Colorado Technical University Singapore International Business Practices Paper

This is a continuation of what you began last week in the discussion board. Use that as your base and build on it here for your final paper. The total word count for this assignment will be about 1400 to 1800 when you combine the week 4 and week 5 assignments. A regional bank has decided to open an office overseas for serving those businesses that are expanding internationally. Choose a country with a large financial center that you believe would be helpful to your customer base.

• Will your presence in this country be helpful in your attempts to invest in other developing countries?
• Is this country involved in any regional integration efforts? How so?
• Why did you choose this location for your bank?
• As a manager, what would be your overall assessment about whether you want to pursue opening an office there?
  • Are the financial risks worth taking?
  • Will it be beneficial to all of the stakeholders?

In pursuing this, what type of presence do you think would be best suited to your objectives?

• How should the plant be financed?
• Keep in mind that the country that the plant is in does not necessarily have to be where the financing is done.
• What is your final decision on the financial center you chose to work with? Write about the logic and reasoning for your decision?

This is the last week

Singapore

Singapore is the economic jewel of Southeast Asia. One example of a global financial center is Singapore, a logics hub, and original trade. It encompasses a consequential economy. They are one of the most comfortable areas to work in Asia. As English is an official language, few entry barriers, with a powerful pro-business legal framework. Singapore is clean, efficient, and primed for enormous growth in the next decade.

Some challenges I will face in opening up in Singapore is the general logistics cost of moving to Asia. It is expensive to move entire operations to a new market at the onset, but the transactional costs that are saved by the regional proximity to clients, cheap labor, and localized control. Singapore has a diverse history, with Indian, Chinese, and European roots. It was once a small fishing village and trading port colonized by the British and then crushed in World War II. As a former British colony, Singapore has a standard law legal system, and the government is a republic with a parliamentary system. Both the political and economic systems indicate stability and reinforcing the justification to invest in Singapore.

According to the Index, “Singapore is the only country in the world that is considered economically free in every Index category” (Heritage 2020). The government is pro-business and plays little role in intervening in the market with burdensome regulations and proposals. However, the government has imposed certain restrictions on importing foreign labor to ensure that the domestic labor force is protected. Thus, in the labor freedom index category, it dropped just slightly. Singapore is a free-market capitalist system that encourages the free-enterprise and entrepreneurship that Western countries can embrace. It is a highly-developed free-market economy that has seen immense growth due to the favorable investment and foreign business climate.

Individual tax rates are capped at twenty-two percent. The corporate tax is seventeen. Concerning an international market, China, along with the U.S. and Malaysia, is their main trading partners. The biggest challenge that they expect to see is the ongoing trade tensions between China and the U.S. Other than that, Singapore is an import and export machine, with friendly trade policies. For example, “the average applied tariff rate is 0.1 percent, and 182 nontariff measures are in force” (Heritage 2020). Irrespective of foreign ownership, Singapore treats all companies, big and mall, to the same standards and equally under the law.

Lastly, and arguably an essential component to the relocation to Singapore, is the necessity to engage in Singapore’s culture. To be successful in these markets, one must understand the region’s social, political, and economic culture. In Singapore, domestic businesses and government officials cherish the ability to create a friendship, face-to-face, with the foreign company looking to come in. They provide a friendly business climate, but they also ensure that the business is the right fit for their contemporary business culture.

References

Foundation, Heritage. Singapore. 2020, www.heritage.org/index/country/singapore.

Intext citation and reference please