What I've learned from my business trip to Singapore

(1) Importance of foreign languages: English and Mandarin

English: even taxi drivers speaks English, technically "Singlish" though. I've heard from my colleague that Singlish has a similar accent with Southern Eastern part of mainland China, Hukken in Japanese pronunciation; Singaporeans' ancestors are mainly from the area. Some local restaurant employees seem to prefer Mandarin, but they basically have no problem about English. However, in Hong Kong, I think people is getting poor at English; rather, I assume they try to master Mandarin I addition to their mother tang, Cantonese.

Mandarin: Singapore has a strong business relationship with mainland China. Also, one of their four public languages is Mandarin. Especially Chinese Singaporeans usually speak both English and Mandarin.

In Singapore, they cover the most important, and probably the second most important language; namely, English and Mandarin, respectively. This is really huge advantage for them. A language might be just a language, but it will certainly impact our business environments; it deteriorates Japan's competitive advantages.
 
(2)  Singapore's expanding economy and social systems which support it

I did feel that Singaporean economy has been booming. There were a lot of people out there and they got more sophisticated even compared to my first visit back in 2008. Since one ruling party moves the politics and business, they are quick to make a decision and well-organized to build good social systems. I think ordinary people are under the strong control by the government, but "leaders" have been doing good job.