10 replies to this topic

[Praetorian]

Which country in ASIA should your Regional Distribution Center be situated? Please share your thoughts...

This is something that most of us would wanna know as Asia market for industrial automation is picking up and growing rapidly for more than a decade. This poll may help us all to better understand which is the better market to expand our operations.

I also realized that the people in Asia has a different mentality than those in the European countries. In Europe, competitors worked closely together to explore into the foreign markets, and they're seen very united. They share their thougths sincerely towards each other to forge better relations. But in Asia, competitors are seen fighting furiously among each other in their so call "business warfare", and they do not see eye-to-eye with each other, giving each other false market information for its own benefit. This in a short term period may benefit their organization, but in the long run, the country will not grow as the industry do not rely on just one hero alone to uplift the entire industrial automation sector.

So therefore, I wish to call upon all, to look at the bigger picture, and at least for this once, share your thoughts to all, and place your votes. I believed that this poll may also help automation companies to identify and plan which is the better lace to invest.

Of course, ths is not an official quote, and please do not rely on this information alone to judge your plans of actions or directions for your organization.

[Piggy]

Singapore would be the most ideal place, I guess... It has always been "the regional hub" for import and export for many many years, and many internationally companies have benefited from here.

Taxes are low, and with just 5% GST, and you're able to get a efficient rebate when you re-export to the neighbouring countries.

Machine builders in the automation industries is one good example, that by situating here in Singapore, you can build an automated system almost tax free inclusive of its components as well. And by implementing these complete machines in the neighbouring countries, and some of these countries have Tax Exemption for Hi-tech automated machines. Not forgeting that the price of components are cheaper in Singapore, thus creating the competitive edge for S'pore based machine builders exporting into the neighbouring countries.

Due to this reason, more machine builders are situated in S'pore, which will benefit international makers of components and parts suppliers.

[Pretty Woman]

Singapore would be the most ideal place, I guess... It has always been "the regional hub" for import and export for many many years, and many internationally companies have benefited from here.

Taxes are low, and with just 5% GST, and you're able to get a efficient rebate when you re-export to the neighbouring countries.

Machine builders in the automation industries is one good example, that by situating here in Singapore, you can build an automated system almost tax free inclusive of its components as well. And by implementing these complete machines in the neighbouring countries, and some of these countries have Tax Exemption for Hi-tech automated machines. Not forgeting that the price of components are cheaper in Singapore, thus creating the competitive edge for S'pore based machine builders exporting into the neighbouring countries.

Due to this reason, more machine builders are situated in S'pore, which will benefit international makers of components and parts suppliers.

Hello Piggy, you may be sleeping for too long (Just joking)

Singapore, I believed, is no longer competitive to be the regional hub as standard of living in the republic has been very high. Yes its true, that the desirability of staying in Singapore is wonderful, but when it comes to business, its far to expensive to operate there.

Don't be too complacent about taking advantage of the Tax Savings for machine building in Singapore, as you may well be aware of, that Malaysian government has started to take measures to protect machine builders in the country. As you may be able to see it in one of the topics in this forum on Dialogue Sessions with Mida (which I think its a govt agency equavalent to both EDB and JTC together in Singapore), and they're really very aggressive in bringing in Foreign Direct Investments.

If Mida takes steps to enhance machine builders in M'sia by giving them tax free incentives when importing automation components & parts, then local machine builders will be able to compete far better than Singapore be it locally in M'sia or its neighbouring countries, as cost of skilled labour is reasonably lower, property prices more affordable, culture and mindset of Malaysians are excellent, and many more other benefits.

And imagine this, if machine builders are given Tax Exemptions, wow, even the machine builders from Singapore will flood into Malaysia. And having said that, the entire supply chain will follow on and will turn Malaysia as their Regional Distribution Centre for Asia. That's why if you were to look into the thread posted by the Chairman of the FMM automation grouping, the replies include international companies situated in Singapore, stating their interest to attend the dialogue sessions with Mida. This is the sign, my friend...

But Singapore has its own assets and advantages too, in terms of education, professional workforce, legal systems, and many more...

[Praetorian]

Hello Piggy, you may be sleeping for too long (Just joking)

Singapore, I believed, is no longer competitive to be the regional hub as standard of living in the republic has been very high. Yes its true, that the desirability of staying in Singapore is wonderful, but when it comes to business, its far to expensive to operate there.

Don't be too complacent about taking advantage of the Tax Savings for machine building in Singapore, as you may well be aware of, that Malaysian government has started to take measures to protect machine builders in the country. As you may be able to see it in one of the topics in this forum on Dialogue Sessions with Mida (which I think its a govt agency equavalent to both EDB and JTC together in Singapore), and they're really very aggressive in bringing in Foreign Direct Investments.

If Mida takes steps to enhance machine builders in M'sia by giving them tax free incentives when importing automation components & parts, then local machine builders will be able to compete far better than Singapore be it locally in M'sia or its neighbouring countries, as cost of skilled labour is reasonably lower, property prices more affordable, culture and mindset of Malaysians are excellent, and many more other benefits.

