number of Singapore permanent residents has gone up by just 1.5 per cent to 541,000 this year, after an 11.5 per cent increase last year. There are now 1.3 million non-resident foreigners, up 4.1 per cent this year after a 4.8 per cent increase last year and an astounding 19 per cent jump in 2007.

The Singaporean population has grown only 0.9 per cent to 3.23 million after a 1.1 per cent rise last year. China's population (1.33 billion) has an even lower growth rate (0.5 per cent in 2008 and 2009 ) and so does Hong Kong (population 7 million after 0.4 per cent growth in 2008 and 0.7 per cent in 2009). Taiwan's population (23.8 million) increased only 0.4 per cent and South Korea's (48.7 million) just 0.3 per cent in both 2008 and 2009 while Thailand's (63.9 million) went up by merely 0.7 per cent in 2008 and 0.6 per cent in 2009.

Singlish and English in Singapore

Thursday, August 12, 2010 By Abhijit

Canadian journalist Mark Abley, like the Observer's associate editor Robert McCrum, is fascinated by the sheer variety of English spoken and used across the globe. He notes with amusement what's happening in Singapore: the government's attempts to promote standard English failing to dislodge the Singlish spoken on the streets.

He devotes several pages to Singapore and Singlish in The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English. You could call it a traveller's notebook, exploring the differences in English from country to country. Anyone who loved The Story of English – where McCrum, Robert MacNeil and William Cran described how the language has evolved across the world – will enjoy reading this book.

Abley (photo from his website) met Singaporean academics like Kirpal Singh and Lubna Alsagoff and Colin Goh of Talking Cock. They all say Singlish is here to stay.

How many Indians, Chinese, Malays and people of other races in Singapore’s total population?

Sunday, July 25, 2010 By Abhijit

Indians now make up almost a quarter of the 1.79 million foreigners in Singapore, reported The Straits Times. The number of Indian nationals on the island has doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 in the last two years, it added, quoting the Indian High Commission.

So what's the ethnic composition of Singapore's total population, which has now grown to 4.98 million?

We know the racial makeup of Singapore's 3.73 milllion resident population: 74.2 per cent Chinese, 13.4 per cent Malay, 9.2 per Indian, with others making up 3.2 per cent.

When Lee Kuan Yew struck a chill in expat hearts

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 By Abhijit

Browsing through Elections in Singapore written by Pugalenthi Sr and published in 1996, I was struck by this passage, where he writes about the 1959 elections, which brought Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew to power:

He said the citizenship laws had deliberately been made very liberal to allow Commonwealth citizens to take up citizenship after a stay of only two years here. This was aimed at providing the large number of Britons here a say in local politics. But most of these Britons had no intention of making this their homeland and would "scoot off" as soon as things "got hot here".

The book does not give any references.

But Mr Lee and his People's Action Party in those days did strike a chill in the hearts of expatriates, according to the historian Constance Mary Turnbull. In A History of Modern Singapore (1819 – 2005), she describes the aftermath of the PAP victory in the 1959 elections, when PAP won 43 of the 51 seats (see the Elections Department page and Wikipedia: total voters 586,098, voter turnout 527,919 or 92.9%). Turnbull writes:

UN human rights official raps Singapore

Thursday, April 29, 2010 By Abhijit

I think the UN special rapporteur on racism Githu Muigai was unduly harsh on Singapore. He said that "while there may be no institutionalized racial discrimination in Singapore, several policies have further marginalized certain ethnic groups".

100 richest people: Mukesh Ambani 4th, Mittal 5th

Thursday, March 11, 2010 By Abhijit

The New York Times' Mexican investor Carlos Slim Helu is the richest man in the world, worth $53.5 billion, according to the 2010 Forbes list of the world's billionaires.

Bill Gates is the second richest, with $53 billion, Warren Buffett third, with $47 billion, and then come the Indians Mukesh Ambani, fourth, with $29 billion, and Lakshmi Mittal, fifth, with $28.7 billion.

Lawrence Ellison of Oracle is sixth, with $28 billion, and Bernard Arnault of LVMH seventh, with $27.5 billion. He is the richest European.

Mukesh Ambani's brother, Anil Ambani, is down to 36th, with $13.7 billion. Fellow Indian Azim Premji of Wipro is richer, ranked 28th, with $17 billion. Other Indians among the 100 richest billionaires are Shashi and Ravi Ruia, ranked 40th, with $13 billion, Savitri Jindal, 44th, with $12.2 billion, Kushal Pal Singh, 74th with $9 billion, Kumar Birla, 86th, with $7.9 billion, Sunil Mittal, 87th, with $7.8 billion

Li Ka-shing is the richest Chinese, taking the 14th spot with $21 billion, just ahead of Jim Walton of Wal-Mart, ranked 15th with $20.7 billion, and Alice Walton,also of Wal-Mart, who is 16th with $20.6 billion. Read on to see the list of the world's 100 richest people.

