Singapore

Singapore (ⁱ/ˈsɪŋɡəpɔːr/), officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City, and the Red Dot, is a global city in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state. It lies one degree (137 km) north of the equator, at the southernmost tip of continental Asia and peninsular Malaysia, with Indonesia's Riau Islands to the south. Singapore's territory consists of the diamond-shaped main island and 62 islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its total size by 23% (130 km²), and its greening policy has covered the densely populated island with tropical flora, parks and gardens.

The islands were settled from the second century AD by a series of local empires. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company; after the company collapsed, the islands were ceded to Britain and became part of its Straits Settlements in 1826. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from Britain in 1963, by uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but was expelled two years later over ideological differences. After early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian tiger economy, based on external trade and its human capital.

Singtel

Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly abbreviated as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications company, with a combined mobile subscriber base of 500 million customers from its own operations and regional associates in 25 countries at end of March 2014, making it one of the largest mobile network operators in Singapore and the 20–30 largest in the world.

The company was known as Telecommunications Equipment until 1995. Singtel provides ISP (SingNet), IPTV (Singtel TV) and mobile phone networks (Singtel Mobile) and fixed line telephony services.

Singtel has expanded aggressively outside its home market and owns shares in many regional operators, including 100% of the second largest Australian telco, Optus, which was acquired in 2001 from Cable & Wireless and other shareholders of Optus, and 32.15% of Bharti Airtel, the largest carrier in India.

Singtel is also the largest company by market capitalisation listed on the Singapore Exchange and is majority owned by Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has a land area of 1104 km² and shares its northern border with Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million inhabitants of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

Hong Kong Telecom

Hong Kong Telecommunications Limited, Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) (Traditional Chinese: 香港電訊有限公司) (Former stock code: SEHK: 8), or Cable & Wireless HKT Limited was the largest telecommunications company in the former British Colony of Hong Kong and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cable & Wireless.

HKT had a dominant position in fixed-line, IDD and broadband services in Hong Kong. It was merged to Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW) in 2000. The name 'Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited' is retained by a subsidiary of PCCW.

History

Pacific Century

The Pacific Century (and the associated term Asia-Pacific Century) is a term that has been used to describe the 21st century through analogy with the term American Century. The implicit assumption underlying the usage of the term is that the 21st century will be dominated, especially economically, by the states in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular China, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the ASEAN members (particularly Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore), Australia, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This idea can be compared to the historical Eurocentric/Atlantic viewpoint, which has dominated for the past two centuries.

The term Asian Century is a more popularized term, shifting greater emphasis towards Asia, especially on the potential superpowers of China and India. Cities in those countries, such as Tokyo, Mumbai, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi and Bangkok are increasingly gaining power as financial centres, displacing cities in Europe. However, critics of this associated term believe it incorrectly describes the 21st century and overstates the importance of the states around the Indian Ocean. Up until 2011, this was proving to be true, as India had shown very promising growth, despite nagging infrastructure concerns. But with the continual unrest in Palestine and associated ultra critical Suez Canal, the Euro crisis, along with India's and Brazil's growth concerns, and Russia's new look East policy, the Pacific Century is in fact a more accurate term than the Asian Century. Note the United States, Canada, and Mexico in particular are dual powers, both Pacific and Atlantic, however the West Coast of North America stands to benefit the most from the Pacific Century vis-à-vis the East Coast of North America.