Singapore:
With the number of settlers from India almost doubling in the past two years, every fourth person in Singapore now belongs Indian community, which is showing a great interest in setting up firms here, a media report said on Monday.
The city has a population of 1.79 million, including expatriates, and out of that 400,000 are of Indian origin, showing a 100 per cent increase in the community size in two years.
According to
The Straits Times, the number of Indians setting up companies here has also doubled to 3,000 from the 2006 level of 1,500. They are doing business mainly in information technology, finance, trade and food items.
City's friendly environment for foreigners and Tamil being the official fourth language, after English, Chinese and Malay, are the major attractions for the expatriates who mainly belongs to southern states of India, Nikhilesh Gupta, president of the Bengali Association Singapore, was quoted as saying to the daily.
Top professionals from India are moving into the engineering, information technology and finance sectors, while the non-skilled and semi-skilled workers are getting opportunities in construction and marine industries, the daily said.
In the sports, the Singapore Cricket Association said its domestic league has grown to 90 teams from 36 teams in 2007. Over the weekends, cricket stumps are as common as football goal posts on Singapore playing fields, it reported.