S’pore voted as country with least burdening taxes in survey

Privately held firms have voted Singapore as the country with the least burdening taxes in the world, according to a business survey by accounting and consulting group Grant Thornton International.

The survey found that 40 per cent of all privately held businesses in Singapore feel that there are no burdening taxes in the country.

According to Grant Thornton, this shows companies here are maintaining a positive view of Singapore’s tax regime, and are remaining confident of the country’s growth momentum despite the current turmoil in global financial markets.

“Fundamentally, taxation issues are a major concern for privately held businesses in Singapore looking for expansion. They seek meaningful tax incentives to invest in new markets,” said Mr Kon Yin Tong, partner with Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton, the Singapore member firm within Grant Thornton International.

The report found that the most burdensome domestic tax for privately held businesses are taxes on business profits and employment taxes.

The survey also reported 97 per cent of privately held businesses in Singapore see tax issues as significant factors when they decide on where to establish an overseas operating base. This result is higher than the global average of 77 per cent.

Channel NewsAsia – 24 Sep 2008

S’pore still least corrupt in Asia

JUST like last year, Singapore has been ranked the fourth least corrupt country in a global corruption survey.

It also retains its status as Asia’s least corrupt country on the Corruption Perceptions Index, released yesterday by Transparency International (TI).

Conducted annually by the Berlin-based non-governmental corruption watchdog, the index studies the level of public sector corruption in 180 countries and ranks them according to scores. A score of 10 indicates highly clean and 0 means highly corrupt.

It defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain and measures the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.

In this year’s index, Singapore scores 9.2, behind joint-leaders Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand, all of which obtained a 9.3 score. At the other end are Somalia (1.0), Iraq and Myanmar (1.3) and Haiti (1.4).

Asian economies which placed significantly are Hong Kong (12th), Japan (18th), Taiwan (39th), South Korea (40th) and Malaysia (47th).

Last year, Singapore was ranked joint-fourth with Sweden, behind Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. It came in fifth from 2003 to 2006.

Dr Johann Graf Lambsdorff of the University of Passau in Germany, who draws up the index, said Singapore’s long tradition of strong oversight is an example for best practices in Asia.

Mr Liao Ran, TI’s senior programme coordinator for East and South Asia, said factors contributing to Singapore’s ranking included a strong commitment from political leaders; education, which has bred a culture of integrity among citizens; a sound and comprehensive legal framework; and an effective anti-corruption agency.

TI said the index continues to show there is a link between corruption and poverty. It also underlines the benefits of fighting corruption.

‘Evidence suggests that an improvement in the index by one point increases capital inflows by 0.5 per cent of a country’s gross domestic product and average incomes by as much as 4 per cent,’ Dr Lambsdorff said.

TI also said the index shows that wealthy countries such as France and the United Kingdom, whose scores have slipped, need to step up their anti-corruption mechanisms.

Professor Neo Boon Siong, director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said Singapore’s fourth position was a significant achievement.

A good ranking helps attract investments as it makes doing business here more predictable and cheaper, he said.

As to whether Singapore can reach the top of the index, he said: ‘The real difference among the top leaders is not very wide. The actual ranking itself is not the main issue, because being ranked among the top few is a clear recognition the country is corruption-free.’

The index is computed with data from 13 corruption-related polls and surveys carried out this and last year by institutions like the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.

Straits Times – 24 Sep 2008

Singapore keeps ranking as most business-friendly place in the world

 

Singapore kept its top ranking for the third year in a row as the easiest place in the world to do business, the World Bank said in a report Wednesday.

The Asian city-state edged out New Zealand and the United States in the “Doing Business 2009″ ranking by the World Bank.

Filling out the list of the 10 easiest business environments was Hong Kong, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and Norway.

The report, examining regulations and how they affect business, ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business.

The top eight countries were in the same order as the 2008 list, but Australia and Norway traded places, according to the report produced by the World Bank and its private-sector financial development arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

At the bottom of the list was Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who use them,” said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC vice president for financial development.

“Otherwise, businesses are trapped in the unregulated, informal economy, where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers and where workers lack the protection of labour law,”

Singapore ranked first on international trade and employing workers, and second on protecting investors and closing a business.

New Zealand afforded the greatest ease in protecting investors and starting a business.

The United States led in making it easy to hire workers.

Among the world’s largest economies, Japan held steady at number 12 from last year, while Germany fell to 25 from 20, China rose to 83 from 90 and Britain was unchanged in the sixth position. France moved up one spot to number 31.

