In praise of Singapore

Below is an extract of an article posted in Thoughts of a Cynical Investor blog.
 
Why more FT Indians here than local Indians?
In Economy, India on 15/10/2013 at 4:52 am
 
…’Assuming he is correct about the FT Indian population being bigger than the local Indian population, there is possibly a gd, sound economic reason for it:- Our local Indians are not the “right” kind of Indians S’pore needs?
He may not be aware that S’pore’s an offshore hub of India, along with Dubai and Mauritius.
 
The largest hub for Indian trade is probably Singapore. It is the centre for investment banking, which thrives offshore, owing to the tight regulation of India’s banks and debt markets. Reflecting this, the global exposure to India of Citigroup and Standard Chartered, the two foreign banks busiest in India, is 1.9 times the size of their regulated Indian bank subsidiaries.
 
Fund managers running money in India are often based in Singapore. India’s best financial newspaper, Mint, now has a Singapore edition. At least half of all rupee trading is offshore, says Ajay Shah of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in Delhi. Investors and firms do not like India’s fiddly rules and worry that the country may tighten capital controls if its currency falls too far, says one trader in Singapore…..
 
Indian e-commerce firms often get their data crunched in Singapore, using web-hosting and cloud-computing firms, such as Google and Amazon. Amitabh Misra, of Snapdeal, says bandwidth costs less, technology is better and you avoid India’s headaches—such as finding somewhere to work, coping with state-run telecoms firms and having to wait to import hardware.
 
Singapore is also a centre for legal services. International deals involving India often contain clauses which state that disputes be arbitrated outside India, with its clogged courts. Singapore, along with London and Paris, has become the preferred jurisdiction. “The level of comfort Indian companies get from Singapore is unmatched,” says Vivekananda N of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.’
 
This is the kind of tribute paid to Singapore that is not often spoken. It would be good that our dumb asses take note of such praises and stop short selling the value of this city like a prostitute’s den. We have great and absolute value and the foreigners are not going to run away if we insist on implementing polices and laws that benefit our own people and country. Instead they will come crawling at our doors just to get in. Those cheapskate companies that think they could threaten our weak dumb asses to bow to their demands are best that they leave this island. There is a very long queue of foreign companies waiting to come in, with a horrendous long queue of foreign workers begging to be let in to find their pot of gold here.