PRESS DIGEST - Singapore newspapers - Aug 7

SINGAPORE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The following are stories from Singapore newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories.

THE STRAITS TIMES - Starting next year, Singapore-registered entities will need just one identification number when dealing with the various government agencies, in order to streamline the way businesses and other organisations deal with government agencies. Currently, each agency requires a different ID number.

- More than 2,300 hopeful buyers have applied for one of the 578 condo-style units being built for the public housing authority in the Ang Mo Kio suburb. About 23,000 visitors had visited the project's showflat since its mid-July launch, said developer United Engineers (UTES.SI).

BUSINESS TIMES

- Singapore is expected to post the biggest growth in outbound travel in the Asia-Pacific in the second half of this year, with a 23 percent year-on-year rise to more than four million departures, according to a report. - A 20 percent rise in construction costs will shrink developers' profit margin for a mass-market private condo by 55 percent; but for a project in the prime districts, the profit margin will contract by 25 per cent, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle study.