Singapore Market, a Top Luxury Destination

One of the most open and dynamic economies in the world, Singapore, has been turned out in a key destination of foreign investment both Eastern and Western capital flows. Especially, investors are the most qualified –money managers, hedge funds or other type of portfolio managers– and wealthy people in the luxury sector. The combination of low taxes, few regulation and a free-banking system ruled out by free-competition rules, makes the investor attractive that this City-State has right now with a less of 1 per cent of disposable land.

The most important brands in the luxury market are paying attention to Singapore. This is the case of the well-known Louis Vuitton whose Chairman and CEO Michael Burke has said in an interview that “Singapore has all the ingredients for it to remain a top luxury market destination”. The country houses to a nomadic wealthy customer who are the best luxury customers according to his vision.

Singapore has been selected in order to launch its ‘Acte V’ high jewellery collection. This collection is composed by 117 jewellery high-grade pieces, 36 of them designed with exclusivity to national customers directly sent from the Paris headquarter. This is the first time Louis Vuitton presents a new collection abroad before its presentation in Paris.

During many years, the Asian luxury market has been focused on other countries rather than Singapore such as China. However, the austerity measures implemented by PM Li Keqiang, are freezing the national luxury market. In this sense, Louis Vuitton’s Burke points out “China can boom and tomorrow Africa will boom, but Singapore will always be a top market”.

To sum up, Singapore is one of the countries in the world with more facilities to invest, to develop business and to create firms. Certainly, Singapore is free of international tensions and conflicts with a great geographical position and a strong “rule of law”. This is a clear example of how the wealth of nations cannot be explained by natural resources instead of the unique factor with increasing returns: human capital.