“The good thing about the TPP is that it is not in conflict with the other free trade agreements (FTAs).

“It is an addition to what we already have.

“One of the biggest buyers of Malaysian furniture is the US, and it is part of the TPP.

“In fact, most furniture exports are to countries that are a part of the TPP

“Besides that, one of our competitors is China, and China is not part of the TPP. So, Malaysia will be more competitive in exporting to the TPP countries,” added Gandhi.

The upcoming Malaysian International Furniture Fair (MIFF) 2016, which is the largest trade exhibition of its kind in South-East Asia, is expected to generate export sales of an estimated US$900mil.

MIFF chairman Datuk Dr Tan Chin Huat is targeting a 5 per cent growth in sales for MIFF 2016.

In addition, the ringgit depreciation has benefitted the manufacturing industry. This is because as an exporter, the bulk of the materials used to manufacture furniture is sourced locally. Only some accessories, components and machinery are imported.

Overall, the locally-sourced content of Malaysian-manufactured furniture is very high, which means that the manufacturing cost is denominated in ringgit, while the revenue is in US dollars.

“The value of Malaysian-manufactured furniture has increased by 15.8 per cent, and part of it has been contributed by the exchange gain.

“This is the time for Malaysia to take advantage of the situation to get market share and attract more first-time buyers.

“However, the marketing, branding and positioning of Malaysia’s image as a furniture manufacturer of excellent quality has to be improved,” said Gandhi.

The majority of the people who visit MIFF are boutique buyers, who own small to mid-scale furniture outlets. These boutique buyers are searching for furniture with unique designs.

Malaysian furniture manufacturers’ strength lies in their ability to cater to their buyers’ needs.

Not only are they able to deliver unique products, but they are also adaptable to requirements of a specific city or country.

“Malaysia has also adopted duty-free import and export of furniture, and this is an advantage over neighbouring countries where they have very high tariffs.

“This is a good opportunity for Malaysia to meet its target of becoming one of the largest furniture export centres,” he said.

However, Tan added that there was room for improvement when it comes to being environmentally conscious.

In order to attract more high-value buyers, who are concerned about the environment, Malaysian furniture manufacturers have to take measures to ensure that both the products and manufacturing process are environmentally friendly.

In a series of pilot programmes under the UBM-Alibaba.com collaboration, MIFF 2016 will be the first UBM trade event in which the Alibaba.com Trade Assurance Programme will be introduced, and a total of 100 Malaysian manufacturers have been selected to participate in the three-month free trial.

The free trial will run from March 2016 until May 2016.

“I think this is the first time we are introducing a pilot programme to test how Malaysian exporters can go beyond trade exhibitions.

“This programme will enable suppliers and buyers to develop the business relationship and credit terms as well as attract new buyers.

“The collaboration between UBM and Alibaba entails the development of an app to enhance business-to-business transactions,” said Gandhi.

Initially, the Trade Assurance Programme was exclusively available to China businesses. This is the first time that the programme will be extended to Malaysian manufacturers.

Under the programme, Alibaba will guarantee the quality of the products and delivery time. Should products be of sub-par quality or shipment arrival overdue, Alibaba will compensate the purchaser.

This would be especially helpful for first-time buyers and to introduce more buyers to the Malaysian furniture market.

Besides that, the programme will encourage more exports from Malaysia and make it easy for people to buy from Malaysia.

The amount of assurance that will be given is a one-time delivery and payment between US$40,000 and US$100,000, depending on the company’s size and other matters.

MIFF 2016 will see participation from 500 exhibitors from 140 countries, some of which are from China, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia.

“For the first time, the upcoming fair will include six Japanese companies that will be featuring their products.

“This will also be the first time that Japanese companies are participating in an international trade fair,” said UBM and MIFF general manager Karen Goi.

MIFF is the oldest international trade fair in Asia, with the upcoming MIFF 2016 event being the 22nd edition since its debut in 1995.

