Win Singapore Math® Training; Help Colorado Charter Schools

• 

Cassandra Turner

I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to spread the word about the Singapore Math® curriculum and, at the same time, help the Colorado League of Charter Schools to honor Charter School founders”

Fort Collins, Colorado (PRWEB) May 30, 2013

Singapore Math® Training presented by acclaimed elementary math educator Cassandra Turner is among the among the silent auction items offered in conjunction with the Colorado League of Charter Schools’ 20th Anniversary Luncheon on Monday, June 3, 2013.

Turner donated one-day of Singapore Mathematics Training to the Colorado League’s silent auction. Proceeds will support the League’s 20th anniversary campaign, including advocacy programs and efforts to improve public awareness and understanding of charter schools.

The winning bidder will be able to choose from among several of Turner’s day-long renowned Singapore Math® seminars or apply it to a multi-day implementation training. One day of Turner’s training is valued at $2,500.

Turner is a Colorado resident and an internationally-recognized Singapore Math® teacher who has worked with more than 15 Colorado schools to have successfully implemented the Singaporean curriculum.

In addition to championing Math education, Turner is a long-time Charter School advocate and has close ties to two award-winning Charter Schools. She taught multiple grades at Benchmark School in Phoenix, Arizona, and is completing a three-year term as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Common School in Fort Collins, Colorado. Turner’s two sons attended both Benchmark and Liberty Common.

“I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to spread the word about Singapore Mathematics and, at the same time, help the Colorado League of Charter Schools to honor Charter School founders,” said Turner. “I’m a fan of the Colorado League of Charter Schools and truly appreciate all the great services they provide to charter schools.”

The League’s silent auction accommodates online bidding, and Turner is prepared to bring her training to schools outside Colorado. “If you don’t already know”, Turner said, “I’ll go ANYWHERE to work with schools and teachers looking to use Singapore Mathematics.”

Online bids will be accepted through May 31 at the following link:

Turner’s acclaimed seminars receive rave reviews (these are ACTUAL quotes from seminar attendees):

• 
      Fabulous!! Cassy’s energy, enthusiasm and knowledge make this one of the MOST FABULOUS days of staff development that I have been lucky enough to experience in 40 years! Thanks so much!


•     Cassy is wonderful! She has wonderful ideas and presents them with such enthusiasm! Amazing!!


•     Best seminar I have been to in my 25 years of teaching. Lively, worthwhile, keeps your attention. Taking back strategies and activities I can use in my classroom. Very motivating.


•     This seminar will significantly change how I approach teaching math problem solving with my high ability students. Cassy’s energy and enthusiasm for math made the day fly!


•     Wow! Wonderful strategies! Can’t wait to bring it to my classroom. Thank you!


•     This was the best workshop I have ever attended. Cassy was excellent.

Terms: training must be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date. Winning bidder may choose from several one-day seminar options or apply to a multi-day implementation training. For trainings outside Colorado Front Range communities, winning bidder will be responsible for reimbursing actual travel expenses (including, if applicable, fuel, rental car, airfare, lodging).

For more information regarding Turner’s donation, visit singaporemathsource.com/win-singapore-math-training/.

About Cassandra Turner

Cassandra Turner has been “passionate about Singapore Math® Program” since first encountering it in 2001. An independent math trainer and coach since 2008, Cassy has had the pleasure of introducing Singapore Math to thousands of teachers, administrators and parents in 34 U.S. states, Mexico, Canada, Ghana and Palau. More than 60 schools have chosen Cassy to help them implement the curriculum.

As a teacher, Cassy used Primary Mathematics at several grade levels, then traveled to Singapore to see the curriculum from the source in 2007 and co-authored a Singapore Math® Training Manual approved by the State of California the following year. Cassy currently conducts two different Singapore Mathematics Workshops for the Bureau of Education Research (BER) and hosts SingaporeMathSource.com (http://www.SingaporeMathSource.com), a website featuring news, resources, reviews and more.

In 2012, Cassy was awarded a contract by the Republic of Palau to assist the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the implementation of the Singapore Math Curriculum. In July 2013, she will be a featured presenter at the fifth National Conference on Singapore Math Strategies, hosted by Staff Development for Educators (SDE).

