China Direct

Mott MacDonald appointed in Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 5 Project

Singapore's Changi Airport Group (CAG) today announced the appointment of the master building consultants, comprising three teams (and including CBI member Mott MacDonald), that will provide architectural design and engineering consultancy services for the development of Changi Airport’s Terminal 5 (T5).

It also announced the appointment of the master civil consultants for the T5-related landside and airfield works.

Please read more here.

Pinsent Masons MPillay to launch consulting service in Singapore

This represents another step in the firm's expansion of innovative services, which saw CBI member Pinsent Masons MPillay take the Vario model to Australia in July 2017. The firm is witnessing increased client demand for its flexible lawyer solution globally and is enhancing its services for clients across APAC.

Pinsent Masons MPillay will formally launch this service in mid 2018 led by Kate Cauldwell-Hunt who will transfer from the UK. Kate will be working closely with Vario Australia to engage with organisations operating within and into Singapore, whilst building the local network of consultants. Pinsent Masons MPillay plans to appoint 30 consultants to the Singaporean bench over the coming six months.

Please read more here.

 

CBI Companies on track with Singapore-Malaysia High Speed Rail Project Bid

 

CBI members Siemens and Alstom, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and George Kent together with PORR have mutually agreed to join forces in a consortium to bid for the Kuala Lumpur - Singapore High Speed Rail Assets Co tender for the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore High Speed Rail project, announced by the Malaysian and Singaporean governments

The companies will work to prepare a joint offer encompassing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations & maintenance (O&M) for the purpose of this tender.

This partnership shall result in a powerful team combining European technology and project experience with the best local expertise. The consortium brings together the two manufacturers, Siemens and Alstom, with decades of technology leadership and excellence in delivering complex cross-border high speed railway projects.

In the past, both companies have worked on similar complex Private Public Partnership (PPP) projects across the globe.

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane brings valuable expertise in railway operation and a vast global footprint. These European companies are joined by George Kent, a Malaysian company offering significant construction experience in rail transportation projects and a strong local knowledge of the Malaysian market.

George Kent is partnering with PORR, a highly experienced track work provider offering a state-of-the-art slab track technology proven in operation on high speed railways.

Please read more here.

Rolls Royce flying high at the Singapore Airshow

 

 

 

CBI member Rolls-Royce today signed contracts with Singapore Airlines at the Singapore Air show covering Trent 1000 and Trent 700 engines. Singapore Airlines formally confirmed a $1.7bn order for Trent 1000 engines to power 19 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which will be covered by Rolls-Royce’s flagship TotalCare® engine support service.

 

The order, originally announced in February 2017, was in addition to an order for Trent 1000 engines for 50 aircraft, made by SIA Group, in 2013. The signing comes as the airline prepares for the entry into service of its first 787-10 aircraft powered by the latest version of the Trent 1000, the Trent 1000 TEN (Thrust, Efficiency, New Technology).

 

A full-size Trent 1000, which is on display at the Rolls-Royce stand and has been a great attraction for visitors, provided the backdrop for the signing.

 

Please read more here.

 

China moves to strengthen ties with Singapore

“Will do our best to bring Asean and China closer together,” Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 李显龙 wrote in a Facebook post following a meeting with China’s premier, Li Keqiang 李克强, on September 19.

The sentiment to increase cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — which Singapore will rotate in to lead next year — and China likely delighted Beijing, which has long viewed the city-state as an important but troublesome partner.

Singapore, being three-quarters ethnically Chinese, is important to China as a gateway to Southeast Asia, but distrusted by Communist Party hardliners for its closeness to Taiwan and the United States — see here for a chart explaining the variety of Chinese views on Singapore.

On September 20, the top headlines on central state media outlets Xinhua (in Chinese, in English) and People’s Daily (in Chinese, in English) were about Lee’s meeting with a visibly buoyant President Xi Jinping.

But as Bloomberg reports, it wasn’t just the President and his Premier, it was all his men, too: Lee met with two more of the seven most powerful men in China, national legislature chief Zhang Dejiang 张德江 and anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan 王岐山 — a meeting that came as a “surprise to many China watchers and apparently even to Wang himself,” the South China Morning Post reports.

