Singaporeans No. 2 on CNN's 'coolest' list

Singaporeans have been named the second 'coolest nationality' in the world by travel website CNNgo - and it all has to do with the Republic's burgeoning geek culture.

'With its absurdly computer-literate population, Singapore is geek central and its people can therefore claim their rightful place as avatars of modern cool,' wrote Mr Barry Neild, the author of the report, which was published last Friday.

Brazilians clinched top spot as the coolest people on the planet. The Jamaicans came in third, followed by the Mongolians, the Americans and the Spanish.

The report proclaimed geeks as no longer the laughing stock in a digital age where 'old school notions of cool have been rebooted'.

And the travel website's Singaporean icon of cool? Twelve-year-old primary school pupil Lim Ding Wen, who was the world's youngest iPhone application developer at the age of nine.

He developed a drawing application called Doodle Kids which lets users draw on the touchscreen of the iPhone using their fingers.

He was ranked alongside other icons of cool such as Spain's Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem and the United States' actor and sex symbol Johnny Depp.

Lien Aid gets China charity award

A Singapore non-profit organisation has been awarded one of China's top charity awards for bringing much-needed water and sanitation to more than 30,000 Chinese in drought-prone rural areas.

Lien Aid, a collaboration between Lien Foundation and Nanyang Technological University, received the Global Charity Award in the Great Hall of the People yesterday at one of China's major events of the year honouring philanthropic work.

Held by the Chinese ministry of civil affairs and the prestigious Soong Ching Ling Foundation, the ceremony honoured more than 50 individuals and organisations for their contributions to Chinese society.

Lien Aid, the only Singapore recipient at this year's awards, was ranked by popular vote as an outstanding contributor among the top non-profit organisations for its 14 projects in Yunan, Sichuan and Shanxi.

Singapore 2nd Country to legislate re-employment

That is official, after Parliament yesterday passed the Retirement and Re-employment Act.

Singapore is now the second country in the world - after Japan - to legislate re-employment, and the first to spell out eligibility criteria, a dispute-resolution mechanism and penalties for errant employers.

To qualify for re-employment, workers must be medically fit and have at least satisfactory work performance. The onus is on employers to prove that a worker is not eligible for re-employment.

HK, S'pore best governed Asia-Pac economies: Index

HONG Kong and Singapore are the best governed economies in the Asia Pacific in terms of their openness to international business, a new index has found.

Singapore-based consulting firm Vriens Partners' inaugural Good Governance for International Business index in Asia Pacific for 2010 saw Hong Kong in top spot with Singapore a close second.

In all, 18 economies were ranked for the index, which was based on surveys of 100 business leaders from the various economies.

The Republic was praised for its 'openness to international trade and business, good local infrastructure, public sector quality and effectiveness and favourable taxation policies'.

It was ranked first in fiscal and monetary administration, and public sector quality and effectiveness, second in taxation, corruption and openness to international trade, and fourth for rule of law.

While lauding Singapore's successful transformation into a regional hub for multinational corporations, Vriens Partners also highlighted the Republic's restrictions on foreign investments in areas such as telecommunications, domestic media and financial, legal and professional services.

Singapore patently ahead in Asian tech innovation

The number of high-tech breakthroughs by Singapore researchers helped the country beat 12 other regional markets in terms of patent quality, according to the second Asia-Pacific Intellectual Property Scorecard released yesterday at the Global IP Forum.

The Republic also took top spot in 2004 in the first study carried out by the National University of Singapore's Entrepreneurship Centre.

The research team analysed patents filed annually with the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) by 13 markets, including China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, said the centre's director, Professor Wong Poh Kam.

USPTO data was used as 'the US is the biggest market in the world'.

The team also examined data from the European patents office and found largely similar trends.

Quality was calculated based on how many times local patents were cited by other patents.

In particular, Singapore's patents in two technological classes, electronics and infocomm technology, were among the most highly cited in the region, said Prof Wong. This is at least in part due to the country's focus on these two fields.

Half of the 622 patents filed by Singapore inventors were in the electronics field, like semiconductor chips, and a quarter were in computers and communication products, like wireless antennas.

Only 1 per cent were design patents protecting the look of, say, a toy, shirt or the casing of a new media player, Prof Wong said.

In terms of quantity, Singapore's 622 patents put it in seventh place in the region. The 622 figure accounted for 0.32per cent of the 192,000 patents granted worldwide in 2009.

United States patents accounted for about half of the global total, and Japan, one-fifth.

Singapore's relatively small contribution was a function of its small population, said Prof Wong.

But, on a per capita basis, it did better, garnering nearly 134 patents per million people. This placed it in fourth place in the region - behind Taiwan (358.7), Japan (303.9) and South Korea (201.7).

The number of Singapore patents is also rising, albeit at a relatively slow clip of 8 per cent annually, making it ninth in Asia.

To boost R D, the Government said last September that it would set aside $1.6 billion to fund R D projects in the next five years.

International Child Abduction Bill passed

CHILDREN taken out of Singapore without the permission of the parent who has custody will receive global help to return home safely.

This follows Parliament agreeing yesterday to ratify the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The move makes Singapore one of 83 states to agree to track down and return a child who has been forcefully brought past its borders.

This will ensure that estranged spouses will have their custody disputes decided by the courts in the rightful country, rather than becoming embroiled in protracted and expensive cross-border lawsuits.

Swap deal can help Singapore become yuan centre

THE Sino-Singapore currency swap agreement can help establish the Republic as a renminbi centre for the region, said Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) deputy chairman Lim Hng Kiang yesterday.

'Currently, the Chinese are keen to internationalise the renminbi (yuan), and the main vehicle for doing so is through Hong Kong. By having this swap line, we are encouraging them to also provide the facility through Singapore.

'We can expect the Chinese to do so bilaterally with other South-east Asian countries, but to the extent that Singapore is the financial hub for South-east Asia, and the trade and investment facilitator for many of the deals and many of the operations arising in South-east Asia, then of course Singapore can aspire to be a renminbi centre for South-east Asia.'

Mr Lim, who is also Trade and Industry Minister, was responding to a question in Parliament from Nominated MP Teo Siong Seng.

MAS inked the $30 billion currency swap agreement with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) on July 24.

The agreement will allow MAS to borrow up to 150 billion yuan of the Chinese currency from the PBOC, in exchange for the equivalent in Singapore dollars.

The swap line is intended to promote bilateral trade and direct investment between the two countries. It will also facilitate the internationalisation of the yuan.