Indian enterprises in Singapore more resilient amid eco crisis

KUALA LUMPUR: Indian enterprises in Singapore have been more resilient than expected during the current economic downturn, with 92 per cent of them staying in the black, an Indian Business Community Survey shows.

The survey was commissioned by the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), to better understand the Indian business community here.

While 70 per cent of respondents reported slower sales in the last quarter of 2008, only one in 10 complained of insufficient cash flow, Singapore's daily Straits Times said.

This optimism reflects the healthy turnover growth rates experienced by survey respondents last year, when about 60 per cent of them enjoyed up to 10 per cent growth.

SICCI Chief Executive Pradeep Menon said confidence levels remained high with most firms being 'cautiously optimistic' that they could handle the downturn and expect better results by next year. More than half of the respondents expect to stay or become profitable as early as this year, he added.

"This gives us a lot of cause for optimism," the daily quoted Menon, who is also director of the Enterprise Development Centre at the SICCI, as saying.

The findings classified respondents into companies and smaller businesses. While two-thirds of respondents were classified as companies, the rest were deemed to be businesses.