Mr Teo Ser Luck at the Launch of SME Centre Collaboration & Launch of Satellite SME Centre@Southwest

SPEECH BY MR TEO SER LUCK, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY, AT THE LAUNCH OF SME CENTRE COLLABORATION & LAUNCH OF SATELLITE SME CENTRE@SOUTHWEST, WEDNESDAY, 10 JULY 2013, 12:30 P.M. AT JTC SUMMIT

Chairman of Mayors’ Committee and Mayor for South West District, Dr Amy Khor,

Mayor for Central District, Mr Sam Tan,

Presidents and key representatives of Trade Association and Chambers,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Afternoon.

Thank you, Dr Amy Khor, for the warm welcome. I am delighted to join all of you today at the launch of this SME Centre collaboration for and the launch of the satellite SME Centre@SouthWest.

Helping businesses to access government support for restructuring

Singapore’s economy is in a new phase of growth. We do not have the same luxury of land and manpower that we had in the past. Even more than before, our companies will have to innovate, improve their productivity, and find new ways to grow their market share in order to do well in this new economic environment.

We are working towards helping our economy to restructure and move towards productivity-driven, quality growth. Our SMEs play an important role in this restructuring because they represent more than 99% of our 170,000 enterprises. Our SMEs will need to build up their capabilities, upgrade themselves and become globally competitive so that they can do well and provide good jobs for Singaporeans. In order to help SMEs make this transition, the Government announced various measures at Budget 2013 to complement the current assistance available for SMEs. These measures include the PIC Bonus, Wage Credit Scheme, Enhanced Workfare Training Scheme and the SME Talent Programme.

Many SMEs have recognised they need to move ahead with their productivity and upgrading efforts in order to stay competitive. However, I also regularly receive feedback that given their busy schedules, businesses find it challenging to spend time and resources to identify capability gaps and seek solutions. These businesses may be willing to upgrade and they know that the Government is ready to support them, but they may have difficulty finding what kind of government support is available and how to access it.

In order to guide businesses in identifying relevant government support schemes, SPRING launched five Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) in 2005 to reach out and assist SMEs through free business advisory services. These five EDCs were set up at five Trade Associations and Chambers, or TACs: the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME); the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF); the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI); the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI); and the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SMCCI). Through this partnership with the TACs, over 70,000 SMEs were assisted over the last seven years.

Launch of SME Centre Collaboration and Satellite SME Centre@SouthWest

But we need to do even more to reach out and assist more SMEs in their upgrading journey. From 1 April this year, the EDCs were enhanced to progressively become integrated one-stop SME Centres that can provide even deeper business advisory assistance for SMEs, amongst other services. In addition to having five SME Centres housed within each of the five TACs, satellite SME Centres will be set up across Singapore for better outreach to smaller businesses in the heartlands. These SME Centres and their satellites will have deeper engagements with SMEs to prioritise their development needs and identify relevant government schemes which can help develop their business capabilities.

We aim to support over 20,000 SMEs every year via the SME Centres and their satellites. This is double the number of SMEs supported annually over the last seven years.  I am happy to announce that SPRING, the People’s Association and the five Community Development Councils (CDCs) will be working together with the five SME Centres to set up satellite SME Centres at each of the CDCs, such as the one here at South West.

To give you an idea of the assistance offered, one SME that has been helped by the existing satellite SME Centre@NorthEast is Apex Photo Pte Ltd. Apex Photo runs a shop at Pasir Ris offering photo-taking, photo-developing and printing services. Like many aspiring SMEs, Apex Photo wanted to enhance its processes but needed help to understand what it could do and if there was assistance available to help them. It approached a business advisor from the SME Centre@NorthEast who advised the SME to install automation equipment to reduce its reliance on manpower and put in place a HR system to better manage its employees. These efforts were supported by Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme and WDA’s Capability and Development Grant.

Conclusion

The future of our economy will be determined by how our SMEs innovate, grow and compete today. I urge SMEs to come forward and seek assistance from the SME Centres and their satellites if you need business advice.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the five TACs for their continued support for our businesses. The TACs are important partners and multipliers for us to reach out to our SMEs, and I look forward to many more good years of partnership. In addition, I would also like to thank the Mayors of our CDCs and the People’s Association for their strong support to bring assistance closer to our SMEs through these satellite SME Centres.

Through collaborations like these, we can tap on each others’ strengths to better develop our SMEs and move towards productivity-driven growth for Singapore.

Thank you.