I like your comments and sinceirty! Do you have to pay GST when you sell gold bullion or bar? Thanks

Jay

America’s own federal govt surveys show that 1/3 of Americans smoke cigarettes and 1/2 of all Americans have done illicit drugs before. It is a country of many drug addicts. Oh and we haven’t gotten around to those who are addicted to painkillers and other substances. Can you say pathetic weak minded pansies?

The Americans sure love to butcher the English language with all their songs and the crap their “hollywood” puts out. Even their leaders like George Bush can’t speak proper English. Obama tries too hard and ends up sounding very grinding as well. And guess what? 90% of Americans are not even English yet they abandon their roots and culture to speak English monolingually.

It is true many people in Singapore are not fluent in English because 42% of the country are now foreigners, many of whom are non English speakers. But such is the case for most global cities these days. You walk down New York and you can have an entire street of non English speakers as well.

At least the native born educated Singaporeans were examined to Cambridge standard for O and A levels. The Americans? Many in high school can barely spell their name and 1/7 Americans can’t read a more than a few sentences.

USA is 15 trillion in debt. That country is in negative equity. It is only a matter of time before that country goes bankrupt like Greece.

This is one great place, where you can find modern-yet-conservative valued girls / females. Beauties with plentiful brains.

There are almost no incidents of cheating husbands / wives and then suing each other for life till the end of the world. This is one thing that is a very significant advantage over the rest of the ‘First world”.

Of course, the delicate matter needs to be approached carefully, as anywhere else.

You got to make the effort, though.
You wouldnt find real Singaporean girls making new friends in the pubs and bars.

I have worked in USA, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Netherlands, France, Spain, China, India and of course Singapore. Tell you what – Singapore fairs extremely well compared with any “First world” / “Developed world” at this matter.

Singapore is a great place for commerce and business but if you want to have a real life, a quality of life. Go somewhere else.

Me? I’m desperately trying to leave singapore and live elsewhere.

Ralph – temperature here is usually 23 to 34 degrees C with humidity in the 80 to 90% range, monsoon season is from Oct to Dec and yes we have heavy downpour

Polonius – yes, most Singaporeans dont know how to cut loose, like most asians, we work and work and work

Sundog – 1) yes air quality here is very good however for a few weeks a year we are affected by the smoke from forest fires in Indonesia
2) the government do baby sit us a lot and we like to turn to them for nitty gritty things as well, but this is slowly changing and we have more freedom now compared to many years ago
3) No, there is no racial tension and i do not see this as a threat

Carl – as of 2006 data 75% are chinese and only 14% malays, that has not changed much

Brain – you can live in Malaysia where cost of living is much much cheaper, but going thru the customs daily will kill you, you will be stuck in custom jams for a few hours during peak hours

Morgan – pls email me your dealer contact, dark_chin@yahoo.com, interested to buy gold without GST!!!!

Hunter – i have never heard of such rude treatment for westerners, infact, the service industry here always treat westerners as kings and queens, one of the top complains from Singaporeans are that westerners are given very good service but singaporeans are treated like 2nd class in the service sector

Henk – agree that we have one of the most expensive cars in the world and the population being so disiplined that it is scary, that makes us easier to control, hahaha
- Poor command of english is because we are multi racial and language society, we mixed different languages into english creating what we called Singlish (Singapore English), however we are fully capable of speaking understandable english, you do understand me perfectly, right?

Anomynous – yes you can get by with just english, some of the older generations grandpa and grandma will not understand you though but for the rest of the group we are all bilingual

I hope Simon dont mind me answering all these quires, if you do, pls let me know

Just a few observations on your comments about Singapore.
I believe you left out the following:
– purchasing and driving a car is about the most expensive in the world
– 9 out of 12 months the climate is unbearable except if you hop form one air-conditioned venue to the next
– the place is utterly “sterile” with degrees of individual freedom not very much exceeding countries like China. Big brother is watching you everywhere (Could be the future of the US and is already the future of UK). The difference with China is that in China the Chinese hate their government and are a lot more genuine than Singaporeans.
– the population is so disciplined it is scary…
– shopping has become expensive compared to places like Hong Kong (which unfortunately is following closely on the path to become the perfect surveillance state)
– Although everybody in Singapore pretends to speak English, I am not particularly charmed by their interpretation and (poor) pronunciation of the English language.
- Singaporean have become like the Germans of the 80’s: “bei uns zu hause ist alles besser…”

In conclusion: not bad for a place to stay for a few days or even weeks or visiting on business a few times a year, but I would never choose to live in Singapore.

As an expat, I have lived and worked in China (Dalian, NE China) for the last 8 years, but I feel a lot more free and less watched than in Singapore, although I must say that the situation here is changing fast and I am preparing my departure.

Kind regards,

Henk

I agree completely with your comments about Singapore. I recently expatriated here from Canada and am thrilled with the results. My money is safe here, the business opportunities are fantastic (great connections into China, India and Indonesia), quality of life superb (housing expensive, but not that much more than Toronto where I’m from), best food in Asia (and possibly the world, and whoever said those negative comments about the women is nuts!

