Is it a good choice to invest in mutual funds like those of First State and Schroder versus ETFs in Singapore?

Sure. But are the returns for Asian mutual funds good as a whole compared to their US and European counterparts? Was told that First State and Schroder can serve well for beginners in funds investment. On the other hand, ETFs will have to be traded by investors themselves with some level of market exposure. How true is that?

Versus what ETFs? If you're comparing First State Bridge or Schroder Asian Growth fund, you'll have to find an Asia Equity Index and then an ETF to compare it against.

An example would be the db x-trackers MSCI Pacific Ex Japan Index UCITS ETF (J0Q) that tracks the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Ex Japan TRN Index. The 10yr annualised on this index is 6.45% while the 10yr annualised on SAG is 9.8%.

Also, the ETF would perform lower than the index because you still have to pay the ETF fee. The 9.8% declared from SAG is after the fund management fee.

Plus, the fee for this ETF is at 0.65% p.a which isn't as cheap as the single-digit basis point ETFs tracking the large cap US markets.

I'd much rather pay a little bit more for a fund manager to navigate the markets of an entire region especially when it isn't as efficient as the US market. Fund managers can still do considerably better than the index they track.