Tour operators, hostels offer new experiences to draw visitors to Singapore as sector recovers

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SINGAPORE: Tour operators and dormitories are upping their sport as they look to bank on Singapore’s recovering hospitality business.
 
This is in response to the increase in inbound tourism in 2024, which increased by 12 % from 2023.

Let’s Get Tour, for instance, is hoping that novel choices beyond the beaten path may bring in a wider base. This includes trips to Kampung Buangkok, Singapore’s past of its kind. &nbsp,

According to the agency’s general manager Kyanta Yap, “even tourists and residents are starting to be interested in learning about Singapore before all the high-rise properties.”

The tour technician is also testing out musical travels that use stars as guides.

We want to be unique because, in his opinion, Singapore hospitality as a whole has now advanced to the next level.

” We are run by a group of fun and creative types of tour guides. He said,” It’s not the waving flag and microphone (type ),” referring to how tours are traditionally conducted.

Another company, Monster Day Tours, has started holding virtual reality tour. &nbsp,

” We want to use virtual truth features to help our tour guides tell the better tales of Singapore,” the company says. which may take some of the neighborhoods to career,” said chief operating officer Byron Koh.

Both businesses added that they have developed game-like views and worked to entice businesses that require team-building activities.

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Asia’s Best Companies 2025 Poll — open now | FinanceAsia

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Welcome to&nbsp, FinanceAsia ‘s&nbsp, annual poll, which celebrates Asia’s best companies across a range of markets and countries. In developing this priceless criterion of the country’s most important companies, their efficiency and corporate behavior in relation to their peers, we value the input of both investors and analysts.

We ask our audience to nominate any publicly traded Asian-based business that is leading in its field. It might be that the firm impresses in terms of new deal execution, inside structure, completed transactions, continued strategy, or possibly ESG credentials.

We want to&nbsp, hear from you! &nbsp, The second 100 voters may get one month free, unlimited access to all of&nbsp, FinanceAsia’s information. &nbsp,

To vote&nbsp, visit below. &nbsp, &nbsp, &nbsp,

Poll findings will be published via the&nbsp, FinanceAsia&nbsp, site and will provide traders nationally with special insight into Asia’s best-managed companies, both by country / market and by business industry.

Key Dates

Available for Nomination: &nbsp, Tuesday, Janaury 7 2025
Election Deadline: Thursday, March 6&nbsp, 2025 at evening GMT 8

Outcome Announcement: &nbsp,

North Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia: &nbsp, Monday, March 24 2025&nbsp,
Regional: &nbsp, Tuesday March 25, 2025

Recommendations for Election

  • Each individual who submits a nomination may be asked to provide their contact information.
  • Each election type is&nbsp, special to each market/country. To register for more than one market/country, you perhaps click on the link provided at the end of the study to begin a new submission. &nbsp,
  • Please note that you are &nbsp, just required to fill in the areas in which you wish to make a nomination. You may skip and left the fields flat if there are any categories you do not want to nominate in.
  • Please note that&nbsp, you may not voting for your own business. Vote cast by a business for itself will not be counted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Individual responses will remain confidential – they will only be aggregated to provide overall results.

¬ Capitol Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat: New Johor SEZ deal guns for global investments, 20,000 skilled jobs in 5 years

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Speaking about the SEZ, Mr Wong encouraged buyers to look at the” substitutability” between Johor and Singapore as an entire habitat that can bring “many benefits”.

At a joint press conference with Mr. Anwar on Tuesday, he said,” I think there are many strengths that we can exploit from both sides that will allow us to enhance our value proposition and make this ( JS-SEZ ) a much more competitive and attractive place for businesses to operate from.”

” It’s not just about Singapore organizations moving to Johor, but it’s also about both sides working up to entice new investment projects to be launched worldwide.”

Mr. Anwar continued, noting that the JS-SEZ was a “unique action” and that it was unusual for two nations to collaborate as a team.

” We are presently expanding this kind of mood and scheme toward the sub-region and ASEAN as a whole, which is a rare miracle,” he said.

Malaysia will offer the JS-SEZ a tax incentive package that includes a unique corporate tax rate for businesses that make new investments in JS-SEZ high growth and higher value-added activities, according to Mr. Rafizi.

