But clean and efficient Singapore? Not such an obvious choice.

In December last year, however, the country accepted an accolade from Unesco: It was designated a Creative City of Design.

This happened quietly and with little fanfare, in stark contrast to the nation-wide buzz five months earlier in July, when the Botanic Gardens earned the coveted status of Unesco World Heritage Site.

What is a Creative City? It is a status granted by Unesco, an arm of the United Nations aimed at fostering international collaboration usually in “softer” fields such as culture and social sciences, to cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for development.

Cities have to apply to Unesco for the status and Unesco evaluates their submissions and decides which makes the cut.

Being granted City of Design status puts Singapore in a family of cities called the Unesco Creative Cities Network. It was created in 2004 to foster cooperation among these cities, such as encouraging the sharing of best practices.

Apart from Design, the other creative fields in the network are Crafts and Folk Arts, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music.

There are 22 Cities of Design, including Beijing in China, Montreal in Canada and Graz in Austria. Besides art-rich Bandung in Indonesia, Singapore is the only other South-east Asian city to be in the club.

It is a pretty unexpected appointment since Singapore, which has a prim, no-nonsense international image, is not an obvious candidate for being a design-centric city. But industry insiders say the country is deserving of the designation and hope this will go towards changing the perception of Singapore.

Ms Carolyn Kan, 43, designer and founder of jewellery label Carrie K, says: “When I show at international fashion weeks such as in Paris, people are very surprised that Carrie K. is a Singapore brand. Singapore is not known for having a strong focus on design or a rich creative culture.”

The creative vibrancy of a city is hard to measure, depending in part on intangibles such as perceived buzz, but what has been certain is that in Singapore, there has been a concerted direction of public resources towards the design sector over the past decade or so.

In 2003, Singapore set up the DesignSingapore Council, whose efforts include grants to help designers launch their projects overseas and helping businesses integrate design thinking into their operations.

In the past few years, Singapore has intensified its efforts to promote design. In 2012, a university dedicated to design, the Singapore University of Design and Technology, was set up and the Singapore Furniture Industries Council launched the first SingaPlural, a design festival.

The role that design plays in the economy has also grown. In 2004, the sector’s contribution to Singapore’s gross domestic product was $1.06 billion. In 2013, the amount doubled to $2.13 billion.

Design strategy company Foreign Policy Design Group’s creative director Yu Yah-Leng, 43, calls it a “creative renaissance”, with rapid development and sophistication in the industry over the past eight to 10 years in terms of supply (artists, creators, designers and processes) and demand (creative buyers).

To make Singapore’s case to Unesco, the design council prepared for the application a year in advance before submitting it in July last year. The final submission included a letter of endorsement from the Singapore National Commission for Unesco (signed by Mr Lawrence Wong, then Minister for Culture, Community and Youth) and other letters of support from design associations.

Mr Jeffrey Ho, 49, the council’s executive director, says given that Singapore’s design scene had been so strongly developed in the past 10 years and gained momentum especially in the last five years, “it was about time for Singapore to be recognised for its efforts”.

In fact, he adds that “Singapore was designed from day one”, referring to everything from urban planning to public housing policies where different races are brought together rather than live separately in ethnic enclaves.

With the Creative Cities designation, Singapore is expected not only to continue developing the design industry, but also to strengthen cooperation with other cities in the network through sharing knowledge and talent exchanges.

Singapore designer Hunn Wai, 35, who has presented on international platforms such as the Milan Design Week via his design studio Lanzavecchia + Wai, is looking forward to collaboration opportunities.

In the pipeline is an urban baby stroller he designed with engineers in Shenzhen, one of the cities in the network, and a Hong Kong pram producer and distributor.

“The Unesco designation is an opportunity to step beyond our shores. Designers need to reach out to the region. The whole of Asean is our playground,” he says.

While the City of Design accolade is a boost for Singapore’s design scene, it could take some time for Singaporeans to embrace the implications.

The Design Business Chamber of Singapore’s president Tai Lee Siang, 52, says there is “still some way to go”. “It will be fantastic when all our citizens can understand and embrace design in all things in life,” he adds, the way the people in Japan and Italy do.