According to Bank Central Asia (BCA) chief economist David Sumual, the TPP could be a way to boost advanced industry. The agreement might attract advanced technology-based investors from the TPP member countries to invest in Indonesia and develop advanced industries.

“If we relied heavily on China, our exports will be mainly commodities, cheap low-value-added products with a lack of technology but lots of environmental issues. We need the TPP to balance our trade,” he said to thejakartapost.com in Jakarta on February 18.

Aside from that, developed countries in the TPP such as Japan and the US were leaving the labor intensive sectors in which Indonesia is good, such as in making garments, textiles and footwear. It opened an opportunity for Indonesia to survive in the competition.

However, David supported the government’s stance not to rush to join the TPP and to choose to create a special team to assess the costs and benefits. “It is better to take a longer time before deciding, especially as Indonesia is not ready yet. But do not take too long, as we may lose momentum.”

Also of concern were the new economic dynamics among the TPP members. In Japan, Abenomics has yet to revive the economy and has lost public confidence amid industrial losses, while in the US debates on the TPP were heating up as more presidential candidates attacked the agreement.

In Japan, Abenomics is being challenged because Japan’s economy failed to escape deflation amid falling profits and massive layoffs among Japanese corporations. The Bank of Japan even launched a negative interest rate recently to combat deflation.

In the US, Hillary Clinton recently criticized the trade agreement, along with other presidential candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. Even President Obama’s party, the Democratic Party, opposed the trading agreement.

The TPP is supposed to be ratified as soon as May or June this year after being formally signed in New Zealand in January.

“Parliament of the TPP members need to ratify it and it takes more than two years. Until then, the agreement will not come into effect yet. It gives us time to asses the TPP,” Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) economist Berly Martawardaya said.

A February 18 research titled “Surveying Asean’s Infrastructure Gap” authored by Wei Zheng Kit, Jun Trinidad and Helmi Arman warned, however, that further progress in tackling corruption could not be guaranteed in a post-Aquino government. “Weak governance, should it recur post-Aquino, could discourage private sector participation in PPP projects,” the research said.

The research noted that the abolished “pork barrel” system, which funded discretionary projects of lawmakers, along with other corruption cases had weakened the government’s effort to widen the base for tax compliance and collections, undermining its ability to fund infrastructure spending.

Yet for an archipelagic country like the Philippines, Citi said the infrastructure challenges and associated budgetary and investment costs might be significant and multifaceted—ranging from transport/logistics inadequacies, to basic sanitation/electricity supply.

“With a relatively low tax-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio of 14 per cent, PPP funding would be needed to fund big ticket infrastructure projects, if crowding out of other spending needs or fiscal deterioration is to be avoided,” the research said, noting that the outgoing Aquino administration had jump-started the PPP program with 13 projects totaling P313 billion awarded so far.

In estimating that the economic potential of the PPPagenda would augment GDP growth by 1.7 per centage points annually, Citigroup calculated potential output gain assuming that P108.6 billion in annual construction activity would arise from PPP project implementation and positively shock the system. “This can easily offset the P2.4-billion daily losses due to traffic congestion and pollution,” the research said. “Construction will be an obvious beneficiary, although manufacturing and other sectors stand to gain as well.”

Average GDP growth rate under the Aquino administration averaged 6.2 per cent, improving from 4.8 per cent under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 2.3 per cent under Joseph Estrada, 3.1 per cent under Fidel Ramos and 3.4 per cent under Corazon Aquino.

A potential 1.7-per centage annual boost from infrastructure spending is thus seen bringing GDP growth to an even higher trajectory, creating more jobs and lifting more people out of poverty.

PPP funding for big-ticket items has enabled the Philippine government to pursue public investment projects without causing government debt to escalate, Citigroup said, adding this strategy had reversed the declining debt-to-GDP trend.

Speaking at the seminar on Vietnam’s opportunities and challenges when the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) comes into force held by the International Business and Law Academy, Prof Dr Don Nang, former head of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Legal Affairs, said several studies have found that the TPP would create huge economic opportunities for Vietnam, especially in trade and investment.