Since 2010, Cassy has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Common School, an award-winning Charter School in Fort Collins, Colorado. Cassy also serves on the Board of Directors of the Middle School Mathematics Institute (MSMI), a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to help teachers, schools and parents ensure that students succeed at algebra.

Cassy is a devoted champion of Elementary Mathematics who loves to work with schools and teachers to make every child in every classroom a competent and confident mathematics student.

About the Colorado League of Charter Schools

The Colorado League of Charter Schools is a non-profit, membership organization dedicated to supporting the charter schools in the state. The League is committed to helping these schools reach higher levels of student performance and overall success by providing information and resources, including technical support, advocacy, public relations assistance, and much more.

Membership with the League is open to all charter schools in Colorado. The League also provides guidance and technical assistance for developing charter school groups, such as charter application reviews, contract negotiations, and general start up support.

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Win Singapore Math® Training; Help Colorado Charter Schools

SDE"s National Singapore Math Conference Will Feature Top Experts

PETERBOROUGH, N.H., May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Staff Development for Educators (SDE), one of the nation’s leading providers of professional development for K-12 educators, is delighted to announce the line-up of distinguished presenters for its fifth annual National Conference on Singapore Math Strategies, taking place July 15-19, 2013 in Las Vegas.

Each summer, hundreds of educators from across the country attend the four-day event to learn about Singapore Math, a teaching method based on the national curriculum of Singapore, with a strong emphasis on problem solving and model drawing, and a focus on in-depth understanding of the essential math skills recommended in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum Focal Points, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, and the Common Core State Standards in for Mathematical Practice.

Since its inception in 2009, the conference has gained in popularity each year, as Singapore Math has been put into service nationwide by increasing numbers of educators.

Delivering the keynote address on the evening prior to the start of the conference will be celebrated educator Ron Clark. Known to many as “America’s Educator,” Ron is the 2000 Disney American Teacher of the Year, a two-time New York Times best-selling author, founder of the Ron Clark Academy, and the subject of the television movie, The Ron Clark Story.

Famous mathematician and Singaporean educator and author Yeap Ban Har , Ph.D. will lead one full-day session and four 75-minute sessions over two days of the conference, and will be on-hand to sign copies of the recently published book he authored with American educator Lorraine Walker , Every Child Can Do Math: Deceptively Simple Activities to Develop Mathematical Thinking, for grades 3-8.

Award-winning math educator Dan Meyer will present an insightful half-day session titled “Why Kids Hate Word Problems,” in which attendees will explore the quality of word problems printed on paper, the reasons for delivering curricula digitally, and effective methods for connecting math to the world outside the classroom.  

Also included in the top ranks of conference presenters is math expert and prolific author Greg Tang, who is well known for his work in developing intuitive approaches to teaching math. His books, Grapes of Math, Math Appeal, Math Fables and many others are well-used teacher resources in classrooms nationwide.

“The presenters at SDE’s National Conference on Singapore Math Strategies are all math experts. Every one of them is an educator with classroom experience using Singapore Math strategies—and we all know that teachers learn best from teachers,” reports Amy Aiello , Manager, Public Events Topic and Program Development at SDE. “They are best-selling authors on topics that matter to teachers, so they have lots of resources to share. And they’ll be delivering high-impact sessions that will meet participants right where they’re at.” 

About SDE 
SDE provides professional development for PreK through Grade 12 educators. Through Onsite PD, PD Events, Web-based PD, and PD Resources, the company empowers teachers and administrators across the country with ongoing professional development that is not only research-based, innovative, and rigorous, but also practical, motivating, and fun. All SDE training is presented by the nation’s top authors and educational experts, with the goal of creating extraordinary classrooms that prepare students for the evolving demands of the 21st century.

Educators interested in learning more about SDE’s national conferences and the many other professional development opportunities offered by SDE can visit the company’s website, www.SDE.com, or call 1-800-462-1478.

