Singapore contact centre industry in growth mode

Singapore contact centre industry in growth mode

Asia-Pacific contact centre industry yet to be hit by US slowdown, writes AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY

THE Singapore contact centre industry is an increasingly mature sector and continues to grow on the back of organic expansions as well as limited new contact centre setups, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Mr Shukla: ‘The ability to hire, train and retain talent in the contact centre industry is a challenge.’
Speaking to BizIT, Frost’s Shivanu Shukla noted that in terms of the contact centre applications market, growth is driven by the trend of IP migration and technology refresh that is taking place in the contact centre industry in Singapore.

Contact centre applications refer to a suite of applications and tools that are used to enhance customer-facing communications and enable better integration of the contact centre with other business applications and customer databases.

Mr Shukla, who’s industry manager at Frost, noted that last year the Singapore contact centre applications market clocked US$16.4 million in revenues. This is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 6.2 per cent till 2014 when the market size is expected to be US$425 million.

‘Contact centres in Singapore are moving beyond just voice- based customer interactions, towards a multi-channel customer contact strategy,’ Mr Shukla said.

He added that the centres are using channels such as e-mails, SMS and webchats, which are gaining popularity in the market, due to the strong mobile and broadband penetration and user acceptance of such channels.

‘Due to the rising competition and blurring product differentiation, the focus on customer service by enterprises in Singapore continues to drive the industry forward.’

Talking about the Asia-Pacific, including Japan, APJ, contact centre applications market, Mr Shukla noted that the current economic slump in the US has not had a major impact on the APJ contact centre applications market last year.

‘Except for the Philippines where some deals were deferred, almost all other APJ countries saw contact centres increasing their investments on equipment and applications to improve customer interaction services,’ Mr Shukla noted.

Revenues in the APJ contact centre applications market - covering 14 countries in the region - rose 12.2 per cent in 2007 to US$665.4 million. Mr Shukla noted that this year it is expected to grow by 14.2 per cent.

‘The APJ market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 10.2 per cent from 2007 till 2014 to reach US$1.31 billion,’ Mr Shukla added.

Frost, however, believes that if the US financial crisis continues, demand for contact centre applications will dive late this year and in 2009, especially from the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector.

He added that the top three markets by revenue last year were Japan which accounted for about 24.9 per cent (US$165.5 million), followed by India at 17.8 per cent (US$118.6 million) and Australia at 15.3 per cent (US$101.7 million).

Mr Shukla noted that the key strengths of Singapore’s contact centre industry include the high skill levels of contact centre agents or customer service representatives.

‘Other strengths include the strong and robust telecom infrastructure, good contact centre infrastructure with sophisticated applications to ensure smooth delivery of customer service and direct presence of several multi-national enterprises, who then choose Singapore as one of their sites for servicing their customers in the region,’ Mr Shukla said.

He, however, noted that the high cost of labour and limited agent pool limits the industry’s ability to scale beyond the domestic customer service requirements.

With the increasing push towards cost reduction, enterprises are also evaluating offshoring their simpler customer service transactions to Malaysia or the Philippines.

The Frost analyst noted that meeting rising customer service expectations is a major issue facing Singapore contact centres.

The Internet and mobile penetration has had a significant impact on the pace of communication among consumers, as well as the amount of available information to consumers today, Mr Shukla said.

He added: ‘This is driving the expectations on response time, as well as the level of personalisation of each customer interaction.’

Mr Shukla noted that using technology to be able to actively monitor and track the performance and quality of the customer interactions plays a big role in ensuring higher customer satisfaction levels.

Alongside of rising expectations, managing costs is also another major issue facing contact centre managers.

‘While the image of the contact centre as a cost centre is slowly changing, contact centres are always faced with the challenge of doing more with less,’ Mr Shukla noted.

Managers are tackling the cost issue by looking at more automation technologies to reduce the volume of calls that need to be handled by a contact centre agent. ‘Interactive voice response (IVR) is seeing a resurgence in the industry.’

Another major challenge is human resource management. ‘The ability to hire, train and retain talent in the contact centre industry is a challenge,’ Mr Shukla said.

