Bartering in Singapore

As the global economic crisis forces many businesses to cut costs,some companies in Singapore turn to the age old practice of barter trading.

As the recession hits small and medium enterprises in Singapore hard, many companies are turning to alternative methods to pay their bills and expand their businesses.

Currently in Singapore two barter exchanges offer multi-lateral trading on the internet and Barter Vista's managing director says business is up 20 percent in the last six months.




[Chew Chee Yong, Managing Director of Barter Vista Private]: "Barter Vista is actually where business owners, small and medium enterprises, come together to barter trade their excessive inventory, their slow time on a perishable capacity, in return for things that they will otherwise use cash to buy. For example, my printer, one of my members, barter-traded his spare capacity in return for staff benefits, or even dining vouchers and insurance."

Though the concept is still rather new to Singapore, the company has around 400 members who exchange services through barter credits.

Costing $520 to join Barter Vista takes a 5 percent cash commission.

Chew says printing, marketing, public relations and advertising are the most-traded services.




He says bartering could be a catalyst for economic recovery as it opens other doors for companies who want to expand their business despite the credit crunch.

Geek Terminal received a sophisticated marketing campaign for their new restaurant through the barter service.

[Danny Pang, Owner of Greek Terminal]: "As a start off, I think the barter programme actually helped us
get a bit of a foothold into marketing. Otherwise, you know when a lot of companies start up, they try to do marketing, it's always something very attractive, but it's very high costs. So from that aspect and that angle, it was really very helpful."

In return, Angela Lim, the PR executive responsible for Geek Terminal's campaign, got a Fung Shui expert to redesign her office and home.

According to the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA), the "modern trade and barter industry" facilitates 12 billion dollars in business-to-business transactions worldwide annually.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• singapore
• global economic crisis
• recession
• business
• trade
• bank

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