With the new year around the corner, companies are planning for the year ahead. Here\u2019s Achieve CEO Joshua Yim\u2019s assessment of the business climate in 2014 and what he expects to be the top business challenges, as quoted in this article in The Business Times:<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking a macro view of major economic trends, it is quite certain that the United States Federal Government’s Quantitative Easing (QE) programme will end by next year, following the postponement of the decision to taper it.<\/p>\n
With regards to China, the world’s second largest economy, I believe that China will successfully avert a hard landing under the leadership of Xi Jinping, and forge ahead with growth of 7 per cent and above. This will spell good news for the rest of Asia.<\/p>\n
Based on the various economic indicators, Japan seems to be progressing well with its Abenomics programme, and the countries in the European Union are also showing improved numbers. The only countries to watch now are Spain, Italy and Greece.<\/p>\n
With the major economies on the right track for recovery, the global prospects appear much brighter.<\/p>\n
However, the question that people are most concerned with is when the bubble will burst, and how the global ecosystem will be affected, once the US federal government decides to stop printing money. But in the short-term, I believe 2014 will be a brighter year compared with 2013.<\/p>\n
As for Singapore, we are a very open economy that is susceptible to the economic waves of the major markets. That said, the outlook is good, with the unemployment rate hovering at around 2 per cent. Being in the recruitment business, this signals good business prospects for us, as we provide professional talent acquisition services to help other companies grow. There will be opportunities for growth for us, as companies expanding in the Asia-Pacific region will need our services.<\/p>\n
The top challenge that most companies will face is in the area of human resources. The expected economic growth, coupled with the tightened employment laws, will prompt businesses to expand their workforce but it will be harder to find local and permanent resident talent.<\/p>\n
Our business is in hiring the right people for our clients so I foresee that my top challenge will be to find the right talent for our customers. The Achieve Group holds a very prominent position in human resource circles as we have been in the market for so many years. I believe our strong branding and strong database of candidates will enable us to help our customers find the right people. We intend to pump more resources into marketing next year, to build a bigger presence within the employment market and capture more candidates to meet our customers’ needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source : The Business Times, 11 November 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the new year around the corner, companies are planning for the year ahead. Here\u2019s Achieve CEO Joshua Yim\u2019s assessment of the business climate in 2014 and what he expects to be the top business challenges, as quoted in this article in The Business Times: \u201cTaking a macro view of major economic trends, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,24,25,29],"yoast_head":"\n