Singapore well placed to be a global currency centre

SINGAPORE has come a long way from being a small fishing village to a centre of prominence - one that has a significant place on the global stage. Its rise to become a global financial centre was founded on building blocks which included business friendly policies, reliable infrastructure, a well-educated workforce, a favourable regulatory framework and political stability.

The financial services sector in Singapore has grown tremendously over the last 30 years. Wealth management was a more recent phenomenon in the past decade with US$2.6 trillion of assets under management in 2015. The combined growth of the financial services sector, along with that of the manufacturing and biomedical sectors, has resulted in an influx of liquidity in foreign currency into Singapore.

So what are the major sources of liquidity flows? Today, Singapore houses some of the world's largest commodity trading companies such as Olam, Hin Leong, Rio Tinto, and BHP. These traders have the ability to tap the deep liquidity available in Singapore to finance their high trade volumes. Since 2001, the Global Trader Programme has succeeded in attracting key players with a reduced corporate tax rate of 5 to 10 per cent in exchange for commitment to make significant use of Singapore's banking and financial infrastructure, including logistics, arbitration and other supporting services.