The Business Times at 50: Chronicler, convener and partner in Singapore economic transformation

IN 2026, The Business Times marks 50 years as Singapore’s premier financial daily. The first standalone issue of BT appeared on Oct 1, 1976, as a modest publication of about a dozen pages, with an initial daily circulation of around 2,500 copies. Its stated mission was profound: to bring the business community the news it “wants and needs”. Half a century later, that mission has not only endured – it has also expanded. BT is no longer merely a newspaper recording market prices, company results and policy announcements. It has become a trusted interpreter of change, a forum for ideas, and a bridge between policymakers, business leaders, investors, entrepreneurs and professionals. Its stories of companies and markets really tell the story of Singapore itself. The Singapore of 1976 was a newly independent nation, but the economy was losing its hinterland – “a heart without a body”. The government was focused on attracting multinational corporations, creating jobs, developing infrastructure and establishing Singapore as a “first-world oasis in a third-world region”, as founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew put it. BT’s arrival was timely. Singapore needed a publication that could speak the language of finance, trade and industry to both global and…