Mr Lee Yi Shyan at the 24th ACE BlueSky Exchange & Evening

Opening Address by Minister for State and Industry, Mr. Lee Yi Shyan, at the 24th ACE Blue Sky Exchange & Evening, 5th April 2007, Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

Dear friends,

I am truly happy to be able to join you here because there are so many of you that I know very well. It is indeed a pleasure to be amongst old friends.

This evening’s topic is on internationalization, more specifically, about branding and profiling. Tonight we have many experts with us - Richard and Kim, with whom I have had the pleasure to work with during my IE days. Kim was a fellow IE board member, and while she was with IE, had helped greatly with the branding of IE. Today we are again working together to foster private-public partnership through ACE.

I am happy to also have with us tonight, Peng Sum and Poh Keong. In the course of my work, I had the opportunity to visit Frasers’ apartments in Shenzhen. I have also visited Poh Keong’s brewery in Ho Chi Minh, to observe role models and understand how brands are promoted in foreign markets. I must say that this is a learning process for me as well, because each time a brand is projected across a different geography, they face different difficulties.

I remember the branding efforts of Tiger Beer. For example, how does one market Tiger Beer in the Thai market? I think in this instance, they used Kung Fu. How it differentiates Tiger Beer from Heineken so that they reach out to different segments of the market. All these stories and more are all very interesting, very subtle ways of brand differentiation. And brands, at the end of the day, will help the companies differentiate themselves from the competition, add to their margin and premium.

The other way to look at branding is of course, Singapore as a brand. We go overseas often. I think in Singapore there is not a single week that passes without a foreign delegation wanting to learn something from our government’s experience. Earlier, I received a request from the leader of a Middle Eastern country who wanted to visit our Media Development Authority. He wanted to come in 10 days time and asked if I could arrange for a visit.

Earlier, this same country had sent a team to study our e-government services, and two weeks before that, they sent another team to our Ministry of Education to study our schools and so on. At the country level, we can say that substantial goodwill has been achieved. Such national branding could be a basic foundation upon which product brands could leverage on. I am not saying that it is always useful, but to the extent that it is useful, especially if you find an advantage, you should build on it,

As we venture overseas, more companies and countries will ask us for help, advice, and to share our experience. We cannot afford to do it indiscriminately because we do not have unlimited resources. Each time people come, we have to put our work on hold and devote our manpower to meet with them and conduct briefings for them.So, we need to prioritize and consider the returns, which could be channeled to our agencies or businesses. If by going to these places or if by inviting them to visit our companies, our companies are able to seal some business contracts, only then does it justify our assistance to them which in turn, contribute to the Singapore economy and help bring some jobs back home. Otherwise, there will simply be too many demands from foreigners for Singapore to share our expertise and experience.

I will stop here. I think you have all enjoyed the first the tour and of course, the Tiger Beer. I apologize for interrupting the drinking session with my early arrival, but I am sure Poh Tiong will be happy for everyone to continue after this session.