Singapore

History:

When Sir Stamford Raffles of the East India Company founded Singapore in 1819, the only postal service available then was a small post office located in the present Parliament House. However, there was a need to develop the postal service. As with Hong Kong, Singapore was a bustling port with ships from all over the world docking to trade spices and jewelry. Naturally, as a maritime hub of South East Asia, the need to develop better communications was apparent, and the need for a good postal service came to light. Hence, the postal service was initially developed together with the Maritime Authority since the latter was meant to complement the teeming marine traffic in the region.

Singapore, like Malaysia and India, was a British colony and hence its postal service came under a British postal system with postage rates and regulations all stipulated by the colonial masters. Singapore then was a state of Malaya (now known as Malaysia) although it handled financial issues autonomously. Matters regarding the Singaporean postal service then had to be forwarded to the Postmaster in Kuala Lumpur, the seat of commercial activity for Malaya.

However, due to political differences between the Malayan government and the Singaporean government back then, Singapore split away from Malaya as an independent republic on the 9th of August, 1965, which is remembered as our independence day. It also meant the liberation of the postal service from Malaya. In just 2 years after the declaration of independence, the Singaporean Postal Service gained full autonomy from the Malayan Postal Service to develop into a modernized and efficient communications body as it is now.