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In the recent years, Singapore is looking forward to promote itself as a hub for medical tourism destination, thus joining in the race with India, Malaysia, Thailand, and South Korea. It has been estimated that about 200,000 internationals seek medical treatment every year in Singapore. The country is hoping to generate $3 billion in revenue by caring for at least a million foreign nationals each year by 2012. The Health Ministry states that the country’s health care facilities ensures that the clinics and the doctors are both credible and trusted because the people would like some form of certainty of the expenses that they are about to undertake before the trip. This is achieved by providing itemized medical bills and financial counseling for the patient and the family.

Most of the locals work in the service sector and only 2% of the population is unemployed. Singapore boasts of the highest percentage of household millionaires, with 15.5% of the household having at least a million dollars. It had been announced in 2010 that Singapore experienced a growth rate of 17.9% in the economy during the first half of 2010 and is said to be the fastest growing economy of the world at the moment.

All these factors have increased in demand for expensive and high quality healthcare services as the aging population continues to increase drastically in Singapore due to a lower birth rate. Standards have been raised not only in the private medical sector but also in the public government hospitals. Singapore has become one of the most sought after country to go to for medical services. One such country is Indonesia whereby the advancement of medical technology is not so widely adopted yet and hence many patients fly over to Singapore to mostly private medical sectors for treatment and surgery.

Equipped with the latest advanced medical technology equipment and machines has helped doctors perform their surgery with precision. Doctors in Singapore has also gained a whole array of experience from their many years of medical practice which thus increase the success rate of each operation. This gives rise to the assurance and boost confidence to many international patients.

In the year 2005, the government of Singapore gave permission for the construction of the Marina Bay Sands resort and the Resorts World Sentosa, a multi billion dollar project in the hope to double the visitor arrival to 17 million by 2015. The Marina Bay resort reportedly earned $391.3 million during the period of September-December in 2010 thus contributing an astounding 14.5% growth of the economy of the host city-state. Forecasters have already started predicting that Singapore is expected to bring in revenue of $6.4 billion putting the city in the second position for travel destination; the first position belongs to Macau but incidentally Singapore will beat out ‘Sin City’ – Las Vegas.

The Universal Studios theme park is the second park to be built on this theme is Asia, the first being in Japan, offers various entertaining rides, show production and service expertise. The entire park is divided into a number of timed zones – Hollywood, New York, Sci-fi city. The entire tour of the park takes around five hours and it is one of the major tourist destinations of the city. Infact the representatives of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) are certain that if another theme park is introduced in the city the density of tourists visiting Singapore is bound to rise as well.

Singapore is fast becoming the place to be if one is planning a family vacation. According to the reports released by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the arrival of international tourists in between the months of January and March rose to a staggering 3.12 million from the 2.69 million in the same period last year.

This sudden surge in the number of tourists visiting the country has been the consequence of the recent constructions of the Universal Studios theme park, Marina Bay Sands resort and the Resorts World Sentosa, which is incidentally the second most expensive resort. The Marina Bay Street Circuit which is the venue of the Singapore Grand Prix also captured the imagination of the tourists’ world wide as it was the first night race on the F1 circuit. This was done in order for the people to experience the amazing night life of the city.

These events have helped boost Singapore’s economy via the travelling sectors. With the increase in tourism sales, retails and businesses have enjoyed a boost in their net profits. Such landmark attractions not only bring entertainment to its people in a city and also brings tourists from all over the world to this little island.

It has been the norm for a condo management agent to collect the monthly condo maintenance payments. If the condo real estate owner is not able to pay his bills, it is better to talk with the condo managing agent about a grace period. Don’t take this matter lightly. The condo management company could be engaged by the council to sue any person that is behind with payments, and they will do so. The Singapore condo management company is also responsible for taking care of the repairing needed around the block. We are talking about changing the light balls, the switchers and other works considered unimportant by the strata title owners. Of course, the real estate condo management Singapore company is also responsible about justifying those sums, and about requesting invoices for any kind of work and material. The property management Singapore Company must offer you qualified personnel for accounting and financial services. Some condo owners are not aware about the importance of this matter. 