China visitors fell below 1m in Singapore in 2009

Saturday, February 20, 2010 By Abhijit

Singapore saw a sharp drop in visitors from China in 2009 when its exports to China exceeded imports from there for the first time in several years. The number of mainland visitors fell from more than a million in 2008 to about 936,700 in 2009.

Mainland Chinese are still the second biggest group of visitors after those from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including Malaysians, Indonesians, Thais and Filipinos. Their numbers rose marginally from more than 3.57 million in 2008 to over 3.68 million in 2009.

Visitors from Australia, the third biggest group, dipped from more than 833,000 to 830,000.

Indians continued to make up the fourth biggest group, although their numbers fell from 778,000 to 725,500, according to the Economic Survey of Singapore 2009 released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry yesterday.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Singapore Tagged With: 2009, america, australia, britain, china, chinese, economic survey, indian, industry, ministry, recession, trade, visitor

Bamboo network around China: Samuel Huntington

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 By Abhijit

Professor Tommy Koh in the Straits Times today noted a difference between Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his former deputy, the late S. Rajaratnam, the country's first foreign minister.

Raja, as he was known, "saw himself simply as a Singaporean and not as a Ceylonese Singaporean or an Indian Singaporean." wrote Prof Koh. "Minister Mentor Lee, on the other hand, saw himself first as a Singaporean, and second, as an ethnic Chinese proud of his cultural roots."

This sense of ethnic and cultural identity, and how it is reshaping the world, is the theme of Samuel Huntington's book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Published in 1996, after the fall of Soviet communism, the book looks at the growing importance of race and religion in international affairs.

This lies behind the rise of China, according to Huntington. It has become an economic giant with generous help from overseas Chinese investors. He quoted Minister Mentor Lee on how they were drawn together by their common culture and ancestry.

Why Singapore is not like Malaysia

Monday, January 18, 2010 By Abhijit

The Singapore government can pat itself on the back for keeping Singapore free from the racial and religious tensions that flare up in Malaysia. But, while the government encourages religious harmony, could there be another reason why Singapore is unlike Malaysia? Look at the ethnic makeup of the two countries.

Singapore is overwhelmingly Chinese: 74.7% of the population is Chinese, 13.6% Malay, 8.9% Indian, while others make up 2.8%, according to Singapore in Figures 2009 by the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Malaysia is not so overwhelmingly Malay: 53% of the population is Malay, 26% Chinese, 8% Indian, while the indigenous people make up 12%, according to the Financial Times article, "Allah" spat marks ethnic Malays' insecurity, published last week.

Countries and regions where ethnic groups are more evenly split can be prone to racial tensions. Look at Lebanon, Nigeria, Sudan, Northern Ireland. The state of Assam in northeastern Indian provides a parallel to Malaysia. Assam also has ethnic-based political parties like Malaysia's Umno, born out of the indigenes' resentment against other ethnic groups.

Singapore might have simmered with similar tensions, too, if the ethnic groups had been more evenly balanced.

What makes me think so?

Because of the widespread resentment against foreigners in Singapore. Singaporeans naturally don't like having to compete with foreigners for jobs and housing. And they see foreigners everywhere. As this chart shows, Singaporeans make up just 64 per cent of the population in Singapore: 3.2 million of the 4.98 million population are Singapore citizens, 533,200 are permanent residents and the rest are foreigners, according to Statistics Singapore.

Singaporeans still enjoy a bigger majority in Singapore than Malays in Malaysia, but that has not prevented a growing resentment against foreigners.

Chinese, social media to dominate Net, says Google CEO

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 By Abhijit

Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age," Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009, reports ReadWriteWeb.

Here is a videoclip from the interview posted by ReadWriteWeb.

There's lots more in the full 45 minutes of Schmidt's interview, including a statement that a Google OS Netbook will be here in 2010,

Here Schmidt says:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Media Tagged With: chinese, eric schmidt, facebook, google, twitter, youtube

Foreign-born Singapore resident population up from 18% to 23%

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Singlish and English in Singapore

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How many Indians, Chinese, Malays and people of other races in Singapore’s total population?

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When Lee Kuan Yew struck a chill in expat hearts

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100 richest people: Mukesh Ambani 4th, Mittal 5th

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China visitors fell below 1m in Singapore in 2009

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