Is the JB-Singapore RTS Link going to put more pressure on local businesses?

**Natasha Ann Zachariah** (0:07)
If there's one thing that Singaporeans go crazy for, it's JB. And with the new Rapid Transit System or RTS Link set to open in January 2027, Singaporeans are expected to increase the number of trips and spend some $1 billion more each year in JB. But visitors from the other side aren't expected to send as much business our way. JB visitors are projected to spend about $756 million more. That's a $290 million net increase in outbound spend each year, or about 0.4% of the country's total retail and food and beverage sales in 2025 So how are Singapore-based and homegrown businesses going to cope with more of us doing our shopping, eating and splurging in JB, especially with such a favorable exchange rate?
Can local retail and F&B businesses, which are already struggling with rent and manpower costs, cope with the added pressure? Welcome to another episode of The Usual Place, the podcast where we have real conversations about the headlines. I'm Natasha, and to talk us through what could happen when the RTS Link opens, I have Musa Fazal, the Chief Policy and Operating Officer at the Singapore Business Federation. Not new to the couch, but I want to talk a little bit about the Federation. It's a business chamber that has more than 34,000 members across different industries, and it helps companies advocate for change or create partnerships.
Thank you for coming back again.

**Musa Fazal** (1:31)
Thanks for inviting me, Natasha.

**Natasha Ann Zachariah** (1:33)
Thank you. So we'll get into all of it, but next year on the Couch, I also have Ang Yuit, who is the President of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, and the organization looks at the growth of SMEs in Singapore. You're also the founder and Chief Executive of Web Consultancy, the Adventist Consultants. And the other important thing about you that's very relevant to this conversation is that you moved to JB 18 months ago to kind of get a lay of the land and see in real time what's changing. So I'm very excited to tap on your experience because I mentioned a lot of numbers, but Musa, I want to start with the report. So these numbers are coming from a report that came out in July and basically studied the impact of the RTS on Singapore's retail and F&B sector. So it was commissioned, just on background, it was commissioned by the SBF together with the Restaurant Association of Singapore and the Singapore Retailers Association.
So we know that Singapore consumers are definitely excited about the opening of the RTS Link. We just had a 15-minute conversation about what to do there. But are Singapore businesses feeling the same excitement?

**Musa Fazal** (2:36)
It's a good question. I suppose businesses in the F&B and retail sector are concerned, and that was the impetus for doing the study. So we wanted to understand what the impact would be, how big of an impact it would be, and then to think through some of the things that we could do to help our businesses to get through this more competitive environment going forward. But I suppose one of the things that we wanted to do in the study was also to set some of those numbers in context.
So the numbers that you described talk about the incremental spend, the post-RTS, but we also looked back three years to look at the changes in spending patterns and behaviors over the last three years. And we worked with our knowledge partner MasterCard in order to be able to look at credit card, debit card, transaction data to be able to look at the spending patterns and behaviors. So what we see is that actually Singapore consumers are already spending a lot more in JB, even without the RTS. So if we compare, for example, spending at the start of 2023 and spending at the end of 2025, so over a three-year period, actually spending by Singaporeans has pretty much tripled. And it's increased across pretty much all categories. Although the categories where Singaporeans are spending the most are groceries and food products, dining services, drugstores and toiletries, and beauty and spa services. So those are the top four categories that Singaporeans, if they go over to JB, that they spend on. But they're spending across all categories.
But the other thing that we wanted to also look at in the study was how are JB consumers spending in Singapore?
And we do see that their spending has also increased. But it's not increased to the same multiple as the Singapore spending in JB. So over the last three years, JB spending in Singapore has about doubled, which is still significant. So I suppose one of the questions in the study is, how can we amplify this in order to moderate the impact on some of our businesses from the outbound spend?