SINGAPORE: Singapore has successfully built itself into a maritime power house through exploiting its strategic location within old trade routes since independence.
Innovation and sound strategic planning by the city-state’s founding leaders helped entrench this position and made the maritime sector an important economic participant in world trade by connecting the country with major trade markets.
Today, the maritime industry accounts for 7 per cent of the country’s GDP and houses 170,000 jobs, a figure that is set to grow since Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo announced that 13,000 more jobs will be created in the aviation and maritime by 2025.