Minister of State Teo Ser Luck's reply to Parliamentary Question on establishing better communications with SMEs

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Question

Mr Teo Siong Seng: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry has any plans to establish better channels of communication with SMEs, in particular the micro-enterprises, with the objective of simplifying the various Government incentives and assistance schemes and encouraging a greater take-up rate amongst SMEs and micro-enterprises.

Oral Reply by Mr Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Trade and Industry

1. MTI has regular channels of communications with our SMEs. For example, we work closely with the trade associations and chambers through SPRING and IE Singapore to understand the needs and concerns of their members and the business community as a whole.

2. In 2011, I accepted the Singapore Business Federation (SBF)’s invitation to be the Advisor to the SME Committee, or SMEC. One of the missions of the SMEC is to garner all the feedback from the trade associations and members of these associations so as to know the issues and the problems that these SMEs are facing today.  This is a key platform because it forms the bridge between the SME community and policymakers. It surfaces all the issues and from there, we can analyse what the businesses are facing today and how it affects the policies that we review every time when there is the Budget. The SMEC submits its Budget recommendations every year since its inception. Many of these recommendations were accepted, especially this year.

3. In this year’s Budget, we announced new measures to help all SMEs, including micro-enterprises. Some of these are focused on making our schemes more accessible for SMEs. For example, we have expanded the Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) into integrated one-stop SME Centres. These SME Centres are not limited to the five that exist today as we intend to have a hub-and-spoke system, where there will be satellite centres that cater to the needs of the micro-enterprises. These satellite centres can be set up by the business associations or smaller federations that exist within the heartlands. SMEs can access information and obtain advice on a wide range of assistance schemes. With the new schemes rolled out this year, there needs to be some hand-holding as well, and officers will be on the ground to help the SMEs, especially the micro-enterprises. SPRING Singapore has also streamlined its various schemes into the Capability Development Grant (CDG). Some of the other changes that were made include streamlining the pages of the application – Today, it has been reduced to two pages. These help SMEs in their applications for assistance in productivity and capability development.

4. We will continue to work closely with our SMEs and business associations and chambers to help them transform. It is a difficult period for the SMEs especially the micro-enterprises. We also want to make sure that the schemes are better utilised and can effectively help the businesses. So last year, when we were reviewing all the schemes for the SMEs, we formed the SME Review Committee. This year, we converted the Committee to the SME Implementation Work Group. Instead of coming up with more programmes and schemes, it is important for us to focus on the implementation for the entire year to make sure that all the programmes and schemes will work.

5. With the new measures in place, we hope to encourage more SMEs to embark on the transformation journey. It is important that we have the schemes and SMEs must also step forward to tap on those schemes.