Am a programmer currently in Singapore; some of my observations are as below. 1. Singapore is business friendly. But only for big businesses; investment banks

Am a programmer currently in Singapore; some of my observations are as below. 1. Singapore is business friendly. But only for big businesses; investment banks and such. Small and medium ones will have a tough time considering the cost of living and expenses here. 2. Local IT job market is tuned more towards jobs in banks and insurance companies rather than in true programming/RnD. And as obvious, most of it is for maintenance or support of legacy CRUD apps. 3. Most of the smart local fellows move to UK/US and find the environment there quite enriching, and stay. Singapore gets boring after a couple of years. 4. Govt has raised minimum salary limit for an employment pass, keeping in mind the locals' emotions against increasing number of immigrants. Not many are vocal about their unhappiness about inflow of immigrants, but few are very much. 5. Startups here seem to be hesitant to get smart folks from nearby places like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines or India. Just couldn't understand why. My guess would be that an employment pass and dependent pass is quite costly for them, or that getting immigrant workers would be too much of paperwork and legal hassle for them. 6. Most of the shops here follow the true Asian work culture where number of years in a place trumps capability and competence. Singapore's culture is of very high Power distance index. The mandatory national service for all boys at their prime tunes and trains them that authority and orders must be followed unquestionably. 7. http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2011/12/15/wozniak-apple-couldnt-emerge-in-singapore/ http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2011/12/15/wozniak-apple-co... and http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/gibson_pr.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/gibson_pr.html