On 1st February, 2022, RUSSOFT held an online meeting with the Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in Singapore for the members of the Association. The participants got acquainted with the activities and opportunities of the Trade Mission and discussed cases of successful promotion of digital technologies.

Alexander Svinin, Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in Singapore, noted that Singapore is one of the most important logistics hubs in the world with excellent opportunities to reach all regions of Southeast Asia. Alexander also spoke about the possibilities of the Diplomatic Mission:

“Trade missions provide assistance to the development of bilateral trade, economic, investment and interregional cooperation. We are responsible for supporting Russian companies when entering the markets of the countries in which we are located. The company has the right to receive any advisory support from us free of charge: search for partners, clients, negotiations, participation in exhibitions and events, checking the reputation of potential counterparties …”.

RUSSOFT experts also presented at the meeting, telling about their experience working with Singapore.

Alexey Pinchuk, International Business Development Manager, Serchinform:

“We are present in 4 Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The main problem of organizing cooperation in each of them is the language barrier. This greatly limits the understanding of the market: it is often impossible to get complete information if there are problems, for example, with the promotion of the sales funnel. The features of the Southeast Asian markets also include: 1) mandatory certification (whose presence should be found out in advance), which may be unprofitable or inconvenient for the exporter; 2) companies from Southeast Asia often demand exclusive rights to distribute the product.”

Elena Bocharova, Executive Director, Cyberprotect:

“Our technology partner in Singapore is Acronis. In my opinion, Singapore’s policy is often unfair to foreign companies: local technology startups often copy the business models of foreign organizations that have entered the country’s market (the Uber case), after “getting rid” of the latter. If you do not become a Singapore company, then such risks will always exist. It is also typical for the state to support certain technological industries and “not support” others.”

Dmitry Filippov, Development Director, SPb TV:

“Singapore was one of our first experiences of B2B sales. In 2014, we opened a sales office in Southeast Asia in the country, which has worked for 4 years — this is really a very successful transit point to Asian countries.”