Aug. 16 – Singapore has been increasingly successful in winning regional shipping investment, especially from competitors such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, by deploying an aggressive incentive scheme that offers up to ten year tax breaks for foreign investors. In signs that other regional nations are now prepared to directly compete with China, the shipping industry, which provides additional knock on investments such as logistics, freight, warehousing, repackaging and distribution, has increasing been spurning China and turning instead to Singapore.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has just announced a six month extension to its concessionary ports scheme for ocean going ships, an additional extension to a two year program that gives a 20 percent reduction in port dues for calling at the island state. Other incentives include tax holidays of up to 10 years – and in some cases longer – on income derived from shipping, a tax rate of not less than 10 percent on income from freight and logistics services, and subsidized staff training schemes. In a very different tack from China, Singapore now also offers to reimburse the costs of sponsoring expatriate employees on a Singapore attachment, in addition to the cost of relocation for such staff. Continue reading →