Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Who is the current president of Singapore?
Halimah binti Yacob (Jawi: حليمة بنت يعقوب; born 23 August 1954) is a Singaporean politician who is the current President of Singapore & Commander-in-Chief of Singapore Armed Forces. Formerly a member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), she was the ninth Speaker of Parliament, from January 2013 to August 2017. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Jurong Group Representation Constituency between 2001 and 2015, and Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency between 2015 and 2017.
In 1971, South Korea and Singapore established consular relations by renaming the Korea Trade Centre to a consulate-general. The two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1975. In 1979, Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore visiting South Korea. The two countries started regular ministerial meetings in the same year. In 1981, Chun Doo-hwan, the President of South Korea paid a state visit to Singapore, making him the first President of South Korea to do so. In 2002, S. R. Nathan became the first President of Singapore visiting South Korea.
In 1956, members of the Legislative Assembly held constitutional talks with the Colonial Office in London. The talks broke down as Marshall did not agree to the British Government's proposal for the casting vote on a proposed Defence Council to be held by the British High Commissioner to Singapore, who would only exercise it in an emergency. Marshall resigned as Chief Minister in June 1956, and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock. The following year, Lim led another delegation to the UK for further talks on self-government. This time, agreement was reached on the composition of an Internal Security Council. Other constitutional arrangements were swiftly settled in 1958, and on 1 August the United Kingdom Parliament passed the State of Singapore Act 1958, granting the colony full internal self-government. Under Singapore's new constitution, which came into force on 3 June 1959, the Legislative Assembly consisted of 51 elected members and the Governor was replaced by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), who had power to appoint as Prime Minister the person most likely to command the authority of the Legislative Assembly, and other Ministers of the Cabinet on the Prime Minister's advice. In the 1959 general elections, the People's Action Party swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore.
Tan Sri Vigneswaran s/o Sanasee (; born 1965) is a Malaysian politician. He is currently the tenth President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a major component party of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He is also the incumbent President of the Dewan Negara, or Senate, of Malaysia. He was appointed as a Senator on 23 June 2014 for a three-year term. He took the office of the President of the Senate on 26 April 2016.
The current president is Bounnhang Vorachit, since 20 April 2016. He is also the General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, making him ranked first in the Politburo hierarchy.
Singapore's total trade in 2014 amounted to S$982 billion. Despite its small size, Singapore is currently the fifteenth-largest trading partner of the United States. In 2014, Singapore's imports totalled $464 billion, and exports totalled $519 billion. Malaysia was Singapore's main import source, as well as its largest export market, absorbing 18% of Singapore's exports, with the United States close behind.
During World War 2, Singapore was conquered and occupied by the Japanese Empire from 1942 to 1945. When the war ended, Singapore reverted to British control, with increasing levels of self-government being granted, culminating in Singapore's merger with the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963. However, social unrest and disputes between Singapore's ruling People's Action Party and Malaysia's Alliance Party resulted in Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia. Singapore became an independent republic on 9 August 1965.
The People's Power Party (PPP) is a political party in Singapore. The party was first registered on 15 May 2015, and was founded on 16 July 2015. The current leader was Goh Meng Seng.
The President of the Senate is created under Article 56 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The office is similar to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat: the president is elected by the members of the Senate and is expected to be politically impartial. If a member of the Dewan Negara is elected as the president and is a member of a state legislative assembly, he must resign from the assembly before exercising the functions of the office. As the president may hold different titles while in office, it also changes the style. The current president is Datuk SA. Vigneswaran. Therefore, while in session, the senators will call him as 'Datuk Yang di-Pertua' (Datuk President) or 'Tuan Yang di-Pertua' (Mr. President).
Singapore's foreign policy is aimed at maintaining security in Southeast Asia and surrounding territories. An underlying principle is political and economic stability in the region. It has diplomatic relations with more than 180 sovereign states. Singapore hosted the first ever 2018 North Korea–United States summit.
Malaysia is Singapore's biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling roughly 91 billion US dollars in 2012, accounting for over a fifth of total trade within ASEAN. Singapore’s trade with major trading partners such as Malaysia, China, Indonesia and South Korea increased in 2012, while trade with EU27, United States, Hong Kong and Japan decreased in 2012. Since 2009, the value of exports exceeds imports for Singapore’s trade with China. In comparison, the value of imports exceeds exports for Singapore’s trade with the US since 2006.
On 20 October 2014, Joko Widodo became the seventh and current president of Indonesia.
Toh Chin Chye was the first deputy prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1968 and retired on 2 August 1968.
Singapore is the United Kingdom's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, with two thirds of UK exports to this region flowing into Singapore. UK exports of goods only to Singapore in 2010 were valued at £3.29billion, a 15% increase from 2009 while imports of goods from Singapore in 2010 were valued at £3.99billion, an 18% increase from 2009. The top exports of UK goods to Singapore are power generating machinery, beverages and general industrial machinery while the top exported goods from Singapore were organic chemical, power generating machinery and office machines. As of 2009, Singapore was the UK’s 11th largest market for services exports. 
