3 in 10 Singapore firms eyeing to expand overseas

But here's what's stopping them from going abroad.

While many international firms are currently looking for business growth in their domestic markets, Singapore is going against the grain, where 33% of businesses are expanding abroad, according to a Regus survey.
However, Singapore firms noted that their expansion plans are hampered by hiring top quality staff (86%), lack of local knowledge and connections (73%), access to flexible office space (72%), lack of market information (69%), and lack of consular and government support (44%).

Eric Tan, Director at Ex Proof Solution explains: “We have put a great deal of effort into growing markets overseas in the last few years. We’ve also made sure our expansion has been into flexible workspaces. This gives us scalability and allows us to cope better with any change to the world economy.”

Commenting on the study, Paul MacAndrew, Country Manager at Regus Singapore, “There has been an important reversal in the past two years, with firms now experiencing more growth from domestic markets than through foreign expansion.
This change reminds us of how important it is for businesses to remain flexible and scalable so that they can respond to market volatility, but also highlights an important increase in consumer purchasing power in emerging economies.

“Regardless of whether businesses are expanding in new markets in their own country, or abroad they rely on a series of key factors. They need to access reliable and up-to-date market information, to network and to have easy access to a number of options when considering the best location to set up in. 

In addition to these needs, flexible working space allows them to rapidly react to the markets and keep their capital free for investment in further growth. Businesses need to be able to rapidly expand, but also to retract speedily should growth possibilities open up elsewhere,” MacAndrew added.