LOCAL firms will have to adopt the international standards that publishers in the West demand if they want to tap into the multi-billion dollar global printing market.

And by adopting international best practices, plenty of potential contracts will arise, said Spring Singapore chief executive Png Cheong Boon.

He told the Print Industry Seminar at the Four Seasons Hotel on Monday: 'Opportunities are aplenty once process standardisation and quality management are achieved across trusted counterparts.

'Our companies need to be a part of this trusted grouping or be left behind.'

Last year, local firms racked up print related exports of about $1 billion, with the United States and Europe taking the lion's share of about 30 per cent.

Yet the global market, led by the US, Europe and Australia, is about US$40 billion in size. Mr Png said that those markets represents significant growth opportunities for Singapore companies.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.