Republic of Singapore

Republic of Singapore

Population: ~6.04 million (2025 estimate; latest official population around 6 million)

GDP (Nominal): S$789.5 billion (2025), approximately US$610–620 billion depending on exchange rates.

GDP per capita: S$129,194 (2025), among the highest globally.

Land Area: 735.7 km² (2025), reflecting continued land reclamation.

Agricultural Land: Less than 1% of total land area, with agriculture focused on high-tech urban farming and food resilience.

Forest Cover: Approximately 20.2% of Singapore’s land area (2024).


Singapore is one of the world’s most advanced, high-income, innovation-driven economies. Despite its limited land area and lack of natural resources, it has developed into a global hub for finance, advanced manufacturing, international trade, logistics, digital technology, biomedical sciences, and professional services.

Strategically located at the crossroads of major global shipping routes, Singapore connects Asia with Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and the Americas. It consistently ranks among the world’s most competitive, business-friendly and least-corrupt economies, supported by strong institutions, sound governance and an efficient...

Singapore is a Rubber Trading Hub

The remarkable story of Singapore as rubber trading hub started in 1877 when 22 rubber plants reached the island from Sri Lanka. Twelve of these were planted by the Botanic Gardens in Singapore. While there were no commercial interests in them for a spell of some 20 years, the rubber trees were studied by the Botanic Gardens and important data about their cultivation was gathered. Limited by land area of just over 700 square kilometres, Singapore was never a larger producer though plantation was established here. However, Singapore developed an important rubber packing as well as a rubber milling centre to serve the plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia for almost 80 years. Rubber trade was one of the most important industries in early Singapore as rubber produced by “estates” was processed and packed on site and transported to Singapore for shipment to London to be sold and distributed to rubber manufacturers in Europe and in USA. The financial requirements for the buying and holding of rubber during the processing and selling of the processed rubber for shipment was significant as volume grew. The Singapore Chinese entrepreneurs involved in the processing were those also responsible for the successful establishment of local...

Synthetic Rubber

Production of synthetic elastomers started in 2013 focussed on export to Asia-Pacific region. Five major synthetic producers have manufacturing facilities in Singapore and about 303,000 tonnes were produced in 2017.

Government & Other Agencies

Ministry of Trade and Industry
100 High Street 
#09 - 01 The Treasury 
Singapore 179434 
Tel : +65 62259911 
E-mail: mti_email@mti.gov.sg 
Website: www.mti.gov.sg/
Enterprise Singapore
230 Victoria Street 
Level 10, Bugis Junction Office Tower 
Singapore 188024 
Tel: +65 6898 1800 
E-mail: enquiry@enterprisesg.gov.sg 
Website: enterprisesg.gov.sg/
Rubber Trade Association of Singapore
101 Cecil Street #24-12 
Tong Eng Building 
Singapore 069533 
Tel: + 65 6227 1536 
E-mail: admin@rtas.sg 
Website: www.rtas.sg
Singapore International Chamber of Commerce
6 Raffles Quay #10-01 
Singapore 048580 
Tel: +65 6500 0960 
E-mail: general@sicc.com.sg 
Website: sicc.com.sg
Press Releases
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Rubber tyres upcycled into multi-use aerogels
A team of NUS researchers has achieved a major technological breakthrough by converting waste rubber tyres into super-light aerogels that have a wide range of applications. This is the first time that aerogels are made from waste rubber tyres. The new rubber aerogels demonstrate remarkable properties — they are extremely light, highly absorbent, very durable, and they are also very efficient at trapping heat and sound. By upcycling waste rubber...