What are Singapore and China doing together, other than exchanging friendly bromides? SCMP has the relevant roundup:

• China is trying to get Singapore to have a Chinese company build the planned $14 billion, 350-kilometer (217-mile) high-speed rail line from Singapore to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, expected to be completed in 2026.
• Both countries are implementing the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, a package of financial services, transportation, logistics, and communications services that aims to improve connectivity between Chongqing and Southeast Asia.
• Chinese property developers have flocked to Singapore, as the city-state accounts for more than 15 percent of their outbound investment.
• Trade has flourished, growing 60 percent since 2009 to $85 billion last year, and the countries are currently negotiating an update to their bilateral free trade agreement. China has been Singapore’s top trading partner since 2013.

CBI Member Thales Expands In Singapore - now Group’s Largest Global Repair Hub

CBI member Thales started its commercial avionics operations in Singapore over forty years ago and now produces key systems for the Airbus A320, A350 and Boeing 787 fleets. Singapore houses one of three avionics repair sites for the Group, with the other two located in Chatellerault, France and Piscataway, USA.

In the past year, Thales in Singapore has grown its repair volume by over 30%. In addition to providing repair operations, Thales is also providing a Customer Support Centre (CSC) for Diehl’s Singaporean subsidiary, set up in November last year to better serve its regional customers. The CSC has been operational since 1st January 2017 at the expanded Thales facility in Changi North Rise.

The widened scope of the extended partnership increases Thales’ repair volume in Singapore to an estimated 40,000 pieces of equipment per year, making Singapore the Group’s largest centre for avionics maintenance and repair services worldwide.

Please read more here.

2017 Hays Asia Salary Guide launched - skill shortages continue to burden China's employers

 

 

CBI member Hays launched its 2017 Asia Salary Guide recently.

 

For bilingual press release summaries please refer below.

CN: https://www.hays.cn/press-releases/HAYS_1824357

EN: https://www.hays.cn/en/press-releases/HAYS_1822802

Employers in China express concern over continuing skills shortages

CN: https://www.hays.cn/press-releases/HAYS_1824369

EN: https://www.hays.cn/en/press-releases/HAYS_1824385

UK PM ASEAN Region Visit - An overview

 

Last week, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron led a trade delegation to Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia to boost U.K. trade and investment in the region. He was joined by more than 30 representatives from businesses from every region of the U.K.

In total, the visit resulted in deals worth over £750 million that will create 270 new jobs across the U.K. For example, CBI member Rolls-Royce won a US$580 million (£340 million) TotalCare long-term engine support contract with Vietnam Airlines for Trent XWB engines that will power 14 Airbus A350 XWB aircraft. The new deal will support U.K. manufacturing in Derby, Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing hub for Trent XWB engines. Please read more here.

The British Prime Minister and Business Secretary Sajid Javid also led the first Northern Powerhouse trade mission, taking over 60 northern companies to Singapore and Malaysia, underlining the government’s commitment to the creation of a Northern Powerhouse. The delegation represented a total turnover in excess of £10 billion, with a combined workforce of over 50,000.

The trip came as Malaysian investor Petra Group announced that 90 highly skilled jobs will be created in the North following an investment in the region of £12 million. The company plans to develop a rubber recycling manufacturing facility using their patented technology to produce Green Rubber.

 The Northern Powerhouse trade mission celebrated successes and business wins such as:

• The U.K. Prime Minister announced a new £4 million investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) that will support CBI member The University of Sheffield to build one of the largest dynamic test facilities in the U.K. The facility will enable the University of Sheffield to work with industry to test and research engineering structures and systems from the component level to full scale. It will also allow testing across a range of environments previously inaccessible to academic research. Please read more here.

 

• Manchester-based SME FutureEverything won a contract from the Singapore Government worth £500,000, which will see it explore the Smart Nation through digital culture, developing a Smart Nation Innovation Lab and conference.

