Free trade philosophy – The Heritage Foundation recently ranked Singapore as the second-freest economy in the world after Hong Kong. It was relatively low government spending as a percentage of GDP, strong property rights and relatively low levels of corruption (joint third with Sweden and just behind Denmark and New Zealand).

No.1 in Asia for intellectual property protection Singapore ranks 4th globally and 1st in the region for institutional protection of intellectual property in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.

No.1 in Asia for sustainability The Sustainable Cities Index by Arcadis ranks 100 global cities according to three facets of sustainability: social, environmental and economic.

No.1 in Asia for expatriates to live, according to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012.

No.1 in digital competitiveness globally, ranked by IMD’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (2017); #1 in innovation in Asia, ranked by the Global Innovation Index (2017).

No.1 South-east Asian city to be designated a UNESCO creative city of design

No.1 ranking in the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Networked Readiness Index, which measures how prepared countries embrace emerging technologies and opportunities created by digital innovation.