Singapore's recent exceptional economic expansion, inflation has remained low. In 1994, inflation rose slightly, from 2.4 percent in 1993 to 3.1 percent, partly as a result of the 3 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced in April 1994. The first quarter of 1995 saw inflation drop back to 2.5 percent (Country Commercial Guide 7). The steady strong performance of the Singapore dollar, which keeps the price of imports low, has been Singapore's main tool for controlling inflation. This trend should work to the benefit of those companies seeking to import goods to Singapore.
Manufacturing and financial/business services continue to be the most important sectors of the Singapore economy, making up 26.9 percent and 29.5 percent of GDP respectively. The construction sector, which has benefitted from a sharp rise in private sector demand, registered the fastest sectoral growth (15.7 percent) for 1994. These growth sectors are good indicators that computer software utilities which can increase the productivity of business in these sectors should have strong potential for success in Singapore (Country Commercial Guide 8).
The product proposed for the Singapore market is a personal computer software utility for financial management, namely, Quicken. This product enables users to effectively manage their financial transactions from their personal computer, but is sophisticated enough for small businesses to use successfully. Although Quicken can be integrated with a modem to enable dial-up access to financial institutions and on-line services, it can also be used as a standalone product. In the Singapore environment, where telecommunications is rapidly advancing, it may not be feasible for Quicken to expect to have modem access immediately available to all of its potential users, but access should be available within a short period where it does not currently exist. Given the rapidl
...