He also revealed the JS-SEZ may offer a unique personal income tax price, to be announced afterwards by Malaysia’s finance department.

The JS-SEZ, which was first mooted in July 2023, may cross 3, 571 square miles and include nine “flagship areas” food to different economic sectors. &nbsp,

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FX speculators drive China’s yuan to 17-year lows – Asia Times

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As 2025 begins, some central banks classmates envy the tug of war facing Women’s Bank of China Governor Pan&nbsp, Gongsheng.

Forex traders are pulling one area, predicting that Beijing will react to Donald Trump’s upcoming industry war with a weaker yuan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has previously opposed creating a lower transfer charge, is on the other side.

By setting the yuan’s regular reference rate even higher than the psychologically significant 7,2 per dollar level, Pan’s team once more signaled its support for a stable yuan this week. The yuan’s decline, which came after it was 7.3 % per dollar, caused it to decline.

Although the yuan is trading at its lowest level in 17 years, Beijing’s upward pressure on trade costs extends far beyond that region. Most major Asian region currencies fell on Monday ( 6 January ), as the US dollar traded at two-year highs.

” Trump’s business plan ideas are driving renewed anticipation of a stronger-for-longer US money”, writes BMI, a Fitch Solutions business, in a statement. ” This has the ability to deliver prices lower” in China.

Along with” Trump business” relationships strengthening the money, investors are responding to ideas from the US Federal Reserve that price reductions may be infrequent in 2025.

For one thing, US prices isn’t receding when fast as hoped. For one thing, the American labour market continues to have unmatched vigor yet as international repercussions increase.

Nothing is greater than the potent Chinese demand suffocating collapsing property markets. Depreciation is being caused by the resulting decline in confidence and retail sales.

” With deflationary pressures mounting despite expectations for more aggressive policy easing, the Chinese 10-year yield has dropped below 1.6 %, signaling a flight to safety”, says Carlos&nbsp, Casanova, economist at Union Bancaire Privée.

This situation, Casanova adds,” could be similar to Japan’s experience in the early 1990s, with the potential for a considerable carry trade involving borrowing in renminbi to invest in higher-yielding U.S. assets,” which has significant implications for US risk assets, specially if policymakers permit the yuan to diminish in 2025.

The good news is that new statistics indicate that China is regaining some ground. Private business activity in the services sector reached a seven-month deep in December. The Caixin companies buying professionals ‘ index from S&amp, P Global rose to 52.2 from 51.5 in November.

However, challenges are intensifying, says Wang Zhe at Caixin Insight Group. The “external atmosphere”, the scholar warns, is poised to be “more difficult” in 2025, requiring “early” policy approaches and” sharp responses”.

Beijing officials met on Monday to comfort jittery investors selling Shanghai and Shenzhen stock. Leaders at both markets stressed that” solid fundamentals and resilience” support China’s US$ 17 trillion market. They likewise said they’re positively working” to solicit ideas and ideas” from international organizations.

Part of this effort, Casanova observes, is for many big cities to offer usage tickets. Coastal cities like Shanghai are focusing on companies such as dining and entertainment, while inland towns in Hubei and Sichuan are targeting industries like furniture, cars, and technology.

It’s tempting to observe Beijing show “greater determination to implement more measures”, he says.

One of them is the PBOC’s decision to increase funding for creativity. The plan, as the central banks puts it, is to devise ways to promote “high-quality international cash” to invest in China’s battered technology sector.

Above all, though, Pan’s team is pledging to keep the currency stable. According to the pro-PBOC publication Financial News, China’s central bank will “resolutely guard against the risk of exchange rate overshooting and maintain the fundamental stability” of the yuan.

It notes that past “experience of multiple rounds of appreciation and depreciation” proved&nbsp, Pan has” sufficient” tools to keep the exchange rate “basically stable”.

Only time will tell. The yuan’s declines are frequently closely related to the yuan’s decline in China’s stock markets.

Since the beginning of December, Gavekal Research’s economist Louis Gave has noted that the US and China benchmark financing costs have increased by about 80 basis points.

This reinforces the market narrative of a remarkable — and likely inflationary — US economy that is about to enter a new growth phase, while China is scurrying over the threshold of a deflationary lost decade, according to Gave. The phrase “message from equity markets, with Chinese stocks having a funk the entire year” is what follows.

