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.

The Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) was set up on 1 June 1968 under the Jurong Town Corporation Act to take over from the Economic Development Board (EDB) as Singapore's principal developer and manager of industrial estates and their related facilities. On 15 November ...

Prima Limited is a Singapore-based company founded in 1961, and has its beginnings in flour milling. The company is now involved in a variety of businesses, such as restaurant management, food manufacturing, information technology and real estate. Prima is known ...

The Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1960, was a piece of legislation that sought to regulate relations between employers and employees in Singapore at a time when the country was embarking on an economic makeover following the institution of self-government in ...

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), previously known as the National Science and Technology Board until January 2002, is Singapore’s driver of scientific research. A statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), A*STAR aims ...

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) was established on 6 September 1961, with Mahmud Awang as the pro-tem chairman and C. V. Devan Nair its first secretary-general. The labour movement initially represented only a minority of unionised workers. Its membership, ...

The Arabs are a small but significant community in Singapore. During colonial times, the Arabs played prominent economic roles in the regional, retail, wholesale and production trades, the Muslim pilgrimage industry and real estate development. They were also involved ...

SPRING (Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board) Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, was established with the aim of helping Singapore enterprises grow as well as to build trust in Singapore products and services. The agency ...

Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded in the United States by Harvey S. Firestone in 1900. It was one of the largest producers, purchasers and users of natural rubber. Besides producing tyres for almost every type of vehicle, the company also manufactured ...

A household name in Singapore’s retail industry, Metro was first established in Surabaya, Indonesia, in 1953 by Ong Tjoe Kim, a businessman from Indonesia. In 1957, the first Metro store in Singapore opened in a two-storey shophouse at 72 High Street, where The ...

Tan Keong Choon (b. 29 October 1918, Amoy, Fukien, China–d. 27 October 2015, Singapore ), nephew of the late Tan Kah Kee, was a prominent Chinese businessman who made his wealth from rubber trading between the 1950s and 70s. Among his many contributions to the ...

Lorong Halus is an area located in the northeastern part of Singapore that surrounds a road of the same name. The road has been in existence since the 1930s and was extended in the 1980s and ’90s to connect with the Tampines Expressway (TPE) and Pasir Ris Coast ...

National Iron and Steel Mills (NISM) was set up in 1961 as part of Singapore’s development plans. It was the first factory to be built in Jurong Industrial Estate in the 1960s and started by supplying steel to Singapore’s construction industry. It began exporting ...

Yeo Hiap Seng Limited (YHS) is known as a food and beverage manufacturer and distributor. Listed on the Singapore Exchange since 1969, it has grown from being a family-owned and -controlled business to one with an international reach. Its products are distributed ...

Paterson, Simons & Co. had a long association with Singapore. One of the earliest trading houses in Singapore, it grew into one of the largest companies in early Singapore with interests in a wide range of commercial activities, playing an important part in the ...

Lim Nee Soon (b. 12 November 1879, Singapore–d. 20 March 1936, Shanghai, China) was a planter and general merchant. Upon the completion of his studies in Singapore, Lim worked for various firms until 1911 when he founded his own company, Lim Nee Soon & Co. A rubber ...

The Straits Trading Company Limited (STC) was incorporated as a tin-smelting company on 8 November 1887. Its smelter on Pulau Brani was famed for its production of “Straits Tin”, which by the 1900s had become internationally recognised as the purest quality of ...

The China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) marks Singapore as the first Asian country to have a comprehensive bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China. This is a major milestone in Singapore’s relationship with China since diplomatic ties were officially ...

CYC is a clothing firm best known for its custom-made shirts and corporate wear. Founded as CYC Shanghai Shirt Company in 1935, it became a leader in Singapore’s shirt industry and attracted customers from Malaysia and Indonesia during its heyday. Now known as ...

Founded on 1 April 1906 as C. F. F. Wearne & Company, the firm was renamed Wearne Brothers Limited (WBL) on 26 November 1912 when it became a public listed company. It had initially specialised in automobile trade, but later diversified into heavy machinery and ...