SOURCE Staff Development for Educators

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SDE"s National Singapore Math Conference Will Feature Top Experts

Ascendas Hospitality to Raise S$200 Million for Hotel Purchase

Ascendas Hospitality (ASHT) Trust is

planning to raise at least S$200 million ($158 million) in
Singapore to help fund the purchase of the Park Hotel Clark Quay

it agreed to buy earlier this month.

The business trust plans to sell 161.9 million new shares

through a private placement to raise about S$143.3 million, it

said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange today. The

Singapore-based trust will also raise another S$56.7 million

from a preferential offering of two new stapled securities for

every 25 units held in Ascendas Hospitality Trust, it said.

Ascendas Hospitality declined 2.6 percent to 92.5 Singapore

cents in Singapore trading yesterday, bringing its year-to-date

decline to 1.6 percent. The company requested a trading halt

today before the announcement.

The trust agreed to buy the Park Hotel for S$300 million,

adding to the trust’s portfolio of 10 hotels spread across
Australia, China and Japan. Its parent Ascendas Pte manages

Singapore’s biggest industrial real estate investment trust, and

operates in 33 cities with S$14 billion of assets, according to

its website.

DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Standard Chartered Plc have

been appointed the joint global coordinators for the equity

fundraising, Ascendas said.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Pooja Thakur in Singapore at

pthakur@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Andreea Papuc at

apapuc1@bloomberg.net

Ascendas Hospitality to Raise S$200 Million for Hotel Purchase

Asian Pay Television Declines in Trading Debut: Singapore Mover

Asian Pay Television Trust, owner of
Taiwan’s third-largest cable television operator, slumped on its

first day of trading in Singapore to become the world’s worst

initial public offering this year on concern marginal earnings

growth will limit its ability to sustain dividends.

The stock sank 5.2 percent to close at 92 Singapore cents,

retreating from an intraday high of S$1.005. That makes the IPO

the worst among companies that raised at least $1 billion

worldwide, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The

benchmark Straits Time Index dropped 1.1 percent.

The trust, which owns Taiwan Broadband Communications Co.,

sold 1.44 billion shares at 97 Singapore cents each, raising

S$1.39 billion ($1.1 billion) in its initial share sale. The

stock offers a projected yield of 8.5 percent for 2014 based on

the price for its IPO, according to its prospectus. That

compares with the estimated dividend yield of 4.9 percent for
StarHub Ltd. (STH), Singapore’s biggest cable TV operator, for the

next 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“People don’t understand where the valuation is coming

from,” said Jason Hughes, Singapore-based head of sales at CMC

Markets. “Investors could be questioning what sort of growth

can be expected going forward.”

Asian Pay Television expects revenue to increase to S$310.8

million this year and to S$323.8 million in 2014, according to

the prospectus. That compares with S$308.7 million in 2012.

Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund sold its stake

in Taiwan Broadband as part of its planned shutdown. The

Singapore-listed fund, which owned 47.5 percent of Taiwan

Broadband, said in April that it was seeking at least 40.8

Singapore cents per share from the sale.

Neuberger Berman

Asian Pay Television’s IPO is the second-biggest offering

in the city-state this year after Mapletree Greater China

Commercial Trust (MAGIC) raised $1.4 billion in February, according to

data compiled by Bloomberg.

The shares were offered at a price of as much as S$1 and

sold to investors including Neuberger Berman LLC and Quantum

Partners LP, the prospectus shows. Taiwan Broadband, established

in 1999, serves more than 750,000 cable TV households with over

150 channels, according to its website.

Newspaper publisher Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. (SPH) said this

week it plans to raise about S$540 million from an IPO of a real

estate investment trust, with a listing expected in early July.
Overseas Union Enterprise Ltd. (OUE) said in March it’s in talks with

banks to set up a REIT in the city-state. In Hong Kong, Langham

Hospitality Investments, a trust backed by Great Eagle Holdings

Ltd. (41) hotels, is scheduled to start trading tomorrow.

“The monetization of assets through REITs or trust

structures may be difficult now because of a change in interest

rate expectations towards higher rates,” Alan Richardson, a

Hong Kong-based fund manager who helps oversee about $110

billion for Samsung Asset Management Co., said. “That theme

appears to be coming to a close.”

