Singaporeans in Hong Kong and mainland China: how the ‘third wing’ of the Lion City’s economy took flight

Singaporean firms have over the decades moved from a ‘first wing’ – the domestic economy – to a second, namely regional expansion

Now a new group of entrepreneurs is assimilating into other economies and building localised businesses rather than brandishing the city state’s brand

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While the Singapore government has emphasised exporting the country’s brands and services, a smaller group of entrepreneurs has also found its way into Hong Kong and China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 12 Jan 2020Updated: 8:06pm, 17 Feb 2020

Uncomfortable – that’s how Singapore-born entrepreneur Faith Teo describes the first foray she made into China, back in late 2016.

“I didn’t want to go to China,” recalled the 30-year-old, who had moved to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province at the time with her sister to grow their mobile fashion app Fashory.

“When I got there, everything was complicated, there was a lot of drinking in business-making, I didn’t really like the food. China was like another planet. I just wanted to go home [to Singapore].”

Six months in, the business had yet to take off and Teo was ready to call it quits. But a stint at e-commerce giant Alibaba Group changed everything.

“I stayed in China because I didn’t want to leave my sister, but I knew I had to do things differently,” said Teo, who joined Alibaba’s international user experience design team in December 2017. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

For close to a year, she pulled 13-hour days at work, even on weekends, picking up what was “three years’ worth” of experience relating to the ins and outs of doing business in China – and regaining her confidence.

Singaporeans in Hong Kong and mainland China: how the ‘third wing’ of the Lion City’s economy took flight

Singaporean firms have over the decades moved from a ‘first wing’ – the domestic economy – to a second, namely regional expansion Now a new group of entrepreneurs is assimilating into other economies and building localised businesses rather than brandishing the city state’s brand

Singaporean firms have over the decades moved from a ‘first wing’ – the domestic economy – to a second, namely regional expansion

Now a new group of entrepreneurs is assimilating into other economies and building localised businesses rather than brandishing the city state’s brand