Where to Set Up in Asia: Country & Entity Comparisons

Choosing where to incorporate is the decision that constrains every decision after it — your tax exposure, your banking options, your ability to hire, and how easily you can expand into a second market. It is also the decision most founders make on the least evidence, because almost every guide on the subject is published by a firm that only sells services in one jurisdiction.

This category compares markets and structures on the same criteria every time: effective tax rate, all-in setup and running cost, foreign ownership limits, banking access, treaty network, talent availability, and time to operational readiness. Where a jurisdiction is genuinely the weaker choice for a given profile, we say so.

Start here if you have not yet committed to a country, or if you have a Singapore entity and are working out where the second one should go.