Macquarie Group Ltd. and JPMorgan Chase Co. were joint

global coordinators for the offering, and DBS Group Holdings

Ltd. and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. also helped manage the IPO.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at

jburgos4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Nick Gentle at

ngentle2@bloomberg.net

Asian Pay Television Declines in Trading Debut: Singapore Mover

Moving with the times

WHEN Herbert Vongpusanachai moved to Singapore from Thailand in 2008 to take up the post of general manager at DHL Express Singapore, the world was living in trepidation, wondering how long and deep the financial crisis was going to be.

DHL, however, did not hold back on its plans to grow capacity or pilot new initiatives. Mr Vongpusanachai’s experience in dealing with a crisis – he had a taste of it back in Thailand in 1997 during the Asian financial crisis – taught him one thing: that what goes down must come back up.

“One of the things we learnt … is to plan ahead and be ready for the moment it turns upwards,” said Mr Vongpusanachai, who is now managing director of DHL Express Singapore. “The good thing about Singapore is that when we have a slowdown, we get hit first because we are very connected internationally. We get hit first but when we pick up, we also pick up first and we pick up very strongly.

“We have to get ready and build infrastructure, and also make the appropriate investments and adjustments during the downturn. That allows us to move forward and when the (upturn) comes, we can then have a great ride.”

So despite the sharp slowdown the logistics and supply chain industry was going through in 2009, the company went ahead with a planned upgrade of its aircraft fleet from Airbus A300-600 freighters to Boeing 747s. Since the A300-600F had a capacity of 43 tonnes and the Boeing 747 some 100 tonnes, the upgrade more than doubled DHL’s capacity.

“We believed in the future of Singapore. It’s not that we were going to fill them up the next day, obviously we didn’t, but we gradually built our volume and also increased customer trading as the economy recovered.”

That seemingly risky move has paid off. “Today the planes are full,” said Mr Vongpusanachai.

DHL also took the lull period to make other improvements, such as upgrading its courier scanners and sending staff for training.

Then there is the DHL Medical Express – which was officially launched earlier this year but was piloted during the crisis period. According to Mr Vongpusanachai, the new service has roots in the resilience of the life sciences industry, which continued to grow despite the downturn.

DHL’s role is to aid clinical trials by delivering patient samples from the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region to laboratories in Singapore for testing.

Said Mr Vongpusanachai: “We need to make sure that we can get samples picked up from anywhere in Asean and bring them for testing to Singapore.”

The sensitivity of the contents means a lot of care needs to be taken on the packaging front. The samples typically require ambient temperature or some form of temperature control, so DHL had to make the necessary adjustments to its packaging.

According to Mr Vongpusanachai, the three most common temperatures needed for the laboratory samples are ambient, chilled – at between two to eight degrees celsius – and frozen (-20 degrees celsius).

The chilling and freezing requires DHL to include dry ice in its packaging.

“We had to make the necessary changes to our packaging and we also had to put in the necessary infrastructure to, say, refill it with dry ice,” he explained.

Apart from appropriate packaging, speed is also crucial to its medical express service. This is because samples have to be sent to Singapore, tested, and sent back to the regional labs within 48 hours. If it does not meet the 48-hour deadline, the sample becomes invalid, he added.

DHL now has a healthcare hub in Changi South, where it carries out a wide range of work, such as providing secondary packaging services for pharmaceutical products and keeping test kits. “We send them (test kits) out, we take the samples, pick them up, send them for testing in Singapore and within 48 hours they have to go back to the labs they came from.”

Aiming to be the best

While DHL is not the first in the industry to launch such a service, it aims to be the best, said Mr Vongpusanachai.

And as Singapore strives to be the regional hub for sectors such as healthcare and even oil and gas and aerospace, DHL Express aims to keep moving with the times and provide the necessary services needed to meet clients’ needs.

Said Mr Vongpusanachai: “We are always on the lookout for opportunities… We look at new, emerging industries in Singapore, and there are many. We are becoming not only a healthcare hub. We have always been very active in oil and gas, so as energy becomes more and more an area of focus especially in the region, DHL Express wants to participate in that.”

