Living and Investing in Havens

When trouble strikes elsewhere, a city state like Singapore watches. Others also watch Singapore. Singapore gains from being and/ or perceived to be a beacon of relative governance/ financial/ educational/ personal/ health/ economic/ trade safety, compared to her competition. Now her leadership has also to seriously grapple between her Asian cultural roots and Western colonial links, in a geopolitical landscape that seems to heighten tensions and more interaction between the East and West. Singapore's strategic characteristics, her geographical size and her image can be double edged blessings and risks. She attracts attention, she attracts investment, she attracts portable funds always waiting for a place to park (until the next higher return). Singapore can also arouse players which may have designs on her to embed their vested interests. It can be due to her strategic location at the nexus of significant shipping, airline and trading routes. It can be due to her mature, dynamic and relatively more reliable reputation as a financial centre. It can be her government's consistent readiness and planning to overcome most present and future risks. Singapore also is sited centrally in the Indo-Pacific region, the world's fastest growing region. She is ever conscious and alert to rising competitors, whether in the most prominent Bay areas of the USA and China, or in the petroleum rich and ambitious city states of West Asia. Behemoth financial centres like London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong have always loomed large historically when Singapore was not so developed. Those four cities incurred extensive damage and loss in the huge wars of the 20th century, but so did Singapore. Lower tax regimes in Singapore, compared to OECD nations, can make her investment attraction and advantage more like tax havens. In fact, Singapore does better in structuring her society than most atypical small city or island tax havens. Key features that top most lure expats to Singapore can be a one stop corporate shop, organised infrastructure, high standard education/ medical facilities and relative personal safety. Any expat living or investing in tax havens can move away from their original home nations - and they do so for lower costs of living, taking advantage of currency exchange rates, enjoying a different lifestyle, jet setting and having a better climate. Such havens structure their society to attract such expats. Dubai has under stated its war risks in a volatile geopolitical region. Singapore is serious in better managing its humid weather conditions. Tax havens in Europe are used to navigate through the historical confrontations and conflicts - and they can be little kingdoms, unassumedly not catching the attention of most critics or opposition. The Carribean isles invite investors to soak in warm weather vacations as well . Dubai has extreme high temperatures but that is mitigated by energy consuming air conditioning ( like in Singapore and Hong Kong). Expats, whether they are media influencers, cashed up retirees or corporate high flyers, often need a variety of offerings in leisure night life activities, contemporary arts, unique architectural surroundings and more. Some tax havens do also stand out in offering vibrant business opportunities, critical networking and excellent internet reliability. The dark side of such vibrant places is the unavoidable requirement to import lower paid migrants willing to undertake the so called menial jobs, which are critical to the running of society but often hidden away from media attention or acknowledgememt by authorities. Hong Kong may not be seen as organised as Singapore, but has benefitted much as a financial centre and trade conduit to the burgeoning hinterland of Greater China. Now more well integrated with an ever prosperous and technologically advanced Motherland, Hong Kong now also competes with dynamic cities within China itself. The Swiss adopted a vital stand of neutrality to differentiate themselves from the often shaky geopolitics in Europe. By so doing, Switzerland instantly offered better stability and reliability to investors and those seeking minimisation of risks. On top of the Swiss cake, the country offered governance through a republic. These are the layers intentionally built under the star feature - financial discretion and management ability. No place is perfect - and what is more significant is how a society and government highlight their strong points and manage risks for their vulnerable ones. #yongkevthoughts