Simon if you are still in town, and want to connect, just let me know.

To answer some questions: opening a multi-currency bank and brokerage account here is no problem, and the banks are safe. I spoke with Jim Rogers about this personally, he did his diligence on Singapore and Canadian banks and found the Singaporean banks to be safer. I have an online brokerage account and trade in many stock exchanges around the world in real time, and the commissions are not too bad (about $35/trade). Safe deposit boxes are easy to open at the major banks – only caveat is that the government does hold a key, from what I have heard. Buying physical gold is a pain because of 7% GST, but I found a dealer that sells it to me cheap with no GST.

Simon, if you are still in town and want to get together, just let me know. I’m an “internationalist” entrepreneur, running several businesses here, have some experience moving gold around, investing around the region.

Singapore’s media , even the local Western media, slavishly and uncricitically follows the government line. So if DBS were indeed nearly bankrupt, no-one would know.

For someone who has a regional job and travels constantly, Singapore and it’s well run airport makes an ideal regional HQ.

I lived there 20 years; I moved to nearby Batam (Indonesia) in ‘93 and would never go back. (But I dont travel much any more, either.)

Could you enlighten us regarding the precious metals scene in Singapore, specifically:

1. recommendations for and availability of safety deposit boxes
2. ease of buying and selling locally
3. any depository type services
4. any laws we should know about

The reason I ask is that it would seem a good choice for us Kiwis/Aussies who want to ‘internationalize’, while staying relatively close to home – please weigh in if you have another view on that initial premise.

Have a great day!

Thank you for keeping us informed on your very valuable trips giving us information about the many different countries. I agree with your assessment on Singapore and or particular will be the finance and investment incentives for investors from Abroad. we sould have the rest of the world like this. I have a project I would like to discuss with you and any other bloggers and investors. this is a Vision to create a Singapore on an island paradise in the south pacific. The islands (5 within more than 20) have freehold title to them. I am seeking investors who wish to set up on this island within New Britain of papua New Guinea.

I would love to know about the banking system and what the requirements are for US citizens to open bank accounts there?

Also, what are the laws on storing gold in Singapore for US citizens?

Obviously no US banks, thank you.

Is the food at Newton Circus and at Tanglin Food Court (by STPB) still as great as ever? My favorite fried rice stall was just S$3.00 (huge plate full), and S$1.50 bought you a hug mug full of fresh pineapple juice… just thinking about it makes me hungry!

Can brokers open accounts in foreign currencies such as CAD?

Are brokers distinct from banks as in USA and Canada, or are the same thing as in Europe?

How can you evaluate the bankruptcy risk of a broker in Singapore?

Have you experience of the on-line trading platform of one of them?

How are commissions?

Thanks

Rgds Scott

What is the cost of rent for a studio in a good area of Singapore?
What challenges would one face to obtain long term legal residence there if one did not have more than 50k capital to start up a business and no connections?

Keep up the good work!

All best wishes…
Carl

I have a couple differing observations, however.

#1 Air quality: Singapore receives significant air pollution from its neighbours (primarily Malaysia and Indonesia) due to forest fires and clear-cut burning. At times the visibility was poor. Not as bad as Kuala Lumpur, but still something to consider.

#2 Singapore has the veneer of democracy but the government actually is a pseudo-one party state, with a patriarchal “strong man” at the helm. Where the banking and business sector can claim transparency, the government is opaque. This also ties into the “nanny state” complaints you hear from people who have lived in Singapore. The government attempts to micro-manage many aspects of daily life, in a benevolent but arguably Orwellian manner. As a cherry on the sundae, there’s limited freedom of the press.

#3 Although the government does its best to keep things quiet, I was saddened to learn that there are nascent racial tensions between the Chinese, Malays, and Tamil that form up the uneasy union of Singapore’s ethnic triad. These tensions are even more prevalent in Malaysia, which is just down the road from Singapore. What this means for Singapore’s future is anybody’s guess.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Singapore on several due diligence trips. The one thing that bothered me most, well two things actually: Singaporeans don’t know how to cut loose, relax or have fun, go to a pool at an upscale condo on a sweltering Saturday afternoon and you will find no one; the second thing is that although I have great respect for Asian beauty, I did not find the female attraction factor to be very impressive But you are definitely correct about the way Singapore functions from a business perspective…a little too “nanny state” perhaps in terms of their rules and regs for every little detail, but the Chinese diaspora DNA is encoded for wheeling and dealing and making money which works for me.

Firstly, I want to “thank you” for the free report “How To Move And Securely Store Gold Overseas”. Secondly, would you comment about the climate in your next report on Singapore. From my research it’s horribly hot and humid with long periods of heavy rain during the monsoon season. I understand the people rush from one building to another to take advantage of air conditioning. This does not sound like my kind of place to make home. And by the way, I’ve checked out the women in Thailand, Lithuania and Poland and they are indeed beautiful as you have said. Soon I’ll be on the Portuguese Island of Madeira (my first time) so I’ll see if this could be a place to consider as a home base for international travel.
Thank you and good travels.

Cheers,
Bob