Final pour: Tiger Beer to end production in Singapore after 96 years

The brewing of Heineken and Tiger Beer in Singapore will be progressively phased out over the next two years. 
PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK

Mar 26, 2026

SINGAPORE - Tiger Beer may be winding down its Singapore brewing operations after a 96-year run, but the home-grown beer brand will continue to be managed and led from Singapore, where key decisions will still be made, Heineken Asia Pacific managing director Kenneth Choo told The Straits Times.

“Singapore will continue to be home for Tiger Beer. This is not going to change,” he said in an exclusive interview on March 25.

Singapore drops ‘30 by 30’ farming goal, sets revised targets for fibre and protein by 2035

One of the new targets is for Singapore to by 2035 produce 20 per cent of the country’s consumption of fibre – a category
that comprises leafy and fruited vegetables, beansprouts and mushrooms.

Nov 04, 2025

SINGAPORE - Singapore has replaced its original 2030 farming goal with new targets for fibre and protein production by 2035, amid headwinds confronting the local agricultural sector.

Lawrence Wong on implications of US tariffs for Singapore

PM Lawrence Wong on implications of US tariffs for Singapore | Full video

Trump is a moron who doesn't understand Tariffs. Sure, if the tariff makes imports more expensive, the exporting countries will probably sell less to the US. BUT, the US citizens/residents will pay MORE for the goods they need. So a microwave oven that used to cost $100, would now cost $130 or more. And the common folk will have to pay that price. 

Singapore’s port handles record of over 40 million shipping containers in 2024

In 2024, Singapore’s port – consisting of terminals operated by both PSA and Jurong Port – surpassed the 2023 record

of 39.01 million TEUs.PHOTO: ST FILE

Esther Loi
DEC 28, 2024

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s largest port operator PSA handled more than 40 million shipping containers, or twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), in 2024, a record-breaking feat that it has called a “significant milestone”.

This means that in 2024, Singapore’s port – consisting of terminals operated by both PSA and Jurong Port – surpassed the 2023 record of 39.01 million TEUs, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat in a Facebook post on Dec 27.

From high-rollers to roller-coaster geeks, Singapore's IRs are reeling them in but is it enough to stay ahead?

Having tasted success, new challenges await Singapore’s integrated resorts as neighbouring countries including the Philippines and Japan are ramping up their own tourism offerings.

 

 


Renald Loh

07 Dec 2024

Soaring high at 200 metres and gleaming gold at sunset, the architectural marvel that is Marina Bay Sands (MBS) is at once a striking silhouette of Singapore’s skyline and a symbol of its riches.

While the integrated resort’s (IR) impressive facade and iconic SkyPark have drawn the rich and famous from overseas, its counterpart southwest of the island appeals more to tourists such as 43-year-old Australian Kacy McDonald and her family.

Videos of travel influencers screaming their lungs out on roller coasters at Universal Studios Singapore (USS) and showing off their hauls from its novelty shops had captured the attention of Ms McDonald’s young children.

That's why Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), home to the USS theme park — and not the lavish MBS — was at the top of the list for the family's six-day holiday itinerary.

Singapore No. 1 again in world ranking on government effectiveness

Singapore edged out Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Norway, which were ranked second to fifth, respectively. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

Jean Iau

MAY 15, 2024

SINGAPORE Singapore has topped a ranking that tracks the effectiveness of more than 100 governments around the world for the second consecutive year.

It edged out Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Norway – which ranked second to fifth, respectively – in the fourth edition of the Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) released on May 15. South Korea (20th) is the only other Asian country in the top 20.

How Deng and his heirs misunderstood Singapore

MARK R THOMPSON 

01 FEB, 2019



As official China celebrates the four decades of “reform and opening” that began in late 1978 to early 1979, it is instructive to recall the role Singapore played in this process. The fulsome eulogies for Lee Kuan Yew offered by Chinese officials in 2015, beginning with Xi Jinping himself (who has been noticeably less enthusiastic in his praise for Deng Xiaoping given China’s top leader’s “family feud” over who deserves the most credit for the reforms), are just the most obvious indication that Lee and the “Singapore model” more generally have played (quite literally) an oversized role in China’s rapid transition from Maoism to “Market-Leninism”. Appropriately, Lee was honoured late last year as one of the foreigners who helped China most in its reform process.

