S'pore ranks among top global hubs for tech talent and investment, study shows
Singapore was cited as having a strong tech ecosystem, rich talent pool and a business environment that draws global talent and investment. PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE – Singapore has been named one of 12 global technology 'powerhouses' and is positioned to draw the capital and talent needed to develop a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem that will keep it among the elite.
The Republic was cited as having a strong tech ecosystem, rich talent pool and a business environment that draws global talent and investment, despite being the smallest of five Asia-Pacific tech hubs to make the Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025.
But Singapore is also one of the costliest cities to run a tech business in, ranking 24th out of 115 markets for software engineers' wages and with office rents that are second only to Paris.
Beijing, Shanghai, Bengaluru, Tokyo, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Boston, Toronto, Paris and London complete the top dozen powerhouses in the study compiled by real estate services firm CBRE.
Singapore, with 45 per cent of its 4.3 million working-age population having at least a university degree, ranked behind only Ireland and Switzerland in education levels.
Mr Ravi Nippani, head of regional industries and solutions at Mercer Asia, said CBRE's findings align with its own survey out in March that ranked Singapore third in Asia after China and India in the number of reported tech jobs.
'Singapore's tech ecosystem is quite mature and vibrant in terms of roles, encompassing both front-line and supporting positions,' he said. 'When compared with the sheer size of the working population in China and India, Singapore is more than punching its weight and can rightly be given powerhouse status.'
Overall, Asia-Pacific hosts the largest tech talent pools, with Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tokyo reporting having more than 500,000 tech professionals each.
Labour was singled out as the biggest cost for tech firms, with software developers in San Francisco and New York commanding the highest annual base pay, at US$177,273 (S$228,600) and US$158,387, respectively.
Software engineers in Singapore earn annual base salaries of US$111,000, but with rent among the costliest in the world, they fork out over 29 per cent of that to landlords.
Mr Jonathan Lasenby, head of technology and telecoms at executive search firm Ethos BeathChapman, noted two cost-related red flags in the report: Singapore ranks second globally for office rent and seventh for apartment rent.
'Together, they contribute to higher operational costs, driven by both rental overheads and salary expectations,' he said.
'This challenges Singapore's positioning relative to other tech powerhouse markets. Candidates may increasingly weigh cost of living when deciding where to live and work, especially as remote work and distributed teams become more viable.'
Singapore has to anchor high-value strategic jobs that are not easily replicated, such as AI, product innovation and research teams, and regional leadership and strategy functions, Mr Lasenby said.
These strategies have been incorporated into the country's AI Strategy 2.0 and government support for research and development, education, and innovation hubs, he added.
Ms Rohini Saluja, CBRE's head of consulting and integrated client solutions for Asia-Pacific, expects many more emerging markets to graduate to the 'established' tier by 2028, even though she forecasts that the powerhouse list will remain mostly unchanged.
'You start seeing a lot of new tech hubs. When you look at India, for instance, we know that Bengaluru (and) Hyderabad are established tech talent major metros, but they have started putting investments into education, harnessing technology skills and supporting quality of life in locations like Ahmedabad and Jaipur.'
She cited Auckland, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta as other examples of new and upcoming tech hubs.
Singapore could do better in drawing more venture capital.
AI-related venture funding hit a record US$129 billion in 2024 with Singapore accounting for just US$2.5 billion, less than 2 per cent.
'We have some way to go to compete with markets in the US, for instance, which takes the bulk,' she added.
As the US under President Donald Trump moves to bring manufacturing operations back to America and keep jobs at home, she expects more tech talent to come out of South-east Asia, India and China.
How the region retains its talent instead of losing it to the West, which is happening today as skilled workers gravitate to countries with higher quality of living, will be a challenge.
As geopolitics and the rise of AI erect fences in not only trade, but also talent flow, Ms Saluja has seen a rise in clients prioritising talent: 'That is the biggest change I have seen over the last 18 months.
'More and more companies are first looking at labour strategies, workforce distribution strategies, before they are making decisions on locations.'
Singapore can take a leaf out of the multinational playbook and build talent pools overseas, then tap them through partnerships such as the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.
This will ease some of the pressures to import foreign talent.