But here is also where the big question lies. Singapore may have some new emerging industries, but the logistics industry here has many players fighting with one another for business, with 20 of the top 25 global logistics players having operations here. And like DHL, many of them, such as Kuehne + Nagel, Sankyu, Schenker and UPS, have set up regional or global headquarter functions in Singapore.

So is the industry here too saturated? Mr Vongpusanachai does not think so.

“I think it is not saturated. It is a very competitive and very active market, and the market is growing. It is only saturated if the market does not grow.”

Singapore, he said, plays a leading role in logistics and supply chain in Asia, and the continent is growing rapidly especially when compared to other regions in the world.

“Singapore is the central hub for many countries in this region, and that is an opportunity (for logistics players) because the reason we can operate so well here and cope with the volume is because we have connecting aircraft, airlines that stop by in Singapore, and we can connect to anywhere in the world from Singapore.

“Singapore has been a great success story,” said Mr Vongpusanachai. “The key point about Singapore has always been the connectivity and the ability to allow seamless global trade. Singapore has always positioned itself as the hub for trading, and global trade has grown tremendously over the years.

DHL came to Singapore as early as 41 years ago, when the country had just gained independence. Since then, it has been a central point for the firm to service countries in South-east Asia.

“The (Singapore) government has always been very pro-business. It made sure that we have a strong intellectual property regime. We protect people who come and invest here, and their investments … and we have skilled people who have been trained properly and can do the job.”

Making the transition

Going forward, he believes that Singapore’s position as the hub for the region will remain unrivalled, although its areas of focus may change as sectors such as manufacturing move to lower cost economies, and the logistics industry must be ready to make the transition.

“Industries may migrate to different regions but Singapore will become more and more high value, and focus on high intellectual property content type of products and services, for example pharmaceuticals, medical research and development, precision instruments, advanced engineering and aerospace. So these are the industries that Singapore is well suited to do and many countries will struggle to reach Singapore’s capabilities in these areas,” said Mr Vongpusanachai.

For the logistics industry, it will have to develop infrastructure and know-how to meet the needs of customers in these sectors.

To do this, DHL has set up what it calls Centres of Excellence in Singapore that focus on introducing new technology, infrastructure and employee training, to ensure that DHL can meet the evolving needs of the sectors it serves.

“Singapore is becoming more and more developed in being the regional distributor of advanced products and services, so we developed Centres of Excellence to house new technology to enable our people to handle the demands of these new industries,” said Mr Vongpusanachai.

As Singapore takes steps to transform into a more productive economy, DHL has taken steps to “automate in the right places”, he said.

“We automate in the right places, look at new sorting equipment, and look into providing more web-based and mobile solutions. All of these allow our customers to be more productive.”

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in particular, can benefit from DHL’s infrastructure. “SMEs don’t have the infrastructure so they can leverage from all the technology that we provide.”

For instance, instead of trying to trace shipments by calling DHL, they can simply send an email and have DHL provide an automated response that tells them where their shipments are.

DHL also has a portal called MyDHL that gives customers access to a variety of services with a single login. Information provided include tracking details on shipments and billing information. They can even request DHL to pick up shipments from anywhere in the world from the portal and pay online by credit card. Previously, customers had to call the firm if they needed to pick up shipments, which meant that DHL also needed staff on hand to do these bookings.

“It’s more convenient, customers don’t need to pay cash and everything is automated. We are now more productive because our employees can spend more time adding value rather than doing just bookings,” said Mr Vongpusanachai.

All of its staff are also required to go for training under DHL’s Certified International Specialists Program, which is rolled out across its offices worldwide. The programme trains every single DHL employee so that “we understand the same things”, explained Mr Vongpusanachai. He added that all employees have been trained in the foundation courses, and DHL is in the midst of rolling out more advanced classes.

Going forward, the group’s aim in Singapore is simple. “We want to offer the best service to Singapore and in order to do that, we have to pioneer and work on new types of services and bring convenience to our customers, and make sure we are easy to work with.

“Our goal is to please the customer and ensure that their first choice of provider is us. That is our ultimate goal, to be the provider of choice,” said Mr Vongpusanachai.

