Singapore ranked number two Asian city for tech companies

A new study conducted by Colliers International, a real estate services and investment management company, shows that Singapore ranks number two when it comes to cities in Asia for tech companies desiring to expand or begin operations in the region.

According to the report, “Singapore should continue to benefit from its position as the natural financial and communications hub of South-east Asia, and from the government-supported transition to the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. We envisage supply of business park and high-specification industrial space doubling by 2030.”

Singapore trails Bangalore, which is number one on Colliers’ list. The Indian city has a deep and wide pool of tech talent and is actually the fastest-growing Asian city at the moment.

The report is called “Top Locations in Asia – Technology Sector.” Sixteen big cities across Asia were ranked according to socioeconomic, property and human factors for the purpose of identifying and recommending the best urban locations in the region.

Bangalore received a 68 percent on the scoring scale. Both Singapore and Shenzhen, numbers 2 and 3 on the list respectively, scored at least 61percent.

Top-ranked Bangalore also offers the biggest number of Grade A office spaces in Asia, right after Tokyo. It’s attractions also include low prices for staff salaries, office rentals and overall cost of living. But in the categories of infrastructure and quality of office accommodation, the Indian city did not quite score as high.

Singapore’s overall score of 63 percent is due to safety, quality of life, personal tax rate and good talent pool. However, in the area of property metrics, it did not do too well. But Colliers said that Singapore can expect to further reap the advantages of being a communications and financial hub for operations in Asia-Pacific and South-east Asia that is well connected to the rest of the world.

Chinese tech hub Shenzhen scored 61 percent due to good office stock and reasonable staff costs, as well as workspaces that are flexible. The city has benefited from high investments in research and development that has expanded the tech base of Shenzhen beyond the manufacturing of hardware.

Hong Kong, Beijing, and Hyderabad also scored well on Colliers’ list. Tokyo and Taipei did well in terms of human factors, but scored poorly due to dull long-run growth prospects.