THE quality of female social escorts or professional companions has gone up, say agency owners and managers.

Clients, they added, have become more discerning and demanding: They want degree-holders.

The usual going rate for escorts is around $200 to $250 for an hour's work, while overnight rates usually hover around $1,000.

But undergrads or graduates can command up to $500 an hour.

The agency operators insist that the world of the entertaining industry - as they would prefer to call it - is not as shady as it is often made out to be.

Mr Ernest Ting of MS Promotions told The New Paper on Sunday: It is often misunderstood.

'Think, why would someone want to pay so much, if all that is on your mind at the end of the day is sex?'

A cheaper option, he offered: 'Head down to the red-light district and get your fix there. It'll cost you less than half of what you'd have to pay.'

Another agency manager, MsGlenda, claimed: 'There is often a misconception. Many times, the clients who hire social escorts or who can afford to do so, are not your Ah Gongs and Ah Peks.

'They are respectable businessmen who have to entertain their associates who could be in town for a few days.'

For this reason, added a manager of three agencies: 'Surely you'd not want to send the wrong message out to your clients?

PERSONALITY COUNTS

'They'd want someone who can dress up properly, carry themselves well and are able to hold decent conversations without stuttering, spluttering or making sheer fools of themselves.'

The trend in the past two years has been to recruit women who are in their mid-20s and more highly-educated.

Demand has been good, said MrTing.

He added: 'Of course the other problem we face is that these girls can work as freelancers.

'As such, they could be working for more than one agency. If we relied on just the number at hand, we could find ourselves short of manpower.'

Except for one, all the other agencies claimed that there has been a 40 per cent increase in the number of undergrad and graduate escorts.

One agency owner, who only wanted to be known as Ms Kimoi, said: 'But many of our graduates have been with us since they were undergrads.'

She also revealed that these undergrads 'had initially entered the trade because they needed to pay their bills or fees'.

Ms Glenda claimed: 'Many of them later realise how lucrative or easy it is to make a fast buck and they become reluctant to leave the trade.

'But they are usually in only for the short haul. Some do quit after a couple of years.'

A major international business conference last year had also seen an influx in the number of escorts for some of the agencies.

Yet all the agency owners reiterated that escorts were not required to offer sexual services.

But, added Mr Ting: 'We can't control what is negotiated privately between the escorts and their clients.'

The managers and owners insisted that they do not get a cut of the 'extra services'.

Said one agency manager: 'Prostitution is not illegal in Singapore but soliciting is. We're not going to risk paying a fine, going to jail or losing our licence.'

The offence carries a $1,000 fine. Repeat offenders can be fined up to $2,000 and jailed six months.

But summing it up best was Mr Ting, who said: 'It's a matter of feeding the right type of meat to cater to the right palate.

'We supply you with what you want. Simple.'

This article first appeared in The New Paper Dec 23