Daily Briefing: Construction activity to see a pickup in 2017; What you need to know before investing in Chinese listings on SGX

And here are 4 things businesses should consider when expanding overseas.

The total value of construction contracts to be awarded this year could hit a high of $35 billion. The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) expects the total value of construction contracts to be awarded this year to hit between $28 billion and $35 billion, up from last year’s preliminary estimate of $26 billion, with the public sector accounting for about 70 percent of total construction demand, it said in a statement. The BCA forecast demand from the public sector to increase from about $15.8 billion last year to between $20 billion and $24 billion in 2017, on the back of an increase in demand for most building types and civil engineering works. Read the rest of the story here.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is currently actively pursuing Chinese listings, aiming to obtain not only Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s) but also cross-listings of entities that are already pre-listed on the Chinese stock markets. This comes after a period of some uncertainty on the SGX, whereby Chinese companies started listing on our local bourse in the mid-2000’s, before our domestic regulators effectively blocked Chinese listings for several years, or at the very least made it a tedious and difficult process such that prospective companies decided to undergo public listing elsewhere. Click here to see the tops before investing in Chinese listings on SGX.

2016 has seen a very strong push from the Government for Singapore Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to move towards more productive business processes, as well as to continue to actively look beyond our shores to expand their business. This was strongly focused on at the Budget 2016 announcement, and was further reinforced at the National Day Rally 2016. Here are four things businesses should consider when expanding overseas.