This monthly series is supported by IBM

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DHL Express Singapore

• Owned by Deutsche Post DHL


• Network of 120,000 destinations in more than 220 countries and territories


• Has over 560 employees


• 21,167 active customers (as of April 2012)


• 114 retail outlets offer DHL Express services


• Five dedicated aircraft operate on DHL’s air network


• Ran 100 commercial flights a day on average last year

Moving with the times

Top 10 cheap eats in Singapore

Eating out is everyone’s favourite pastime in Singapore – one subject that enthusiastically unites the country’s diverse population of Chinese, Malays and Indians.

Restaurants are open around the clock, and most of the time are packed to bursting point, serving some of the most delicious and varied cuisines in Asia.

Although this tiny island state now has a host of expensive gourmet venues linked to some of the world’s most famous chefs, at its core is a vibrant culture of street food at very affordable prices. Singapore’s love affair with hawker cuisine will be celebrated from 31 May to 9 June at the inaugural World Street Food Congress, a 10-day festival where 37 vendors from 10 countries will roll up to serve their dishes at the F1 Pit Building and Paddock, 1 Republic Blvd, at Marina Bay on the south-east of the island – including taco stands from Mexico, food carts from Malaysia, mobile kiosks from India and gourmet food trucks from the US, as well as participants from the host country and elsewhere.

As well as the street chefs and stalls, there will be food writers and street-food specialists, including American TV chef Anthony Bourdain and Claus Meyer, the co-founder of Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant, three-time winner of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. The event will also host the first World Street Food Awards, intended to raise global awareness of the genre.

To whet your appetite, here’s our pick of 10 of the best spots in Singapore to find great affordable food, from the hawker food centres, to the food courts of Chinatown, curry houses of Little India and cafes of Kampong Glam.

328 Katong Laksa

Katong is Singapore’s old Peranakan neighbourhood, where the blending of Chinese ingredients with Malay spices and cooking created nyonya cuisine. It also forms part of the name of “328 Katong Laksa”. This friendly coffee shop, run by a former beauty queen serves one of the best laksa soups you’ll find – a delicious mix of spicy lemak coconut milk, prawns, cockles, tofu, beansprouts and noodles. A bowl costs S$4 (about £2) and hungry customers can also order traditional otak otak, a fish paste steamed in banana leaf, or nasi lemak, rice with crunchy anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and a wicked sambal sauce. There are lots of food shops along the road, selling sticky kueh cakes and barbecued honey-glazed pork.
• 51 East Coast Road, on the junction with Cylon Road, near the Hotel Grand Mercure

Andhra Curry

Little India, to the east of Orchard Road, is one of Singapore’s liveliest quarters, with scores of reasonably priced restaurants, cafes and shops selling colourful silks, fragrant incense and glitzy bangles. Andhra stands out because of its psychedelic exterior – a kaleidoscope of garish colours. And though the speciality here is south Indian vegetarian dishes, it is also known for its Hyderabadi biryani, Mysore mutton (cooked with green chillies and coriander), a spicy fish pulusu (baked with tamarind and raw mango), and the great Singaporean favourite – fish-head curry (never a cheap dish, around £11). Main courses and vegetarian set menu from £4.
• 41 Kerbau Road, +65 6293 3935, andhracurrysingapore.com

Azmi Chapatis

The sign outside may read “Thye Chong Restaurant since 1941″, but the Chinese owner of this ancient coffee shop has long leased out the premises to Muslim chefs, who make arguably the island’s best chapatis. Two aged gentlemen share rolling and cooking duties, turning out a piping hot flatbread every couple of minutes. For chapati-dipping, there are about 20 curries to choose from, including classic mutton masala and the more challenging curried goat brain. Each chapati costs under 50p, with the curries priced from £1.50-£2.50
• 168 Serangoon Road, on the corner with Norris Road, opposite Kansama Restaurant