Resource SituationBut it would also face massive challenges since it is the least developed among TPP members, he said, adding that the “productivity, quality and competitiveness of Vietnamese goods and services are far behind that of other TPP member countries.”

Technological skills and competence of Vietnamese firms are also inferior to their counterparts in other countries, he said.

“According to the ministry’s statistics, the country has nearly 600,000 enterprises, with more than 90 per cent of them being small and medium-sized and most of them used outdated technologies.”

Little research is done in the country to innovate technologies and make modern machinery and equipment, he said.

Imports of these products have increased significantly but, according to a survey by UNDP, account for less than 10 per cent of the country’s total imports compared to 30-40 per cent for other countries, he said.

Besides, most of the imports are from China, he said, noting that “Chinese machinery and equipment are rather old and obsolete and cause low productivity and pollution during industrial production.”

He called on relevant agencies to act quickly to help businesses and sectors upgrade technologies to yield quality products and services and enable Vietnamese firms to take part in the global value chain.

“Importation of outdated technologies must stop, and speeding up training and developing skilled human resources and technological workers is an imperative,” he said.

Truong Dinh Tuyen, a former trade minister, said the TPP would bring opportunities, but opportunities cannot by themselves turn into benefits or market strength.

It would depend much on how Vietnam takes advantage of the pact and copes with related problems, and only with appropriate efforts would the country be able to achieve its potential and overcome challenges, he said.

State agencies and businesses must thoroughly understand the country’s commitments to other TPP member countries to avoid lawsuits, he warned.

Garment and textile sector

Le Dong Trieu, general director of the Gia Dinh Textile and Garment Corporation, said the country earned US$27.5 billion from garment and textile exports last year, a year-on-year increase of 9.4 per cent.

Exports to TPP member countries were worth more than $14.7 billion, he said.

Once the TPP comes into force, import tariffs would fall to zero, opening up more opportunities for Vietnamese firms to export to these countries, he said.

But there would be challenges in the form of stipulations related to origin, quality, chemical use and others under the TPP, he said.

To enjoy the benefits, Vietnam must quickly develop the garment and textile supporting industry, encouraging investors to invest in sectors that have remained weak, and develop a complete supply chain for the domestic garment and textile industry, he said.

Companies should invest more in upgrading production technologies, designs and quality to achieve a firm foothold in the global market, he said.

The cooperation stipulates that GAD will provide Jaguar XJ and Range Rover models as the airport shuttle service for Garuda’s first-class passengers for routes between Jakarta and Amsterdam, London and Jeddah.

Garuda maintenance and information technology director Iwan Joeniarto said the routes in question had eight first-class seats, 20 and 30 percent of which were generally taken up.

The routes are plied by B777-300ER with a total of 314 seats.

“With this service, with the Jaguar and Range Rover brands, we aim for 50 percent in load factor,” Iwan told the press over the weekend.

For the first six months of the service, starting on March 1, GAD will provide a free trial of its shuttle available for passengers in Greater Jakarta.

“We will then evaluate the customers’ feedbacks on this service,” he said.

The company deems the service important to provide comfort to premium airline passengers, who have to deal with traffic on their way to airports.

The complimentary service is also expected to boost demand for seats on Garuda flights to Europe and the Middle East.

Garuda has secured flight slots at London’s Heathrow Airport beginning in March, moving away from the less strategic Gatwick Airport.

The company aims for passenger growth this year to be at around 10 percent.

Data from the company revealed that Garuda transported around 17.69 million passengers in the first nine months of last year, a 13.62 percent increase year-on-year (yoy) from 2014. Of that number, 3.18 million passengers traveled on international routes, a 9.7 percent yoy increase.

In total, 23.5 million passengers were transported by Garuda Indonesia last year, up 9.3 percent from 21.5 million in 2014.