And imagine this, if machine builders are given Tax Exemptions, wow, even the machine builders from Singapore will flood into Malaysia. And having said that, the entire supply chain will follow on and will turn Malaysia as their Regional Distribution Centre for Asia. That's why if you were to look into the thread posted by the Chairman of the FMM automation grouping, the replies include international companies situated in Singapore, stating their interest to attend the dialogue sessions with Mida. This is the sign, my friend...

But Singapore has its own assets and advantages too, in terms of education, professional workforce, legal systems, and many more...

Well Pretty Woman, you do have a point there...

Is there any other views on this issue???

[kakashi]

Well Pretty Woman, you do have a point there...

Is there any other views on this issue???

Indonesia would be a better place to set up I think, because of the low cost, low overheads....just cheaper to run the operations...
Singapore is too expensive...Malaysia is also becoming expensive...

I don't think China is a good place to set up the regional distribution center though....
China should be one market by itself...

[Richard Goh]

Everything in Japan if at all possible.
Fast, fuss-free and hardworking employess.
But since it's much too costly there and adding the fact that Japanese companies are outsourcing to other Asian regions, it's highly improbable that a country's regional distribution centre will be there.
Perhaps the Asia-Pacific headquarters, but yen yen yen mate
Cheers!

[nyugen]

Come to Vietnam!
Infrastructure is good and costs are lower than most Asean countries.

[cnkh]

agree with richard goh!! cheers

[gandalf]

nguyen..

i bet you are from vietnam.. i will be heading there for IIME 2006,

Can you tell us the current situation in Vietnam.. my company is looking to expand and Vietnam is

just one of its many candidate to place our regional distribution centre.

[haisoncompany]

nguyen..

i bet you are from vietnam.. i will be heading there for IIME 2006,

Can you tell us the current situation in Vietnam.. my company is looking to expand and Vietnam is

just one of its many candidate to place our regional distribution centre.

I have seen the IIME 2006 recently and it is much different with the ones in 80s or 90s, a lot of Chinese manaufacturers exihibiting their Made-In-China machines while in the past it was almost from Europe, Japan or US countries. So, I think Asia is now stronger in mechanical engineering and manufacturing capability and maybe industrial automation will become the next strong industry in ASEAN...

Nguyen said Vietnam but I do not believe in this possibility even i am also a Vietnamese. The reason is that we do not have the right HR for this and in this business cost does not play the most decisive role but experience and market size will do. Vietnam is new market so we certainly do not have the 2 conditions.

Infrastructure in Vietnam is improving a lot but I have been around the regional countries as well as Europe and must say that our infrastructure is nothing more special than others. May be our beach is better than the oil - polluted beach in Singapore, the cost paid for their development and they collect a lot of money from the ships docked out there amd also the refineries in Jurong island

[Praetorian]

I have seen the IIME 2006 recently and it is much different with the ones in 80s or 90s, a lot of Chinese manaufacturers exihibiting their Made-In-China machines while in the past it was almost from Europe, Japan or US countries. So, I think Asia is now stronger in mechanical engineering and manufacturing capability and maybe industrial automation will become the next strong industry in ASEAN...

Nguyen said Vietnam but I do not believe in this possibility even i am also a Vietnamese. The reason is that we do not have the right HR for this and in this business cost does not play the most decisive role but experience and market size will do. Vietnam is new market so we certainly do not have the 2 conditions.

Infrastructure in Vietnam is improving a lot but I have been around the regional countries as well as Europe and must say that our infrastructure is nothing more special than others. May be our beach is better than the oil - polluted beach in Singapore, the cost paid for their development and they collect a lot of money from the ships docked out there amd also the refineries in Jurong island

They don't just collect lots of money from the ships docked out there... They collect lots of money everywhere...

Serious Business: I still think that Malaysia will still be the leader within the ASEAN countries for industrial automation, guess many machine builders, and system integrators in S'pore will agree with me too. Lots of business for Europe and US outsourcing of machine building have been lost to Malaysian automation companies.

As for Vietnam, I do agree with Haisoncompany, as Vietnam is still on the verge of industrialization, so IA will not be a good business venture during this period. I believe now is the best time for trading of used and re-conditioned metalworking and precision machineries, carbide toolings, drill bits, accessories, etc.

As for Thailand, its not really a competition to Malaysian markets due to its current status of unsure politics, but once after the elections, I strongly believed that the industrial sectors will boom.

Currently, Indonesia... I guess, is the only one coming close to Malaysian automation markets... Local manufacturers there have seen automating their manufacturing processes, and many of these projects are done by Malaysian companies.

Finally, my conclusion: Singapore has been the leading in the industrial automation industry in the ASEAN region in the 90s, and due to much investments, market penetrations, and technology transfers into Malaysia... today, automation industry in Malaysia has taken the lead due to the fact that most of the machine builders did not take it into account that intellectual property were the key to protecting their very own designs and technologies. Now I'm seeing this happening in Malaysia, as many machine builders are innovating new automation systems and merely selling their technologies into Indonesia without protecting themselves. Don't be surprised that in a few years time when Vietnam is ready and mature for automation markets, and by that time, Malaysia may no longer be competitive to Thailand and Indonesia's penetration into Vietnam's huge automation markets.