Singapore SMEs’ investments into Malaysia handled by StanChart quadrupled in past year

[JOHOR BAHRU] The value of investments into Malaysia facilitated by Standard Chartered for its Singapore SME clients has grown more than four times in the last year, with a significant share landing in the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), the bank said on Thursday (Oct 29).

Investments flowing into Singapore, facilitated for the bank’s small and medium-sized enterprises in Malaysia, doubled over the same period, it added.

The bank did not disclose the amounts involved.

Cooling-tower specialist Stolz Engineering is among the bank’s clients operating on both sides of the Causeway. Its headquarters and engineering centre are in Singapore, but its facility supporting assembly, installation and delivery is in Senai in Johor.

Speaking at a virtual media briefing on Thursday, Stolz’s senior manager of operations, David Ling, said expanding into Johor has entailed securing business and signboard licences, meeting import and export requirements, arranging logistics and finding workers with the right skills.

Moving goods across the border has also proved challenging. He recalled the time an oversized shipment bound for Singapore via the Second Link was turned back at the checkpoint because it did not have a special permit.

The permit would normally have taken a month to obtain, but Stolz managed to secure it in half the time, he said.

Standard Chartered also helped the company to source for Malaysian workers for its Senai facility, Ling added.

Stolz, which was founded in Singapore in 2007 and expanded into Johor in 2024, plans to scale up its cooling-tower business in Malaysia, he added.

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Teresa Tah, who oversees medium-sized enterprises in Singapore and Asean at the bank and is the global head of high-value client propositions, said SMEs expanding across the border needed support beyond financing, and this includes areas such as local market knowledge and connections to business-service partners.

She said opportunities in the JS-SEZ are not limited to multinational corporations, and that SMEs can carve out a piece of the action by supplying goods and services to larger companies.

She added: “We have observed that Singapore and Malaysian companies increasingly recognise the value of tapping into each other’s strengths.

“The JS-SEZ comes at a pivotal time as businesses seek to capture opportunities arising from AI, digitalisation and regional growth.”

To support businesses expanding across the Causeway, Standard Chartered launched a cross-border banking proposition for SMEs operating in Singapore and Malaysia.

The package it unveiled at a JS-SEZ business forum in Kulai on Thursday offers six months of free outward telegraphic transfers between the two countries, interest optimisation and access to the bank’s network of ecosystem partners.

The event drew more than 100 business leaders and industry stakeholders from both countries.