PARCEL delivery giant FedEx Express opened its regional headquarters on Tuesday (Feb 27) for the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region in Singapore.

The office, which spans 2,694 square metres, is located at the Centennial Tower on Temasek Avenue.

Kawal Preet, FedEx president for AMEA, said: “Singapore’s geographic advantages make it a natural gateway, which allows us to tap the immense opportunities presented by the fast-moving markets of the region, especially in South-east Asia.”

Singapore is also home to the FedEx South Pacific hub, for its operations across South-east Asia, and the FedEx Life Science Center. In addition, the Republic houses FedEx’s Center of Excellence for Data Analytics and its Asia-Pacific Security Operations Center.

Across AMEA, the Memphis, Tennessee-based courier company has about 35,000 employees. It serves about 100 countries and territories in the region.

In May last year, Bloomberg reported that FedEx was planning to move its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters to Singapore from Hong Kong, citing an e-mailed statement in which the group said it would consolidate some AMEA headquarters’ functions in the Republic.

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When asked about this in an interview with The Business Times, Preet said: “(The Hong Kong headquarters) was for Asia-Pacific.” She clarified that the team in Hong Kong now supports North Pacific and China operations.

Preet, whose career with FedEx began in 1997 as an associate engineer in Singapore, pointed out that AMEA was a “newly created region” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If you look at what’s going to drive the growth in Asia, it’s really China, India and Asean,” she said. “So being located in Singapore gives us a unique advantage to capture the growth potential that we see in the region.”

BT understands that less than 15 per cent of FedEx’s management team will be moving from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Preet said: “We have moved a select group of (our) strategic leadership team, which is less than 15 per cent of our strategic leadership team… And those are specifically team members who have AMEA responsibilities.”

She added that “there is significant talent that is still based in Hong Kong”, pointing out that there are close to 12,000 employees based in Hong Kong and China.

Last month, FedEx inaugurated its China headquarters in Shanghai. It has about 11,000 employees in China.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, who attended the inauguration ceremony at the Singapore office on Tuesday, said: “This move is a vote of confidence in Singapore as a key global hub for trade, logistics and connectivity, and the key role that Singapore plays in strengthening the resilience of global supply chains.”

Also speaking at the ceremony was US Ambassador to Singapore Jonathan Kaplan, who said: “Singapore continues to be a central location for major US businesses, a leading logistics hub that helps anchor many of the world’s critical supply chains.

“The FedEx decision to open this facility is emblematic of the strong bilateral economic cooperation between the US and Singapore.”