Updates from the Trade Services team - June 2020


The last six months have been extremely busy for the Trade Services team. Despite the ongoing challenges, there continues to be considerable interest from UK companies seeking opportunities to expand into Singapore, and subsequently the region. This, of course, is very encouraging as Trade and Investment continue to be a primary focus for both the UK and Singapore Governments. Global confidence in Singapore continues to be acknowledged, most recently by the announcement that it has retained its number one spot as the world’s most competitive economy in the latest edition of the IMD World Competitive Ranking – such accolades add strength to the message that the Trade Services team deliver whilst providing ongoing market insight activity and direct support to UK businesses looking to export to or expand into Singapore.

In addition to completing bespoke Trade Consultancy to individual companies, the Trade Services Team have successfully delivered our first Virtual Trade Mission for the Welsh Government. This saw 6 Welsh Food and Beverage producers, who had no previous brand presence within Singapore. They experienced one on one support, a Market Briefing webinar where Britcham members provided valuable market insight, market outreach, brand profiling to importers, distributors and retailers, and direct business matching introductions. We were thrilled that to date, two of producers have gone on to receive orders from Singapore importers or retailers directly due to this Virtual Trade Mission - so keep your eyes out for ‘Flawsome!’ drinks and ‘Halon Mon Anglesey Sea Salt’.

Generating proactive interest is extremely important in continuing to drive Trade and Export from the UK into Singapore, and in turn, creating opportunities for the business community already in-country. In April we delivered the first of our sector-specific Trade Webinars, focusing on the Food and Beverage Market: Exporting to Singapore and ASEAN, followed by the Maritime Sector Opportunities in Singapore webinar in May. Most recently we collaborated with Chamber members Euromonitor International, Sleek and DWF LLP to deliver the webinar Consumer Goods: Trends, Opportunities and Operations in Singapore and South East Asia. It was also a pleasure to have strong support from our colleagues within the UK BCC network to spread the word amongst their chamber community, as well as UK International Trade Advisors from the Department for International Trade inviting their export ready clients to join us. We welcome you to download the full report produced by Euromonitor International here.

Moving forward, the Trade Services Team will continue to deliver valuable business insight themed towards enabling UK companies to understand more about the opportunities presented in Singapore and the region for export. We also continue to build out our web-based support via the Expanding to Singapore pages on our website. 

If you would like to arrange a conversation with our Trade Service team, please contact trade@britcham.org.sg. UK businesses interested in expanding here should complete this enquiry form.