Best place for starting business: Singapore vs Silicon Valley

Many dream transportation of business to Silicon Valley. But why there? There are other very acceptable places for high-tech startups. One of them is Singapore!

In Singapore development of start-ups is significantly affected by the state, in spite of the good flow of foreign investment. Here the Government is focusing on the development of local entrepreneurs and introducing measures to help them to live and develop .For example, the registration of companies is simplified from a few weeks to a couple of hours.

Every year 120-150 Singaporean students are selected and send to study in Silicon Valley, and gives a guarantee to return to work in a technological incubator or the possibility of obtaining a grant.

Singapore is a paradise for investors. They are not only almost guaranteed to make a profit, but also protection from risks. This serves several conditions:

- Firstly, the National Research Fund invests 5 Singapore dollars for every dollar investment in the amount of up to 500 thousand.

- Secondly, investors are given the opportunity for 3 years to buy out the government stake of the company for a modest cost plus interesting charges.

- And there are a number of tax incentives: the possibility of duty-free transfer of profits, exemption from withholding tax on interest on bank deposits for non-residents temporarily residing in the country.

Spring Agency carries about a hundred different programs to support entrepreneurs in Singapore. It consists of 5 units, each of which is engaged in the field. There are special benefits for those who want starting a business in Singapore. This is concessional lending, including credit insurance, the issuance of special loans and the distribution of subsidies. Upon reception of the loan for small or medium enterprise in the period up to 4 years of credit, rate is 5% per annum, while long-term loans - 6.5%.

In Singapore business mechanisms work like a clock: almost all operations are done through the Internet, from the registration itself and ending with obtaining licenses for those activities where it is needed. No queues and paper records.

World first smart-nation

For proving of these words The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) intends to make the country the world's first smart-nation.

Smart - technology (Smart Nation Platform or SNP), according to Steve Leonard , executive vice chairman of the IDA, will provide citizens, businesses and the government a number of new features.

The introduction of SNP is planned for two stages:

- The first stage will be completed by the end of this year. It includes local test of wired and wireless sensors and network communications, namely to ensure continued access to the Internet via mobile devices. IDA is committed to provide to a resident of Singapore an opportunity to be online in every situation, since leaving home until the return, through a heterogeneous network - HetNet. To do this, IDA is working with telecommunications companies such as SingTel, StarHub, M1, and MyRepublic, responsible for the creation of an infrastructure that makes it easy to switch from private to public sources of contact within the HetNet. Now this system is being testing in the area of Jurong Lake in places with high operational load, including metro station, bus stations, elevators, pedestrian crossings and so on. It is necessary to determine the network load for the continued smooth operation, including locations without conventional coating of Wi-Fi. The main purpose of this work is the connection and operation of the widest range of devices with applications such as distance learning, remote health monitoring and even self-driving vehicles.

The second stage is much larger, and involves the introduction of technologies in different areas, in cooperation with industry partners, which will sign a contract with IDA. It should be noted that the IDA is working with a large number of companies in the telecommunications field in order to develop solutions for the SNP. In addition to the Singapore telecommunications companies in this project are participating such corporations as Microsoft, IBM, Hitachi Data Systems, Cloudera, Key Insights and others. Local IT companies and start-ups can provide their own resources and ideas for smart - platform. For example, Energetix is engaged in the cloud platform energy management and Trakomatic - a platform for retailers.

As you can see Singapore is full of ideas and potential. Considering low tax politic of Government and high-speed growth of Asian market in short time Californian Silicon Valley may be compared with Singapore, not vice versa.