About the Country - Singapore

Singapore is an island nation which sits at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is one of the few city-states and also the smallest country in Southeast Asia. Singapore is Southeast Asia's financial hub and the world's busiest container port with its located at the entrance of the Strait of Malacca. Singapore consists of 63 islands, including mainland Singapore. There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia; Johor-Singapore Causeway in the north and Tuas Second Link in the west. The south of Singapore, around the mouth of the Singapore River is now known as the downtown core.

Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy, which historically revolves around extended entrepot trade. Together with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, Singapore stands as one of the four Asian tigers. The economy depends heavily on exports refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing. The manufacturing industry is well-diversified into electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences manufacturing. Singapore is also the world's fourth largest foreign exchange trading centre after bigger cities like London, New York and Tokyo. Singapore has also been rated as the most business-friendly economy in the world, with thousands of foreign expatriates finding work and making Singapore their home. The city-state also employs tens of thousands of foreign blue-collared workers around the world.

Singapore is a popular travel destination, with tourism forming one of the bigger industries in Singapore. Not-to-be-missed shopping district in Singapore is Orchard Road and no tourist leaves Singapore without a stop there. In a bid to further increase the tourism industry in Singapore, the government has legalized gambling and is currently developing two casino resorts, also known as Integrated Resorts. Singapore is also known as the city that never stops eating. The locals enjoy their food so much that cuisine has also been heavily promoted as an attraction for tourists and a Singapore Food Festival is organized every July to celebrate Singapore's cuisine. Singapore is fast positioning itself as a medical tourism hub as well. Almost about 200,000 foreigners seek medical care in the country each year and Singapore medical services aim to serve one million foreign patients annually by 2012 and generate USD 3 billion in revenue.

Singapore has an equatorial climate, which is warm and humid all year round. Rain falls throughout the year. The average daily maximum temperature is about 31.5ºC and the daily minimum temperature is about 25 ºC. There are no distinctive seasons in the country. On average, the relative humidity is around 90% in the morning and about 60% in the afternoon. June and July are noted to be the hottest months, while November and December make up the wetter months in the year. From August to October, there is often haze, sometimes severe enough to prompt public health warnings, due to bushfires in the neighboring city, Jakarta, Indonesia. Singapore does not observe daylight saving time or a summer time zone change. The length of the day is nearly constant year round due to the country's location near the equator.