The Knowledge to Decide

Spire returns as the Official Research partner for GATES Indonesia ICT Reseller Channel Summit 2018 once more! The summit will be held between 1-3 May at the Grand Mirage Resorts & Thalasso, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. As one of the research partners, Spire will address the growing impact of online businesses on traditional retail channels in Indonesia. With such crucial information, vendors can prepare for opportunities and challenges head on. The channel industry in Indonesia still continues to face difficulties handling growth, industry consolidation, changing user expectations as well as technological landscape transformations. Join us to get insights directly from channel partners of well known vendors like Intel, Red Hat, Cisco and so much more! Register today! https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/gates-indonesia-ict-reseller-channel-summit-2018-returns/

Spire Research and Consulting was invited to join the ‘Meet The Beneficiaries’ event organized by Yayasan myNADI with Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Abdul Razak as the guest of honor. The presentation was held on 24 March 2018 at Putrajaya with over 600 guests – mostly beneficiaries. Datuk Dr Jeyaindran Tan Sri Sinnadurai, Chairman of Yayasan myNADI discussed the impact study of DiverseCity International Kuala Lumpur Festival (KLIAF) 2017 jointly conducted by Spire Research and Consulting and the Nottingham University Business School. Jeffrey Bahar (Regional Advisory, Deputy Chief Executive Officer), Yap Far Loon (Lead Consultant), Haries Salim (Assistant Manager) and Nathalia Setiawan (Senior Consultant) joined the beneficiary event as supporters of KLIAF. Datin Sunita Rajkumar, the festival director of KLIAF, briefed and handed a copy of KLIAF’s Post Event report to Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib. https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/sp

O n 15 March, Spire and Yamada Consulting Group (YCG) jointly organized a breakfast seminar in Singapore for Japanese speakers, to share insights on Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) deals in Vietnam and investment trends for market entry. An English language seminar on the same theme was held the next day. The speakers were Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, Eiji Asano, incoming Director for YCG Vietnam and Hafidz Omar, Senior Manager at Spire Research and Consulting. The speakers discussed the impact of growing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as the keen interest in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) in Vietnam. Vietnam’s economy racked up a USD15 billion positive trade balance from 2015 with manufacturing, metals and textiles as the top export industries. Most of Vietnam’s FDI came from Asian countries like the Republic of Korea, China and Singapore. The speakers discussed pull factors for investors, like competitive

As 44 million Internet users are added each year in China, cash transactions might become obsolete. Consumers are increasingly using third party mobile payment apps for online transactions. Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, shared his insights on this trend in China Daily – Asia Weekly. A majority of e-commerce purchases in China are now made using mobile devices. Last year, 527 million transactions took place using online payment platforms accessed via smartphones. Perera observed that the m-commerce market is an indicator of China’s rising consumption as well as the surge in smartphone penetration. The growth potential is immense, especially in third and fourth tier cities where consumer credit is rising. Internet giants in China such as Tencent and Alibaba still dominate the m-commerce market. Consumers now prefer Point-of-Sale mobile payments as a safer and more convenient option than cash, with service providers like Alipay, Pay a

The announcement of President Trump’s recent tariff hikes sparked speculation across the globe. Is a global trade war on the cards? Leon Perera, CEO of Spire Research and Consulting, shared his thoughts in The Business Times – Views from the Top section on 19 March 2018. President Trump is heading into dangerous waters with the recently announced trade tariff hikes, for which his administration has cited national security as the rationale under US Trade Law and Article XXI of World Trade Organization’s (WTO) treaty. Voicing concern, Perera highlighted that other nations may use the same pretext to justify retaliatory tariff hikes, placing the tit-for-tat hikes beyond the usual WTO dispute resolution protocols. Nonetheless, the US economy gains more from relatively open global trade, which is why President Trump’s tariff hikes are not broadly supported by the American establishment and not even by most leaders of the President’s Republican party. This means an all

The overall Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activity of Japanese firms continues to grow and overseas M&A deals are in the spotlight. In 2016, Japan’s outbound M&A activity exceeded USD100 billion, the second highest historic level and a 15% increase over 2015. Will Japan continue to tap into international markets in search of growth and sustainability? Growing M&A activity A low economic growth rate and a shrinking population shocked Japan’s business leaders into changing their outlook, prioritizing growth through overseas market development. And M&A was seen as the fastest way to achieve that. Significant cross-border M&A activity is a relatively recent phenomenon in Japan. Japanese M&A volume was robust in 2016, amounting to USD198 billion in total transaction value. Cross-border M&A did well, accounting for 57 per cent of total M&A deals in 2016, up from 45 per cent in 2011. Beginning in 2006, Japan’s cross-border M&A vo

Equivalent to the combined population of the Netherlands, Germany and France, Bangladesh is home to 160 million people. Although it is ranked as one of the world’s poorest of the 10 most populous countries, its economy grew by 7.1 per cent in 2016, a 30 year record. The country is starting to attract the attention of global companies. Can Bangladesh make poverty history? The story so far Bangladesh’s recent economic upturn is attributed to two major factors: its robust NGO sector and its thriving garment manufacturing industry. Bangladesh exported over USD26 billion in clothing, second only to China. Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a devastating war. Just prior to the war, in 1970, a massive cyclone had hit the nation, killing thousands. Today Bangladesh’s GDP per person is USD1,538 in comparison to Pakistan’s at about USD1,470 in June 2016. Some analysts assess that Bangladesh has the potential to emerge as the 23rd largest economy in