Mr Lim Hng Kiang at the Local Enterprise and Association Development Forum "Strengthening Associations in Uncertain Economic Times"

SPEECH BY MR LIM HNG KIANG, MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY AT THE LOCAL ENTERPRISE AND ASSOCIATION DEVELOPMENT (LEAD) FORUM “STRENGTHENING ASSOCIATIONS IN UNCERTAIN ECONOMIC TIMES” ON TUESDAY, 20 MARCH 2012, 9.10AM, INTER-CONTINENTAL SINGAPORE

Morning ladies and gentlemen,

Let me say it is my pleasure to join you this morning at the Local Enterprise and Association Development, or LEAD, Forum. As you know, this forum is a platform for Trade Associations and Chambers, to come together and share best practices, so that we can help each other and our companies cope with new challenges ahead. I am happy to see a good turnout today and more importantly, to see so many familiar faces.

Trade Associations and Chambers – key to driving sectoral growth

At my Ministry’s Committee of Supply Debate just two weeks ago, I spoke about the urgent need to restructure our economy and to make substantial productivity improvements.  We can achieve this at four levels. First, at the economy-wide level, we need to build up new clusters and capabilities that will spawn new sectors.  Second, at the sectoral level, we need to upgrade into higher value-added activities. Third, at the firm level, we need to encourage our firms to improve their capabilities, upgrade their work processes and seek new markets.  Finally, at the worker level, we need to encourage our workers to have a positive attitude towards upgrading and re-training.

Today, I want to concentrate at the sectoral and firm levels, because this is where Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) can make a big difference in our strategies going forward.

As the industry stewards, our TACs have a vital role to play in driving innovation and productivity at the sectoral level. I hope you can help your sectors to take on higher value-added activities. You can also create platforms and avenues to generate awareness about new potential markets, and help companies seize the opportunities in these markets.

As you are aware, the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council has identified 16 sectors to focus on productivity improvements. I would like to thank the various TACs who have worked with us to develop the productivity maps for these 16 sectors. Now, our job is to see how to implement these roadmaps effectively and continuously keep in touch with the companies to make sure our roadmaps make sense to them. We also need to mobilise the companies and we need TACs’ help. This morning, you will hear a few presentations of what your fellow TACs are doing. Let me highlight some examples. 

First, TACs can help your members by moving up to higher value-added activities in your sector. Let me give you the example of the Singapore Precision Engineering and Tooling Association (SPETA). In 2009, the precision engineering sector was hit hard by the global economic downturn. To help the industry, SPETA initiated efforts to promote Singapore as a preferred site in Asia for medical devices manufacturing. They identified that this is a high-growth area and they tried to generate more business opportunities for the precision engineering industry, by directing their members into this new sector. Many of our precision engineering companies have traditionally been focusing on the electronic sector. That sector is very volatile and so, SPETA is trying to diversify the work that its members can do by identifying medtech and aerospace engineering as new sectors that precision engineering companies can go into. And to do that, SPETA is also organising the inaugural regional medtech industry exhibition and conference in September this year. This is an important initiative and I understand that this exhibition would attract some 5,000 visitors and 120 exhibitors.

Another TAC that is helping their members build new capabilities is the Singapore Green Buildings Council (SGBC). SGBC initiated the first Singapore Green Building Product (SGBP) Certification under the LEAD Programme. With this certification, local companies are encouraged to develop green products and be able to attract new customers, particularly those overseas. SGBC has in fact set its target to help 250 companies attain the SGBP Certification, which will generate about S$7 million in overseas sales over the next three years. In addition, SGBC is positioning its biennial SGBC Green Building Conference as the premier green building conference in this region. The inaugural conference was held two years ago. With support from various agencies including IE Singapore, the second edition of the conference will take place in October this year.

Second, TACs can help your members gain entry to overseas markets.   You can do so individually or do so as a group. For this, the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) has done a good job in promoting innovative e-government solutions and capabilities and see how these capabilities can be made used of in overseas projects. To date, it has organised over 30 events including overseas business missions for our local infocomm players. These events are aimed at increasing awareness of our local e-government capabilities to potential buyers in markets such as the Middle East, ASEAN and Eastern Europe by increasing awareness of our local e-government capabilities.

I know many of you are here are doing this effectively and I would like to encourage you to do more. The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry has set up a Shanghai Representative Office in order to extend the outreach assistance for their members in China. The Singapore Food Manufacturers’ Association would also present their efforts in seeking new markets overseas.

Third, TACs can help your members develop collective training facilities.  Training and learning is a critical way of moving the sector up the value chain. An example is the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS). They have been working closely with companies in the clean energy sectors to identify their human capital training needs. Feedback is first sought from the companies and subsequently used in the design of courses. Through this interactive process, SEAS is able to tailor their courses and programmes to meet the needs of their members and employees. This provides the opportunity for staff to upgrade and up-skill their technical proficiencies, which is especially important for a fast-moving industry like clean energy. This also augurs well for Singapore’s growth in the clean energy sector as a whole because what this means is, our pool of local expertise will be able to contribute positively to the sector’s growth in the region.

Fourth, TACs can help your members in pooling resources to build up the infrastructure, which can be hardware or software that benefits the entire sector.  Take the example of design.  This is very critical for the furniture and textile and garment sectors. Individual companies can employ designers and leverage on design to build up market share. But by coming together, the Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) and Textile & Fashion Federation (TaFf) are helping to develop the design ecosystem to support all their members.

Government’s commitment to strengthening collaborations with Trade Associations and Chambers

All the efforts and initiatives I have mentioned are by no means an easy feat. To this end, the Government remains committed to supporting the TACs in your work. Through the LEAD Programme, IE Singapore and SPRING have fostered close partnerships with the TACs. Since 2005, 28 TACs have benefitted from the Programme. This translates to about 38,000 companies having benefited from the Programme. It is an encouraging result, and we will do more to strengthen our collaborations with you.

First, we have set aside S$75 million for the LEAD Programme over five years from 2011. We will also support you in creating awareness and reinforcing your member companies’ unique propositions to foreign buyers and consumers. So, for example, we will work with you to carry out strategic industry branding and promotion activities. Another area where the funding will come in useful is in helping the TACs to strengthen your institutional capabilities in management and project execution. For this, we will focus on identifying best practices, organising study missions as well as engaging experts and supporting training courses for your secretariat staff.

We have heard companies’ feedback on the difficulties they face in understanding and utilising some of our initiatives. Therefore, the second step we will take is to adopt a more targeted and customised approach when engaging you and your members. IE Singapore and SPRING will work closely with you to help companies better understand how our assistance schemes and industry development initiatives are relevant to their growth. At the broader level, both the government agencies will continue to organise seminars, workshops and business clinics for local enterprises, including SMEs. These sessions are aimed at sharing with the companies on how they can tap on the various schemes and services to enhance their productivity, develop capabilities or widen their overseas market access.

Conclusion

To sum up, TACs, you have a pivotal role to play in guiding companies and driving initiatives to upgrade your industries’ capabilities. This also includes taking the lead in internationalisation efforts for the industries. On the part of the Government, we recognise the increasingly important role and heavier responsibilities held by you. MTI, together with our agencies, IE Singapore and SPRING, endeavour to work closely with you to strengthen our collaborations.

To all participants of the Forum, I wish you a fruitful discussion and sharing ahead.

Thank you.