Global News Flash - our blog

To even serve our ASEAN customers better, Expandeers is happy to welcome our new partner Frank. A highly innovative and resilient global business leader living in Singapore with deep digital entertainment, games & esports industry expertise, gained from over 25 years’ building successful businesses and winning teams.

Being part of an international network of senior executive level relationships through active participation on boards, and industry associations, Frank enjoys his position as global industry expert and someone who shapes industries.

Recognized with the German Game Developer Award, the European Games Award and with Asia's Sports Industry Award (SPIA Awards) in 2017 and 2018, he has a verifiable history of commitment to growth, expansion and P&L optimization in the games, esports and media competitive industries in both mature and emerging markets across the Asia Pacific Region, the US, and Europe. With more than 25 years of corporate leadership and entrepreneurship comes  a certain expertise: Frank achieves maximum operational output with minimal resource expenditure and has consistently exceeded performance goals.

He is the founder of the German Esports Association in 2004 where he was then elected as Chairman. He is also Vice President of the International Esports Federation since 2008. With Frank we strengthen Expandeers' SEA Team. If your are looking for a business expert in Singapore, contact Frank at info@expandeers.com

Malaysia has been in a corona-related lockdown since June 1st, 2021. As of June 27 authorities have extended strict nationwide COVID-19 measures through to an underdetermined date. The measures were due to expire June 28, but will now remain in place until daily cases fall beloW 4.000; the country reported approximately 5.800 cases June 26.

During this time, all economic and social sectors must remain closed. Only important economic and service sectors such as F&B, health and medical sectors, (animal) clinics, water, energy, security, communication, as well as postal services, banks, insurance and agriculture and others are allowed to continue to operate. The Ministry of Finance is working on an aid package for the affected economic sectors. With the help of the state, automatic bank loan moratoriums can be applied for for at least 3 months or longer, for the phase of the blocking period the wage subsidy program (WSP) applies again for all industries with RM 800 - 1,000 employees, suspension or extension of the payment date for all statutory contributions, continuation of the Electricity discounts for the next six months from July to December 2021, as well as other supports.

The time has never been more perfect to get involved within the medical sector in the United Arab Emirates. In 2018, the UAE government contributed 66% of the country’s healthcare spending of USD 15 billion. According to the International healthcare research centre (IRHC) UAE or Dubai more specifically is considered to be ranked 6 out of the 46 destinations in Global Medical Tourism Index 2020-2021. In addition, from 2018 to 2022 the healthcare spend is set to grow at CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of 9.5%. One of the reasons is the aging of population, which is set to see an increase of 29% by 2050 according to the DHA chief (Dubai Health Authority).

A very intense and fruitful business trip to Dubai in April 2021 also led to a meeting with Gulf Resources LLC. Now we are happily announcing our strategic partnership between Expandeers and Gulf Resources!

Gulf Resources conveys and provides financial resources from its wide base network of high-net-worth individuals, family offices and financial institutions. Gulf Resources is well known and established in GCC for providing competent knowledge and market intelligence, business and financial advisory, financing business ventures and managing mergers and acquisitions to its clients.

Expandeers is pleased to welcome Patricia, our new associate partner for France and French-speaking countries in general.

Living in Frankfurt/Germany as a French native she has over 30 years of experience in intercultural communication between France and Germany, as well as with other French-speaking countries, especially in North African markets such as Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

The French (speaking) markets bear a lot of potential, especially for qualitative and elaborated products and services. Midsize companies as well as startups often hesitate to enter or advance into the French markets. "Working with French or French-speaking partners can sometimes be challenging." Often it is not the language, but the mentality, attitude and the work environment may be different from other markets. Our own particular culture "catches"us and we need to consider what challenges we have to overcome in our intercultural interactions. This should be part of the export strategy.

Nevertheless, one should not be hesitant to enter such a great market. The overwhelming potential can be accessed rather efficiently and sustainable, when done correctly. For that, we are very happy to have Patricia on board, to assist and guide all interested customers into this vast market.

On 6 April 2021, the virtual foreign trade day on “Dubai and UAE - Gateway to the Middle East” took place together with the BVMW, the leading association of German SME. Gerrit Stroomann, managing partner of the internationalization specialist EXPANDEERS in Hamburg, gave an entertaining, practical speech on the potential, future perspectives and about Dubai as a "launching pad" to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Expandeers Global Network GmbH runs the international offices of the BVMW in Dubai (UAE) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Therefore, we feel perfectly equipped to give insights and lead the way to expand internationally.

So what is it with the UAE? Business is the driving force in Dubai.

Reinforced by the current crisis, there is currently a rethinking and reorientation taking place in the United Arab Emirates. Especially for the growth of German startups and medium-sized companies, Dubai is an attractive pillar: On the one hand, Dubai is safe in many ways. It has an excellent infrastructure, free trade zones, investment promotion programs, impresses with extensive tax exemption, is innovative, flexible and agile. On the other hand, Dubai is ranked 16th on the Ease of Doing Business Index (Germany ranks 22nd as a comparison).

Miriam, Associate Partner of Expandeers SouthEast Asia PLT. interviewed by  Asia Law Portal

In her interview Miriam Shastri, founder of consultancy TOP Beraten Malaysia and Partner of Expandeers SouthEast Asia PLT, explains what inspired her to found the company, the key services she offers and prospect opportunities for foreign investors to Malaysia.

Studying law was what led Miriam into advising European markets, mainly German clients,  with bilateral trade, market entry and regulatory compliance in Malaysia. “It’s actually quite a funny story (in my opinion)! As I am Malaysian-German by ethnicity and grew up between continents, I always knew, I would want to do something with an ‘international edge’ to it”. Passion is what encouraged her as a founder. As people are passionate about a company or product, they will add much more value to it than otherwise. “I am also inspired by the humanitarian, charitable angle in business – using the profits made from one’s own labour to help others, can there be a more rewarding thing?”