What's NewS Singapore Singapore - 10 years on Supplement for What's NewS July 1996 'Booming market', 'strong economie growth', 'Asian tiger' - all are terms that are almost synonymous with Singapore. Yet, when the bank first entered this market back in 1986, Singapore was experiencing what would prove a sobering, though brief recession. In spite of less promising prospects at the time, Rabobank still went in. And its confidence was more than justified.Ten years later and the bank has built a strong position in this exciting market, not least in commodity finance where it ranks as one of the leading banks. But there is more to the Singapore branch than serving its own home market. Singapore's mandate covers a constellation of countries as varied Vietnam, Thailand and India. As ^^Singapore Rabobankers celebrate the first decade, What's NewS asks them how they tackle a variegated range of immature and maturing markets. BURMA BANGLADESH LA0S VIETNAM CAMBODIA SRI LANKA MALAYSIA SINGAPORE Hl INOONESIA According to general manager, Hans Hannaart, the best way to describe Singapore is as the regional centre for South-East Asia. 'Our role,' he says, 'is to be a support centre, a centre of competence, for a geographic region that covers Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the rest of Indo-China, the Philippines, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and, of course, the big one: India.' The development of these markets has been gradual. As a first step, Singapore attempts to build a presence in each. 'That's correct,' Hannaart confirms. 'A good example of how we proceed is Malaysia. We begin marketing efforts from the branch here in Singapore. Once we have built up a presence, we follow the concept of being close to our clients and subsequently establish an operation there. The Malaysia operation has now been up and running for almost two years and they are gradually consolidating our position there. Thailand is another example - it has been operational for almost a year. The latest addition to the network is Vietnam, where a Singapore account manager with a broad experience in that particular market, Lai Chong Tuck, will be opening up for business this summer.' CROSS-BORDER ACTIVITY Clearly, Singapore has a lot of ground to cover in its own specific region. But how does it fit into the rest of the network in the Far East? 'I think we're extremely interactive,' Hannaart says. 'Hong Kong also has its own geographic responsibilities - China is a huge potential market. Then there is Indonesia and, of course, Australia. What we try to do is to work closely with all the other branches in the whole region because there is an immense amount of cross border activity going on here. Just to give you one example. There are a lot of Australian companies investing in South- East Asia; and a lot of South- East Asian companies investing in Australia. Then there are numerous Asian companies going into China. So there are major links between all our offices, particularly in the field of agribusiness project finance. At present, we're working on a couple of transactions in Vietnam in which both Australia and Hong Kong are involved. And then there's a Singapore acquisition of an Australian company - both offices are working on that. In SINGAPORE - GROTE AMBITIES In 10 jaar tijd is er al veel gebeurd, maar Singapore zelf is nog niet tevreden. De top op gebied van commodities is bereikt. Dit dankzij het zeer ervaren team dat er nu zit en de naam als top F&A bank. Ook in andere sectoren streeft men een toppositie na. Als Center of Competence voor de regio is men verantwoordelijk voor alle landen waar nog geen vestiging aanwezig is. Men biedt de bestaande vestigingen ondersteuning waar nodig, met name op het gebied van syndicaten, projectfinanciering en speciale treasury producten.

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 7