Featured Stories | Singapore Economic Development Board

The World Bank Group

Building on the presence of the World Bank Urban Hub (WBUH) and the Infrastructure Centre of Excellence, the World Bank Group Singapore has expanded its presence in Singapore to include the Multilateral Investment guarantee Agency (MIGA) Asia Pacific Regional Office, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Country Office and treasury related functions. This will be the first WBGO unit outside of the U.S. that will co-locate all three entities (i.e. the IBRD and IDA of the World Bank, MIGA and IFC) together. The office hopes to leverage Singapore's development expertise to become the site of a new World Bank Group-Singapore hub for knowledge and financial activities for Asia and beyond. The World Bank Group's agreement with Singapore will increase the focus on solutions to address urban development challenges, infrastructure financing, information communications technology and accounting and auditing services.

CREDIT: © Cat HOLLOWAY /
WWF-Canon

A Natural Choice For The WWF

The WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the world's largest environmental conservation NGOs. In March 2006, it opened its Asia-Pacific office in Singapore. WWF currently employs over 20 staff in Singapore, who oversees and develops all of WWF's conservation projects in this region, including events and programmes organisation as well as educational and outreach initiatives. It also conducts training workshops for corporate partners in the region (e.g. The One Planet Leaders Asia Pacific Executive Programme). WWF's presence here and its activities in the region are expected to continue to grow.

Base for humanitarian response efforts

As one of the largest humanitarian organisations, World Vision International (WVI) has been working to serve the well-being of children in poverty across the world. WVI was one of the first international non-profit organisations to set up Asia Pacific HQ operations in Singapore. It recently expanded its Asia Pacific Office in Singapore to include South Asia & Pacific. The Singapore office manages many of its global programmes. In particular, WVI has located its Asia Pacific Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs unit in Singapore, which deploys supplies, volunteers and funds during emergency response. WVI also works with industry associations and logistics companies to leverage on Singapore as a hub for humanitarian response efforts.

Catalysing the growth of venture philanthropy in Asia Pacific

The Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) was set up in Singapore in 2011. Following the success of the European Venture Philanthropy Network which has more than 140 members in 20 countries in Europe, the AVPN aims to grow and develop venture philanthropy in Asia Pacific. AVPN will build a coalition of individuals and organisations who want to catalyse the growth of venture philanthropy to help non-profits achieve impact and scalability in the region. It provides a range of services to address the needs of its member using Singapore as its regional base.

Save the Children

Save the Children (SC) is the leading independent organisation creating lasting change in the lives of children in need around the world, operating in over 120 countries with more than 15,000 employees and raising US$1.3 billion annually. In 2010, Save the Children's work reached 100 million children. Also in 2010, SC initiated a global restructuring to consolidate 34 regional offices into 7 regional headquarters (RHQs). 2 of its 7 RHQs are now co-located in Singapore to form the Asia Regional Office, which oversees 40% of its global programmes and covers core management of its operations in 15 countries across South & Central Asia and Southeast and East Asia. SC's Asia Regional office in Singapore will lead SC's strategy for Asia, including regional implementation and resource allocation of global campaign strategies, human resource management and training, IT systems management and training, emergency response management, and security and safety management.

International Air Transport Association (IATA)

The International Air Transport Association, founded in April 1945, aims to represent, lead and serve the airline industry. IATA has over 230 members from 118 countries and is the prime vehicle for inter-airline cooperation. Since establishing its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore in 1994, IATA made the decision to significantly ramp up its regional headquarters in 2005, in particular increasing the number of courses available in their IATA Training and Development Institute (ITDI) and consolidating more regional functions within the Singapore office as well as increasing its geographical coverage responsibilities. With staff strength of about 100 currently, IATA recently signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding with the Singapore Government, and also held its inaugural aviation human capital summit in Singapore in 2011.