‘Unlike markets like the Philippines where customer service is widely viewed as a career option, Singapore contact centres need to work hard towards keeping agents motivated,’ he said.

Some methods used to address this include proper training to ensure that the agents are well skilled and trained to handle more complex and higher value customer interactions.

Giving a career roadmap from customer service operations to move into other business operations of the organisation is also used to keep agents motivated and loyal to the organisation, he added.

‘Singapore fares much better compared with other growth markets like India and the Philippines when it comes to agent attrition rates.’

Source : Business Times - 17 July 2008

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Asiatravel.com posts 22% rise in Q3 Singapore hotel bookings

Asiatravel.com posts 22% rise in Q3 Singapore hotel bookings

By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

DESPITE a drop in Asia-bound traffic from major markets, online hotel reservation service provider Asiatravel.com Holdings remains optimistic, having registered third-quarter growth of 22 per cent year on year in online bookings for hotel room nights.

Taking into account the 26 per cent growth in the first half of the year (October 2007-March 2008), year-on-year growth for the first three quarters worked out to 25 per cent.

April and May chalked up growth of 27 per cent and 23 per cent respectively, while June saw a growth of 17 per cent.

‘The global economic slowdown has affected the tourism industry, especially long-haul travel from US and Europe into Asia,’ Asiatravel.com said in a statement. ‘Despite the economic slowdown, the group is optimistic of maintaining positive room nights growth, as it has broadened its destination footprint and expanded its reach into the mass market.’

Asiatravel.com plans to launch multi-language websites in Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Japanese and Arabic in an effort to tap these large Asian markets.

It has been expanding its services from online hotel reservations to hotel and travel reservations. As such, customers can book flights as well as hotel and flight packages departing from 10 countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates. By end-2008, customers will be able to purchase combined hotel and flight packages for all key countries in Asia.

Asiatravel.com’s net profit rose 37.2 per cent to $4.5 million for the year ended Sept 30, 2007. Revenue was up 23.3 per cent to $70.5 million. Earnings per share rose to 2.33 cents from 1.7 cents.

Source : Business Times - 17 July 2008

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CapitaLand sets up $1.4b Raffles City China Fund

CapitaLand sets up $1.4b Raffles City China Fund

Fund will invest in prime mixed-use commercial assets in key gateway cities

By EMILYN YAP

CAPITALAND has set up a $1.4 billion Raffles City China Fund (RCCF) to invest in prime mixed-use commercial properties in key Chinese gateway cities.

Raffles City Shanghai: The new fund - RCCF - will purchase CapitaLand’s 55.9% stake in the project which opened in 2003. It will also buy 100% of the Raffles City projects in Beijing, Chengdu and Hangzhou
The fund’s seed assets will be the property group’s Raffles City-branded developments in China.

RCCF is CapitaLand’s first integrated development private equity fund in China, and is also the largest originated and managed by the group to date.

CapitaLand has subscribed for a 50 per cent sponsor stake in RCCF. Leading financial institutions and pension funds from Asia, Europe and North America took up the remaining interest. RCCF has the option of a final closing by end-December and could grow to $1.8 billion.

CapitaLand may reduce its stake in the fund to 45 per cent if there is strong investor demand for the option.

Through its indirect wholly owned subsidiary RCCF Management, CapitaLand will also undertake the role of fund manager and manage RCCF-owned properties.

The fund will purchase CapitaLand’s 55.9 per cent stake in Raffles City Shanghai, which opened its doors in November 2003. It will also purchase 100 per cent of Raffles City Beijing, Raffles City Chengdu and Raffles City Hangzhou.

The three are under various stages of development and will be ready between 2009 and 2012.

‘Currently, the assets are valued at a total of about US$2 billion (about S$2.7 billion) comprising CapitaLand’s stake in Raffles City Shanghai and the three Raffles City projects on a completed basis,’ said CapitaLand.

Funds raised will be substantially invested with the acquisition of these four assets.

‘The strong investor response to the fund is an endorsement of our expertise and delivery track record in the entire real estate value chain,’ said CapitaLand’s president and CEO Liew Mun Leong.