'You can't keep moving people and creating other issues. All you can do is create scale through these partnerships,' Ms Saluja said.
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
17 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Sunnova files for bankruptcy amid rooftop solar struggles
The US residential solar industry is reeling from a torrent of headwinds, including high interest rates. PHOTO: ST FILE SAN FRANCISCO – Sunnova Energy International, one of the largest US rooftop solar companies, filed for bankruptcy in Texas following struggles with mounting debt and diminishing sales prospects. The company listed US$10 billion to US$50 billion (S$64.33 billion) of both liabilities and assets, according to a court filing. Sunnova had been negotiating with creditors to fix its capital structure since March, when it issued a going concern warning and cited 'stubbornly high interest rates, along with regulatory and political uncertainties' making consumers and capital providers more cautious. Sunnova also recently terminated most of its US$3 billion partial loan guarantee with the US Energy Department, which was intended to help provide panels to low-income customers. In early June, it said it was firing about 55 per cent of its workforce, following the bankruptcy filing of a subsidiary. The US residential solar industry is reeling from a torrent of headwinds, including high interest rates, rising tariffs on imported equipment and reduced state incentives in California, the nation's biggest rooftop market. Republicans in the US House have advanced a tax and spending bill that would would end tax credits for companies that lease rooftop systems as well as homeonwers who buy them. If those provisions become law, it would devastate the sector, analysts say. Sunnova became the second major publicly traded rooftop company to file for bankruptcy in the past year, following SunPower in August 2024. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Times
41 minutes ago
- Business Times
The US$30 million plan to overhaul tourism around Egypt's pyramids
[CAIRO] Some 2.5 million people visit the Pyramids of Giza each year with hopes of an epic experience befitting one of the World's Seven Wonders. But for decades, a trip to Egypt's most famous tourist spot meant battling crowds and parrying aggressive hawkers. Now, thanks to a US$30 million revamp that rethinks the experience, seeing the pyramids is finally inspiring more awe than agony. A network of buses whisks visitors around the site, the hard-sells have been tamed – and you can even enjoy some fine dining overlooking the 4,600-year-old monuments. All this officially debuts on Jul 3 – a milestone seven years in the making. In 2018, the Egyptian government signed a public-private partnership deal with Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris' Orascom Pyramids Entertainment (OPE) to overhaul the Giza Plateau, the area west of Cairo on which the ancient structures sit. A soft launch began in early April, allowing OPE to make improvements and address shortcomings ahead of a wider reveal, OPE executive chairman Amr Gazarin said. The firm will operate the location for the next 11 years, drawing revenue not from ticket sales – which the government is solely entitled to – but from VIP tours, sponsorship deals and commercial leases on the grounds. The opening date coincides with the long-awaited inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum – the US$1 billion flagship attraction sitting about a mile away. Taken together, the two projects represent some of the biggest strides yet in Egypt's goal of doubling annual visitors to 30 million within a decade. It's a target that would put it roughly on par with Greece, making it one of the most-visited countries in the world. New gate, new rules One of the key changes was to make the Giza Plateau car-free. Instead of driving up a winding road in the shadow of the Great Pyramid, visitors now enter via a gate on a highway 1.5 miles to the southwest. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up After passing through the so-called Great Gate and buying tickets, visitors navigate a gleaming hall of introductory exhibits before boarding new hop-on, hop-off buses. Within minutes, they can be dropped off at the feet of the three colossal pyramids, each built from 80 tonnes limestone blocks. The iconic Great Sphinx lies further below. At bus stops around the site they will find facilities that were long-lacking, including upgraded restrooms, formal souvenir stores and cafes. And, with the opening of several eateries in recent years, you can finally order a meal on-site. Khufu's, which serves up a deluxe twist on Egyptian staples and has a terrace overlooking the pyramid built for the pharaoh of the same name, has been ranked one of the Middle East and North Africa's top restaurants by the World's 50 Best. 'It wasn't a good experience before, for sure,' said Mariam Al-Gohary, 37, an Egyptian-Canadian citizen who visited the pyramids in mid-May for the first time in 15 years. 'Now it's like going to the museum,' said Al-Gohary, who works in human resources in Calgary, Alberta. 