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Singapore’s business-friendly reputation continues to attract foreign investment, especially from the technology sector, despite the gloomy global economic climate.
Among the companies that are increasing their holdings in Singapore is the German logistics company DB Schenker, which in May began operating a high-tech warehouse in the free trade zone of the Singapore Airport Logistics Park in Changi.
The firm will add more than 250 positions here, in areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and process engineering, its vice president for contract logistics and supply chain management Catherine Soo told The Straits Times yesterday.
Its $ 163 million Red Lion warehouse in the logistics park, the company’s largest investment in the world, spans more than 550,000 square feet, the size of seven football fields, on five floors.
The facility, its thirteenth here, brings DB Schenker’s footprint in Singapore to 2.8 million square feet.
The logistics company is a unit of the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn.
Meanwhile, Chinese tech startup ByteDance appears poised to beef up its presence here as well.
The Beijing-based owner of video-sharing app TikTok, which has 400 employees in Singapore, is looking to spend several billion dollars and add hundreds of jobs here over the next three years, sources told Bloomberg news agencies. and Reuters yesterday.
TikTok also reportedly relocated some engineers to Singapore from China this year.
In the first half of this year alone, the Republic has extracted about $ 14.3 billion in investments in fixed assets, about 95 percent of total investment commitments for the whole of last year. The $ 15.2 billion mined last year was a seven-year high.
Executive Vice President of the Economic Development Board, Kiren Kumar, said: “Despite the uncertain environment, many companies around the world and from a wide range of industries continue to expand their operations in Singapore to serve Asia and international markets.
“This is because we are business friendly, we are trusted to uphold the rule of law, we are highly connected, and we have a skilled and reliable workforce,” he said.
Several other companies have announced investments in Singapore this year, Kiren noted, citing companies such as PayPal, Rakuten, Kajima, Johnson Controls, Twitter and Zoom.
Paris-based insurance technology company Descartes Underwriting also plans to open an office in Singapore, after raising US $ 18.5 million (S $ 25.3 million) in a recent funding round.
Along with new investments, opportunities arise for workers to acquire new skills.
Ms. Soo from DB Schenker said the Red Lion warehouse has exposed staff to new ways of working.
The facility takes advantage of automation, such as with its internally designed robotic arm that uses a three-dimensional view to select, label and package products simultaneously.
The warehouse also has sustainable features, such as 1,440 photovoltaic solar panels that reduce energy use by approximately 35 percent.
The logistics company, which has been in Singapore for 50 years, intends to continue collaborating with institutes of higher education on relevant supply chain projects, Ms Soo added.
“We hope that these exchanges, along with our (operational experience), will help develop the next generation of supply chain professionals in this industry.”
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