There are few import tariffs from Singapore who supports the World Trade Organization process fully. Singapore was the first ASEAN country to commence negotiations with the EU for a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) became President of Taiwan. President Tsai called upon the international community to help Taiwan to preserve its democracy despite the threatening language used against Taiwan by PRC President Xi Jinping. President Tsai called upon the PRC to democratize, respect human rights, and renounce the use of military force against Taiwan.
The President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan. Since 1996, the President is directly elected by plurality voting to a four-year term, with at most one re-election. The incumbent, Tsai Ing-Wen, succeeded Ma Ying-jeou on 20 May 2016 as the first female president in the nation's history. Originally established in Nanking in 1912, the Republic of China and its president relocated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War.
Since 1999, Indonesia has had a multi-party system. In all legislative elections since the fall of New Order, no political party has managed to win an overall majority of seats. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which secured the most votes in the 2014 elections, is the party of the current President, Joko Widodo. The Great Indonesia Movement Party ("Gerindra") is the third largest political party. Other notable parties include the Party of the Functional Groups ("Golkar"), the Democratic Party, and the National Awakening Party (PKB). Based on the 2014 elections, the DPR consists of 10 political parties, with a parliamentary threshold of 3.5% of the national vote. The first general election was held in 1955 to elect members of the DPR and the "Konstituante". At the national level, Indonesians did not elect a president until 2004. Since then, the president is elected for a five-year term, as are the party-aligned members of the DPR and the non-partisan DPD. Beginning with 2015 local elections, Indonesia starts to elect governors and mayors simultaneously on the same date.
Tan Wah Piow () is currently a lawyer and a former Singapore student leader, who since 1976 lives in political exile in London. In 1987, he was accused by the Singapore government of being the alleged mastermind behind the Marxist Conspiracy. The Government of Singapore arrested 16 people for their role in an alleged Marxist Conspiracy, which involved plans to overthrow the Government to form a Marxist state. According to the state media, Tan had been influenced by Marxist and ideas since the early 1970s. In response, the government revoked his citizenship in 1987.
Effective 1 April 2017, the current President of the Court of Appeal is Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, consequential to previous President, Md Raus Sharif's elevation to the office of Chief Justice of Federal Court following Arifin Zakaria's retirement. On 11 July 2018, Ahmad Haji Maarop was sworn-in by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to replace Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who handed his resignation from the post following the 14th Malaysian general election.
Stamford Raffles founded colonial Singapore in 1819 as a trading post of the British East India Company. After the company's collapse in 1858, the islands were ceded to the British Raj as a crown colony. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from the UK in 1963 by federating with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but separated two years later over ideological differences, becoming a sovereign nation in 1965. After early years of turbulence and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce.
Singapore Bazaar Malay, also known as Bazaar Malay, Pasar Malay, or Market Malay, is a Malay-lexified pidgin, which is spoken in Singapore. Tamil and Hokkien contributed to the development of Bazaar Malay, with Hokkien being the dominant substrate language of Bazaar Malay, with Malay being the lexifier language. However, there are many input languages spoken by immigrants that also contributed to the development of Bazaar Malay, including languages spoken by Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, and Europeans. Singapore Bazaar Malay emerged along with the opening of Singapore's free trade port in 1819, to overcome barriers in communication and business transactions. Since Singapore have four official languages (English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil), Singapore Bazaar Malay not only is a lingua franca in interethnic communication, it is also used in intra-group communication. Singapore Bazaar Malay is mostly spoken by elders and middle-aged workers today, but its language status is declining due to education policies and language campaigns with less than 10,000 speakers.
The office of president was created in 1965 after Singapore became a republic upon its secession from the Federation of Malaysia that year. It replaced the office of "Yang di-Pertuan Negara", which had been created when Singapore attained self-government in 1959. The last "Yang di-Pertuan Negara", Yusof Ishak, became the first president. After his death he was replaced by Benjamin Sheares, who served until his death in 1981, when he was succeeded by Chengara Veetil Devan Nair. Owing to personal problems, Nair stepped down in 1985 and was replaced by Wee Kim Wee, who served as president until 1993.
The national constitution sets strict eligibility conditions for the presidency. Before 1993, the president was chosen by the Parliament of Singapore. As a result of constitutional amendments passed in 1991, the presidency became a popularly elected office with certain custodial powers, particularly over government expenditure and key appointments to public offices. Wee Kim Wee was the first president to exercise custodial powers pursuant to the constitutional amendments of 1991. The first president elected by popular vote was Ong Teng Cheong, who served from 1993 to 1999. In 2016, further amendments were passed providing for "reserved elections" for a particular community, if that community has not provided a president in the past five presidential terms.
Ong Teng Cheong (; 22 January 1936 – 8 February 2002), was a Singaporean politician and architect who was the fifth President of Singapore & Commander-in-Chief of Singapore Armed Forces from 1993 to 1999. Prior to taking office as President. Formerly a member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Cabinet Minister , Senior Minister of State for Communications & Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and was Singapore's first directly elected president, serving a six-year term from 1 September 1993 to 31 August 1999.
The Singapore Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in Singapore. It was founded in 1948. The current president is Mr Terrence Khoo, who played for the national team from 1984 to 2000 and is a former national captain.