As the trading hub in Southeast Asia Singapore is an ideal location for international companies. 7000 international firms use the city state as a stepping stone to the ASEAN countries and Australia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has ten Member States, among them countries with high growth rates such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and a total population of 570 million people. Due to mutual free-trade agreements among the members of the community of states trade is largely tariff-free.
With a trading volume of USD 30 billion, Germany is the most important European trading partner of the ASEAN states. Today, more than 1,200 German firms are domiciled in Singapore alone. German investment there amounts to EUR 8 billion. In particular the increasing energy demand in the region and a growing interest in renewable energies offer vast business opportunities for German companies, which have a leading position in this area. There is also a huge potential in the infrastructure sector.
To support the activities of the German export industry and German investors in Southeast Asia, KfW IPEX-Bank opened a representative office in Singapore. The central task of the representative office is to help establish new business contacts and maintain existing contacts, among others with local banks in the region. The increasing demand for financing in local currency and growing local content requirements require a stronger involvement of local banks and regional credit insurance agencies in financing transactions.
KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH is a bank incorporated and licensed in Germany, regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the German Central Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank). The Representative Office is only registered with, and not regulated by, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