However, according to Gave, a “broader look at asset markets in China and the US tells a different story, as Chinese equities outperformed the seemingly all-conquering US stock market in 2024.” Heading into 2025, Gave notes that despite China’s challenges, underlying fundamentals may favor the valuations of Chinese equities.

That’s partly due to the PBOC’s increased commitment to stabilizing Asia’s largest economy.

As of now, says Mohamed&nbsp, El-Erian, chief advisor at Allianz, the “implosion” of yields on Chinese government bonds is fueling “what could become self-fulfilling worries about the Japanification of the economy”. This “yield phenomenon has intensified” in recent days, he adds.

Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC, notes that” after many fits and starts over the past year, greater evidence is needed that China’s economy is responding to stabilization measures“.

There are indications that more powerful action is in order. The annual Central Economic Work Conference last month gave stock and property markets a higher priority than it did last month.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs speculate that policymakers ‘ “pain threshold” regarding growth and asset prices may have been reached. However, policy implementation is required to increase equity in 2025.

There’s not a moment to waste, says Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier. Lee notes that” the underlying momentum for China continues to be quite fragile,” and that it will take some efforts from the authorities to change the conversation about the country’s deflationary dangers in the medium term.

Of course, there’s ample reason to worry that the dollar’s best days are behind it as investors home in on Washington’s$ 36 trillion debt load. Meanwhile, Team Trump has made hints about plans to slack the dollar in order to gain a competitive advantage over China and the rest of Asia. Trump also has threatened to reduce the Fed’s autonomy, giving his White House a direct say in US rate decisions.

Even so, many economists believe a dollar reversal might take longer than the bears would like.

According to Kit Juckes, chief FX strategist at Societe Generale,” the dollar may be vulnerable, but only if the US data confounds market expectations that the Fed doesn’t cut rates more than once in the first half of this year, and not by more than 50 basis points throughout 2025 .”

Although” there’s a good chance of that happening,” Juckes asserts, “it seems very unlikely that cracks in US growth will appear early in the year; hence my preference is to take any bearish dollar thoughts with me into hibernation until the weather improves.”

The PBOC is a source of contention in part. There are a number of reasons why neither Pan nor Xi want to see the yuan decline sharply.

For one, a weaker yuan would make it more difficult for highly indebted individuals, such as property developers, to pay off their offshore debt, increasing the risk of default in Asia’s largest economy. Seeing# ChinaEvergrande or# ChinaVanke&nbsp, trending again in cyberspace is the last thing Xi’s Communist Party wants.

For one thing, the monetary easing needed to keep the yuan’s declines could stymie Xi’s deleveraging efforts over the past five years. Beijing has made significant strides in lowering China’s financial woes and raising the national’s gross domestic product’s quality.

As a result, Xi and Premier Li Qiang have been reluctant to let the PBOC slash rates more assertively, even as deflation clouds China’s outlook.

The most significant reform accomplishment of Xi may be increasing the yuan’s use in finance and trade. In 2016, China won a place for the yuan in the International Monetary Fund’s” special drawing rights” basket joining the dollar, yen, euro and pound.

Since then, the currency’s use in trade and finance has soared. Excessive easing now might dent trust in the yuan, slowing its progression to reserve-currency status.

A weaker yuan could also lead to a wider Asian currency war that is not everyone’s best interest. Tokyo might be all-in on a much weaker yen, entice South Korea into the fray.

Memories of 2015 are clearly entering into Beijing’s equation. China’s decision to devalue the yuan by nearly 3 % a decade ago led to a destabilizing capital flight that still bothers Communist Party leaders. Over the next year, Xi’s team had to draw down Beijing’s foreign exchange reserves by$ 1 trillion to restore calm.

For now, the” PBOC is signaling that it wants a stable RMB, probably dashing the hopes of those betting that RMB will continue to devalue meaningfully against the US dollar”, says longtime China watcher&nbsp, Bill&nbsp, Bishop, who writes the Sinocism newsletter. &nbsp,

Robin Brooks, economist at the Brookings Institution, says that “medium-term, this does raise the risk of capital flight out of China, especially if the US imposes tariffs”. Generally speaking, Brooks believes, a falling yuan won’t necessarily shake up the global economy because” the yuan is heavily manipulated and isn’t moving”.