Mr Ho adds that Singaporeans can also expect design to feature even more strongly in their lives, with design awareness possibly being taught in primary and secondary schools in future. More details will be revealed later this year.

Ultimately, the hope is to see Singapore move towards becoming “a nation of design thinkers” and for design here to continue to affect lives, says Mr Ho.

“It’s going to be exciting.”

“Winning the Grammy would neither have made me richer nor improved my career, so it really meant nothing,” said the 36-year- old bachelor via e-mail from Germany.

This week, he performs with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, in the first of several engagements in Europe.In December, his recording of Humen 1839 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for best orchestral performance in the music awards announced in Los Angeles on Monday (Tuesday Singapore time).

Humen 1839, the joint work of married contemporary Chinese- American composers Zhou Long and Chen Yi, lost to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Shostakovich: Under Stalin’s Shadow – Symphony No. 10, under the baton of Latvia’s Andris Nelsons.

Ang said the news came as no surprise. “That was the popular and predictable vote all along,” he wrote, adding that record label Naxos, which released Humen 1839 last year, warned him a month ago that the disc “would surely not win the Grammy”.

He added: “The council of voters is made up of representatives from the US music and entertainment industry and no outsiders are given the opportunity to vote. Who do you think they would vote for?

“Certainly their own and the Boston Symphony was so frequently on American news networks last year that it was obvious where the American voters would be placing their bets.”

The Asia-Pacific flavour of Humen 1839 was a contrast to the other contenders. These include veteran Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4; Uruguay-born Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony for Spirit Of The American Range and France’s Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony for Dutilleux: Metaboles; L’Arbre Des Songes; Symphony No. 2, Le Double.

Ang’s nomination made headlines here in December and put the conductor in the running for The Straits Times’ inaugural Singaporean of the Year Award (the prize went to good Samaritan Noriza A. Mansor, who cares for an unrelated elderly couple like her own family).

He is likely only the second Singaporean to receive a Grammy nod, after Arun Shenoy’s Spanish flamenco-inspired album, Rumba- doodle, was nominated for best pop instrumental album in 2012. That work lost out to American trumpeter Chris Botti.

Ang has been laidback about the nomination, telling The Straits Times that he would be performing elsewhere during the Grammy Awards ceremony, despite a wish to meet Taylor Swift in person.

Indeed, during the ceremony, he was on his way to Germany, having finished performances in Brisbane with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Ahead are concerts in Moscow and Ludwigshafen, near Frankfurt, and rehearsals in Berlin for an October performance.

He is also looking forward to music label Naxos releasing more of his work soon. He has recorded at least four more CDs since Humen 1839 and has another three planned this year.

“The nomination really was not on my mind at all and I never once thought about it. I’m happy the CD I made earned a nomination and that’s good enough for me,” he said.

The CMA Mental Arithmetic, in Ortigas, Pasig City, adopts abacus training to improve a child’s math skills via the concept of the two-hand, four-finger method in moving abacus beads.

“This system stimulates both sides of the brain. Utilising physical and virtual abacus, the child develops a photographic memory of the abacus from which he can answer arithmetic problems with considerable speed,” said Anthony R. Esguerra, the learning centre’s CEO, who was guest speaker in a recent general assembly of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE).

The school, Esguerra said, uses “image abacus” in teaching kids solve math problems. With the constant manipulation of abacus beads, a virtual abacus is imprinted in a child’s brain. With the use of fingers to mentally compute math problems, minors can quickly crunch numbers.

The school trains kids to accurately figure out the answer, through mental computation, to arithmetic problems- like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division- that adults may even find challenging. Under the CMA system, kids are taught the basics of abacus- physical, visual and mental.

“Filipino students can learn the abacus faster than their Asian counterparts because they are more playful and creative,” Esguerra said.

He added that CMA’s abacus-based learning system, which has 16 branches nationwide, removes the fear of numbers, boosts memory power and hones one’s analytical skills.

The after-school, twice-a-week programme also aims to train teachers for abacus classes.

