SINGAPORE (Feb 16): More than half of Singapore companies now have an overseas footprint. What is interesting is that these companies are seeing the growth in their overseas operations outpace their total revenue growth.

Regardless of their size, companies are recording a 1.3% annual growth in total revenue, while their overseas revenue alone is growing at 4.2% annually.

Among small and medium sized enterprises, overseas revenue accounted for 53% of total revenue — a 3 percentage point increase y-o-y — while overseas revenue accounted for 40% of total revenue among large enterprises — a 1 percentage point increase.

The findings came from the Internationalisation Survey of almost 700 companies, conducted by International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) in the second half of 2016.

The survey also found that a larger proportion of the new jobs created for companies’ overseas operations were in professional, managerial, executive and technician (PMET) positions. PMET positions made up 61% of jobs created with an international focus, compared with just 53% of jobs with a domestic focus.

These findings corresponded with the 2.5% increase in direct investment abroad from Singapore, to S$636.8 billion at end 2015. 54% of DIA went to other Asian countries, like India, Vietnam and Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The top overseas markets in 2017 were China, Myanmar and Vietnam. At the same time, SMEs were interested to invest in India, and large enterprises preferred the US and UK.

According to IE Singapore, Singapore companies are looking overseas to build their track record in new markets and new business segments, to invest in digital platforms and channels and to hunt for mergers and acquisitions opportunities.

To facilitate companies in their overseas ambitions, IE Singapore facilitated 450 projects globally in 2016, with 75 in new markets and new business lines, 45 in e-commerce, and 21 M&A deals. They had also paid out S$73.4 million in grants to 10,000 companies, and partnered with Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) to assist their members in moving overseas.