Disease, Crime and Environment effects in Singapore’s growth

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Disease, Crime and Environment effects in Singapore’s growth

A dynamic country in Asia’s hub Singapore is a country that is famous for its efficiency and economic stability which has seen it gets ranked as the best place to do effectively do business or run a firm. Most of the often reviewed indicators include human capital and labor, financial environment, operating environs, growth and economics and technology and science. With all these With all these stated advantages there are still some underlying factors that are often neglected that affect the country’s development like crime, environment and disease. It is with this regard that this article seeks to provide an overview of the implication of these underlying issues on the country development and direct the concerns to the relevant authorities.

Crime

Even though the crime rate in Singapore is considered one of the lowest globally, there are still reports of street theft and petty crime that mostly occur at tourist destinations, airports, public transport locations and hotels. The frequency of this incidences affects the foreigners both investors and tourist perception of the country since lately there has been an increase in violent and credit card fraud crimes in the country. However the efforts by the (SPF) Singapore police Force on enforcing stricter penalties and law enforcement policies and public education have seen an increase in drug abuse and snatch thieves’ related crimes.

The fact that the country is a financial and transportation hub makes the country vulnerable to crime like money laundering regardless of the implementation of strict law enforcement. This is evident in the survey of price water coopers that shows that increase in economic crimes in company is in the increase in relation to the economic crimes the most rampant was the increase in corruption, money laundering, bribery, and IP infringement.

Crime statistics on the country in 2011-2012 reveal that even though there has been a significant reduction of robbery, and theft crimes there subsequently has been an increase in rape related crimes during the first half of the year while theft of motor vehicles increased by 25 percent. In an overview the first half of the year saw a crime increase by 1 percent this in relation to all the reported crimes in the same period (Charissa Tann, 2013).

The main key crimes in Singapore according to the police are crimes against the elderly, phone scams and motor vehicle thefts. According to the countries 2010 index of corruption perception it was listed as top among the 178 other countries as the least corrupt in the list. Through this overview it is evident that even though the country police have implemented strategies that have helped in curbing crime there is still room for improvement especially in areas that have economic and foreign implications for the country.

Disease

Singapore’s state of health is good as compared in international standards they boast of good housing, promotion of preventive medicine, rising standards of living, sanitation and safe water supply, high education standards and high quality active medical services which have all helped the country eradicate any disease and epidemics since they boost effectively the current health system in Singapore.

The leading mortality and morbidity death causes are majorly found in non-communicable diseases like hypertension, strokes, diabetes, injuries and hypertension, coronary disease, pneumonia and cancer and almost 60 percent of diseases in the country can be accounted for in ischaemic heart disease, pneumonia, and cancer(MOH Singapore,2012).

Compared to most developing countries Singapore’s health care system has a relatively low budget. According to the reports of the world health organization Singapore is listed as 6th which demonstrates how they have effectively managed to manage their health system making it one of the attraction factors for investors in the country. In an overview the country has for the past two decades managed to maintain the lowest infant mortality rate globally.

The life expectancy in the country is 85 for female and 80 for male and the whole populations almost have ease of access to improved sanitation and water, in addition the deaths from HIV are recorded at only 10 annually per a survey on 100,000 people. They also have a high immunization level and there is below 10 percent recorded adult obesity rate (Statistics dept. Singapore, 2011).

The Singapore government has effectively implemented their framework based on the 3M which has three main components Medisave which is a health savings scheme that is compulsory and covers about 85 percent of the country’s population. Medifund, in which there is a provision of a safety net for those who can’t access or pay the health care, Medishield which is a health insurance scheme that is funded by the government.

Other factors that have helped reduce the disease levels in the country is found in the effective discussions in the autonomous public health systems management that facilitate patient competition and reduce chance for diseases to be epidemic. The countries GDP approximately accounts for 3.5 percent of the health care and 31.9 percent of it is government funded which is an advantage for the low income earners as a subsidy scheme.

Environment

As with all other countries Singapore also has an environmental issues and it can be said that they increased during the early 1960’s mainly due to the industrialization spike and it has greatly facilitated in the increase of pollution rates. Currently some of the major issues that the country face in regards to environment include waste disposal due to the available limited land, Indonesian forests emitting haze and harmful smoke due to the recurrent forest fires, industrial pollution and limited resources for fresh water, in addition the (EIA) Energy Information Administration reports have often cited the country as having a high carbon per capita emission globally (Allo’ Expat Singapore, 2007).

The country has the (PUB) public Utility Board, Ministry of the Water and Environment resources and National Environment Agency (NEA) to handle the current environmental issues .They have established an appropriate plan through the Singapore Green Plan initiative to keep track on the unstoppable flora and fauna population, connect existing parks and establish new environmental reserves, through such initiatives the amount of carbon absorbed by the flora and the emitted amount in the country can be recorded(Singapore government,2011).

The country takes the environmental risks seriously and as such they have sort to tackle it in many levels mainly from the aspect of water recycling, industrial waste management, emission controls and even littering, there is increased public awareness programs on environmental consciousness carried out by non-governmental, citizen groups and governmental programs to emphasize on the importance of protecting the habitat. Although this recovery implementation seems successful it would be more effective if the concerned sources of the pollution like the industries would find other eco-friendly substitutions for their production wastes. This would not only benefit the country rankings but also facilitate in attracting more global investments (Engelman, Robert, 2009).

In conclusion, it is evident that the Singaporean government and concerned organizations are aware of the underlying issues and are all on the fore front in curbing the problems, effective examples are evident in their effective application of the Green Labeling Schemes, health 3M framework implementation, and strict law implementation for curbing crime levels. Through these aspects it is clear how the country has managed to maintain its lead as a fast growing economy globally that has been able to not only attract foreign investors but maintain the best health, environment and security.

Reference

Allo’ Expat Singapore (2007) Environmental Issues in Singapore, AlloExpat.com

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http://www.singapore.alloexpat.com/singapore_information/MOH Singapore,(2012). Healthcare Financing, Ministry of Health Singapore

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http://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/statistics/Health_Facts_Singapore/HealtEngelman, Robert (2009) POPULATION & Sustainability, Scientific American Earth

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http://0-web.ebscohost.com.olinkserver.franklin.edu/ehost/detail?sid=fe48a2Singapore government (2011) Key Environmental Statistics, Ministry of environment and resources

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http://app.mewr.gov.sg/web/contents/Contents.aspx?Id=80Charissa Tann(2013)Fall in crime cases for 2012,home Team News

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http://www.hometeam.sg/article.aspx?news_sid=20130207yhxDBpN9x0FQStatistics dept. Singapore, (2011) Health Statistics in Singapore, Department of Statistics Singapore

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http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/demo.htm