APSCo Asia, a new trade body for recruitment agencies operating in Singapore and across Asia, is to be launched by the UK’s Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), chief executive officer Ann Swain tells Recruiter.

Having spent time in Singapore last month, Swain made the proposal to create the new trade association to the APSCo Representative Committee at the end of the month, and its approval means the body should launch in mid-April.

Swain says that the genesis of the launch came in mid-2011, when a “very successful” APSCo trade delegation visited Singapore. At that point some of the organisation’s members were already operating in Singapore, with others subsequently setting up there. There are currently around 30 APSCo members with Singaporean operations.

Since then, APSCo had “been doing a lot of research” around prospects for Singapore, Swain says. While there are already trade bodies including the Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) and the Singapore Staffing Association, she says the research “found among other things that there is a desire or a need for a trade body for firms placing professionals and more senior people”, and that APSCo has “unanimous buy-in” from local members of APSCo.

According to Swain, a meeting with local members bought out three key priorities for what APSCo Asia should provide its members. In order of precedence, they are: networking opportunities, educational programmes and a body working alongside the Ministry of Manpower. 

APSCo “will be looking to recruit locally” both for someone to lead the trade body, and in other roles, with their hiring process for the former already underway.

In addition to Singapore, Asian countries where APSCo Asia would be particularly targeting a presence include Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia, Swain says.

And the organisation will likely be looking to replicate its UK structure, Swain adds. “We are a not-for-profit organisation owned by its members and we are seeking to do the same out there,” she says.

• There are over 3,000 employment agencies registered to work in Singapore. In August 2012 Recruiter looked at opportunities for Western recruiters in what some call a ‘saturated’ market.