Singapore capitalizes on reputation as Asian safe haven
By Anindya Mukherjee
Bloomberg News
SINGAPORE — As a million troops massed on the India-Pakistan border this year, software executive Arun Jain turned to Singapore for peace of mind.
Bloomberg News Service
Citigroup Inc. and other customers of Jain's India-based company needed assurance that its computer programs, which they use to handle transactions, wouldn't be destroyed. So his company, Polaris Software Lab Ltd. spent $1.7 million — 14 percent of last year's profit — to back up the programs in Singapore.
IBM's data recovery center in Singapore offers backup for computer programs used in politically volatile countries.
"In a climate of war, we have to convince clients about the continuity of our business," Jain said on a visit here last month to inaugurate the disaster recovery center, which will employ 150 computer engineers.
Singapore hopes others will follow Jain's example as the city-state of 4 million people capitalizes on its reputation as a safe haven in Asia.
Researcher IDC predicts companies in the region will create a $1.3 billion market by 2006 — double that of last year — to back up computer data after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center in New York.
"If we can attract a few dozen Indian companies to set up disaster recovery centers in Singapore, we will be able to create a few thousand well-paying jobs for Singaporeans," Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in a nationwide address earlier this summer.
For Singapore, a larger share of the data backup business would help replace disappearing manufacturing jobs as companies such as computer scanner-maker Seiko Epson Corp. move operations to lower-cost countries.
But Singapore, which expects the unemployment rate to climb as high as 5.5 percent this year from 4.4 percent in December, isn't staking its future on disaster recovery alone. It's also trying to attract hedge funds and biotechnology companies as it searches for ways to diversify its $84 billion economy from electronics manufacturing.
Singapore's political stability — one party has ruled since 1959 — and its investments in roads, telecommunications and other infrastructure are a draw for foreign investors.
"If there's a critical project, I can fly my team of engineers to Singapore overnight," said Jain.
Polaris writes customized software that lets banks track mortgages and bill customers for credit card use. A disruption on a project, or loss of the programming, would not only hurt Polaris but also disrupt clients' operations.
"No place in the world is safe today, but we can take steps" to reduce the risk, said Jain.
"We considered quite a few places in Asia for our disaster recovery center. Singapore came up as the superior choice."
