6 out of 10 executives cautiously optimistic about 2012

It's a reversal from the same survey in 3Q which says that 7 out of 10 are pessimistic.

In a survey conducted by Ipsos Business Consulting, 60% of respondents indicated that they were ‘quite optimistic’ about the economy for 2012. This was a significant improvement from the same survey in the third quarter of 2011 in which 72% of respondents indicated that they were not optimistic about the future.

Some 22% of business leaders were even more bullish, predicting double digit growth for the year, with nearly 80% predicting some form of growth. There were notes of caution, however, with 69% of respondents sounding the alarm bell about the impact of the overall global economy on their business. Most of the optimism seems to derive from business opportunities within the Asia Pacific region, and particularly from other fast-growing ASEAN countries.

124 respondents from a broad range of industries in Singapore gave their input to the survey. 79% of
the respondents were director level or higher, with over 30% occupying chief executive offices in their
organizations. Approximately 80% of respondents were representatives of multinational organizations.

Anand Kumar, head of the Business Consulting unit in Singapore commented: “We were pleased to note
the more optimistic tone throughout the survey and put this down to strong growth in the region. The
survey gave some further indications about where the cautious optimism was coming from.
Respondents indicated that they were planning on entering new markets in the ASEAN region. In
particular businesses were very interested in Indonesia. We also saw strong interest in Vietnam,
Philippines and Thailand amongst the other ASEAN countries. “

Kumar continued: “We have certainly noticed an increase in the number of projects from clients looking
to enter the fast growth markets in the region where information on the markets isn’t always publicly available. Companies that can fast-track their entry and growth in these markets are clearly going to be
the ones to look out for in 2012, especially as we see more headlines about diversification away from
China.”