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.