MTI Addendum to the President's Address

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MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

ADDENDUM TO THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

MR LIM HNG KIANG
MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY

1. MTI will promote sustainable economic growth and create good jobs, to enable Singaporeans to improve their lives.

New Phase of Growth

2. Singapore has entered a new phase of growth where we face a favourable but also more competitive external environment. Recovery in the US and Eurozone, as well as continued resilience in the Asian economies will support Singapore’s growth over the near term. Increasing urbanisation and a rising middle class in Asia will boost demand for our services. However, other economies are also working hard to raise their competitiveness to attract investments and tap on these opportunities. We continue to face stiff competition from developed economies and global cities, and major emerging cities are also rapidly closing in on us.

3. Nevertheless, our strong economic fundamentals put us in a good position to continue growing our economy and create good jobs. Singapore sits at the heart of a growing Asia and is well-connected to the world. We have key strengths - our open and business-friendly environment, good governance, sound infrastructure, a highly-educated workforce and our reputation as a trusted hub - that we can apply and must safeguard. At the same time, we will need to sharpen our competitive advantages and maintain emphasis on high productivity, quality and expertise to deliver innovative goods and services that can command a premium.

Transforming our Economy

4. We will support research and innovation to transform and develop our industrial capabilities. We will leverage the investments we have made in research and development (R&D) to transform existing manufacturing sectors and grow new ones. We will identify and grow competitive services sectors that play to Singapore’s strengths, to tap on the region’s growing demand for exportable services.

5. EDB will aim to position Singapore as the advanced manufacturing hub in Asia. A*STAR, EDB and SPRING will step up efforts to apply our R&D investments to help our companies deliver new products and services. STB and SDC will help industry players raise their capabilities, and work with them to co-create new content and activities, so as to grow yield-driven tourism. IE Singapore and SPRING will continue to broaden and deepen our base of globally competitive companies to seize opportunities regionally and globally.

6. We will reinforce Singapore’s position as the Global Asia Hub by expanding our international network through multilateral platforms such as World Trade Organisation, ASEAN and APEC. We will continue to strengthen our economic linkages and competitiveness through our network of Free Trade Agreements, Investment Guarantee Agreements and Double Taxation Agreements.

7. We will enhance our value proposition through timely investments in infrastructure and improvements to our enterprise-friendly business environment. EMA will continue to reinforce our energy security and ensure that businesses and households have access to competitively-priced energy. CCS will focus on promoting healthy and competitive markets for businesses.

Restructuring for Competitiveness

8. We will continue to encourage productivity at all levels. Our companies will need to raise their productivity and build new capabilities to compete effectively in the new operating environment, as well as to seize new growth opportunities locally and internationally. We will support them to persevere and stay the course on economic restructuring. MTI has set aside more than $300 million over the next 3 years to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in this restructuring effort. This is over and above the $1 billion that has been committed from the $2 billion National Productivity Fund to support a wide range of productivity programs, most of which are targeted at SMEs.

9. We will focus more on upstream interventions in sectors with the greatest potential for productivity improvement. In addition, SPRING, A*STAR and other partner agencies will step up efforts to implement platform projects that drive significant productivity improvements within and across sectors. JTC will develop innovative infrastructure solutions, through clustering of related activities and shared facilities. SPRING will continue to support SMEs in their restructuring journey through incentives, advisory services and technology adoption.

Equipping Singaporeans to Access Good Job Opportunities

10. Over the next 3 years, around 40,000 to 45,000 young Singaporeans are expected to enter the job market per year, with two-thirds aspiring to hold professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) jobs. Our efforts to transform our economy will create many good jobs to meet their aspirations. We will partner MOM, MOE and the industry to prepare Singaporeans to take up these opportunities.

11. We will develop career pathways, applied learning tracks and apprenticeship programmes, to attract and prepare Singaporeans for the specialist, managerial and leadership roles in the economy. We will also provide more structured and systematic career guidance and counselling for both students and working adults, to deliver better matching of skills, competencies and aspirations to jobs.

12. We will ride on the strengths of our education system, through Pre-Employment Training (PET) and Continuing Education and Training (CET), to ensure that Singaporeans are well trained to meet the needs of the industry. We will work to develop the next generation of highly-skilled technologists and craftsmen with strong vocational skills who are able to excel in the future manufacturing landscape.

13. We will nurture Singaporeans with a global outlook, a keen understanding of global and regional markets and relevant soft skills to operate in a cosmopolitan environment. This will prepare Singaporeans to take on key positions in global and regional headquarters based in Singapore and in local companies which are venturing abroad.

14. Together, we will transform the economy to succeed in a more competitive environment, develop Singapore into a leading global city with a mix of advanced manufacturing and productive service sectors, in order to generate quality growth and create good jobs for Singaporeans.

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