Among rapidly growing emerging economies, Russia fell nine places to 120th place and India slipped two notches to number 122.

Saudi Arabia was the best performer in the Middle East, moving up to the 16th spot from 24, ahead of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The report also looks at countries’ progress in making regulatory reforms that enhance business operations.

Azerbaijan is this year’s leading reformer, and jumped to 33 on the list from 96 last year, followed by Albania, at 86 from 135, and Kyrgyzstan, at 68 from 99.

“Among the large emerging markets, China led the way – reforms there make it easier to access credit, pay taxes, and enforce contracts,” the World Bank said.

The 185-nation development lender also highlighted Africa’s “record year for regulatory reforms,” saying 28 countries had completed 58 reforms in the criteria studied.

Still, nine of the 10 most difficult countries to do business were African, with Venezuela the sole exception.

In descending order, the worst were Niger, Eritrea, Venezuela, Chad, Sao Tome and Principe, Burundi, Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Channel NewsAsia  Sep 2008

Singapore easiest place to do business: World Bank

Singapore kept its top ranking for the third year in a row as the easiest place in the world to do business, the World Bank said in a report on Wednesday.

The Asian city-state edged out New Zealand and the United States in the ‘Doing Business 2009′ ranking by the World Bank.

Filling out the list of the 10 easiest business environments was Hong Kong, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and Norway.

The report, examining regulations and how they affect business, ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business.

The top eight countries were in the same order as the 2008 list, but Australia and Norway traded places, according to the report produced by the World Bank and its private-sector financial development arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

At the bottom of the list was Democratic Republic of Congo.

‘Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who use them. Otherwise, businesses are trapped in the unregulated, informal economy, where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers and where workers lack the protection of labour law,’ said Mr Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC vice president for financial development.

Singapore ranked first on international trade and employing workers, and second on protecting investors and closing a business.

New Zealand afforded the greatest ease in protecting investors and starting a business. The United States led in making it easy to hire workers.

Among the world’s largest economies, Japan held steady at number 12 from last year, while Germany fell to 25 from 20, China rose to 83 from 90 and Britain was unchanged in the sixth position. France moved up one spot to number 31.

Among rapidly growing emerging economies, Russia fell nine places to 120th place and India slipped two notches to number 122.

Saudi Arabia was the best performer in the Middle East, moving up to the 16th spot from 24, ahead of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The report also looks at countries’ progress in making regulatory reforms that enhance business operations.

Azerbaijan is this year’s leading reformer, and jumped to 33 on the list from 96 last year, followed by Albania, at 86 from 135, and Kyrgyzstan, at 68 from 99.

‘Among the large emerging markets, China led the way – reforms there make it easier to access credit, pay taxes, and enforce contracts,’ the World Bank said.

The 185-nation development lender also highlighted Africa’s ‘record year for regulatory reforms’, saying 28 countries had completed 58 reforms in the criteria studied.

Still, nine of the 10 most difficult countries to do business were African, with Venezuela the sole exception.

In descending order, the worst were Niger, Eritrea, Venezuela, Chad, Sao Tome and Principe, Burundi, Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Business Times Sep 2008

Singapore is ranked 4th in finance hub list

Asia and Europe putting American cities in the shade, survey shows

Asia and Europe are now outperforming America when it comes to providing the world’s commerce and finance hubs, one of the experts behind a recent study of global cities says.

Writing in the latest edition of Newsweek, Columbia University professor Saskia Sassen said that this year’s MasterCard Worldwide Centres of Commerce study revealed ‘the biggest shift is the ascendancy of Asia and Europe relative to America’.

And illustrating the point, over the last two years, Singapore has risen from sixth place to knock Chicago out of the No. 4 spot in the June study’s ranking of the world’s 75 most competitive cities.

Overall, there are now just two American cities in the top 15, while Tokyo (at No. 3), Hong Kong (No. 6) and Seoul (No. 9) join Singapore in strengthening Asia’s foothold in the top rankings.

Europe does even better, claiming seven of the top 15 spots, while a number of United States cities have slipped down the rankings, including Los Angeles – which fell from No. 10 to No. 17 – and Boston, down to No. 21 from No. 13.

Prof Sassen said that Singapore was also part of another emerging trend, in which small cities are punching above their weight.

