Mr Teo Ser Luck at the Inaugural Pro-Enterprise Panel-Singapore Business Federation (PEP-SBF) Awards and Dialogue

​SPEECH BY MR TEO SER LUCK, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY, AT THE INAUGURAL PRO-ENTERPRISE PANEL-SINGAPORE BUSINESS FEDERATION (PEP-SBF) AWARDS AND DIALOGUE, ON 28 NOVEMBER 2012, 11.10 AM, ORCHARD HOTEL, SINGAPORE

Mr Tony Chew, Chairman of Singapore Business Federation

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning.

It is my pleasure to be here with you today at the inaugural PEP-SBF Awards and Dialogue.

This year has been challenging for our companies.  Externally global economic conditions are uncertain, with downside risks from Eurozone debt crisis and the US fiscal cliff. Domestically, our businesses face challenges, in particular from increasing manpower and land constraints.  Business costs have risen. To succeed in this operating landscape, companies will need to shift to innovative, productivity-driven growth.

The Government has enhanced support for our companies to help them manage the transition. For example, we have increased the funding support provided by SPRING from 50 per cent to 70 per cent for SMEs, for a wide range of activities such as automation, HR and branding. To ensure that our strategies remain relevant, we have also embarked on a review of our policies to examine where our SMEs need additional assistance, to stay competitive in both the domestic and global markets. More details on this review will be announced within the first quarter of next year.

Importance of a pro-enterprise environment

At the same time, the supporting environment for businesses must continue to be business-friendly. The pro-enterprise orientation of our regulations and policies that underpin our business environment must continue to be a priority. This is even more of an imperative during this period of transition,

In this respect, the Pro-Enterprise Panel, or PEP for short, plays a key role in bridging the Government with the business community, to ensure that our regulatory environment remains conducive to businesses. Comprising leaders from the private and public sectors, the panel meets regularly to foster smarter rules and regulations, and to reduce red tape for the benefit of all businesses, regardless of size or sector.

The PEP is an excellent example of a successful public-private partnership. Over the past 12 years, it has reviewed more than 1,800 suggestions from businesses, and our agencies have supported more than half of them. They cover a wide spectrum of issues ranging from the streamlining of licence application processes to the change of rules and regulations.

Let me highlight two of this year’s winning PEP suggestions:

a)     The first is on Government Paid Maternity Leave (GPML). Mr Elango Subramanian of Raffles Corporate Consultants was motivated by the feedback from his clients and sent in a suggestion to allow monthly claims by employers. Previously, for each employee who gives birth, employers could make only two maternity leave claims. The first claim can be made any time after the first eight weeks of maternity leave, and the second claim can only be made after the mother has consumed her all her leave. This means that for mothers who choose to take the maternity leave flexibly, employers may have to wait a longer time - up to 12 months - to make the second claim. The change to allow monthly claims helps employers improve their cash flow and encourages them to be more pro-family, by giving mothers greater flexibility in how they used their maternity leave. This has been implemented from August 2012 by the then Ministry of Community, Youth Development and Sports, now known as the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

b)    Another winning suggestion was by the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce. It had worked with its private education members to come up with ideas to reduce their administrative workload, yet without compromising the interest of students. Some of their recommendations had been accepted by the Council of Private Education and among them is the use of electronic contract administration arrangements.

We will have the opportunity to learn more about these and other winning suggestions later.

Positive improvements from Government agencies

A Pro-Enterprise survey has been conducted annually since 2004, to track of the business-friendliness of government regulatory agencies and surface areas for improvement.  Findings from the survey have helped agencies improve the clarity of their rules and regulations, and the ways they are engaging with business stakeholders.

This year, the Pro-Enterprise index, which is derived from the survey, saw a dip from 74.8 in 2011 to 71.7. Survey participants have highlighted areas like inter-agency cooperation and customer communications as those which our agencies can do better in. The Government takes this feedback seriously and will look into them.

However, some of the agencies have done better individually. For example, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) achieved its best ever score of 93.9 in the survey. The Singapore Civil Defence Force, Singapore Customs and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) have also made good improvements.

We will be hearing later from MPA and ACRA on how they have made being pro-enterprise a core element of their organisational culture, and how this has propelled them to continuously improve.

Working together to achieve a pro-enterprise environment

The Government’s pro-enterprise efforts are not just limited to improving internal processes and the rules and regulations within individual organisations. It also involves agencies adopting a Whole-of-Government approach and working more closely together, especially when engaging the same business stakeholders.

As a case in point, another of this year’s winning PEP suggestions involves the Department of Statistics and the Economic Development Board working closely together to streamline economic data survey forms. Their joint effort was sparked off by a suggestion from Mr Dronn Ong of Eltek Power and has helped minimise duplication and the amount of reporting for manufacturing firms participating in the surveys.

Conclusion

I am happy to see such a good representation of leaders from both the private and public sectors at today’s event.  This is an excellent opportunity for government agencies and business leaders to network and exchange views on further areas we can work on together to enhance Singapore’s pro-enterprise environment.

Let me end by congratulating the award winners, and wishing everyone a fruitful time.

Thank you.