re/code takes a look at how Singapore is aiming to become Asia’s own Silicon Valley…
San Francisco transplant Won Hee Chang, a motorcycle-jacket-wearing venture-capitalist-turned-entrepreneur, was spitting out a rapid-fire list of contacts I needed to meet in her hometown of Singapore, when she suddenly stopped.
“Sorry, I never learned to chew gum, I grew up in Singapore,” Chang said. “I didn’t know you could split it into two pieces in your mouth!”
Singapore, I would later learn, is a study in contradictions. The sweltering hot, 276-square-mile city-state is totally savvy until it’s unexpectedly not. There’s a law against importing chewing gum. There are curbs on free speech and a ban on gay sex. William Gibson, the science fiction author, called it “Disneyland with the Death Penalty.” Yet Singapore is a totally connected, globally aware nation ready for more.
Read the full article at http://recode.net/2015/06/16/singapore-rising-the-plot-to-be-the-next-big-tech-hub/