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Singapore

Singapore formally the Republic of Singapore, is an island country off the southern lean of the Malay Peninsula, 137 km (85 miles) north of the equator, in Southeast Asia. It is divided from Malaysia by the channels of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is the world's 4th leading financial centre and a cosmopolitan world city, playing a key role in worldwide trade and finance. The harbor of Singapore is one of the 5 busiest ports in the world.

Singapore has a extended history of colonization. It has a diverse population of close to five million people made up Asian. 42% of the population in Singapore is foreigners who employment and study there. Foreign workers make up fifty percentage of the service sector. The country is the 2nd most densely populated in the world after Monaco.A.T. Kearney named Singapore the most globalised country in the world in 2006 in its Globalization directory

The Economist cleverness component in its "Quality-Of-Life Index" ranks Singapore as having the most excellent quality of life in Asia and 11th overall in the world. Singapore possesses the world's 9th largest foreign reserves. Singapore also maintains armed forces that are technologically advanced and well-equipped.

In 1965, before independence, Singapore was a vibrant trading port with a GDP per capita of $511, the third highest in East Asia then. After independence, foreign straight investment and a state-led drive for industrialisation based on plans by former Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Goh Keng Swee created a modern wealth. After a reduction of -6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2009, Singapore claimed the title of fastest-growing economy in the world, with GDP growth of 17.9 percentages in the first half of 2010.

Singapore consists of sixty three islands, including mainland Singapore. The main island is widely known as Singapore Island but is officially called Pulau Ujong. There are 2 man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north, and the Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's many smaller islands. The uppermost natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 meters .

Singapore has on-going ground reclamation projects with earth obtained from its own hills, the seabed, and neighbouring countries. As a result, Singapore's land area grew from 581.5 kilom2 (224.5 sq miles) in the 1960s to 704 kilom2 (271.8 sq miles) today, and may grow by another 100 kilom2 (38.6 sq miles) by 2030. The projects sometimes engage some of the lesser islands being merged together through land reclamation in order to form larger, more useful islands, as in the case of Jurong Island.

Under the Köppen climate classification system, Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with no distinctive seasons, uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity, and abundant rainfall. Temperatures range from 22 to 34 °C (71.6 to 93.2 °F). On average, the relative humidity is around 90% in the morning and 60% in the afternoon. During prolonged heavy rain, relative humidity often reaches 100%. The lowest and highest temperatures recorded in its maritime history are 19.4 °C (66.9 °F) and 36.0 °C (96.8 °F).

The month May and June are the hottest months, while November and December make up the wetter monsoon season. From the month August to October, there is often haze, sometimes severe enough to prompt public health warnings, due to bush fires in neighbouring Indonesia. Singapore does not watch daylight saving time or a summer time zone change. The distance end to end of the day is nearly constant year round due to the country's position near the equator. About twenty three percentage of Singapore's land area consists of jungle and nature reserves. Urbanization has eliminated most of the previous primary rainforest, with Bukit Timah Nature Reserve the only significant remaining forest.