‘The successful close of the fund is a boost for our expansion plans for Raffles City to achieve the eventual goal of 10 such iconic developments globally.’

RCCF is CapitaLand’s eighth real estate private equity fund in China.

‘We will continue to develop unique real estate products to cater to an increasingly sophisticated consumer market and establish new real estate funds for investors who share our confidence in China’s growth,’ said Lim Ming Yan, CEO of CapitaLand China Holdings Group and CapitaLand Financial Limited (China Development).

Co-head of Asian real estate research at UBS, Alastair Gillespie, sees benefits for CapitaLand in setting up RCCF. Not only would the fund free up capital for the property group to pursue new opportunities in China, it would boost market confidence in the company’s ability to grow its fund management business.

CapitaLand shares fell six cents to close at $5.54 yesterday.

Source : Business Times - 17 July 2008

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Hiap Hoe-SuperBowl top bid for Singapore hotel site below forecast

Hiap Hoe-SuperBowl top bid for Singapore hotel site below forecast

Group is aiming to build 3-star hotel that caters to China, India markets

By KALPANARASHIWALA

A JOINT venture between Hiap Hoe Ltd and its sister company SuperBowl Holdings Ltd yesterday placed a lower-than-expected top bid for a hotel site in the Balestier area opposite the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

Park and hotel: Hiap Hoe expects to spend another $120m in construction cost, if it is awarded the site
HH Properties bid $73.3 million or about $172 per square foot of potential gross floor area for the 99-year leasehold plot. This is lower than the $350-470 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) that analysts had indicated for the site when it was launched by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in late March.

Industry observers noted that yesterday’s top bid was also significantly below the $420 to $805 psf ppr at which the government awarded 99-year hotel sites last year.

Still, they were not too disappointed with the outcome of yesterday’s tender. Property investment sentiment has worsened significantly in recent months, and especially in the past week following negative newsflow from the US.

So the observers were generally relieved that yesterday’s tender attracted three bids - instead of a repeat-show of an earlier state tender for a hotel site at Race Course Road that closed in May without drawing a single bid.

Some analysts also suggested that stringent requirements for the latest plot in Balestier, including having to maintain a park that occupies about a quarter of the 1.77-hectare site, may have tempered bids yesterday.

‘It’s heartening to see several bids submitted,’ CB Richard Ellis executive director Li Hiaw Ho said.

Jones Lang LaSalle executive vice-president Chee Hok Yean said: ‘I think the government should consider making an award. Even with the stringent requirements, there were three bids. Awarding the site will help contribute to the supply of budget hotels in Singapore, a segment where more supply is needed to cater to regional travellers.’

The two other bidders at yesterday’s tender were Garden City Holdings (S) Pte Ltd (controlled by the Tew family), and Park Hotel Group unit Park Plaza Pte Ltd, with respective bids of $53.13 million and $35 million.

Teo Ho Beng, managing director of both Hiap Hoe and SuperBowl (the two listed companies are part of Hiap Hoe Holdings group) told BT that if the companies are awarded the Balestier site, the plan is to develop ‘probably a three-star hotel catering to businessmen as well as tourists, especially from China and India’.

The hotel may have about 500 rooms, and there will also likely be some retail (probably a small shopping centre) and office space.

‘We expect to spend another $120 million or so in construction and fitting-out costs, so our all-in investment would be around $200 million,’ Mr Teo indicated. At least 60 per cent of the gross floor area has to be for hotel and hotel-related uses.

Hiap Hoe group is no stranger to the Balestier area. Its headquarters are located there and last year, SuperBowl sold two adjoining freehold plots at Balestier Road slated for hotel development for $39.8 million, more than double the $17.8 million it had paid for the property a year earlier.

‘That was an attractive offer on the table and we’d found the sites a little too small. So we disposed of them and decided to try bidding for alternative hotel sites,’ Mr Teo said yesterday.

The group last year bid unsuccessfully at state tenders for hotel plots located at Tanjong Pagar, Rangoon Road, Upper Pickering Street, and New Market Street/Merchant Road.