It booked a net profit of US$76.48 million last year, a 120.67 percent jump yoy from a $370.05 million of loss recorded in the previous year.

The firm has also recently received a five-star rating from UK-based research company Skytrax for the second year, one of only seven airlines in the world awarded similar acknowledgement.

GAD chief operating officer Roland Staehler said the brand would benefit greatly from working with Garuda.

He said that the company still believed in the growing premium market, amid slowing car sales.

The company said it was flexible regarding the number of cars reserved for the service, with two cars for the first phase allocation.

Announced by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) on Monday (Feb 22), the topics under the Advanced Manufacturing Series will cover areas such as advanced robotics and automation, additive manufacturing, and optical and laser engineering.

More than 400 technical managers, engineers, assistant engineers, product designers and technical specialists from both smaller companies and multinational corporations are expected to be able to attend.

The events will be run by five institutes which signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with WDA on Monday. They are:

– The Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*Star’s) Advanced, Remanufacturing and Technology Centre

– A*Star’s Institute of High Performance Computing,

– The Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU’s) Centre Optical and Laser Engineering,

– NTU’s Singapore Centre for 3D Printing

– Nanyang Polytechnic

Demand for the series will be reviewed after the first year to see if the programmes will be continued. WDA will fund up to 70 per cent of the course fees for Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents, and up to 90 per cent if they are from small and medium-sized enterprises.

Ms Low Yen Ling, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Industry and Education, said at the MOU signing ceremony that Singapore must keep abreast of global trends such as 3D printing and the Internet of Things.

“Besides investing in advanced manufacturing capabilities to upgrade our companies, we also need to invest in upskilling our people,” she added.

“This will enable our workforce to take advantage of the new and exciting job opportunities in advanced manufacturing, which will require specialised, cutting-edge skills.”

For example, in remanufacturing for the aerospace industry – which reduces waste by allowing parts to be repaired and reused instead of being replaced – robotics software engineers and workers, who can optimise production chains from market to manufacturing floor, are needed, said Adjunct Professor Tan Sze Wee, executive director of the Science and Engineering Research Council at A*Star.

“We hope to attract Singaporeans to look at engineering as an exciting career,” he said.

The manufacturing sector contributes about one fifth of Singapore’s gross domestic product and employs over 500,000 workers.

Somsavath develops, distributes, and markets cosmetics under the brand name ‘SK Herbal’. SK Herbal’s line of products has rapidly become a quite well-recognized brand in Myanmar, garnering positive responses and reviews everywhere it is sold.

Of her guiding philosophy, Somsavath says: “I love to maintain good personal condition all the time. This means that I take steady care of my health, mind, appearance, and spiritual well-being. I’ve always placed high priority not only on my own health and beauty, but on sharing these vital things, as well. It’s for this reason that I conceived of and launched a personal care brand to support others in improving their own lives, as I have mine.”

Product development

In my experience, high price does not necessarily mean high quality. With this in mind, I made it my goal to develop affordable, good quality products which are rich in natural ingredients. At the outset of this enterprise, I did a great deal of research into a variety of different beauty companies from Thailand and Korea. After careful product analysis and many factory visits, I selected the best companies available and explained my vision to them, and the rest is history.

When I arrived in Myanmar for the first time, I fell in love with its culture and people – the huge variety of cultural and traditional events is truly amazing. Myanmar’s people generally have a very welcoming nature. Between these basic qualities of the people and the culture, and the fact that Myanmar’s population is of over 50 million, I recognised the possibility of a good opportunity for investment.

As I undertook deeper analysis of Myanmar’s market over the period of a full year, I noticed that there were a great many over-priced products which were of unimpressive quality- low value for the cost. This is when I realised that Myanmar was the place where my goals and the ideal market conditions could truly meet.