Tian Tian, Maxwell Food Centre, Chinatown

Everyone in Singapore has their own favourite Hainanese chicken rice stall. It’s as close to a national dish as you can come, which is surprising given that it doesn’t really come from the Chinese island of Hainan at all, but was invented in colonial Malaya by Hainanese chefs cooking for the British.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler: tender steamed chicken, served slightly cooled, fluffy rice, sliced cucumber, coriander – and two key ingredients – a homemade chili sauce and bowl of chicken broth. Chinatown’s Maxwell Food Centre, a converted 1950s market, has about a hundred tempting hawker stalls, but the longest queues are at Tian Tian, where a plate of chicken rice goes for less than £2, with some aficionados ordering just wings, claws or whatever goes into what the menu terms “spare parts”.
• Stall 10, Maxwell Food Centre,1 Kadayanallur Street, tiantianchickenrice.com

Chinatown Complex Food Court

Signs tell tourists that Smith Street is “food street”, and it’s true that it’s one of the few places where there are still old-fashioned hawker stalls lining the street at night. But for more exciting food, step into the dilapidated Chinatown Complex, which houses a brilliant wet (fresh food) market and buzzing food court upstairs. For once, this isn’t sanitised Singapore, and customers take more notice of how delicious the cooking is than the hygiene rating. Satay Bee Hoon can claim to be a genuine Singapore invention, a fusion of Chinese and Malay influences, where delicate rice vermicelli, cuttle fish, cockles, pork and kangkong (water spinach) are smothered in a spicy, crunchy satay sauce, all for £1.50 a portion.
• Stall 02-112, Chinatown Complex food court, 335 Smith Street

Yu Kun Kaya

Singaporeans are big on nostalgia, typified by the crowds that sit out every morning at the shady terrace of the Ya Kun restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. Don’t expect a traditional English fry-up on the menu, but a local breakfast that has been served since 1944 – the Kaya Toast set menu. For under £2 you get a plate of toast filled with kaya coconut jam, two very runny eggs (don’t even think about asking for them to be more cooked) and a cup a dense coffee, magically filtered through a strange-looking sock device. They like to add a big dose of super-thick condensed milk – delicious but frighteningly sweet.
• 18 China Street, +65 6438 3638, yakun.com

Yum Cha

The narrow streets of Chinatown are crammed with restaurants, coffee shops and hawker stalls, but Yum Cha is hidden away on the first floor of an anonymous budget hotel, so it can come as a shock when you walk into a huge, noisy dining room. Although there is a tempting full menu – chili crabs, salted egg prawns, steamed pomfret – this is the place to come for dim sum. Portions are from £1.50, and the best are the delicate spinach prawn dumpling, beancurd stuffed with fish, “vegetarian” ham in tau pok (fried tofu), and crispy red bean paste with banana. Try to visit at the weekend when the restaurant reverts to the old-fashioned method of service, as waitresses weave between the tables pushing rickety trolleys filled with steamed goodies.
• 20 Trengganu Street, +65 6372 1717, yumcha.com.sg

Sabar Menanti

Kampong Glam is the lively Muslim part of downtown Singapore with everything from Moroccan couscous restaurants to shisha cafes, and even a halal Parisian bistro. But nothing beats this hole in the wall Sumatran eatery serving Indonesian nasi padang. You start off with a heaped plate of rice and then it is self-service, with around 20 Minankabau dishes to choose from – assam fish, sour gourd, smoked beef, jackfruit curry – with the price of your plate increasing depending on how much you heap on. Lunch will cost less than a fiver.
• 48 Kandahar Street, +65 6396 6919,

Annalakshmi

This vegetarian-only Indian restaurant could be the cheapest place in town to eat, because officially, there are no prices. It is a run by a charitable association, Temple of Fine Arts, that finances art, music and dance centres, and clients are asked to make a donation at the end of the meal of what they can afford. In practice, people usually leave S$15 for a generous buffet of gourmet vegetarian delicacies. The waiters and cooks are all volunteers, and their specialities are dosai filled with spiced potatoes and chutney, and oothappam (rice and lentil pancakes), topped with onions, fried cauliflower, chillies and yogurt. It’s a very popular venue at the weekend, when a reservation is advised.
• Central Square, 20 Havelock Road, +65 6339 9993, annalakshmi.com.sg

