Globalisation: Change And Challenge For SingaporeÕS Retail Industry
Victor R. Savage Head Department of Geography National University of Singapore
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the full impact of globalisation and its ramifications on SingaporeÕs retail industry. Globalisation is viewed as an inevitable process that has been created by information technology, mass tourism, the dominance of transnational corporations and multi-national cooperations in national economies, the internationalization of trade, industry and finance and labour migrations. The paper asserts that five factors have created the internationalization of the retail industry in Southeast Asian and Singapore. These are the:
(1) rise of popular culture, fast foods and fashion fads;
(2) growing affluence and conspicuous consumption;
(3) institutionalisation of franchise, commodities, restaurants, stores and services across borders;
(4) keen competition of products due to a better educated and more discerning consumer public; and
(5) increasing economies of scale and spread of capitalism.
In Singapore, as with many Southeast Asian countries, the retail industry still is a mix of two circuits of supply and demand. One that is based on the international, firm-centered economy which is grounded in department stores, supermarkets and designer and branded boutique shops and the other is embedded in the traditional bazaar economy of small roadside stalls, retail shops and wet markets. The paper analysed the prospects of both circuits in the growing globalisation of the economic and cultural landscapes. Despite the growing capitalization of economies in the region, SingaporeÕs retail industry has seen a major shake-out of major Japanese, American, European, Hong Kong, Australian and Singaporean players. The retail industry has settled down but changing economic circumstances, the rising costs in Singapore (land rents, labour) and tourism are creating opportunities and pressure on retailing in Singapore and the region. The paper ends by dealing with three prospects for the retail industry:
(a) government incentives;
(b) the tourism plans in the Tourism 21 programme;
(c) the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs); and
(d) the need to enhance professionalism in the retail industry.
