Singapore has opened a new Professional Services (PS) Centre designed to help companies navigate cross-border expansion across Asia, positioning the city-state as the anchor hub of a growing regional network of similar centres.
The PS Centre Singapore launched on July 21, bringing together accountants, lawyers, tax advisers, valuers, HR specialists and business consultants under one roof at Isca House. The idea is simple but overdue: instead of companies spending months hunting for trustworthy local advisers in each new market they enter, they can walk into one coordinated hub and get access to a full slate of professional expertise plus warm introductions to local business networks.
It’s a model that will sound familiar to anyone who has watched how Singapore has built out its regional business infrastructure over the past few years — start with a strong domestic base, then extend outward through a hub-and-spoke network rather than trying to plant flags everywhere at once.
Part of a growing regional network
The Singapore centre doesn’t stand alone. It links up with existing PS Centres already operating in Shanghai (opened June 2025), Ho Chi Minh City (September 2025) and Nanjing (March 2026). Jakarta is expected to join the network before the end of 2026, with Bangkok, Johor Bahru and Shenzhen lined up as future additions. Organisers also flagged plans to eventually extend the network into the Middle East.
The initiative is run by the PS Centre Alliance, a coalition that includes the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (Isca), the Singapore Business Federation, the Law Society of Singapore, the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises, the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers Singapore, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation and the Tax Academy of Singapore.
According to Isca, the early results are promising even though the network is still young: within six months of launch, the existing centres collectively served more than 700 visitors, signed up over 100 corporate members, and brokered more than 65 direct connections between Singaporean and international businesses.
Speaking at the launch, Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah said centres like this can help create a more integrated approach to professional services — an area she noted is “still largely organised country by country” even as business itself becomes increasingly regional.
Why this matters for companies expanding into Asia
Isca president Lee Boon Teck put the underlying problem plainly: companies expanding overseas often burn months just trying to identify trusted advisers and build a local network from scratch. The PS Centre model is meant to compress that timeline dramatically by giving businesses a pre-vetted, multidisciplinary entry point in each market.
That’s a real pain point for any founder or operator looking at Asian markets as part of a broader growth strategy, including fintech and blockchain-adjacent businesses that increasingly need coordinated legal, tax and regulatory guidance as they scale across multiple jurisdictions with very different compliance regimes.
Isca also highlighted a new feature launching alongside the Singapore centre: the Business Growth Clinic, where business owners can bring concrete challenges — restructuring, succession planning, market entry — to a multidisciplinary panel of professionals for practical guidance and referrals.Singapore Professional Services Centre, PS Centre Singapore, Isca Singapore, business expansion Asia, professional services Asia, Singapore business hub, Asia market entry, cross-border expansion Singapore, regional business network Asia, Shanghai PS Centre, Ho Chi Minh City PS Centre, Nanjing PS Centre, Jakarta business hub, Singapore Chartered Accountants, Indranee Rajah, Business Growth Clinic Singapore, AI professional services, tax legal advisory Singapore, corporate secretarial Singapore, Singapore gateway to Asia, ASEAN business expansion, trusted advisers Asia, Middle East expansion Singapore
Preparing professionals for an AI-driven future
Indranee also used the launch to address a theme that’s increasingly unavoidable across the professional services sector: automation. As routine, high-volume tasks get absorbed by AI tools, she said professionals will have more room to focus on higher-value work — exercising judgment, advising clients directly, and structuring complex cross-border deals.
The government, she said, will support the sector through that transition, but ultimately it’s up to professional services firms themselves to determine how well they adapt to the AI shift.
For businesses tracking how Singapore continues to position itself as a gateway into the wider region, the PS Centre network is another signal that the city-state wants to own the “first stop” role for companies expanding across Asia — not just as a financial hub, but as the place where the practical, unglamorous work of market entry gets done faster.
Source: Business Times Singapore