• Economic Development Board

      The Economic Development Board (EDB) is a statutory board established on 1 August 1961 to spearhead Singapore’s industrialisation programme. Presently, the board plans and executes strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre, and its ...

    • Two-child policy

      The two-child policy was a population control measure introduced by the Singapore government during the 1970s to encourage couples to have no more than two children. It was part of the second Five-Year National Family Planning Programme (1972–75) that was unveiled ...

    • Albert Winsemius

      Dutch economist Albert Winsemius (Dr) (b. 1910, Netherlands–d. 1996, The Hague, Netherlands) was an economic advisor to the Singapore government for 24 years. During that time, he contributed greatly to Singapore's economic development.

    • Bilingual policy

      Bilingualism has been the cornerstone of Singapore’s language policy since the People’s Action Party (PAP) was elected to power in 1959. The policy entails an emphasis on using English and the mother tongue languages, particularly that of the three main ethnic ...

    • British withdrawal from Singapore

      On 18 July 1967, Britain announced its plans to withdraw its troops from Singapore by the mid-1970s. Six months later, the deadline was brought forward to 1971. The sudden pull-out of British forces presented serious problems to Singapore’s defence and economic ...

    • New Singapore Shares

      The New Singapore Shares is a scheme introduced in 2001 by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as a means of sharing Singapore’s wealth with the people and to help less well-off Singaporeans tide over the economic downturn during that period. The S$2.7-billion scheme ...

    • Lim Chong Yah

      Lim Chong Yah (b. 1932, Malacca, Malaysia–) is an eminent economist and academic best known for serving as chairman of the National Wages Council for 29 years. Lim is professor emeritus at both the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, ...

    • India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement

      The landmark India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) is India’s first-ever such agreement and the first between Singapore and a South Asian country. It came into effect on 1 August 2005. The first review of the pact was concluded on ...

    • Total Defence

      Launched in 1984, the Total Defence concept involves the participation of every Singaporean in the collective effort of building a strong, secure and cohesive nation that is ready to deal with any crisis. It is a concept that takes into account the small size of ...

    • Ministry of Trade and Industry

      The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) encourages economic growth and creates employment so that Singaporeans can lead better lives. Its strategies are based on a free-market system and outward-oriented economic policies.

    • Singapore Green Plan

      The Singapore Green Plan (SGP) is Singapore's first environmental blueprint. Released in 1992 by the then Ministry of the Environment (now known as the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources or MEWR), its objective is to ensure that Singapore could develop ...

    • Vernacular education

      In Singapore, vernacular education refers to education conducted in the native languages of the main resident communities, namely Malay, Chinese and Tamil. From the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries, formal vernacular education was started by philanthropists, ...

    • Singapore Joins the United Nations

      Singapore became the 117th member state of the United Nations (UN) on 21 September 1965. This was an important milestone for the country as membership in the UN conferred international recognition of Singapore as a sovereign and independent state. On the occasion, ...

    • The sanitation system in Singapore

      Singapore is served by a modern sanitation system in which all used water is collected through a network of sewers and channelled to water reclamation plants. But this was not always so. In the 1800s, the sewage collection and disposal system in Singapore relied ...

    • Four National Taps

      The Four National Taps, a term used by then Minister for the Environment Lim Swee Say in 2004, refer to the four sources that Singapore relies on for its water supply. They comprise water from local catchment, imported water, high-grade reclaimed water known as ...

    • Clean-up of Singapore River and Kallang Basin

      The clean-up of Singapore River and Kallang Basin took place largely between 1977 and 1987. Besides the physical cleaning of the heavily polluted rivers, the massive exercise also involved the removal of various sources of pollution, the provision of proper sewage ...

    • Area Licensing Scheme

      The Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) was launched on 2 June 1975. Designed to reduce traffic congestion in the Central Business District (CBD), the key concept underlying the ALS was that a special supplementary licence had to be obtained at a cost if a motorist wanted ...

    • Corrective Work Order

      The Corrective Work Order (CWO), which came into effect on 1 November 1992, is an amendment to the anti-littering law. It was a punitive measure that requires the offender to clean up the community instead of paying a fine. The first CWOs were performed on 21 February ...

    • Growth Triangle

      The Growth Triangle is a concept of mutual cooperation in economic development among three ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries – Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore – focusing on Singapore, the Riau province in Indonesia and southern Johor in ...

    • Japan–Singapore Economic Arrangement for a New Age Partnership

      The Japan–Singapore Economic Arrangement for a New Age Partnership is Singapore’s first free-trade agreement (FTA) with a major trading partner and Japan’s first-ever FTA. It came into effect on 30 November 2002, and the next review of the accord is scheduled to ...

       

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