Strong market expansion

After setting up her company in 2014, Somsavath began distributing her products in Myanmar in 2015. To capitalise on her brand’s rapidly growing momentum, she debuted her line of cosmetics in Laos in early 2016, and in the near term intends to continue this expansion across Asia. She is currently considering introducing a new round of investment of US$10 million into the business. These funds would serve to both consolidate her brand’s strength in Myanmar and accelerate expansion into the wider Asian market. While she is of course pleased that her business is growing, Somsavath maintains that her greater ambition remains to make SK Cosmetics a globally-recognised brand.

Regional outlook for Lao businesses

Although Somsavath is concerned that Laos could struggle to compete in the Asean market initially, she remains confident that in the near future the Lao people will be able to produce more value-added products and brands that will raise the commercial and economic profile of the nation. Overall, she feels quite optimistic that the Asean Economic Community will provide more and better opportunities for Lao people to significantly increase their business activities in the region.

Time to explore

Having enjoyed great success in Laos’ real estate development sector since 2004, Somsavath decided in early 2013 that it was time to both diversify her personal business portfolio and to take on a new challenge. She was ready to try her hand at not only a new type of business, but also in a new country. Creating and launching a new cosmetics brand in Myanmar fulfilled all of her purposes at once.

As a result of her personal experience, she now urges and supports other Lao people to bring their attention more to identifying and seizing any opportunities that may come their way. She is concerned that if the people of Laos do not work actively to become more aware of changes and new trends both domestically and internationally, they may fall behind other countries in ter of innovation, and lose the opportunity to develop a competitive edge in the rapidly developing Asean region.

Somsavath acknowledges that it is not easy to succeed in foreign markets. To be successful in one’s own country is already quite challenging, but to really make it in another county is even more difficult. But no matter where you are, there is no substitute for persistence and hard work. She identifies two primary potential causes for the failure of an enterprise. One is poor decision-making, which may result from not working hard enough to adequately understand the full range of market variables and conditions. The other is giving up too quickly. She explains that “as entrepreneurs, leaders, and bosses every decision we take really matters. Because the whole company will move in the direction that we decide, the most difficult thing is to determine the best action to take, and good decision-making is the result of education, experience, and tenacity.”

Advice to young people

Somsavath calls most especially on young people to be on the lookout for new ideas and opportunities. The growth of easy access to information in the online world removes a major barrier to entry into nearly any kind of business anywhere. She recommends that aspiring entrepreneurs take one idea and really bring their full attention to it, to put all their time and energy toward making it happen, and above all to never lose focus.

She elaborates this view in saying “business is always competitive; we are not just trying to compete with our competitors but also with ourselves and our own limitations. There are many difficulties and challenges along the way, the key is to overcome them as well and as quickly as possible.

Somsavath wishes to share two final pieces of advice. First, she identifies the importance of the people we each meet during the course of our individual journeys. “We will meet many different kinds of people along the way, each bringing with them their own particular qualities and difficulties. We must make the best of whatever we find and, at some point, we will need to find our own strength and inspiration, to stand and move forward through it all, learning all the way.” Second, she says “today no matter how big the problem we face, it is essential to not worry too much. Instead of expending energy in worry, look forward and think how to solve the problem, and ignore the sources of negative energy. Keep moving, thinking positively, and believing in the future because, in the end, optimism and kindness will always win.”

Teong Teck Lean, the company’s main shareholder, just walked away with a cool 93 millionlion ringgit from selling a block of his shares to a Japanese concern, Yamato Holdings Co Ltd.

Together with him, another major shareholder, Singapore Post Ltd (SingPost), also made a killing of S$64 million (RM190.05 million) from the sale of another block to Yamato.

Yamato, Japan’s largest door-to-door delivery service company, now owns 23 per cent of GDex via its wholly owned unit Yamato Asia Pte Ltd.

Yamato bought into GDex to use the latter as its springboard into the Asean region. A major announcement will be made in the following week of the two parties’ collaboration agreement, with Japanese media present.

The Tokyo-based holdings company has a 45.4 per cent market share in Japan and competes closely with Sagawa Express and Nippon Express.