Source : Business Times - 17 July 2008

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Over 100 years old and still going strong - Singapore

Over 100 years old and still going strong - Singapore

Boustead’s turning 180; how have some S’pore companies survived so long?

By VEN SREENIVASAN

(SINGAPORE) Why do some companies struggle to survive, while others thrive, well over a century after they were established?

It is a question which has preoccupied many management gurus over the years. And it is a question which will be raised once again this week as mainboard-listed Boustead Singapore celebrates its 180th year of existence tomorrow.

Technically, Boustead is Singapore’s second oldest company, after Guthrie GTS.

But Guthrie vanished for several years in the mid 1980s when Malaysian tycoon Tan Koon Swan bought it, then absorbed it into the stable of Malaysian-listed Gamuda. Mr Tan’s troubles during the Pan Electric debacle of the mid-1980s forced him to divest Guthrie later, and the company was reincarnated as Guthrie GTS.

So technicalities aside, Boustead remains the only Singapore-based company which can boast an unbroken lineage of almost two centuries.

In Singapore, there are a dozen surviving companies which are over a hundred years old. Set up during the colonial era by British traders and entrepreneurs, most - like Guthrie and Boustead - started life in the trading and transportation sector.

Others, like law firm Rodyk & Davidson, were set up to service these new players sprouting up in the British colonies. Some, like Eu Yan Sang, have stuck to their original businesses, but have modernised an ancient activity.

But despite their age and significantly different businesses, most of these century-old corporates are Asian multinationals enjoying double digit growth today.

This is all the more remarkable, given the odds against survival for companies in small economies.

According to Arie de Geus, a well-known organisational science expert and a 38-year-old veteran of Royal Dutch/Shell, in some countries 40 per cent of all newly created companies last less than 10 years.

Mr de Geus also notes that the average life expectancy of a multinational corporation - Fortune 500 or its equivalent - is between 40 and 50 years.

In fact, one-third of all the companies listed in 1970 Fortune 500 list had vanished by 1983 - acquired, merged or broken up.

A study by Ellen de Rooij of the Stratix Group in Amsterdam, done 12 years ago, indicated that the average life expectancy of all firms, regardless of size in Japan and much of Europe, was a mere 12.5 years.

So why do some companies thrive for so long, when others barely survive the first decades?

Boustead’s chairman and group CEO, Wong Fong Fui, cites adaptability.

‘Business cycles have been getting shorter and tighter, and a company’s survivability depends largely on its ability to adapt to the changes thrown up by these cycles,’ he says. ‘Boustead itself has gone through numerous economic and business cycles, and world events like the Great Depression, World War ll, and survived numerous political changes in its markets. The survival of this company has been due to its ability to adapt to the new realities after each upheaval.’

In his book, The Living Company, Mr de Geus argues that successful surviving companies exhibited four key factors.

First is a sensitivity to their operating environment which enables them to learn and adapt quickly to changes occurring around them.

The second factor is cohesion and identity. This defines a company’s ability to create a strong sense of identity and persona for itself which is essential for survival amid challenges.

Thirdly, longevity is also dependent on the company’s ability to tolerate decentralisation of control and diversification, and yet maintain strong and cohesive relationships within and outside of itself.

Fourthly, companies which survive tend to be those which are financially conservative. They are frugal and do not risk capital gratuitously. By keeping their proverbial gunpowder dry, they are well equipped to pursue new options and opportunities, and also attract third party financiers.

But Mr Wong adds one more point: technology.

‘The role of technology is also critical,’ he says. ‘The technology that propels you forward now can become an albatross around your neck a decade later. You have to adapt new technology. Be a master of technology, not a slave to it. The only businesses where you don’t have to worry about the impact of changing technology is in the art of fine wine-making. But we are not all wine-makers.’

Source : Business Times - 17 July 2008

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Just three lacklustre bids for Singapore Balestier hotel site

Just three lacklustre bids for Singapore Balestier hotel site

Financial climate and site’s high development requirements may be behind poor showing

By Joyce Teo, Property Correspondent

A SPRAWLING Balestier Road hotel site integrated with a park attracted just three bids, all well under expectations.
A market expert had tipped a price of about $150 million to $200 million, or $350 to $470 per sq ft (psf) of gross floor area, but the top bidder could not even manage half that.