Still, risks abound. China could become a more contentious issue in US politics as a scheinbar anti-China administration ascends to power.

They include hardliners like Peter Navarro, co-author of a book titled” Death by China”, as top trade adviser. Marco Rubio, criticized by China as Trump’s secretary of state, is also in the same boat. or adding Jamieson Greer and Robert Lighthizer to Trump’s team of trade negotators.

There’s hope that Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, can ensure that cooler heads prevail. Bessent, it’s believed, would represent the camp in Trump World making sure Trump’s tariff talk is merely a negotiating tactic to achieve a giant trade deal with Beijing.

Either way, Team Xi might want to avoid drawing Trump’s ire. These [risks ], in our opinion, indicate that the PBOC would like to control the rate of yuan depreciation against the dollar and prevent a sharp depreciation prior to the US tariff announcement, according to Goldman’s economists.

Only Pan and Xi know for sure, though. Asia’s markets will be glued to Beijing’s yuan policy for the entire year as it addresses both domestic and global risks in 2025.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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US says technology giant Tencent works with Chinese military

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A list of businesses it claims to work with China’s government has been added by the US to include some Chinese tech companies, including gambling and social media giant Google and battery manufacturer CATL.

The listing serves as a warning to British businesses and individuals about the dangers of conducting business with Taiwanese entities.

Inclusion does not imply an urgent restrictions, but it may put pressure on the US Treasury Department to impose sanctions on the businesses.

Google and CATL have denied working with the Chinese defense, while Beijing defended the move as “unreasonable suppression of Taiwanese companies.”

The Department of Defense’s ( DOD ) list of Chinese military companies, which is formally known as the Section 1260H list, is updated annually and now includes 134 firms.

It is a piece of Washington’s strategy to counteract what it perceives as Beijing’s efforts to increase its military might through the use of technologies from Chinese businesses, institutions, and study programs.

Tencent, the owner of the messaging app WeChat, responded to the most recent statement by saying its participation on the list was” evidently a mistake.”

” We are certainly a military firm or vendor. Unlike restrictions or export controls, this list has no effect on our company”, it said in a speech to Reuters news company.

The title was also called a mistake by CATL, who added that it “is never engaged in any military-related activities.”

According to Liu Pengyu, a representative for the Chinese embassy in Washington,” the US’s techniques violate the business competitors principles and global economic and trade guidelines that it has always advocated. They also undermine the confidence of foreign businesses in investing and operating in the United States.”

US lawmakers had pressed the Pentagon to include some of the businesses, including CATL, to the list.

Ford, a US manufacturer of automobiles, announced it would invest$ 2 billion ( 1. 6 billion ) to build a battery plant in Michigan as a result of this pressure. It has stated that it intends to use systems licensing from CATL.

A BBC request for comment was not instantly addressed by Ford.

The news comes as tensions exist between the country’s two largest markets.

However, President-elect Donald Trump, who has recently taken a strong stance against Beijing, is due to returning to the White House this quarter.

DJI, a aircraft manufacturer, and Hesai Technologies, a Lidar-maker, sued the Pentagon for being on the roster last season. Both of them are still listed as updated.

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How Trump’s must-do trade deficit fix attempts will affect China – Asia Times

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Trump’s potential presidential candidate receives too little consideration, and not enough of it is what he ( or any other president of the United States ) needs to do.

Serious trade deficits have given the United States a disproportionately large share of global trade desire over the past 30 times. Each year, the United States sells assets, most of which are now multinational stocks, to pay off its trillion-dollar trade deficit. Some people believe that Trump places too much emphasis on the US trade deficit, or that his preferred approach ( tariffs ) may not be the best solution to the issue. However, it may stop what is not sustainable. This may alter how the United States behaves, which will have significant effects on China.

The US current account deficit of$ 800 billion is in line with Japan, China, and Germany’s trade surpluses. To be sure, China’s direct exports to the US have fallen from 8 % of GDP in 2007 to just 2.3 % last year ( in dollar terms ). China exports more to the global South now than all developed nations combined, but a large portion of its exports to the world South depend on those nations ‘ US imports.

