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Singapore Japan
Japan's place in Singapore's business picture was
underscored
by the fact that, in the 1980s, Japanese were the largest
resident
expatriate community in the city. Japan was the country's
single
largest supplier, accounting in 1987 for 25.3 percent of
total
imports, and Singapore's largest trade deficit was with
Japan. Buyback arrangements for products manufactured by Japanese
firms in
Singapore also accounted for a significant part of the
trade. Oil
accounted for 40 percent of Singapore's exports to Japan
in 1988.
Singaporean observers noted by 1989 a significant
difference in the
market orientation between Japanese firms and United
States-owned
multinationals. Japanese firms in Singapore were producing
primarily for the United States and other third-country
markets,
rather than for the Japanese home market. The United
Statescontrolled multinationals, on the other hand, produced
mainly for
their own home market. Many of these same observers, both
official
and unofficial, also expressed the sentiment that the
world export
market in the 1990s, would "belong to Japan."
Data as of December 1989
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