Commentary: Instant noodles have become an economic red flag

Cheap and fast but delicious, everyone’s favourite rapid meal tells us about the state of the world, says the Financial Times’ Leo Lewis.

Instant noodle consumption has continued to grow strongly in a post-COVID world.
(AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Leo Lewis

15 Mar 2024 

TOKYO: If the entire (cooked) length of instant noodles sold around the world in a single year were laid out in a line, the resulting 6.2 billion km giga-noodle would stretch well beyond Pluto and into the depths of space. It is a fact as miserable as it is marvellous.

Instant noodles sit among the most potent weapons ever devised in the unending struggle against starvation: A product that towers, among processed foods, at the extreme value end of the cost-per-calorie scale and which its makers now proudly classify as a piece of “social infrastructure”. 

STB gave grant for Taylor Swift concerts, event likely to generate major benefits for S’pore economy: Govt

 

Taylor Swift will hold six shows at the National Stadium from March 2 to March 9. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Sarah Koh and Elaine Lee

FEB 23, 2024


SINGAPORE – The upcoming Taylor Swift concerts in Singapore, which are likely to generate significant benefits for the economy, got the support of the authorities in the form of a grant.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) said in a joint statement that tourism sectors such as hospitality, retail, travel and dining are likely to benefit from the event, just like they have in other cities the pop star has performed in.

More than 300,000 tickets have been sold for the concerts in Singapore, with a large number of fans travelling in from other countries, they added.

China’s Difficult Challenge to Reach the Middle (Or why China won't surpass US GDP)

Growth dreams deferred. 

China’s per capita income of $21,400 places it just above the 60th percentile of the global income distribution.

By Enda Curran

October 23, 2023

An unlikely geopolitical subplot of 2023 is the emerging view that China’s economy isn’t going to overtake the US after all.

Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Reception | Salt Lake City, UT

August 10, 2023

Private Residence
Salt Lake City, Utah

THE PRESIDENT: Please, please sit down. Thank you. Well, first of all, you know, I had forgotten about that incident. It was the time when there was a lot of discussion going on in the administration: would we recognize same-sex marriage.

And I was rai- — I was a lucky man. I was raised by a father who was a — thought everyone was entitled to be treated with dignity. I remember when I was — I hadn’t thought about this a long time. I remember when I was a kid, I — I was a lifeguard at a country club, but I wanted to — I was — got deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement. And so, I wanted to work in what they called “The Bucket,” which was a public housing complex — a large complex on the east side of Wilmington — and — which was all African American.

And they had the — like all big cities, they had three major swimming pools. One on the east side, which is where they — a thousand African American kids a day would come and swim in this big pool. And I wanted to be a lifeguard there. 

PM Lee outlines 3 geopolitical storms Singapore faces

Jean Iau
19 April 2023

SINGAPORE - While Singapore’s relations with its immediate neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia are stable and encouraging, the situation further afield has become troubling and even dangerous.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this in Parliament on Wednesday as he outlined three major geopolitical tensions that make the current global situation graver than what Singapore has faced in a long time.

Singaporeans need to realise the gravity of the situation, he said. “We are facing not just one storm, but several.”

China’s cities are buried in debt, but they keep shoveling it on

March 28, 2023


NEW YORK — In 2015, when Shangqiu, a municipality in central China about the size of Kentucky, laid out a plan for the next two decades, it positioned itself as a transportation hub with a sprawling network of railways, highways and river shipping routes.

By the end of 2020, Shangqiu had built 114 miles (183km) of high-speed rail, and today several national railways make stops in the city.

By 2025, Shangqiu expects the coverage of its highway network to have increased by 87 per cent. The city is building its first two airports, three new highways and enough parking space for 20,000 additional slots.