Esquerra told the monthly FUSE gathering that plans are afoot to open a programme, which originated from Taiwan, for 55 years old and above.

The skills a child learns from the programme would greatly help the kid focus more on other subjects, Esguerra stressed,

“We aim to turn math studies into a game and fun-filled exercise, a method that will teach children and adults alike that math is not a

‘scary’ subject, after all.”

The Vietnamese official delivered a speech at the ongoing eighth Delhi Dialogue in New Delhi, India on Thursday to help enhance co-operation between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

He recommended four key areas for the two sides to work together on further integration of Aseancountries and India in regional value chains and production networks.

Asean and India should adopt specific measures that facilitate bilateral trade, investment and identify areas of comparative advantages, he said.

In her opening remarks at the session, Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said 2015 had witnessed several important developments in the Asean-India relationship.

This dialogue provides policy makers, business executives and academics from both sides a multi-dimensional platform to tackle today’s challenges, the minister noted.

Swaraj hailed Asean’s achievements over the last five years and its increased importance in Asia-Pacific. “The establishment of the Asean Community last December is a commendable leap forward”, she added.

The Asean Community had opened up new opportunities for shared socio-economic development and India hoped to be part of this growth, she said.

Peace and stability are essential for progress and development, the official noted, highlighting the significance of ensuring maritime security.

The Vietnamese Vice Foreign Minister met with his Indian counterpart Swaraj after the session to discuss bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.

Earlier the same day, he had a meeting with Anil Wadhwa, Indian Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry.

The elephant, named “Zhusunya” by locals, left a nature reserve last Friday and damaged more than a dozen cars parked along the road.

Another nine cars were damaged during a rampage on Monday.

Local workers say the elephant was probably angry after losing a fight for a mate.

Local police officers have been busy checking the damaged cars and trying to evacuate people from the area.

Tang Zhouxing, a local police officer, says the elephant crushed some vehicles under its massive weight. “This elephant sat its body on the car, and the whole car was shaking and was damaged badly. Now we can see the rear-view mirror of the car was destroyed and can’t see the rear part. We will have a look after the elephant leaves. Now the elephant is coming up, so be careful.”

A forest police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, has said that along with losing the fight over its mate, the animal may also have been provoked by the increased presence of humans in its habitat around the Spring Festival holiday.

One witness said she saw the elephant walking towards a tourist coach and all people on the coach were frightened by it.

An unnamed tourist from Jilin province recalled the moment when their bus was attacked.

“The elephant came from this road, and walked along the road, hitting several cars then rushed towards our coach. At that moment all of us were sitting in the coach and were very scared. The elephant then focused on our coach and hit the front door of our coach. The elephant crashed the door with its forehead, and bumped the left rear-view mirror near the driver, it’s about 90 degrees crooked,”

Dozens of tourists and locals were seen near the site, watching the apparently ’jilted’ elephant showing its frustrations.

The local government has bought Public Liability Insurance for any damages caused by wild animals in the nature reserve.

Insurance companies are investigating the conditions of the cars and will offer compensation soon.

Shen Qingzhong a senior engineer with Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, says wild elephants are frequently seen in the area.

“He’s familiar with the environment of the ’wild life valley’ and the tourists there. He knew that people wouldn’t hurt him. Judging from his age, he’s around 15-year-old and is reaching sexual maturity. He’s like a young lad in his adolescence. He played with people and their cars on his way of finding a spouse. He didn’t attack the cars on purpose but played with the cars. ’” Wild Asian elephants are a level-one nationally protected species in China, with less than 300 in the country.

Chen Mingyong, a professor with the Yunnan University, says the number of wild Asian elephants has doubled compared to that of 1980s. Yet the species is still endangered due to habitat loss and a shortage of food.

“Asian elephants have a wide range of food sources. But they are big eaters and the overall storage of food is not enough. Also, with development in tropical areas, many forests have been turned into rubber plantations and tea bushes. ”

To ease the conflict between elephants and human beings, the expert stresses that the most important thing is to enhance efforts to protect forest ecosystems and strike a balance between protection and development.