The simple administrator will only use common calculation techniques. The Singapore condo management uses specialized programs to calculate your financial situation, and this is how they are able to save you some serious money. You will sign a contract with the company, and all the aspects about the services offered are stated there. The association will cease the usage rights over the common spaces, the elevators, the halls and the stairways to the company, and the management company obliges to take care about those spaces, and about calculating the expenses and incomes of the condominium in exchange for a monthly fee. The monthly fee used to pay for the service of the condo management agent does not include the salaries for the administrative and technical staff. These are paid by the treasury funds of the Singapore individual condominium council board.

Gone are the days when companies focus on labor-intensive production and manufacturing
excellence was the important factor to attaining success. In the recent years, companies had
a ‘value shift’ and are taking a bigger slice out of the profit pie by switching from manufacturing
to improving their design, marketing and distribution efforts, and providing better service to their
 consumers.

Manufacturing has hence been reduced to being products of commerce with low margin of
 profit, and has shifted to Asia where China transforms into the largest manufacturer in the world-
- producing 70 per cent of the world’s toys, 60 per cent of bicycles, 50 per cent of shoes and 
microwave ovens, and one-third of appliances like television sets and air conditioners

Besides Japan and Korea, many Asian companies have not concentrate enough on long-term
efforts such as innovation and Research and Development (R&D), but on short-term efforts
such as manufacturing. These companies had, instead of promoting a long-term brand-building
mentality, built a short-term sales-oriented mindset by holding firm to their strategy of trading with
an accompanying concentration of attention on high turnover and low margins of profit

Furthermore, there seems to be a general unwillingness among Asian companies to invest in
learning the strategies required to be successful in their branding efforts. All these reasons
 contributed to reasons why most Asia companies still experience low-margin profit.

That said, Asian companies are, however, beginning to learn from their Japan and Korea
counterparts and are starting on efforts to move out of mere contract manufacturing and into
 brand ownership. These shift is not smooth-sailing; new companies face tough competition than
before from existing brands and hence difficulty to grab the consumers’ attention from the many
 product choices already available. This would spell lesser time available for these companies to
move their way up.
Singapore Real Estate Investors Wooed by Malaysian Property Incorporated
By admin | Filled under: Real Estate

In a bid to get more Singaporeans to purchase property in its country, a Malaysian government-linked firm, Malaysian Property Incorporated, recently set up its first office in Singapore. The office is its first in the region, and operates as a showroom as well. Choosing Singapore as a launch pad, they aim to improve Malaysia as an investment destination amongst locals and foreigners. In its showroom, they will be showcasing upcoming projects from Malaysian developers.

Speaking to the press, the Chairman of Malaysia Property Incorporated, Thong Yaw Hong, said that Singapore is a strategic location to showcase Malaysian real estate projects. Singapore is a country where many tourists and travelers cross roads, as well as high net worth individuals who want to invest in properties and real estate in Malaysia.

At present, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Penang are popular spots for property purchases, with 90% of foreign investors choosing to purchase real estate there. Malaysia’s population growth is resulting in a housing demand, thus the company hopes to bring in more investors to invest in other parts of the country.

However, there are changing regulations that may cause some investors to think twice. Starting from January this year, only homes that are RM 500,000 and above, can be purchased by foreigners. The previous amount was RM 250,000. The average value of a home in Johor Bahru, a two-storey terraced house, costs between S$250,000 to S$270,000, about half a million ringgit. Thus, there are few issues on those regulations.

Recently, Singapore has imposed property cooling measures, as with countries such as China as well. Thus, they forsee that Malaysia can become an attractive alternative for investors. The firm aims to open more regional offices, to aid their expansion plans.