Resilience, self-sufficiency important but world will be worse off if we go too far: Lawrence Wong

Shipping containers seen at PSA Tanjong Pagar Terminal. (File Photo: CNA/Calvin Oh)

Yasmin Begum

14 Nov 2022 

SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sunday (Nov 13) said that resilience and self-sufficiency are important attributes, but added that the world will be worse off if countries go too far.

At the evening reception for participants of the 17th Asia-Pacific Conference (APK) of German Business, Mr Wong noted that part of the desire of wanting to have greater resilience is about having more reliable networks.

This, Mr Wong said, meant complying fully with all international rules and obligations. 

MAS tightens monetary policy for the fifth time in a year to dampen inflation

The central bank said that a further tightening of monetary policy is needed to help “ensure that price pressures are dampened over the next few quarters”.

Tang See Kit

14 Oct 2022 

SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has tightened monetary policy for the fifth time in a year, allowing a further strengthening in the Singapore dollar to help dampen inflation.

In its half-yearly monetary policy statement released on Friday (Oct 14), the Singapore central bank said it will re-centre the mid-point of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$NEER) policy band “up to its prevailing level”.

The slope and width of the band were left unchanged.

Singapore's core inflation rises to 10-year high in March

Gabrielle Andres

25 Apr 2022 

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s core inflation rose to a 10-year high of 2.9 per cent year-on-year in March, up from 2.2 per cent in February, official data released on Monday (Apr 25) showed.

The last time core inflation was at 2.9 per cent year-on-year was in March 2012.

The increase was driven by higher inflation for food and services, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a joint release.

How countries can respond to a perfect long storm

In a speech at the Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS)-Bloomberg Investment Conference on Wednesday (March 9), Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam spoke about how countries can navigate the current problems and “five fragilities” the world faces. Below is a transcript of his speech.



BY THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM

March 9, 2022

I am very happy to join you this morning. It is an important conference, both because it’s IMAS’ 25th anniversary, and importantly because of the theme that you're focusing on — investing for a green future.

Let me put this in the context of the era of profound uncertainty and fragility that the world has entered.

Investing for the future has become a much more complex game. It's more complex than it was pre-pandemic. It's also more complex than it was two weeks ago.

Biden to join allies in revoking Russia's favoured trade status

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Winter Meeting in Washington, U.S., March 10, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

11 Mar 2022 

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden will move on Friday (Mar 11) to revoke Russia's "most favoured nation" trade status, joining with allies to punish Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Biden will announce the plans at the White House at 10.15 am.

The White House said Biden would announce "actions to continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine". Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation".

The administration will revoke Russia's "most favoured nation status" over its invasion of Ukraine, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference earlier on Friday.

Russia-Ukraine war is ending globalization

BlackRock’s Larry Fink, who oversees $10 trillion, says Russia-Ukraine war is ending globalization

THU, MAR 24 2022

Yun Li

• Larry Fink, CEO and chairman of the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is reversing the long-running trend of globalization.
• “I believe this has exacerbated the polarization and extremist behavior we are seeing across society today,” Fink said in his 2022 letter to shareholders.
• Fink, whose firm oversees more than $10 trillion, said BlackRock has suspended the purchase of any Russian securities in its active or index portfolios.

Larry Fink, CEO and chairman of the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended the world order that had been in place since the end of the Cold War.

Commentary: Joe Biden is missing the opportunity to reset 50-year progress in US-China relations

The US is no longer the world hegemon, but behaves as if it is in dealing with China, say Hong Kong observers.

United States President Joe Biden listens as he meets virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping from the 

Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Nov 15, 2021. (File photo: AP/Susan Walsh)

Andrew Sheng

Xiao Geng

30 Dec 2021


HONG KONG - Next year will mark 50 years since US President Richard Nixon travelled to China to meet with Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Zedong and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai - a major step toward restoring relations after decades of estrangement and hostility.

A half-century later, the progress they launched has been all but lost, and US President Joe Biden is partly to blame.

The ideological differences between the United States and China in 1972 could not have been starker. But both sides recognised the vast benefits of a détente.