‘The rise of Amsterdam and Madrid reflects the broader emergence of small cities, often in small countries, as significant platforms for global firms and markets,’ she wrote.

The cities were ranked based on 100 factors, ranging from the efficiency of political and legal systems, the number of days it takes to open a firm in them and the levels of ‘brand recognition’ they achieve. And while all the big American cities still score high in terms of legal, political and business conditions, she said: ‘Stockholm, Singapore and Copenhagen do even better.’

Where the US really loses ground to newcomers like Dubai, the sociology professor said, is on criteria such as ‘ease of doing business’.

And she said: ‘Cities like Dubai and Singapore are rising as platforms for investment in their regions and often boast stronger legal systems as well as more stable regimes and better overall business and living conditions than powerful megacities.’

She added that it was a far cry from the 1980s when, as globalisation began to take off, just three cities – New York, London and Tokyo – were able to act as bridges between the massive emerging global markets and national economies.

Prof Sassen said that at the same time as the global economy has continued to expand, ‘the number of cities that can now deliver global-city functions has kept growing’.

And she pointed out that there was no such thing as a ‘perfect global city’, with even London and New York – which occupy the top two spots in the survey – scoring poorly in some of the study’s criteria.

This chimes with comments made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong when Singapore hosted the first World Cities Summit in June.

Talking about the way the Republic had dealt with problems of urban development, he said: ‘Some of Singapore’s solutions may be relevant to other emerging cities in Asia and the world.

‘But no single city or country will have all the answers. Instead, we need closer collaboration to share expertise and experiences, pursue joint research and develop pragmatic, workable solutions.’

Straits Times Sep 2008

Home sales up, but pace slowing

Prices slip in July though sales up for 3rd straight month; high-end hard hit

NEW home sales rose last month for the third month in a row, but the pace of growth braked sharply and the prices of sold homes slipped.

Developers sold 897 new private homes in July, 12 per cent more than in June and the highest number since last August, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday.

Close to nine out of every 10 homes sold last month were suburban units that cost $1,000 per sq ft (psf) or less. No homes were sold above $4,000 psf for the second consecutive month.

This trend is likely to continue, property consultants said, as persistent caution in the high-end market is causing developers to delay expensive launches.

Even then, developers continued to launch more units across the board than they were able to sell last month, adding to the inventory of unsold homes, observed Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank.

Consultants also predicted that the pattern of rising sales will be reversed this month.

Launches and transactions will probably fall thanks to the perceived unlucky ‘Hungry Ghost’ period, while market sentiment is expected to remain negative amid more dismal global economic news coming out of the United States and Europe.

Already, last month’s sales growth was a far cry from the 77 per cent jump in sales between May and June, consultants said.

Last month’s figures were boosted by sales from four large-scale suburban projects that together accounted for almost two-thirds of the whole month’s deals. Livia in Pasir Ris saw 301 apartments taken up, at a median price of $671 psf. Of these, four crossed the $750 psf mark, but the rest were well within the $500 to $750 psf range.

Clover by the Park in Bishan sold 100 units at a median price of $753 psf, down slightly from the median $765 psf it had fetched in June.

And Kovan Residences in Kovan Road sold 87 units at a median price of $882 psf – just below its $887 psf in June – while Beacon Heights in St Michael’s Road sold 61 units at a median price of $865 psf.

In the mid-tier segment, Parc Sophia in Dhoby Ghaut was the best performer, selling 25 units at a median price of $1,503 psf.

CapitaLand’s Wharf Residences near Robertson Quay sold 23 units at a median price of $1,506.

Generally, prices have come under pressure from the gloom in the market and are starting to dip, consultants said.

The lowest transacted price in the suburban region fell 23 per cent last month from June, while the lowest price in the central region fell 7 per cent, noted Dr Chua Yang Liang, Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of South-east Asia research.

He said buyers of suburban projects are probably comfortable with paying $650 to $850 psf right now, while those looking for well-located city-fringe homes have budgets of $850 to $1,000 psf.

Sales were dismal in the high-end segment, with only eight units – less than 1 per cent of total sales – transacted above $3,000 psf. At the height of the property fever in July last year, 217 units fetched more than $3,000 psf, accounting for more than 15 per cent of the total units sold then.

But there are still some buyers willing to pay a premium for prime projects, said Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research.

He noted that five units were sold at The Hamilton Scotts in Scotts Road, for between $3,000 and $3,676 psf.

Source : Straits Times – 16 Aug 2008