Ms Chong Siak Ching

President & CEO
Ascendas Pte Ltd

Topic Synopsis

How Singapore Brands Cross Borders Successfully

The Singapore brand name has a strong reputation and is highly associated with attributes such as reliability, quality, efficiency and trust that can be leveraged to sell your products and services overseas.

By crossing the borders, local firms will enjoy a larger potential market, economies of scale and continued growth. Although there are many benefits to internationalization, there are also many challenges and risks. It is very important for Singapore companies to understand that global branding success goes beyond just overcoming cultural and language differences. Building trustworthy relationships, understanding the country risks, technology, rules and regulations are some of the other challenges to building strong brand associations when venturing overseas.

Ms Chong will also share how customers across geographies can identify with a single brand through clear and consistent brand messaging.

Biography

Ascendas is Asia’s leading provider of business space with presence in 10 countries across Asia. Ascendas also sponsored and manages Singapore’s first industrial and business space REIT, listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange as Ascendasreit (A-REIT). In August 2007, the Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) was launched as Singapore’s first listed Indian property trust.

In January 2004, Ms Chong was appointed as one of Singapore’s three representatives to the APEC Business Advisory Council. She is also a Board Director on the Singapore Tourism Board and Deputy Chairman of the enterprise development agency SPRING Singapore. In March 2007, Ms Chong was appointed Chairman of IE Singapore’s Network India Steering Committee. She is also a Management Board member of the Institute of Real Estate Studies at the National University of Singapore and a member of the Nanyang Business School Graduate Board.

Prior to joining Ascendas, Ms Chong was the Deputy CEO of JTC, Singapore’s largest industrial developer.

Ms Chong studied Estate Management at the National University of Singapore where, in 1981, she graduated with honours and was awarded a Gold Medal by the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers. In 1991, Ms Chong obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the same university. Ms Chong was registered as a licensed valuer in 1983 and has also completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 1998. Ms Chong was conferred the National University of Singapore’s Distinguished Alumni Award by the Faculty of Architecture and Building Management in 1999.