It founded Yamato Asia in January 2014 as part of its global strategy to become the top distribution and lifestyle support provider in Asia.

The Yamato-GDex collaboration could well be poised to tap into one of the most lucrative markets – Asean, where barriers of entry are supposed to be reducing.

Malaysia’s population of 30 millionlion pales in comparison with the Asean region’s population of more than 600 millionlion people.

The partnership is banking on exponentially higher demand in intra-regional trade in Asean following both the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement as well as the formation of the Asean Economic Community.

That said, tapping into the Asean market will not be an easy feat. For example, in Indonesia, the single largest of the Asean countries by population, there are hundreds of courier companies plying their trade.

In the past, GDex had expressed plans to expand into Indonesia and Thailand to strengthen its regional foothold. Apart from SingPost, GDex is also in a working relationship with Pos Indonesia, and had established a representative office in Jakarta in 2014.

It also has strong partnerships with major international express courier service providers such as UPS and Fedex. “These partnerships indicate the recognition of GDex’s service levels by these players, as GDex is able to integrate into their delivery system and provides last millione delivery services for them. At the same time, GDex also leverages on these partnerships to provide international services as part of a total solution package,” says HLIB Research.

GDex needs to have a clear strategy on increasing its Asean reach, which will most likely be revealed at a briefing to be held sometime next week.

On Jan 21, the company announced in filings with Bursa Malaysia that it had placed out 124.89 millionlion new shares at RM1.74 each to Yamato Asia, representing a 9.08 per cent stake. The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Yamato at the same time announced its intention to up its stake in GDex to 23 per cent by buying more shares from other shareholders.

Then, a mere three weeks later on Feb 12, Yamato Asia increased its stake to 22.8 per cent by buying 191.09 millionlion shares from Teong and GDex’s second-largest shareholder SingPost.

All in all, Yamato Asia has spent a total of RM549 million for its 23 per cent stake. Although at a slight premium to GDex’s current share price of RM1.68, market observers feel this validates Yamato’s conviction in the former’s growth potential, despite it trading at high valuations.

Its purchase has now left Teong and SingPost’s shareholdings standing at 35.39 per cent and 11.2 per cent, respectively.

SingPost said the sale proceeds of S$64 million would reinforce its e-commerce logistics solutions and networks.

“This deal gave us a good return on our investment and also boosted our available resources to drive SingPost’s eCommerce logistics growth as it pivots into the United States with the recent investments in TradeGlobal and Jagged Peak,” said SingPost deputy group chief executive officer (corporate services) and group chief financial officer Mervyn Lim.

SingPost, an associate company of Singapore Telecommunications, which in turn is 50 per cent-owned by Singapore’s national investment fund Temasek, first bought into GDex in 2011, in a deal that valued GDex at a price-earnings multiple of 35 times.

In March 2011, SingPost increased its stake in GDex to 27.08 per cent from an initial 4.98 per cent. This made GDex an associate company of SingPost. Woo Keng Leong, SingPost’s senior executive vice-president/head of postal services was appointed to GDex’s board of directors as a non-independent non-executive director on Feb 12, 2015. At SingPost, he is fully responsible for the operations of the domestic mail, international mail and post office network businesses.

SingPost’s interest in GDex has set the latter apart from its local competitors Pos Malaysia, Nationwide Express and City-Link Express. Insiders say that SingPost’s stake in GDex has been a strategic one, and will continue to be, despite the reduction following the sale of a block to Yamato.

GDex’s Asean focus

GDex has an extensive network in Malaysia and Singapore, with express delivery as its core business, in which the conventional business-to-business segment contributed 80 per cent of its revenue.

The e-commerce business contributed the remaining 20 per cent.

As for its plans with Yamato, it has been revealed that Yamato would leverage on GDex’s extensive network to offer wider coverage for Yamato Malaysia’s customers, as well as implement cross-border logistics between Malaysia and Singapore.

