Singapore for Clients from Qatar

Doing business in Singapore for clients from Qatar

Ships from the Gulf have passed through the Strait for many centuries, on the old monsoon route to China. Qatar’s links with Asia today run through gas, shipping and long-term investment.

Energy, shipping and long-term capital

Liquefied natural gas and bunkering are among the commodities businesses of Singapore, which gives Qatari energy and shipping groups a natural counterparty base there. Investors and family holdings may use a Singapore company to hold Asian interests. Contracts in this trade often need a neutral forum, and SIAC applies its 7th edition rules to arbitrations commenced from 1 January 2025.

Tax treaty and trade agreements

Singapore and Qatar have a comprehensive double taxation agreement. The free trade agreement between Singapore and the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Qatar is a member, has applied since September 2013.

Below you will find the articles written for clients from Qatar as they are published, followed by the sections of the book Singapore as an International Financial Centre. Your own lawyers advise you on the law of Qatar.

Singapore · Origins

A Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World: summary

The island of Singapore controls the southern exit of the Strait of Malacca, the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean and China, a position that made it a potential market from the earliest…

Doing business in Singapore for clients from Qatar

Energy, shipping and long-term capital

Tax treaty and trade agreements

Singapore as an International Financial Centre

Singapore as an International Financial Centre — preface

A Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World

The Strait of Malacca as a corridor of trade

Temasek and Singapura in the fourteenth century: archaeology and chronicle

Malacca, Johor and the Riau archipelago

Portuguese, Dutch and British rivalry in the Straits

What the pre-colonial port teaches about location and trust

A Place on the Strait: Temasek, Singapura and the Maritime Trade of the Malay World: summary

Raffles, the East India Company and the Free Port of 1819

The East India Company and the China trade

Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar

The agreements with Sultan Hussein and the Temenggong

The free-port principle: open to every flag

Early growth and the first merchant community

What 1819 means for the financial centre

Raffles, the East India Company and the Free Port of 1819: summary

The Treaties of 1824 and the Legal Foundations of British Singapore

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824

The Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1824

The Straits Settlements and the Second Charter of Justice

The reception of English law

Land, title and the security of property

Practical consequences for today’s practitioner

Legal foundations and the comparison with Geneva