Singapur (Continuación)

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Tema
Se analizan las oportunidades existentes para un incremento de la presencia empresarial española en Singapur, dedicando especial atención a las mejoras previstas en el acuerdo de libre comercio que la ciudad-estado ha concluido con la Unión Europea (UE).
Resumen
La reciente conclusión del Acuerdo de Libre Comercio entre la UE y Singapur abre nuevas oportunidades de negocio para empresas españolas en la isla, que es ya nuestro primer socio comercial en el Sudeste Asiático. Cabe destacar la eliminación de restricciones sobre el porcentaje de inversión extranjera en servicios financieros y de sectores como telecomunicaciones, ingeniería o transporte marítimo. Asimismo, la posibilidad de participar en un mayor número de licitaciones públicas podrá beneficiar a empresas del sector medioambiental y de la construcción.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Singaporeans are raring to do something extraordinary: protest.

That might not seem like a big deal with the Arab Spring uprisings; Chinese journalists taking to the streets; and thousands of typically docile Japanese rallying against government policies. But tropical Singapore is the land of quiet brooding, where mass street demonstrations are as common as snowstorms.

What has people so riled up? Well, people.

The impetus for the Feb. 16 march was a report that the tiny island’s population may rise by as much as 30 percent to 6.9 million by 2030. This seems to be the government’s answer to the question of how to sustain prosperity in one of the most crowded and expensive cities in the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Last week, when the high court of Singapore convicted the British author Alan Shadrake for contempt, he knew that he faced the possibility of imprisonment for the offence. Today that became a reality when the 75-year-old was sentenced to six weeks in jail and fined for "scandalising the judiciary" for remarks in his book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock. The book includes an interview with Darshan Singh, the former chief executioner at Singapore's Changi prison, who was said to have executed 1,000 prisoners over half a century.

However, the central theme of the book is Shadrake's claim that Singapore's legal system does not accord equal treatment to those suspected of capital offences.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

An apology by a Singaporean church for one of its preacher's disdainful comments about Taoism is a sign that the nation's interfaith relations are in danger of turning sour.

The New Creation church, which has a following of some 20,000 people in a nation of about five million, issued its conciliatory statement after a 2008 sermon by its pastor Mark Ng appeared on YouTube last week (it has since been removed), to public scorn from the nation's Taoists as well as scrutiny from the internal security agency.

In the clip, Ng likened the ritual of praying to a Taoist deity to a criminal practice.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Chee Soon Juan spent much of Friday in court. Nothing unusual in that. An opposition leader in Singapore, Chee spends quite a few days in prison and, when he's not in prison, quite a few more in court, as a defendant.

Singapore's ruling party has been in charge for a half-century -- since self-rule began in 1959 -- and the opposition Singapore Democratic Party has never mustered more than three seats in Parliament.

This may be because everyone in Singapore is happy with life. It might also have something to do with the fact that few people would want to live the life of Chee Soon Juan, the SDP's secretary general.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 14/04/06):

Chee Soon Juan is Singapore's best-known dissident. In his decade-long struggle with the People's Action party (PAP), which has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1965, he has been jailed four times, fined, dismissed from his job as a university lecturer, sued by the country's "minister mentor" Lee Kuan Yew, bankrupted and barred from running in elections.Mr Chee, leader of the tiny opposition Singapore Democratic party, says the spectacular economic progress for which Singapore is famous is no longer enough. He wants a more open, inclusive and democratic political system in the city state.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 24/03/06):

Singapore's business-minded leaders say they want to be friends with everybody. That makes sense for a tiny island state of 4 million people trying to make a living in a volatile region increasingly dominated by China and India.But as protests in Thailand against the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, have intensified, Singapore has found itself on the receiving end of a highly unamicable barrage of insults and threats from its large neighbour to the north.

Posters of Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, have been burned in public; the Singaporean embassy in Bangkok has been besieged; and a boycott of the country's products has been urged.…  Seguir leyendo »