Niche developer Hiap Hoe Group offered $73.3 million or $172 psf when the tender closed yesterday.

Garden City Hotel Holdings, owned by Mr Tew Boon Kui, lodged $125 psf, while Park Hotel’s unit Park Plaza would stump up only $82 psf.

Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy Nicholas Mak, who had tipped bids of $350 to $470 psf at the end of March, said market conditions had changed.

Developers were cooling off largely because of the financial turmoil, a slowdown in the growth of visitor arrivals here and high construction costs, said Mr Mak.

Other experts felt that the 99-year leasehold site in front of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall was not that compelling.

Although Balestier Road has a bright mix of conserved shophouses and modern commercial and residential buildings, it also accommodates budget hotels, cheap and cheerful eateries and karaoke bars.

Another key reason for the low bids could have been the development demands placed on the 1.77ha site, the biggest hotel plot the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has released since 2001.

The developer must build and manage a 0.46ha park in the middle of the plot as well as a public event space within the park.

Savills Singapore’s director of marketing and business development Ku Swee Yong said a developer’s returns would be hit by the need to build and manage the park.

Sixty per cent of the hotel site’s gross floor area must be used for a hotel, which could yield about 675 rooms. The rest of the space can be used for homes, shops and offices.

If Hiap Hoe, which submitted its bid through HH Properties, gets the site, it is expected to use it for hotel and commercial space. It will be Hiap Hoe’s first hotel project.

CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho did see a glimpse of silver lining in the three bargain-basement offers for the site.

‘It is heartening to see several bids submitted for the site in view of the fact that no bids were received for a hotel site in Race Course Road/Bukit Timah Road that closed in May,’ said Mr Li.

The URA will award the tender once the bids are evaluated.

Source : Straits Times - 17 July 2008

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CapitaLand, KepLand raise $3b for Asia property funds

CapitaLand, KepLand raise $3b for Asia property funds

Investments lined up in Singapore, China, India and other key markets

By Grace Ng

COMING UP: Raffles City Beijing is one of the projects CapitaLand’s new fund will be investing in. — PHOTO: CAPITALAND COMMERCIAL LIMITED

TWO Singapore property players have raised a combined US$2.2 billion (S$3 billion) for their private equity funds investing in Asian property.
CapitaLand, South-east Asia’s biggest developer by sales, announced yesterday that it has set up a US$1 billion fund to invest in properties in some Chinese cities.

Keppel Land’s property fund management unit, Alpha Investment Partners, meanwhile, has raised US$1.2 billion from 15 institutional investors for a fund focused on Singapore, China, India, South Korea and other regional markets.

A statement yesterday said the amount Keppel Land has raised exceeded the company’s target of US$1 billion.

CapitaLand’s Raffles City China Fund - as the new entity is known - has its initial investments already lined up. It will own CapitaLand’s 55.9 per cent stake in the Raffles City development in Shanghai and buy the three Raffles City projects being developed in Beijing, Chengdu and Hangzhou.

These assets are worth about US$2 billion, and the fund intends to finance this with a mixture of equities and borrowings.

CapitaLand will hold 50 per cent of the fund, while a handful of ‘leading financial institutions and pension funds from Asia, Europe and North America’ will hold the rest, according to a company statement.

The fund has an option of closing in December and may grow to as much as US$1.3 billion.

China’s residential property market has softened amid the government’s efforts to curb supply and demand. CapitaLand, however, is tapping into the sector’s long-term prospects.

The Raffles City project in Shanghai is one of the few integrated retail and commercial developments in China, so the fund has assets offering value to investors, said Kim Eng analyst Wilson Liew.

Mr Lim Ming Yan, the chief executive of CapitaLand China, said: ‘As China’s urbanisation gathers pace and its middle class grows in tandem with the improving economy, demand for integrated developments will continue to rise.’

Keppel Land’s Alpha Asia Macro Trends Fund, meanwhile, will target real estate in Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, India and Vietnam.

