The Knowledge to Decide

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

India’s government hopes that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be a game changing reform for the Indian economy, creating a common Indian market and reducing confusing multiple taxes . It is forecasted to raise India’s GDP growth rate by over one percentage point . Will the GST really live up to these expectations? Demystifying the GST bill Hailed as one of the biggest taxation reforms in India, the Indian GST is a comprehensive indirect tax structure, to be levied at all points in the supply chain – manufacturing and sale of goods and services at a national level. At present, India is home to multiple taxes separately managed by Central and State governments, such as the Central Excise duty and Custom duties. Moreover, Value-added Tax (VAT), entry tax, luxury tax and entertainment tax come under the State level. Once the GST is implemented, all these taxes will come under a single tax structure, leading to a common market with the removal of fiscal barriers betwee

Singapore and Sri Lanka signed the first modern and comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) earlier this year. This is expected to boost commerce, trade and investments between the two island nations. Sri Lanka is Singapore’s 36th-largest trading partner with bilateral trade amounting to SGD2.7 billion in 2017. Singapore’s top imports from Sri Lanka include fuel oils, clothing accessories, perfumes, wheat flour and motor spirit, while Singapore’s exports to Sri Lanka include gold and jewelry, diesel fuel and petroleum oil, to name a few. Will companies take advantage of the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/singapore-signs-a-free-trade-pact-with-sri-lanka/

As Korea races to lead the global robotics industry, the Korean robotics market continues to grow at an annual average of 22% a year. Is Korea ready to rub shoulders with global players? Spire Research and Consulting shared its insights, published on the Korea IT Times news portal. The global industrial robot market is expected to grow to USD40 billion by 2020, at an average annual growth rate of 5.2% from 2014. However, Korea’s robot manufacturing market is expected to grow much faster, by 21.5% a year, to reach USD19.4 billion by 2020. Interestingly, Korea’s first humanoid robot – HUBO – developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, beating tough competitors from Hong Kong, Italy, Germany, Japan and the U.S. This prestigious competition is funded by the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The competition aims to develop semi-autonomous (ground) robots that can work under risk-p