The United States, out of the nations above, has the biggest current account deficit. The horizontal axis is the information for 2023, in billions of US dollars&nbsp,.

The U. S. net foreign investment place, the difference between foreign assets owned by Americans and U. S. property owned by foreigners, is then unfavorable$ 24 trillion, compared with unfavorable$ 18 trillion when Trump left office. However, the national debt has grown to$ 35 trillion, larger than the government’s GDP. Both trends are representative of the Biden administration’s tried borrowing strategy to promote consumption and swell imports. Under Biden, the U. S. gross international funding status has fallen at a record rate.

The US net foreign investment position ( blue line ) and the federal government debt have changed historically. System: trillion US dollars.

National users have long been the primary source of global demand. That is untenable, no matter who is in the White House. The United States has largely sold stocks to other countries over the past few years to pay off its trade deficits. In 2012, international standard institutions stopped purchasing U.S. Treasury bonds. Since 2020, most of the new national debt has been financed by U. S. economic institutions, a possible fragile design. A reduction in U. S. stocks may make U. S. property less attractive to foreigners, and U. S. economic institutions cannot compensate for a federal deficit of 6 % of GDP long.

What does this mean for China?

Seasonally adjusted comparison of China’s exports to the Global South ( blue line ) and U. S. imports from the Global South ( excluding China ) ( red line ). Unit: million USD/month.

As mentioned above, China’s direct dependence on the US market has been greatly reduced, and China’s exports have shifted to the global South, but China’s indirect dependence on the US market is still very large. The chart shows that from 2020 to 2023, China’s exports to the global South increased from about US$ 60 billion per month to US$ 120 billion per month, an astonishing increase. However, US imports from the global South also increased from about US$ 40 billion per month in 2020 to about US$ 80 billion per month in 2023. The global South’s exports to the United States affect a sizable portion of China’s exports there. Vietnam’s situation largely reflects this, with exports to the US making up a quarter of Vietnam’s own GDP, whereas the cases of Indonesia and Brazil are less well known.

the changes in each nation’s GDP over time in terms of the share of exports to the United States. The dark blue dotted line represents Vietnam, the dark green represents Brazil, and the light blue dotted line represents Indonesia.

Everything depends on how much trade is recouped by the US. If Trump imposes high tariffs, as he hinted during the campaign, prices in the United States will rise and consumption will collapse. The purpose of tariffs is to raise domestic prices to encourage domestic production. Shrinking US demand will in turn depress growth in Europe, Japan, and the global South, and China will also be affected. According to my calculations, the United States now imports most of its capital goods. If tariffs cause the cost of capital goods to go up, domestic manufacturers ‘ benefits may far outweigh the negative effects of higher prices. No matter what steps the government takes, in this situation, China’s economic growth will decline, even though domestic stimulus measures can partially address this issue.

Is it possible to lessen the United States ‘ reliance on imports without stifling economic growth? Personal consumption expenditures made up 84 % of the US GDP growth over the past ten years. There have been booms in both the consumption and investment sectors in the United States. In fact, since 2000, the capital stock of US manufacturing equipment has not changed in real terms.

As can be seen in the figure below, U.S. retail sales and imports ( both shown as deflating series ) have synchronized over the past 20 years, with each increase in consumption corresponding to an increase in imports.

Comparison of the latest U. S. retail sales and food services ( blue line, corresponding to the right vertical axis, unit: million, 1982-1984 consumer price index adjusted US dollars ) and actual goods imports ( green dashed line, corresponding to the left vertical axis, unit: billion, 2017 chained US dollars ). &nbsp, Data source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U. S. Department of Commerce.

Some production may be moved to the United States from abroad. Trump has repeatedly asked Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers to set up factories in the US to produce goods for the country. This is a solution to some extent, but it is very difficult to implement. Due to a lack of qualified talent, equipment, and infrastructure, the Biden administration has given semiconductor manufacturers enormous subsidies, but the result of the boom in factory construction has resulted in a 30 % increase in the cost of new industrial plants in the United States between 2022 and 2023. Trump may also demand that Chinese-produced electric vehicles in the United States use American chips.

