Forbes: Singapore 4th Best?

Singapore is the 4th best country in the world to do business in. Highly questionable. The survey consisting of 127 countries based on criteria such as taxes, red tape, investor protection, stock market performance, promotion of free trade, and freedom of expression and organisation.

According to the article in Forbes Magazine, business-friendly economies like Singapore, which are able to attract entrepreneurs, investors and workers, are ‘in a much better position than others to rebound’ from the economic downturn that has gripped the world.

The three countries ahead of Singapore in the rankings were Denmark, the United States and Canada. 17 Singapore-listed firms also made it to this year’s Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s 2,000 biggest public firms, ranked by profits, assets, sales and market value. Last year, only 14 firms from Singapore were featured.

Probably the question doesn’t lie with Singapore. Rather the survey criteria is somewhat not comprehensive enough. True, taxes, investor protection, stock market stability, etc are important factors, but how about other criteria such as labour cost, availability of land, competition, etc?

Comparing with countries like China, I think they can easily compete with us in terms of country stability and investor protection. Moreover labour cost is cheap there, even Singapore businesses are outsourcing whatever possible to places like China and India. How often you see Dell, or Toyota setting up assembly plants here?

Is Singapore a country well known of having freedom of expression? How many people were arrested at the Speaker’s Corner in Hong Lim Park since it started? How many opposition parties were jailed, for having said something wrong? Our neighbouring country Malaysia probably has more freedom of expression than us. In fact, is there a stricter government than Singapore’s very own PAP?

Having said that, having free trade, decent tax rates, and political stability does entice many to invest in Singapore, especially to setup a regional headquarter for MNCs. But I find it a little absurd to be listed so high up as one of the best countries to do business in.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 1:27 am and is filed under Branding, Business, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.