Tiong Bahru Food Court

A short bus ride from the city centre, Tiong Bahru is where the earliest public housing was built in Singapore – very low-rise compared to today’s skyscrapers – and the 1950s-style market houses a busy wet market on the ground floor and some of Singapore’s best hawker stalls upstairs. This is like a flashback to the past, with a musician entertaining diners on an electric piano, and no one looking stressed or rushed. It is also the place to try a traditional preparation of lor mee, a delicious dish of thick yellow noodles served in a thick gravy, with fish cake, fried wonton, stewed pork and slices of ngor hiang (five-spiced meal roll). In the final moments of the cooking process, vinegar and minced garlic are added, giving a tangy, savoury taste. A bowl will cost less than £1.50 and is only served at breakfast and lunch.
• Stall 02-80, Tiong Bahru Food Court, 30 Seng Poh Road

Top 10 cheap eats in Singapore

Strong demand for hotels in business parks, say analysts

SINGAPORE: As more organisations start to relocate all or part of their operations outside of the city centre in Singapore, analysts say there has been strong demand for hotels in business parks in recent years and hoteliers have only just began to tap those opportunities.

Capri by Fraser, located within the Changi Business Park, is running at an average occupancy rate of 80 per cent each month.

About nine in 10 of its guests are business travellers – many of whom work at banks and logistics firms nearby. 

Its operator Frasers Hospitality said unlike the leisure market, business travellers tend to stay much longer, at times up to a month.

And this offers a stable revenue stream.

On average, long-stay customers make up about 20 per cent of the customer base at the 313-room Capri by Fraser.

Frasers Hospitality said the average daily room rate at Capri by Fraser hover around S$250 to S$300 a day.

Its business model has also helped lessen the impact of stricter foreign worker policies.

Tonya Khong, Area General Manager of Asia Pacific, Frasers Hospitality, said: “We have felt the impact, perhaps not as prevalent as it would be for hotels that have a bigger FB unit. Unlike city hotels though, it’s the ballrooms and we don’t have major big ballrooms and this is where a large pool of service staff is required to man the ballrooms.” 

Capri by Fraser hires about 250 workers currently, and its operator says about 70 per cent of them are Singaporeans.

Meanwhile, Park Avenue Rochester, one of three hotels under the Park Avenue chain of hotels and suites, is also seeing healthy demand at over 80 per cent occupancy. 

Park Avenue Rochester has 271 hotel rooms and suites. 

It’s near the one-north business hub and draws customers from the area as well as travellers whose offices are in Jurong.

The other two Park Avenue hotels are located at Changi Business Park and Clemenceau Avenue near Clarke Quay. 

Its owner United Engineers says prospects are bright as the one-north area continues to develop. 

Still, the company has contingency plans.

Jackson Yap, Group Managing Director CEO of United Engineers Limited, said: “Our primary clients are business, so if there is a downturn in business of course we will try to then pitch for the tourist type customers. We would spend effort to build up that segment if we get hit on the business side.” 

The hotel is also tapping opportunities in the medical tourism segment with the National University Hospital located near by.

Based on estimates from the Singapore Tourism Board, the hotel sector has weakened slightly in the first quarter of 2013.

The average occupancy rate was down by 0.4 percent on-year to 86 per cent, while revenue per available room fell 3.2 per cent to about S$216.

Robert McIntosh, Executive Director of Asia Pacific, CBRE, said: “The revenue per available room is as high as it has ever been in Singapore at present, so I don’t think we should worry about marginal softening. In fact, the demand from investors in this market is still very strong indeed.”

Moving forward, CBRE said the hospitality REITs, particularly S-REITs are likely to increase their acquisition pipeline in the region to achieve more portfolio diversification.

Hotel transaction volumes in Asia are projected to hit US$5.5 to US$6 billion in 2013 as a result of strong investment sentiment.

Some analysts said the performance of the hotel industry in Singapore should remain fairly stable, despite the uncertainties in the global economy. And occupancies could also rise in tandem with the growth in intra-regional travel in Asia.

CBRE projects that there will be an increase of about 2,500 rooms each year for the next two years in Singapore.

Strong demand for hotels in business parks, say analysts