RI tipped to lead Asia Pacific with highest salary increase

RI tipped to lead Asia Pacific with highest salary increase

Singapore, Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Indonesia is tipped to lead the Asia-Pacific region in pay raises this year while Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are likely to see the smallest, a survey forecast on Thursday.

HR Business Solutions predicted that Indonesia, where pay levels are low, will have salary hikes averaging 12 percent.

Salaries in Singapore, already pretty high, are set to increase by an average of three percent, slightly more than in 2003. The hike is still more than the 2 percent anticipated for Japan and 1.8 percent for Hong Kong.

Ten of the 14 countries covered by the poll are expected to see higher pay increases this year compared with 2003.

"No country in the Asia-Pacific region will increase salaries at a lower rate than last year," the Hong Kong-based HR Business Solutions said in its survey report.

Except for China, India and Vietnam, fewer than half the companies plan to expand their work force although the region is expected to grow 5.5 percent.

Riding on a projected growth of more than 8 percent, 71 percent of the Chinese firms queried plan to recruit in 2004, followed by 57 percent in India, where the economy is soaring and 50 percent in Vietnam.

In Singapore, 43 percent of the companies queried last month plan to beef up their payrolls this year, above Malaysia's 40 percent and Thailand's 38 percent.

Economic restructuring in Singapore indicated however that job losses will persist, the report said.

Nearly nine percent of the companies here, the highest number in the poll of 104 firms, said they want to downsize their work force.