THE shortage of biotech talent in Singapore is set to widen by 29.2 per cent over the next decade as the sector expands, according to a report released by deep tech investor SGInnovate on Monday (Dec 19). 

Authored by global strategy firm LEK Consulting, the report forecasts that the number of biotech companies in Singapore will grow by over 61.5 per cent between 2022 and 2032, from 52 to 84. 

The number of clinical-phase companies is expected to more than double to 36 in the next 10 years, while those in the commercial phase are expected to grow from three to nine. The number of pre-clinical companies, which has grown rapidly since 2012, is expected to stand at 39 in 2032.

Biotech startups are a key engine of innovation, as global pharma companies pursue a strategy of acquiring, co-developing with or licensing therapeutics from smaller biotech companies. While the outlook for Singapore as a biotech hub is positive, talent is a key constraint. 

The shortage in the number of personnel is set to grow 30 per cent, from 154 in 2022 to 199 in 2032, the report predicts. Key roles facing the shortage include research and development, production, regulatory affairs and business management.

It is mainly biotech companies in the clinical stage that are set to face shortages, across junior, manager and C-suite roles. The gap is most critical at the C-suite level, with the need for professionals that can support business management activities such as fundraising and business direction.

Managers who drive vendor and third-party engagement would also be in shortage.

In contrast, the talent gap is expected to narrow for pre-clinical companies, as research professionals flock to these companies for hands-on industry experience with these early-stage players, the report said.

To address the talent crunch, the report recommends that biotech companies accelerate career progression for experienced juniors reaching managerial level, through rotations and secondments. Incentives could also be provided for talent to relocate from overseas.

Meanwhile, biotech companies should be incentivised to conduct their phase II and III clinical trials locally, to allow professionals to gain experience with industry-level operations. Phase II trials involve testing a drug in a larger group, while phase III trials compare the safety and efficacy to existing treatments, before commercialisation. 

“Singapore can also position itself as a facilitating hub for trials in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for local and overseas biotech companies that target this market,” the report said. 

It also suggested that pre-clinical research organisations could be set up in Singapore, to provide professionals with opportunities to manage the outsourcing of experiments in pre-clinical settings.

SGInnovate will work with industry stakeholders to support biotech talent development based on the report’s insights, said Juliana Lim, the organisation’s executive director for talent. 

“While the talent gap remains a perennial issue for biotech companies globally, the demand for expertise in these areas presents an opportunity for researchers and academia to gain industry exposure,” she added.

Source: The Business Times. Link Here.

CORPORATE governance practices among Singapore companies improved in 2021, with the average score of its top 100 public companies by market capitalisation breaching 100 points for the first time. This was out of a maximum score of 130 points, according to the latest edition of a corporate governance scoring system for companies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries.

Singapore companies scored an average of 101.1 points in the 2021 Asean corporate governance scorecard, a 14.5 per cent increase from an average of 88.3 points in 2019, said the National University of Singapore Business School’s Centre for Governance and Sustainability (CGS) and the Singapore Institute of Directors on Wednesday (Dec 14). Both entities have been tasked to serve as Singapore’s domestic ranking body for the biennial assessment since 2013.

These companies make up a total of about S$586 billion in market capitalisation as at March 2021, which is about more than half of the Singapore stock exchange’s market value of about S$1 trillion at that time. 

Out of these top 100 companies, which have been scored on publicly disclosed information up to November 2021, 62 of them scored at least 75 per cent on their corporate governance practices, translating to a raw score of 97.5 points. Companies that have scored at least 75 per cent are placed in a category known as the “Asean asset class”, which is marketed as a mark of quality for investors interested in investible entities in this region.

Only 26 Singapore companies made it to the Asean asset class in the 2019 assessment. Singapore’s representation in this category grew from 18.8 per cent (26 out of 138 entities) in 2019 to 26.5 per cent (62 out of 234 entities) in 2021. 

For the first time, 29 real estate investment trusts (Reits) and business trusts were included in Singapore’s ranking in the 2021 assessment. Just over seven in 10, or 72.4 per cent, of them did well enough to score 75 per cent and above, while 57.7 per cent of publicly listed companies did so. 

However, CGS director Lawrence Loh, who is also a professor at the university, said during a media conference on Wednesday that the inclusion of Reits and other business trusts were not the main reason for the improvements in corporate governance performance. Rather, there was a levelling up across the board. 

