Singapore to help Honduras set up economic zones

Singapore will help Honduras set up special economic zones (SEZs) in the Central American country under an agreement signed yesterday.

The Honduran economy is based mainly on agriculture but it plans to develop SEZs in various locations and wants to utilise Singapore's expertise in establishing these areas.

The first step was taken when the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with visiting Honduran officials, including President Porfirio Lobo.

It will involve the SCE working with private and public sectors here in collaboration with the Honduras government.

They will undertake feasibility studies to identify potential SEZ sites and plan their development.

Singapore will also help out with advice on best practices in areas of governance and commerce for the export-oriented zones.

The SCE is an agency jointly set up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry to respond to the many requests from overseas to tap on Singapore's development experience.

Financial Times ranks 2 Singapore MBA programmes among top 35

The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School's MBA programme achieved 23rd position in the latest ranking of the top 100 full-time global MBA programmes by the London-based business newspaper, Financial Times (FT).

This is the programme's highest-ever rating by a major agency and the highest FT ranking ever achieved by any Singapore MBA programme. The NUS MBA was ranked 35th in 2009 but was left out last year due to a technicality.

The MBA programme of the Nanyang Business School (NBS) - part of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) - also made the honour roll but fell six spots from last year's 27th place to the 33rd.

Its MBA alumni, however, had the highest average salaries among those who attended programmes here.

Measured three years after graduation, the NBS alumni have an average salary of US$104,952 (S$134,000), trumping by a slim margin the NUS Business School's US$100,456.

It was also ranked 69th in The Economist's Top 100 MBA ranking last year, making it the highest-ranked here.

NUS' post-MBA salary increase of its graduates stood at 140 per cent, compared with the 125 per cent for the 22 higher-ranked schools.

This means that a student's pre-MBA salary of, for example, $45,000 would have jumped 140 per cent to $108,000 three years after graduation.

Over 90% of Singaporeans happy with quality of life

Commissioned by Reach, the Government's feedback arm, the survey last year saw more than 90 per cent of the 2,013 respondents express satisfaction with their overall quality of life, compared to 2009.

When asked if they were satisfied with the way Singapore was being run, 96 per cent of respondents, who were aged 17 and above, said 'yes'.

A high percentage were also satisfied with the Government's economic policies, the quality of the public service, their living environment and issues such as the education system.

Singapore could become launch pad to space

A French aerospace giant wants to make Singapore a launch pad for commercial space flights.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space (Eads), a leading defence and military contractor, is working on the ambitious plan, which it hopes will eventually rival British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which is to launch the world's first commercial space flight this year.

Mr Hugues Laporte-Weywada, Eads senior vice-president for international sales and marketing for the Asia-Pacific region, said a detailed feasibility study was done here last year, with positive results.

First, he said, there is a readily available pool of people in the region with deep-enough pockets to pay the €200,000 (S$350,000) it will cost for an hour-long ride into space.

Secondly, the infrastructure to house the planes and take-off site are available.

Singapore third on globalisation index

Singapore is third in a ranking of the world's most globalised economies, trailing Hong Kong and Ireland.

The Ernst Young's Globalisation Index 2010 found that the Republic continued to perform strongly in terms of openness to trade and capital movements, with improvements also seen in cultural integration.

Singapore posted reduced scores, however, in the areas of labour and technology compared with the year before - when it had claimed top spot in the index's inaugural 2009 survey.

The index measures the world's largest 60 economies according to their degree of globalisation relative to their economic output or gross domestic product. It has five criteria: openness to trade, capital movements, exchange of technology and ideas, labour movements and cultural integration.

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.