America needs a new manufacturing culture. Once great manufacturing companies such as Boeing and Intel have failed many times, but America’s ability to adapt should not be underestimated. Before establishing a factory in Shanghai, Tesla also made cars in California. However, it will take time for American manufacturing to recover. The Federal Reserve’s industrial production index peaked at 106 in 2008 and is now only 99. America needs to resurrect its infrastructure, train talented technical workers, and create a new generation of business owners.

As President Trump suggested in 2019, China might agree to purchase more American goods, including agricultural products and hydrocarbons. Trump has argued in recent weeks that China has “failed to live up to” its commitments to purchase American goods. China would be wise to accept this offer if he makes it again. Whatever the cost of growing American soybeans is, it will be much less expensive than the other options. However, the most likely scenario is that the US will impose severe tariffs on Chinese and other imports.

The United States will continue to implement export controls on semiconductor equipment and development tools in the future because it still has a competitive advantage in some technological fields. The effectiveness of this policy is increasingly uncertain among American analysts, but Washington’s political climate does not allow for a relaxation of export controls.

China will have to adjust to the declining US demand for its manufactured goods, just like Europe and Japan. The Global South, with its 7 billion people, also has a huge demand for manufactured goods, but challenges and opportunities exist. Exports from the Global South to the United States account for a large portion of China’s export success, as previously mentioned. The Global South faces a number of challenges, including the lack of infrastructure and technology, as well as the country’s poor governance and political challenges, in order to realize its growth potential. The greater challenge facing the Global South is developing an endogenous growth model in contrast to export-driven economic growth.

To a considerable extent, China’s export industries have contributed to long-term productivity gains in its trading partners. Infrastructure in the telecommunications industry is a good illustration. According to the International Labour Organization ( ILO ), the so-called informal sector employs 60 % of the world’s workforce. These people do not pay taxes, have little access to government services, and most do not have access to banking. Mobile broadband supports the creation of businesses, formal employment, and integration into the financial system. Infrastructure in the digital sector can significantly improve productivity and governance, just like it can in the physical sector. Not all of the Belt and Road Initiative investments will yield such significant benefits, and China will need to make wise decisions about their investment priorities in the future.

Western economists urge China to resuscitate the Biden administration and increase consumption by reducing debt. This may temporarily increase output, but it is not a long-term solution. The main issue is that the world’s largest economies, including China, are lacking in young people. The only realistic solution is to boost the productivity of young people in the global South, unless current demographic trends can be reversed.

This article first appeared on The Observer ( guancha.cn ), a Chinese news and opinion website. It is republished with permission.

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EEC targets B100bn in investments

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PUBLISHED: 7 Jan 2025 at 04: 00

The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) is a special economic zone of Chachoengsao, Chon Buri and Rayong provinces. (File photo)
The Eastern Economic Corridor ( EEC ) is a special economic zone of Chachoengsao, Chon Buri and Rayong provinces. ( File photo )

The Eastern Economic Corridor ( EEC ) is setting its sights firmly on attracting at least 100 billion baht worth of investments in 2025, says Chula Sukmanop, secretary-general of the EEC Office.

He claims that the EEC intends to allocate the funds for the entire fiscal year, noting that potential businesses may make the majority of the investments.

According to Mr. Chula, businesses that are given privileges are certain to produce the opportunities. He claims that the EEC did inspire the businesses to make significant investments in exchange for better privileges.

The EEC assets are anticipated to boost the growth of the local market and promote the growth of the country’s gross domestic product.

Mr. Chula stated,” We may work hard to reach the goal of drawing in 100 billion ringgit before the year is over.”

He did point out that companies who decided to invest in the EEC might not always have the same strategy. They will likely engage in tranches, he adds. According to him, the EEC’s task is to encourage real purchase spending that is above 100 billion baht this year so that it can drive GDP.

He added that the EEC was working to meet legal requirements by opening a one-stop support center to assist customers in the system.

The heart is expected to reduce inter-agency contacts, which are needed in seeking authorization for proposed investments, to one, support funding applications, work force applications, company registration, and the opening of accounts for transactions.

Importantly governing EEC-related laws, such as those governing factory starting permits, may be changed in order for the center to begin operating.

