U.S. new businesses in Singapore triple

U.S. new businesses in Singapore triple

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

The number of new U.S. firms doing business in Singapore has
tripled over the past year despite security and political
concerns in Southeast Asia, the U.S. ambassador to the city-
state, Frank Lavin, said on Wednesday.

Lavin credited the increase to the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) and the active participation of U.S. commercial
affairs officials in promoting business opportunities in the
region.

"This has been a tough year for Southeast Asia. There's been a
lot of political turbulence, there's been economic turbulence
there's been some terrorist activity," he said at a security and
safety conference here.

Attacks such as the August bomb blast at the American-owned JW
Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people worsened investor
perceptions of the business environment in the region, he said.

"But even though it was a tough year ... there was a lot of
good news on the corporate front, on the commercial front, on the
economic front," Lavin said.

The number of new U.S. companies that have set up
representative offices and sold products in Singapore in the year
to September tripled from the previous year, he said.

Lavin said the FTA, signed last month and to take effect on
Jan. 1 next year, has "had a dramatic effect in the U.S.
corporate mindset because it was a very strong statement about
the ease of doing business in Singapore."

George Ruffner, counsellor for commercial affairs at the U.S.
embassy, said the U.S. companies coming to Singapore were often
small- and medium-sized enterprises venturing into Asia for the
first time.

Others were sing Singapore as a launchpad for the bigger
regional market.

"It's the highest (number of businesses in Singapore) we've
ever had," Ruffner told AFP, without giving exact numbers.

"The most important thing here is that the numbers themselves
are good but it is also a trend that we're seeing. We think that
this is essentially attributable to the free trade agreement."

Ruffner said even though the FTA does not take effect for
nearly three months, U.S. firms were positioning themselves for a
slice of the pie.

"We are getting the companies coming and they are having
success and they are using this as a launching pad," he said.

Ruffner also said that unlike before the FTA, U.S. companies
seeking information from embassy commercial affairs offices
appeared to be more serious.

"We're getting better quality people now who are looking for
opportunities and are willing to make the investments," he said

The FTA deal with Singapore is the first such pact between the
United States -- the city-state's biggest trading partner -- and
an Asian country, and opens up wide sections of the their
economies to each other.

The agreement with Singapore is seen as a stepping stone to a
potential 500 million consumers in Southeast Asia as the island-
republic is a vital hub for trade throughout the region.