Minister Lim Hng Kiang's written reply to Parliament Questions on schemes for SMEs

Question No 262 of Notice Paper No. 268 of 2009

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mdm Ho Geok Choo, Member for West Coast GRC.

Question
To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what are the schemes, financial assistance and incentives available for local SMEs and which agencies are involved or responsible for these schemes; (b) how many trade offices does Singapore have overseas and how have they performed vis-à-vis assistance rendered to SMEs seeking business opportunities in the countries concerned; and (c) what kinds of help and support are provided for SMEs in the human resource and training industry and for them to venture overseas.

Answer
SPRING Singapore is the agency in charge of SME and Enterprise development. It works together with IE Singapore to promote the growth of Singapore-based SMEs overseas. There are a host of assistance schemes to address the needs of SMEs from access to financing, to developing capabilities, and facilitating ventures overseas. Local enterprises can find detailed information on the assistance schemes on the

Enterprise One website. Let me highlight just a few examples of the SME assistance schemes that are available.

Access to Financing
For SMEs that have difficulty obtaining loans from the commercial market, the government works with the banks to provide working capital and secured loans through the Bridging Loan Programme (BLP) and the Local Enterprise Financing Scheme (LEFS). There is also the Micro Loan Programme, which provides working capital for micro-enterprises.

Capability Development
SPRING and IE Singapore also run a comprehensive suite of capability programmes to help SMEs build up key competencies for long-term growth. For example, the Customer Centric Initiative (CCI) and Business Leaders Initiative support individual companies in developing and upgrading capabilities in service excellence and business management respectively. SPRING also works with industry associations, through the Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) Programme, to improve industry-wide SME capabilities, such as technology and infrastructure improvements.

Helping companies venture overseas
The government also supports companies venturing overseas through schemes such as the Loan Insurance Scheme (LIS) and Export Coverage Scheme (ECS) which provide secured loans for trade financing and insurance against buyer defaults, respectively. SMEs can also apply for loans under the Internationalization Financing Scheme (IFS) to fund overseas projects.

IE Singapore’s International Partners Programme also helps companies form consortiums to complement each other’s product offerings and achieve economies of scale. Assistance is also given to industry associations through LEAD to augment the ability of SMEs to venture overseas.

IE Singapore also assists individual SMEs in their internationalization plans through its network of offices in 37 cities

[1]

across 21 countries. IE Singapore organizes frequent industry and market-specific awareness seminars, fairs and missions to help SME identify opportunities for exports, overseas investments and joint ventures.

Growth in total uptake
On the whole, our assistance to SMEs has had a significant impact. To date this year, nearly$6.7 billion

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of government-backed loans, including those for internationalization were extended to over 12,000 local enterprises, of which over 90% were SMEs. In addition, SPRING supported about 3,800 SMEs with $100 million worth of grants while IE Singapore supported about 2,000 SMEs with $27.3 million of capability and market access grants.

To help SMEs grow, compete and expand overseas, the Government will continue to tailor its suite of assistance schemes to meet the needs of our SMEs.

[1]

Southeast Asia: Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur. China: Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Qingdao, Shanghai, Xi’an. Asia Pacific: Taipei, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo. Middle East: Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh. India: Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi. Americas: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York, Panama, Santiago, Sao Paulo. Europe: Frankfurt, London, Moscow, Stockholm.

[2] $5.4 billion for SPRING’s loan schemes and $1.29 billion for IE’s loan schemes