It brings the total number of funds under Alpha to five, which will be managing gross assets of about $7 billion.

Investors in Alpha’s funds include three of the largest Dutch pension plans - Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, PGGM and MN Services - as well as global banks UBS and Deutsche Bank.

Source : Straits Times - 17 July 2008

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Singapore Old schoolhouse to become hip hotel

Singapore Old schoolhouse to become hip hotel

By Tessa Wong

NEW LEASE OF LIFE: Mr Loh is targeting the 29-room Dickson Road hotel - due to open by the end of next year - at young, trendy high-spending travellers. The building used to house Hong Wen School, one of the oldest Chinese schools in Singapore. — ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG

ITS rooms once housed students thumbing through textbooks and reciting Chinese poetry.
But next year, a pre-war building in Little India will start hosting well-heeled travellers keen on spending a night or two in hip luxury.

A hotelier known for his unconventional tastes is giving the Dickson Road building, famous for its facade of ornate tiles, a facelift.

The four-storey conservation building, the former premises of the Hong Wen School - one of Singapore’s oldest Chinese schools - was bought by Mr Loh Lik Peng this year.

He was behind boutique hotels New Majestic and 1929, both in Chinatown, which have been lauded in the international media for their fashionable interior designs. They, too, are in conservation buildings.

In the same vein, the as-yet-unnamed hotel will be pitched at young, trendy, high-spending travellers. Mr Loh has given three local design studios free rein to craft one floor each.

The building is expected to open as a 29-room hotel by the end of next year.

Guests, who will pay between $250 and $400 a night for a room, can expect eclectic graphics featuring spaceships, monsters and local retro imagery.

‘It’s not something that everyone will like, but that’s radical design for you,’ said Mr Loh.

He estimated the building was built in the 1920s or 1930s, going by its architectural style. It features European art nouveau-inspired tiles used on a scale that is unique to Singapore, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which gave the building conservation status in 1989.

It served as a residential complex until 1945, when Hong Wen School moved in, according to former student Lim Kim Yiang.

When the school moved to its current premises at Victoria Street in 1981, the Singapore Buddhist Federation took over the building.

The building joins a number of old schools that have recently been converted for commercial use. They include the former Methodist Girls’ School premises and the former Trinity Theological College campus.

Both are situated on Mount Sophia and have been turned into art complexes.

The new hotel joins a growing number of low- to mid-range places that have sprouted up in the area recently.

Source : Straits Times - 17 July 2008

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25-year-old Singapore Joo Chiat Complex gets a makeover

25-year-old Singapore Joo Chiat Complex gets a makeover

Shop owners hope business will improve after upgrading is completed next month

By Arlina Arshad

DRAWING MORE SHOPPERS: An artist’s impression of how Joo Chiat Complex in Geylang Serai will look after the renovations.

IN AN attempt to compete with Singapore’s shiny new mega malls, the 25-year-old Joo Chiat Complex in Geylang Serai is getting a makeover.
Shop owners in the centre, which specialises in Malay baju, textiles and crafts, are eager to see the dim atrium, worn washrooms and old floors spruced up.

The sterile grey walls and monotone tiles are on their way out. As are the old awnings, which are making way for fire-resistant canopies.

The building is also getting neon signs, a CCTV security system and a better air-conditioning system, a Housing Board spokesman said in an e-mail message to The Straits Times on Monday. The HDB owns the centre.

The upgrades, which started in March and are expected to be completed next month, were welcomed by most shop owners.

‘The complex is so old that people would rather shop at VivoCity. The interior is dark, the lights are dim, everything is rusty,’ said curtain seller Jimmy Saw, 50, who has been running the family business there for 25 years.

‘I hope more young people will come and business will improve.’

With the fasting month of Ramadan starting in September, shop owners hope sales will pick up. Malay-Muslim crowds traditionally throng the complex to stock up on food, festive cookies and traditional baju kurung to celebrate Hari Raya, which falls on Oct 1 this year.

Renovations to the Joo Chiat Complex were the result of an appeal by shop vendors, said the HDB spokesman. HDB and Marine Parade Town Council will foot all costs.

