The Knowledge to Decide

With the increase in pet ownership, healthcare and spending, Asia’s pet industry is expected to grow at 14.3 per cent annually from 2016 to 2021. Pet ownership as well as expenditure per pet is increasing. Will Asia become the next global hub for pet-related products and services? The beginning of pet ownership As of 2016, the majority of households across the globe owned a pet. Pets have been a part of human society for thousands of years. Cats and dogs were buried with humans. The ancient Romans also kept small toy dogs approximately 2,000 years ago. As of 2016, the majority of households across the globe owned a pet. Dogs are officially man’s best friend with one third of households world-wide (on average) owning a dog. Cats are not far behind, with one quarter of households (23 per cent) owning cats, making them the second most popular pet. Where do the market opportunities lie? The annual growth rate of the pet care industry in Asia between 2017- 20

After 20 years of becoming an independent judiciary, does Hong Kong continue to remain a financial and business hub? Will this impact businesses in Singapore? Leon Perera, CEO of Spire Research and Consulting shared his insights in The Business Times – Views from the Top section on 10 July 2017 on Hong Kong’s economic climate and its impact on businesses in Singapore. Hong Kong continues to attract investors due to many factors such as a high- quality civil service, economic linkages to China’s Pearl River Delta economy as well as geographic proximity to the economic giants of Korea, Japan and China. Perera opined that despite economic and political uncertainties as well as what some perceive as political encroachment from Beijing, Hong Kong will remain an important business hub for the foreseeable future. Hong Kong both complements and competes with Singapore. Many multinational corporations (MNCs) use both cities as Asia-Pacific regional headquarters (RHQs). Shanghai

The establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 was a major milestone in the region’s economic integration. With a GDP of USD2.6 trillion and 600 million people, the AEC is Asia’s third largest economy and the seventh largest in the world. What is the AEC score card thus far? Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, shared his insights in China Daily – Asia Weekly. AEC’s Blueprint 2025 envisions in achieving a highly integrated and competitive regional economy with enhanced connectivity to improve market access for ASEAN companies to sell goods and services. However, the past year has seen missed opportunities to accelerate progress for cross-border investment between ASEAN countries, speeding up the harmonization progress of non-tariff barriers as well as integrating a competition policy across ASEAN. Nevertheless, the AEC is making some progress. In time, it is well-placed to improve market access and provide the ASEAN groupin

With an increased rating of overall quality of taxi services in Singapore up to 60.3% in 2015 from 52.4% in 2014, these findings appeared in the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) third annual Taxi Customer Satisfaction Survey (TCSS) conducted by Spire Research and Consulting. The survey measures regular taxi commuters’ satisfaction with taxi services. It also aims to understand commuters’ expectations and identify areas for improvement. What are the areas for improvement? The findings of the survey were also published on LTA’s website. Spire’s survey spans across 1,200 regular taxi commuters (aged 15 years and above) interviewed between August to September 2015. Taxi commuters were questioned on eight key service attributes to include driver’s knowledge of routes, safety of taxi services, taxi stand accessibility, customer service, ease of taxi booking, ride comfort, waiting time and information on taxi services. According to the survey, safety continues to be a concern am

Post-harvest losses amount to 10% in India – where the percentage might be higher for fruits and vegetables. To help, US-based impact investment firm, Creation Investments Capital Management led a USD15 million investment through private equity in Sohan Lal Commodity Management (SLCM), an Indian agricultural logistics firm in September 2015. SLCM’s technology platform known as Agri Reach offers protection and storage services for agricultural commodities to farmers, stakeholders, traders as well as importers and exporters involved in the trade. This is achieved through a vast network spread across 17 cold storages and 760 warehouses in India. It further claims to reduce post-harvest losses down to 0.5% with this technology. With global expansion on the line, SLCM offered procurement solutions and warehouse management in Myanmar (in 2014). The African market is also under their radar. Is agricultural infrastructure set to improve in India? https://www.spireresearc

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) aims for regional economic integration this year. What implications will it have on the burgeoning ASEAN business environment? Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, shared his insights in the Asian version of Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. As the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries liberalize trade in line with AEC goals, the ASEAN economic landscape is changing. Many of the goals of the AEC in terms of liberalizing trade in goods have already been realized ahead of the 2015 deadline. This has helped to build up a positive momentum for the AEC project. This will also stimulate some restructuring of manufacturing activities in the region going forward. However the progress towards AEC goals in terms of freeing up human resources and services is lagging. It will take some years after 2015 before these are realized, due to the greater sensitivity of changes in these spheres. However, Perera ca