Loh pointed out that the average score of Singapore corporates that made it to the Asean asset class category was shaved slightly from 108.1 points in 2019, to 106.2 points in 2021. 

In contrast, those that scored below 75 per cent registered an increase of 11.7 points to 93 points – higher than the 81.3 points non-Asean asset class companies achieved in 2019.

“Good corporate governance is not always done at the top. In fact, once you’ve reached the upper tier, it’s very hard to improve anymore, because you have reached that point where a little nudge will take a lot of effort. But we are very happy that the non-Asean asset class over the last round has made significant strides across the board, which is something that pulled the entire train forward. So it is actually the non-Asean asset class pulling everybody up, not the Asean asset class,” he said. 

The Asean corporate governance scorecard is made up of five components: rights of shareholders, equitable treatment of shareholders, role of stakeholders, disclosure and transparency, and board responsibilities. The scores in these focus areas add up to 100 points, with a maximum of 30 bonus points given to companies that display good market practices beyond the basic requirements. 

The main drivers of improvements in corporate governance practices among Singapore corporates were due to progress made in board responsibilities, which have a large weightage of 40 per cent; and the role of stakeholders, said Loh. Shareholders’ rights and equitable treatment of shareholders are the two areas Singapore corporates have been stagnant in. 

With an increased focus on sustainability issues and environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures, which fall under the “role of stakeholders” scoring component and only have a 15 per cent weightage, Loh said Singapore could advocate for this particular area to be emphasised more in the overall score. This would help to move the scorecard more in line with initiatives in Singapore’s domestic market, with the Singapore Exchange mandating ESG disclosures from 2022. SGX is also considering plans to mandate remuneration disclosures of company executives. 

However, John Lim, lead member of Singapore’s domestic ranking body, noted that Asean is a region with varying levels of development, and there is always some accommodation that needs to be made to develop a collective scorecard for use at the regional level. Besides Singapore, the top 100 listed companies in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were also included in the latest scoring exercise. 

Nevertheless, Lim noted that this Asean corporate governance index is increasingly benchmarked against principles of corporate governance set out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and G20, to raise its relevance among external bodies, including international institutional investors.

Top scorers include Netlink NBN Trust, UOB, ComfortDelGro and – before it was privatised – Singapore Press Holdings. These four companies are also among the top 20 Asean publicly listed business entities. 

Beyond the top four scorers, other Singapore companies that made it to the top 10 domestic rankings are CapitaLand (before it restructured into CapitaLand Investment), Keppel Corp, Singtel, Far East Hospitality Trust, Singapore Post and Sembcorp Industries.

5 tips for more effective e-commerce

The world is starting to shake off the lingering effects of the pandemic. Now the long-awaited “new normal” is shaping up to be quite different to what went before – especially for e-tailers. COVID fundamentally shifted consumer behavior as older buyers joined younger generations in embracing online shopping. But under a shifting economic environment, there are additional new influences on how and where consumers are shopping. For SMEs who turned to e-commerce as a pandemic lifeline, the question now is where should they focus their attention to win new customers and ensure continued success?

New research from FedEx provides a useful roadmap to help navigate the latest e-commerce trends to help enhance your online experience. The platforms you sell from, how environmentally friendly you are and how personalized your service is with options, offers and entertainment will all impact the clicks you receive and help build repeat purchases. Here are five tips for immediate impact.

Tip 1: Move to marketplaces

Today, the most customer-dense locations are online marketplaces. They account for almost 80% of the region’s e-commerce spend and that share has been increasing over the last three years. 93% of consumers currently purchase from marketplaces and more than half (55%) buy only from them.

Over 40% of SMEs already use marketplaces exclusively compared with a quarter who only sell direct to consumers using their own e-commerce platforms. Control of functionality and customer data, building brand awareness and avoiding restrictions are among the reasons for maintaining owned brand platforms. These are all great benefits, but in following only this track you miss out on the high traffic and lower set up costs that marketplaces offer.

To make the most of these opportunities, SMEs should select the marketplaces that offer the best ease of use for consumers and closer integration with logistics service providers which will result in more sustainable growth.