The HDB hopes the complex, with its 200 shops and offices, will remain attractive to shoppers, the spokesman said.

Shop owners still have one main grouse though. They say the walls in the toilet are not full-length, causing water from one cubicle to flood others. The HDB has said it would look into the matter.

Joo Chiat Complex Traders Association secretary David Ang, 50, hopes the HDB will also cut rent by 10 to 20 per cent. He said the vendors have to close early at night because of the upgrading works, costing them money.

Another vendor, Mr Osman Al-Khatib, 55, who sells religious books, hopes rent will not be raised with better facilities.

On the wish list of Madam Mahani Ramadan, 45, are cleaners to help keep the complex spick and span.

‘We have to walk out of the complex to throw our own rubbish in the bins. The bins are always overflowing with leftover food which smells bad,’ she said.

Source : Straits Times - 17 July 2008

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Foreign lawyers flock to S’pore

Foreign lawyers flock to S’pore

One QC who set up office here is now arbitrating a $34m dispute

By K.C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent

BIG DEMAND: Queen’s Counsel Stuart Isaacs, who started a firm here this week, feels there is more than enough work here to go around. — ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM

BANGLADESH-BORN lawyer Ajmalul Hossain came to Singapore last year to set up an office, spurred on by the business boom in the region.
The 57-year-old Queen’s Counsel, one of a select group of senior London-trained barristers, is now arbitrating a US$25 million (S$34 million) dispute between two foreign companies.

‘This is a growth area, the demand for legal services means there is plenty of work, and I like your nice and safe environment,’ he said.

Mr Hossain is part of a growing contingent of foreign lawyers who are setting up shop in Singapore. According to the Attorney- General’s Chambers (AGC), their numbers have nearly doubled to 900 in the last five years.

They are drawn to the rising demand for legal services, such as advice on mergers, help with business expansions and the arbitration of cross-border trade disputes.

An AGC spokesman said that the increase in foreign lawyers followed strong economic growth in the region.

‘Whether such increase will continue in the future will depend on economic prospects in Singapore and the region,’ she said.

For now, foreign lawyers are not allowed to appear in court here. They also cannot practise Singapore law except in the area of arbitration, which is an out-of-court arrangement.

That could soon change, though. Last December, the Law Ministry announced that up to five foreign firms would be allowed to practise in areas such as banking, corporate finance and maritime law.

The move is expected to take effect next year.

Mr Stuart Isaacs, a Queen’s Counsel who started a firm here this week, said he would welcome the chance to argue in court.

‘I do think there is a lot of merit in…being outward-looking, not inward-looking,’ he said. ‘If you let people in, it can only do good in the long run.’

Queen’s Counsel like Mr Isaacs have been long sought after here for their expertise in banking, civil fraud and insurance.

He has spent 20 years commuting from England to advise and arbitrate in civil cases, among other things.

Mr Isaacs said that there is more than enough work here to go around and he is here to ‘value-add’, not compete.

‘You’ve got very able lawyers here. The problem is, there is a shortage of them because of the legal work there is,’ the 56-year-old father of three said.

‘People are very often conflicted out and therefore you have clients who are left without good legal representation.’

Like him, Mr Hossain, who set up his office here last November, prefers Singapore over Asia’s other aspiring legal hub, Hong Kong.

‘Singapore has a less rigid system in place and the practice regime is much more open for foreign lawyers,’ he said.

Some restrictions
FOREIGN lawyers can register with the Attorney-General’s Chambers in order to practise here, subject to conditions.
The scheme allows lawyers to set up firms to arbitrate commercial disputes and do legal work from other countries.

But they cannot appear in court.

Foreign lawyers can be part of a Singapore law firm. However, they cannot deal with a client directly unless it involves work in the laws of the country in which they are qualified.

Any paperwork involving Singapore law has to go through a Singapore lawyer.

There are plans to allow foreign law firms to participate in high-end work such as mergers and acquisitions as well as commercial cases that fall under Singapore’s laws.

K.C. VIJAYAN

Source : Straits Times - 17 July 2008

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