However, these expats note, a less-well-known co-founder of the former colony, named William Farquhar, apparently was. So too was the first governor, John Crawfurd. Even Raffles’s doctor is said to have been from north of the border.
Scots, it seems, get around. Always have. And now, a number of these peripatetic Scotsfolk have got together in Singapore to form what they are calling the Scottish Business Association, in an effort to create a networking environment in which they might leverage their Scottishness to best effect.
According to its website, the Scottish Business Association of Singapore exists “to promote and advance commercial interaction between businesses and business professionals located, or interested in, Singapore, who enjoy an economic, educational, social or historical relationship with Scotland”.
Scott Mitchell, a Glasgow-born senior financial planner with AAM Advisory, the Singapore-based advisory business, heads up the SBA as its president. He says it all began with the idea of a helpline run by volunteers, and aimed at helping Scottish companies interested in leaving Scotland and coming to Singapore, or those looking to expand into Asia from a Scottish base.
“Initially it consisted of a group of volunteers who were from all the different business sectors – one from financial services, one from oil and gas, one from life sciences, and so on,” he explains.
“These were people companies could call with queries, over and above what already existed through the Scottish government and its programmes like something called Global Scots.
“But now it has moved on. And a big focus now is on businesses looking to go the other way, from Singapore to Scotland. Because it’s not a one-way bridge.”
The association currently has some 100 individual members and around 20 corporate members, including Royal Bank of Scotland, PWC, BruceRae Property Management, and Hill Dickinson, a law firm that is a so-called “sapphire” member, Mitchell said. Scottish Development International and the Singapore St Andrews Society are also corporate members.
It is not known how many Scots currently live and work in Singapore. However, the British High Commission in Singapore estimates that there are around 24,000 British citizens there, and since globally Scots tend to account for a third of any group of British expats, the oft-quoted figure for Singapore is around 7,000 to 8,000.
To read more about the history of people of Scottish descent in Singapore, click here.