Tip 2: Support sustainability

E-merchants consistently underestimate consumer expectations around sustainability. Nearly 75% believe that price and delivery speed matter more to consumers. The real picture is completely different. 8 out of 10 of consumers expect their e-tailers to be sustainable. To succeed in the new normal, e-tailers need to radically change their mindset. Consumers confirm that delivery speed is an important consideration for them, but it is alongside sustainability not instead of sustainability.

70% of consumers say they are more likely to buy goods from a company with an effective Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policy. That’s an opportunity waiting to be tapped. Only 29% of SME e-tailers have an ESG policy in place. Logistics is an important area to consider in an ESG strategy and it’s a good idea to ask your logistics partners what they are doing to actively decarbonize. As well as using sustainable packaging and electric vehicles for delivery, digital solutions can reduce paper, increase efficiency and improve customer experience. Communicating sustainability wins to customers and involving them in the process can also enhance differentiation and boost loyalty.

Tip 3: New payment processes

Search Google for “Ecommerce Payment Methods” and you’ll get over 18 million hits. And even more ways to pay are appearing nearly every day. Which of them will reach critical mass is an open question, but over two-thirds of consumers (69%) say they prefer to buy from companies that support the latest payment options.

SMEs are well aware of the opportunity, with 69% agreeing that payment process is an effective competitive differentiator. But integrating new payment methods into their systems and day-to-day operations can exacerbate two of the top e-commerce pain points – cybersecurity and customer fraud.

To make progress and remain competitive, SMEs must pick the most promising payment methods to invest resources in. Ease of integration with day-to-day operations and customer experience are as important as mitigating cyber threats and preventing fraud.

Tip 4: Prepare for shoppertainment

Shoppertainment combines ecommerce with entertainment and the everyday lifestyle of the target audience. At present, only 30% of SMEs use it to engage with online customers. However, since it is so popular with consumers who say it encourages them to make e-commerce purchases, many e-tailers are seriously considering employing shoppertainment to attract new customers and increase transactions.

The approach can be particularly effective when combined with big e-commerce events like Black Friday or Double Days which continue to prove their staying power. At least half of the consumers in our survey want more online shipping festivals, and 90% of e-merchants plan to hold their own shoppertainment events within the next 12-months.

With appetite for events and offers certain to grow, businesses need to manage these and ensure that the consumer e-commerce experience is not compromised. That means researching the most engaging formats and determining how logistics providers can support peaks in activity and fulfill deliveries.

Tip 5: Make it personal

Personalization used to mean knowing a customer’s name. In the new world of e-commerce it’s all about understanding and accommodating preferences, and responding quickly when consumers change their minds.

The majority of consumers favor increased personalization. Some 70% of the consumers in our survey agree that it improves their e-commerce experience and are willing to spend more with companies that do it effectively. A solid 80% of SMEs are also convinced, and plan to invest further.

One good way to get more personal is by rethinking the delivery process. It is now possible to give consumers the freedom to customize where and when deliveries happen – at home, the office or a delivery locker – and update it on-the-fly as their day evolves.

Fuel up for the future

E-commerce has established itself as the fastest moving part of the retail sector. Now that the COVID pandemic has habitualized the world to the idea of living online, the speed of change can only accelerate.

E-tailers need to actively monitor what is working with online customers and staying ahead of what competitors are doing are critical considerations. Logistics providers like FedEx can be invaluable partners in tackling the latest trends and meeting the expectations of growing numbers of increasingly sophisticated consumers.

Source: SME & Entrepreneurship Magazine. Read more HERE.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – From December 1, travellers — both Brunei citizens and foreign nationals — will no longer need to purchase travel medical insurance before entering or exiting the sultanate.

The government on Monday (Nov. 28) announced plans to scrap the requirement, which was introduced when travel restrictions were lifted last April.

Brunei citizens will also no longer have to register their travel information via MFA e-Register, although they are still encouraged submit their details online so that the nearest Brunei mission can reach them in the event of an emergency incident overseas, such as a natural disaster or terror attack.

The government’s COVID-19 Steering Committee also announced extended hours to land border checkpoints.

Source: The Scoop

Read the full article here

Cambodia will expand its garment, footwear and travel goods (GFT) export market to more countries in its bid to remain competitive in the industry, especially in the wake of challenges from the European Union (EU) market, under a new policy directive for the sector.