The two parties will also cooperate on the line haul business between major centres to further improve efficiencies. The line haul business involves transport of heavy loads of freight cargo over long distances or between cities, usually by trucks.

GDex has already been actively investing on increasing its efficiency and expanding capacity to meet the growing demands for its service. Since 2009 to 2015, GDex’s daily sorting capacity (referring to the number of parcels that go through its system) has tripled to over 100,000 a day. During this time, its staff count and fleet size doubled to 2,676 and 578, respectively.

GDex shares are currently trading at about 68 times PE, one of the highest compared with other courier companies both within the region and internationally.

The company has been trading at relatively high valuations likely owed to its growth potential, especially in the e-commerce segment.

To be sure, GDex shareholders have enjoyed phenomenal returns as its share price has performed spectacularly well since its listing back in 2005 on the Ace Market. An initial public offering shareholder would have enjoyed total returns of close to 2,000 per cent until today.

While SingPost’s stake in GDex has been beneficial for both companies, things really started heating up when giant online retailer Alibaba group took a 10.35 per cent stake in SingPost in 2014.

In a recent report, HLIB Research said the emergence of Yamato and SingPost as major shareholders further validates GDex’s service levels.

“SingPost (proxy to Alibaba) and Yamato (proxy to Rakuten) are expected to boost GDex’s business volumes, given the feed-in business from these partners and expanded connectivity and solutions for local clients,” it said.

Rakuten is a Japanese e-commerce and Internet company based in Tokyo. Its e-commerce platform Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan.

GDex has leveraged on the growing e-commerce business in Malaysia, having secured business relationships with renowned online portal Groupon, Lazada, Zalora and Astro Home Shopping, by providing total solutions – warehousing, logistics and last- millione deliveries.

HLIB Research believes e-commerce is an emerging catalyst for GDex, with expectations of double-digit growth over the next five years, given the increasing Internet and mobile penetration rate in Malaysia. This is no doubt supported by improving payment gateways and product delivery platforms.

“Henceforth, GDex is expected to continue to enjoy strong business volume growth, by leveraging on the emerging trend of online purchases – business to business, business to consumer, and likely going forward consumer to consumer,” it said.

HLIB Research now projects earnings growth for the financial year ending June 30, 2016 till 2018 to be between 21 per cent and 30 per cent, in view of the strong volume growth and expanding margins. A point to note is that it has not factored in any upside from GDex’s recent strategic alliances and potential regional expansions.

All eyes will be on GDex’s announcement this week, as it explains details of its collaboration with Yamato. The market will then be in a better position to gauge if GDex and its partners will be able to conquer the attractive but yet challenging market of Asean.

Michael Zink has been with the firm for more than 28 years, and was appointed Citi country officer for Singapore in April 2010. He became head of Asean in February 2012.

At the age of 57, he is one of the longest-serving country heads in Singapore. Citigroup Asia chief executive officer Francisco Aristeguieta told staff in a memo yesterday that “Michael has decided that now is the right time for him to return to the United States”.

He said that Zink “will ensure a smooth transition” as the bank starts the process to fill the “two vital roles” of Asean head and Singapore country officer.

Citi said a successor will be announced in due course. Zink, who joined Citi in 1988 in New York as a corporate relationship manager, will be with the firm until around May.

Aristeguieta said Zink has contributed significantly to the success of the franchise, and “his career epitomises the opportunities our global network provides for those who truly live our leadership values”.

Over the course of his Citi career, Zink worked in 10 countries, including Russia, Australia, South Korea, China and Indonesia. Aristeguieta said: “He has never shied away from challenging roles, and has always championed productive and innovative change.”

Zink was also lauded for his focus on promoting talent, having “recruited and developed a generation of leaders at Citi”.

Apart from his role at Citi, he is also co-chair of the Financial Services Committee and sits on the board of the US-Asean Business Council. He is a member of AmCham Singapore’s board of governors, and serves as a council member of the Association of Banks in Singapore.