• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Chong Siak Ching

Rasheeda Bhagat
M. Ramesh

As the global economic slowdown brings more bad news with each passing day, no economy will be able to escape its adverse implications. But the Indian IT industry is in a position to weather this storm, armed with a couple of advantages, says Chong Siak Ching, President and CEO of Ascendas, the Singapore-based leading provider of business space in 10 countries across Asia, including India and China.

As the head honcho of a leading IT space provider in India, she has a good sense of the Indian IT industry. “When we speak with the IT companies in India we find that for some of them clearly there will be an immediate impact, as companies in the US and Europe will become more conservative in their business and might take a re-look at outsourcing to India.”

But at the same time there will also be opportunities. As companies look at cost cutting to tide through this difficult period, they will also be looking at lower cost solutions to their current business operations. “Offshoring some of their activities to India would be a way of managing their cost. So some Indian IT companies will see this as a potential upturn for their businesses,” she says.

Chong thinks that businesses will continue to review their operations and “as long as India is able to upgrade and enhance IT services — both offshoring and outsourcing solutions — I think there will still be demand for the Indian IT business services. Also, India, today, is not viewed as the location where you only outsource services such as in a call centre.” Of late there have been more high value-added services… “what they call the KPOs (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and even digital media. We have a tenant in Hyderabad — Rhythm and Hues — which does the digital design work for Oscar winning Hollywood movies! This is the kind of high-end work for which there will always be a demand.”

Chong thinks the IT industry, and “a very high concentration of talented workers,” is one of the key attractions of India, giving it an edge over several other markets. “The IT sector has contributed to India’s growth in many ways. It has provided employment to large numbers, increasing middle-class consumers and pushing up demand for housing, products and services; IT also allows more women to come into the workplace.”

On Ascendas’ India operations, she reiterates that “we are in India for the long term; we came to Whitefield in Bangalore 14 years ago, when there was hardly any infrastructure .” She admits that during these 14 years “there have been ups and downs, but we stuck to the course and continued to increase our investments in India because we have confidence in the Indian market. We believe India is really a long-term story, and strong growth will continue here. So we are still looking at opportunities in India and have expanded to six cities (Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Coimbatore and Gurgaon).”

But, adds Chong, there are always short-term challenges, as we went through in the mid-90s.” Inadequate infrastructure is one of them, though “slowly things are changing, and we see new airports, like the ones in Bangalore and Hyderabad, which by Indian standards are a big improvement.” She thinks once Indians see such high-quality development, they will demand more modern facilities like the Delhi Metro Rail.

Chong explains that in India, where Ascendas has a total real estate space of 6 million sq ft, it has formed a development fund called the Ascendas India Development Trust, with assets worth $500 million under its management. “Our occupancy in India is way above the average, in the high 90s, and in the last one year we have also expanded our product range. We are no longer just an IT space developer and have now gone into integrated development and Special Economic Zones (SEZs).” So, in Coimbatore and Gurgaon, the company’s operations would include, apart from business space, community and housing space too.

On the SEZ issue and the exit of Tata Motors from Singur, Chong says, “Of course it worries us; that is why we tread very carefully. We work with not just the Government but also the private sector when we acquire land and make sure that what we do is seen as a contribution to the community and the economy as a whole.”

She explains that Ascendas started in Bangalore with residential space in Whitefield “at a time when there was no high-quality housing there. But after a few years, we catalysed around the IT space as more residential developers came in. We are now building a retail mall in the Bangalore IT Park, which will set a new standard for such spaces, and a Taj Hotel with 200 rooms. It is owned and operated by the Taj group, we have leased the land to them. That makes the area a self-contained integrated community so that workers and all business partners will have access to multiple facilities.”

The total asset value under Ascendas’ management is worth S$8.5 billion, and it has on offer a whopping 40 million sq ft space used by 1,800 customers. It has the biggest presence in Singapore, followed by India and China. Chong says that while the global financial meltdown will slow down things as businesses worldwide adopt a more cautious approach, “we are still seeing very high occupancy in our properties in Singapore at around 94 per cent.” She believes there will be “a very strong demand” for the business space in Singapore because many of the financial institutions, for instance, are relocating their backroom operations there and “the CBD (Central Business District) rentals have gone up considerably. Yes, there will be some impact in terms of companies halting expansion plans but those who have a good foundation here already are still looking to grow where there are opportunities.”

Chong offers a new perspective while replying to a question on the increasing trend among young Singaporean women, who either don’t want to get married or are delaying their marriage, as this brings family responsibilities which could put barriers in the way of career advancement.

“I think this is not confined to Singapore, but is true of many countries; it is a case of a developed economy providing women with more options. In the past, there were fewer options to make a good career for yourself. In those days women were focussing more on their families as that was the only option open to them. But today there are multiple roles available to women, not only in business but also in community service, social service, and so on.”

With career options available in abundance, different women make different choices, she adds. Chong was born in Malaysia and came to Singapore for her university education, and studied Estate Management at the National University of Singapore. She graduated in 1981 and was awarded a gold medal by the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers. In 1991, she obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the same university, and did an advanced management programme at the Harvard Business School in 1998.

On the glass ceiling and there being few women CEOs in the corporate world, she says, “Actually a lot of women tell me that Singapore has many more women in top positions, but of course the percentage is still small. But as Singapore operates on a meritocracy system, there are no deliberate barriers.”

And yet she was a rare woman CEO to chair a session at the second mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in Singapore last fortnight!

Chong is married and has a 15 year-old daughter and admits that one of the constant challenges a career woman faces is that “you are always torn between how much time you devote to family versus your work. But sometimes I think people forget that men also have their families to attend to. Of course, the society expects the woman to spend more time. But if you have a supportive husband, like I do, it makes life that much more easier.”

On more Asian men changing their mindsets to help out more with family responsibilities, she says, “I guess it will change and it is changing, though slowly. It’s only a question of speed and culture. In some cultures it is much faster, like Singapore where we are short of people and hence want to utilise as much talent as we can get, and people do ask why ignore this large talent pool of women.”

In the end, adds Chong, it boils down to the choice a woman makes when handling family responsibilities.

“Normally the expectation is more from women and some women willingly take more responsibility at home. I have friends in the US with Masters’ degrees, and once they get married and have children they say we want to stay at home and take care of the home and children. So, it is their choice. I guess different societies will see different contributions from women and at a different pace. In Singapore, clearly we need the female talent to contribute more at the workplace.”

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Software | Insight | Financial Markets | Gender

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line