Singapore develops into regional franchise hub: official

The franchise industry in Singapore generated some 8 billion Singapore dollars (5.59 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue last year, a Singapore official said on Thursday.

At the launch of Franchising and Licensing Asia 2009, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education S Iswaran said that the number of franchise concepts in Singapore has grown from 380 in 2003 to about 500, a 30 percent increase over 5 years.

He said that franchising is now a preferred strategy for small and medium enterprises, as it is easily scalable with minimal investment and manpower costs.

Iswaran said that Singapore is also fast developing into a regional franchise hub as with its developed intellectual property(IP) infrastructure, many foreign companies have already chosen Singapore as a base to house their franchise IP systems and rights.

He added that with funding from the government's Local Enterprise and Association Development Program, the Franchising and Licensing Association (FLA) will be able to offer local companies assistance in market development, industry development and manpower training.

Source:Xinhua