There is a lot of excitement regarding the emerging economies from around the world. It is expected that several countries will grow at a fast pace and provide the best investment opportunities to entrepreneurs from all over the world. Out of the emerging economies, the BRIC countries are the ones who have everyone talking about them. BRIC countries include Brazil, Russia, India and China. It is not surprising that those four countries are currently amongst the fastest growing economies in the world. With the third edition of the BRIC summit being held in China this year, the world is watching closely on the developments during this summit.

However, even though the BRIC countries have made tremendous progress in the past couple of decades including China's growth as the world's fastest growing and second largest economy, many foreign entrepreneurs believe doing business in Singapore is still a better bet than other places. Singapore surprised everyone last year by surpassing the growth percentage of even China. Being a fully developed nation, Singapore has all the advantages of being a developed economy but at the same time presents the excitement and growth opportunities of an emerging economy. Not just that but even now, doing business in the country is far easier than anywhere else in the world.

For example, any foreign entrepreneur can setup a business in Singapore within one working day without even visiting the country. If you compare this with the BRIC countries, it still takes much longer to setup a company in any of those countries. In fact it can take even 2 months to fully complete the company incorporation procedure in places like India and the foreign entrepreneur might have to visit the country several times to complete each formality.
At the same time, Singapore allows 100 per cent foreign ownership in companies based in the country. All you need is a local resident director and this can be the foreign entrepreneur once he or she has relocated to Singapore. However, the BRIC countries have not opened up all the sectors and many of them require having local partners or local shareholders. In many cases, foreign companies are not allowed to own the controlling stake in a company based in those countries. Laws and business policies are also quite complicated and meant to favor local residents only. Foreign entrepreneurs often end up paying higher taxes or have to go through way more ongoing compliance requirements than locally owned companies. Singapore on the other hand, ensures that foreign owned companies as well as local resident owned companies are treated one and the same and the business laws are similar for all. Each and every law is clear and easy to understand even for a foreigner in Singapore.