Seven Singapore-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have made it to Forbes Asia’s “Best under a Billion” list, up from four last year.

Forbes Asia selected 200 leading public companies in the Asia Pacific region with annual revenue of between 5 million USD and 1 billion USD. Other criteria include rising financial performance, sufficiently broad and private share ownership, reasonable debt levels and profitability.

Two Singapore companies were repeat winners, including Miclyn Express Offshore, which provides service vessels for the oil and gas industry, for the third consecutive year running; and canned fruit and vegetable manufacturer Sino Grandness Food Industry, for the second year running.

Other five are Baker Technology, First Resources, Memstar Technology, Super Group, and Wee Hur Holding.

In terms of the number of companies featured, Singapore came in 10th out of 13 economies. Companies from mainland China and Hong Kong continued to dominate in the rankings with 63 SMEs being putting in the list and followed by India with 19, Japan with 17, Malaysia with 12, Vietnam with 10 and Thailand with eight.

The ten Vietnamese SMEs chosen for Forbes Asia 2013 list include the Binh Dinh Minerals Joint Stock Company, Dinh Vu Port Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, Education Book Joint Stock Company in Hanoi, National Seed Joint Stock Company, Ninh Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company, Pan Pacific Corporation, Sea and Air Freight International Joint Stock Company (SAFI), Vegetable Oil Packing Joint Stock Company (VMPACK), Vietnam Container Shipping Joint Stock Company, and Southern Seed Joint Stock Company.-VNA