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Soul Parking raises Series A extension to fuel growth for innovative parking solutions in Indonesia

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  • Funds will power development, hiring, product upgrades, and company growth
  • Plans to enhance appearance in existing areas, enter new urban locations across Indonesia

Kenneth Darmansjah, co-founder & CEO, Soul Parking (left) and Unggul Depirianto, CTO, Soul Parking

Soul Parking, a leading park management service company transforming industrial parking facilities through systems in Indonesia, has announced the implementation of a Series A expansion round of financing co-led by AppWorks and AC Ventures, with participation from Taiwan Mobile, USPACE, and Wavemaker Ventures, the early-stage fund of Wavemaker Partners.

In a speech, the organization said the borrowing will help growth initiatives, including growth into high-density cities, enrollment, product enhancement, and marketing to enhance brand visibility and user growth. Additionally, Soul Parking intends to expand its footprint in existing areas, expand to new metropolitan areas in Indonesia, offer a wide range of aircraft types, and look into opportunities in the electric vehicle industry. Unfortunately, the company aims to lead to Indonesia’s green industrial growth by reducing gridlock, lowering emissions, improving convenience, and enhancing the overall park experience for drivers.

Soul Parking makes use of technology to modernize standard parking facilities, providing property owners and users with a quick and hassle-free electronic parking experience. Real-time data analysis and cashless payment options are integrated into its asset-light model, which improves parking users ‘ ability to use more space and generate more revenue.

For home owners, Soul Parking offers creative solutions that improve the industrial parking infrastructure, generate new revenue streams, and increase parking capacity in densely populated areas by up to eight times as much as conventional methods. For individuals, the company delivers a smooth, cashless, and convenient parking knowledge, eliminating the problems of conventional driving systems.

Soul Parking’s modern products and services include: &nbsp,

    Small bike storage: Portable multi-level park options for two-wheeled vehicles.

  • Soul Parking operating system: Cloud-based technology that digitises existing driving frameworks for both two- and four-wheeled cars, offering real-time data analysis and visible information sharing.

The company states it can transform a 60m² area into multi-level parking, significantly reducing congestion and increasing capacity. With added security, its elevated parking system provides insurance for each parked vehicle and CCTV monitoring for added security.

Since its inception, Soul Parking claims to have on boarded over 100 partners, including property owners and management companies, processing more than 20 million parking transactions annually. Its solutions are implemented in apartments, hospitals, commercial centres, recreational areas, and residential complexes, with over two million vehicles parked through its system to date.

Soul Parking raises Series A extension to fuel growth for innovative parking solutions in IndonesiaThis fundraising round highlights the immense potential within the parking industry as well as the strength of our business fundamentals and the resilience of our team. We appreciate the trust and shared vision of our investors, whose support enables us to fast-track innovation and deliver impactful solutions, positioning us to redefine urban mobility for the future”, said Kenneth Darmansjah, co-founder and CEO of Soul Parking.

By developing effective and sustainable parking options,” Soul Parking addresses a crucial issue in Indonesia’s urban landscape.” Their tech-driven approach improves the driver’s parking experience while maximizing land use and reducing congestion in densely populated cities. We are particularly impressed by Darmansjah’s commitment to using technology to address real-world problems”, said Jamie Lin, chairman and partner at AppWorks.

Lin continued,” The Soul Parking team has demonstrated execution and a thorough understanding of the mobility market. This, combined with their clear vision for the future of urban mobility, makes them an ideal partner for AppWorks. We look forward to supporting their journey as they expand their impact and change how urban mobility is defined in Indonesia and around the world.

” Parking management is a substantial sector in Indonesia. Soul Parking provides parking customers with a seamless experience while providing cost-effective, accountable services to property owners through its innovative solutions. Soul Parking operates at a scale and is well-positioned to compete effectively in this expanding market, according to Michael Soerijadji, founder and managing partner at AC Ventures, with over 20 million transactions processed and partnerships with more than 100 property owners.

” With 137 million motorcycles across Indonesia and a severe shortage of parking spaces, illegal parking has become widespread, worsening traffic congestion and causing economic losses—Jakarta alone loses approximately US$ 30 million ( RM133 million ) annually. Soul Parking’s vertical motorcycle parking system, equipped with real-time tracking, optimises land use and enhances efficiency and transparency in parking management across Indonesia. We’re proud to see the business continue to support them as they address this pressing issue and expand their services across the country, according to Paul Santos, co-founder and managing partner at Wavemaker Partners.

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