Singapore the Lion City

For nearly a year now, I have had the honor of being Managing Director of KELLER's Singapore office. Singapore is one of the most important economic and trading centres in Southeast Asia and its port is one of the largest in the world. Singapore has been independent from the United Kingdom since 1965 and has developed from an emerging market to an industrialised country in just a few decades.

The city state also offers an excellent education system and many highly qualified people. This is one of the reasons why globally active companies have chosen Singapore as the main location for their research and development. Of course, western companies also appreciate the advantages of the elevated level of education and the internationally oriented structures.

Singapore stands for free trade and is a member of the ASEAN Free Trade Area. This includes the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Other agreements, such as those with the EFTA states, also promote and facilitate cooperation.

For KELLER, it was obvious that a location with political and economic stability such as Singapore would bring numerous advantages. On one hand, customers in the ASEAN countries can be served locally, on the other hand, there are many existing European and American KELLER customers with R & D locations in Southeast Asia, who now benefit from direct local support.

I have known KELLER for over 10 years. As a former representative, our team and I were KELLER partners in the Southeast Asian region until the end of 2022. Due to the many years of successful cooperation and the above-mentioned factors, I am pleased to have been part of KELLER for a year now and to be able to advise our customers first-hand.

I am familiar with KELLER products and technologies and Swiss quality is very much in demand in the Southeast Asian region. One of our great strengths is high-quality and customer-specific KELLER pressure sensor solutions. Wherever application-specific solutions are required in the ASEAN region, we now offer a central contact point with our local technology center. Customer-specific consulting is our top priority because direct communication with the R & D departments of our customers is a decisive success factor for the successful implementation of projects. 

A typical working day usually starts at 8:30 a.m. and the first thing we do is deal with newly received enquiries via email. In the ASEAN countries, we have a uniform time zone almost everywhere and customers expect a prompt reply. If this does not happen, an impatient second e-mail or even a phone call will arrive in the afternoon, which is something we naturally want to avoid. This high expectation is due to Singapore's image, because it is not for nothing that Singapore is referred to as the Switzerland of Asia 😊.

In conclusion, our business partners appreciate the fact that we are now an official KELLER subsidiary. For them, as well as for us, it brings three major advantages:

• A better understanding of our services
• More technical knowledge
• And direct support

The emblem of Singapore since 1964 is a Merlion, a mythical creature with a lion's head and a fish's body. Today, Merlion statues can be found all over Singapore, the most famous being in Merlion Park.