S'pore can be consumer hub

FOR years, Singapore has used its glitzy malls and the wide range of products sold in them to attract tourists from all over the world.

Now, the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) is suggesting Singapore turn this into a new growth area by establishing itself as a 'consumer business centre', where companies can come to learn what a diverse range of shoppers want.

This may seem counter-intuitive as Singapore does not have a big consumer market, said Mr Heng Swee Keat, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and one of the co-chairs of the ESC sub-committee that came up with this recommendation.

But it offers a good base from which global companies can understand Asian consumers, he said.

'We are quite good at the very hard things: the consumer analytics, the data, analysing the market research and market intelligence,' Mr Heng told reporters at a press briefing yesterday.

'But the consumer business is not just the very hard analytics, it's also the creative part of it: the marketing, the branding, the design. And those are the areas in which we need to grow new skills.'