'It looks like what you would expect a big tourist destination.' Visitor numbers were up almost 24 per cent in April compared to the year before, according to the Tourism Ministry. Egypt's tourist sector is already on a tear and saw record arrivals in the opening months of 2025, though, so it's unclear how much the project itself drove the increase. Tackling horsemen OPE's Gazarin says Egyptian authorities are also helping the company tackle a critical issue: hawkers offering horse and camel rides. They have long been accused of being aggressive and overcharging as they literally and figuratively take tourists for a ride. Al-Gohary from Calgary recalled that when she and her friend rode camels in 2010, the owner demanded extra money to have the animals kneel so they could dismount from them – an infamous ploy. She avoided them altogether on this year's visit. For first-time visitors, it's now easier to avoid getting swept up by the scams. The new setup has denied horsemen and hawkers the access they had to the old entrance, where they were accused of accosting tourists. Authorities have allocated horsemen a separate and relatively isolated area, but many have been defiant and pushed for positions closer to the pyramids. It's a work in progress, says Gazarin, who expects Egyptian authorities to gradually tighten the limits to better ensure enforcement. 'People were afraid to go to the pyramids' because of the issue, he said. He rues the fact the pyramids draw just 2.5 million visitors a year – half of them Egyptian. By comparison, over 12 million went to the Colosseum in Rome in 2023. But Gazarin knows it will take time to build up those numbers, especially in the face of regional conflicts that create some amount of local unpredictability. What matters, he says, is that the numbers trend upwards. 'It's unacceptable the world's most important monument attracts just above one million foreigners.' BLOOMBERG
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
China exports to US fall most since 2020 despite trade truce
[BEIJING] Chinese exports rose less than expected last month as the worst drop in shipments to the US in more than five years counteracted strong demand from other markets. Exports rose almost 5 per cent from a year ago to US$316 billion in May, slower than economists' forecast of 6 per cent growth. Despite record exports so far this year, the slump in US demand may have been one factor in convincing Beijing to sit down with US President Donald Trump's trade negotiators in Geneva and agree to a tariff truce. China's exports to the US fell 34.4 per cent, according to Bloomberg News calculations, the most since February 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic shut down the Chinese economy. That was despite the agreement reached on May 12 that gave temporary relief to imports from China that would have faced as much as 145 per cent duties. That sharp decline offset a 11 per cent rise in exports to other countries, showing the heft of the world's largest economy even as Beijing reduced its reliance on direct shipments to the market after Trump's first term. The benchmark CSI 300 Index for onshore stocks pared gains after the release and was up 0.2 per cent at the lunch break. 'The trade outlook remains highly uncertain at this stage,' said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. He added that frontloading should help sustain export momention in June but may fade in the coming months. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Shipments to Vietnam jumped 22 per cent, rising above US$17 billion for the third straight month as Chinese companies continued to ship through third countries to try to avoid US tariffs. However, that flow is pushing up the US trade deficit with Vietnam and other nations, further complicating negotiations with the US about their own tariffs. The data showed a recovery in shipments of rare earth elements, which have become one of the key points of US-China contention. Earlier this year China imposed an export license requirement on some of the elements and products such as magnets, radically slowing down shipments and forcing manufacturers globally to halt some production lines. Beijing's grip on these exports will be top of the agenda when trade negotiators meet in London for talks later on Monday (Jun 9). Weak Chinese demand Imports fell 3.4 per cent for a third straight month of declines, leaving a trade surplus of US$103 billion, according to official data released on Monday. The weakness of the Chinese economy was underscored earlier with the release of inflation data showing the country continued to be in deflation in May. Factory prices fell for a 32nd straight month, while consumer prices also declined from last year. Still, the overall growth in exports will continue to support the economy, with the record trade surplus of almost half a trillion US dollars so far in 2025 a boost to companies facing weak demand at home. In the second half of the year, however, China could face a drag on growth should risks to global trade materialise. The US is threatening to raise tariffs on many countries from early July and on China from August. That could further slash demand for Chinese products destined directly for the US and also used as inputs into other nations' manufactured goods. Even if China and other nations are able to strike a deal with the Trump administration, demand from the US and elsewhere might still weaken as companies slow down their frantic purchasing aimed at beating the tariffs. BLOOMBERG