 

• Cheshire-based Cambridge Dream, which runs international ‘Leadership and University Preparation’ summer schools at Cambridge University, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Malaysia-based Brighton Education Group. The two education organisations will work together on projects to equip young people across ASEAN with the knowledge and skills to realise their academic and career aspirations.

The U.K. Prime Minister also made a historic visit to the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, pledging to deepen the U.K.’s economic ties with the region. ASEAN Secretary-General H.E. Le Luong Minh updated Mr. Cameron on the progress made in realising the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of this year.

Mr. Mingh also highlighted how ASEAN, with a combined GDP of nearly US$2.6 trillion in 2014, is currently the seventh-largest economy in the world and is on track to become the fourth-largest by 2050.

From the U.K. side, Mr. Cameron commended the progress made in realising the ASEAN Economic Community and said that the U.K. will step up its economic engagement by exploring cooperation in areas such as infrastructure development and e-commerce.

The Prime Minister also said that he would appoint a special envoy for trade to facilitate trade and investment relations between ASEAN and the U.K. Please read more here.

Please click here to read a full overview of the Prime Minister’s visit to Southeast Asia.

Paying tribute to Singapore’s founding father, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015)

 

On Monday, the Singaporean government announced that Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of the Southeast Asian metropolis, had died at the age of 91 after a bout with pneumonia. Serving as Singapore’s first Prime Minister from 1959 until 1990, Mr. Lee was the architect who guided the city-state’s extraordinary transformation from a new nation battling with poverty to a leading global business and transportation hub as well as one of the world’s most prosperous societies.

Following his passing, global leaders have paid tribute to the man widely regarded as one of Asia’s most pivotal and visionary leaders of the past half century.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron praised the Cambridge-educated Mr. Lee for building Singapore into “one of the great success stories of our modern world”, noting that he “was always a friend to Britain, if sometimes a critical one, and many British Prime Ministers benefited from his wise advice, including me.” He went on to say that Mr. Lee’s “place in history is assured, as a leader and as one of the modern world’s foremost statesmen.”

The U.K. is home to one of the largest overseas communities for the former British colony, and Singapore’s High Commission in London has opened a condolence book for those wishing to pay their respects.

In addition, the Singapore UK Association and the UK Singapore Students’ Council are discussing how to get the UK’s Singaporean community to remember and pay tribute to Mr. Lee at an SG50 March for Charity, which will be held this Saturday in London’s Hyde Park.

In China, President Xi Jinping commended Mr. Lee as an “old friend of the Chinese people”, while Premier Li Keqiang stated that Mr. Lee “had worked together with the pioneering generation of Chinese leaders in opening the gate for the friendly cooperation between China and Singapore. His contributions to the China-Singapore relationship and China’s reform and opening up will surely be marked by history.”

Throughout his long tenure at Singapore’s helm, Mr. Lee enjoyed close relations with many of China’s leaders, who were impressed by the level of prosperity achieved under the Singaporean growth model. The Chinese media estimated that Mr. Lee had been to China more than 20 times.

During his last visit in 2011, Mr. Lee met with then Vice President Xi Jinping, who highlighted to the elder statesmen that tens of thousands of Chinese officials had been to Singapore for visiting and studying over the decades, emphasising the important role this had played in promoting strong bilateral relations as well as China’s modernisation.   

Mr. Lee’s passing also triggered an outpouring of tributes from the local business community, including CBI members such as UBS and Standard Chartered, which hailed his remarkable legacy in Singapore and worldwide.     

Current Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr. Lee’s son, has declared seven days of national mourning for the nation’s founding father, and the state funeral is scheduled for 29 March.

CBI Member Successes in China - Snapshot of Year of the The Horse

 

Dear CBI members and strategic partners,

China Direct would like to share with you a snapshot of CBI members' successes in China through 2014. We hope that you found our new format easy to use, visual and informative and wish you all every success for the forthcoming year of the sheep.

Please do keep sending us your updates and press releases so that your business can also be highlighted in 2015.

Thank you.

Download CBI Beijing, Member Milestones in China, 2014