S’pore tops Asian assignment poll

Source: Straits Times - 15 Oct 2008

SINGAPORE is the top choice in Asia for companies which are considering sending employees on overseas assignments.

A new survey finds the Republic is also heavily favoured as the easiest place to ‘localise’ an expatriate, that is, convert his pay package from expat to local terms.

These are among the findings of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) International Assignment Services, in its first survey focused on understanding international mobility trends and challenges of Singapore-based companies.

The survey polled 105 multinational companies based in Singapore in March to July this year. They included finance giants Credit Suisse and JP Morgan Chase, Philips Electronics Singapore, Intercontinental Hotels Group Asia Pacific and Kraft Foods.

Singapore was the choice of 70 per cent of those surveyed, when asked to indicate their top three host assignment locations in Asia. Mainland China came in a close second, with 68 per cent; while Hong Kong was third, with 32 per cent.

‘In Singapore, the Government has successfully introduced initiatives that have attracted significant foreign investment and, with this, the focus on talent attraction and retention has inevitably come to the forefront,’ said Mr James Clemence, a partner of PwC International Assignment Services.

PwC said the finding was testament to Singapore’s strong drive in this area, through the use of government initiatives such as the Personal Employment Pass, and competitive personal tax rates.

Attracting talent here on assignments - which are defined as ranging from three months to three or four years - is one thing, but keeping them here over the long term is another. Yet, Singapore has shown it is capable of retaining foreign talent as well.

This aspect of the issue was proven when the PwC survey showed that a whopping 79 per cent of the companies felt that Singapore was the easiest location in Asia to localise foreign talent.

The next spot went to Hong Kong, with just 9 per cent.

‘Localisation’ is the term often used when an employee is converted from expatriate terms to local terms.

Someone who is employed on ‘local terms’ thus receives salary and benefits (such as medical ones) in accordance with local pay scales.

There are many incentives for foreign talent here to be localised, given Singapore’s stable social and political environment, as well as its good infrastructure.

In contrast, the respondents said it was harder to implement localisation in countries such as China and India. Reasons cited include resistance to the localisation package, schooling, housing and other environmental and social issues.