LOCATION CHOICES OF LOGISTICS FIRMS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The logistics industry has been identified by the Singapore government, as one of the key potential industries of economic growth and development. Therefore, to establish Singapore as the region's logistics hub, the government had done much to improve technology by building specialized infrastructure like the Airport Logistics Park. In addition, tax rebates are also given to pioneer companies and free trade zones like Keppel Distripark were also set up to encourage firms to store their goods there. These have done much to attract the large numbers of local and foreign logistic firms that are located in Singapore presently. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the location patterns of logistic firms within Singapore. The study covers two aspects, which is the actual location of logistics firms in Singapore and the reason for their current location. The former aspect was compared among firms performing different activities, firms of different sizes and whether the presence of distriparks influenced firms' location. It was found that the actual location of firms was affected by their activities and not by firm size. The impact of distriparks was also negligible on firm location. As for the latter aspect, it was found that proximity to transport nodes was the most commonly cited reason for location, followed by rents.