Speech by Minister S Iswaran at the 99percent SME Campaign Launch

SPEECH BY MR S ISWARAN, MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY (INDUSTRY) AT THE 99% SME CAMPAIGN LAUNCH, FRIDAY, 15 JULY 2016, 12.15PM, DBS AUDITORIUM, MARINA BAY FINANCIAL CENTRE

Mr Sim S. Lim, Group Executive and Singapore Country Head, DBS

Mr Bill Chang, CEO, Group Enterprise, Singtel

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon,

1. I am delighted to join you today at the launch of the 99% SME Campaign. 

2. I am especially glad that prominent private sector players such as DBS, Singtel, MediaCorp and MasterCard have come forward to support our SMEs.  This year’s campaign builds on last year’s event, which saw over 1,600 SMEs participating in the 4-day event, with 90% indicating that they would participate again.

3. We are living in times when there are various factors that are affecting the business environment – some of these are developments in external markets, and also technological changes, whether you are in the area of manufacturing or services.  The impact, while it can vary across sectors, the direction of change is clear and unambiguous. What that means is all our businesses, as part of our economic transformation process, have to adapt to these changes. 

Changing Business Landscape for SMEs

4. In the context of our SMEs, they face the challenge of growing their business and sustaining their competitiveness whilst managing costs, attracting and retaining talent, and working to ensure that they can keep ahead of rising competition.  The recent SBF-DP SME Index for Q3 and Q4 of 2016, which tracks SME sentiment, rose for the first time after seven consecutive quarters of decline, reflecting some lift in business sentiment.  However, on a year-on-year basis, the index was at its lowest level since 2009, reflecting the continued pressure in the business environment.

5. Against this backdrop, our SMEs are responding by investing in technology, developing new products and services to differentiate themselves, and expanding overseas.  DP Info’s SME Development Survey last year found that 54% of SMEs do business overseas, an increase of 4% from the previous year.  More SMEs are considering innovation as an enabler for business growth, with the same DP survey finding that 68% of SMEs invested in their in-house technology and innovation capabilities in 2015, an increase from 64% in the previous year. 

Equipping SMEs with the Right Capabilities

6. This year’s 99% SME Campaign, with its focus on “Equipping SMEs”, will help our companies with resource packages by DBS and Singtel, in addition to a suite of activities to help SMEs promote their offerings and services.  These packages provide information, amongst other things, on how to diversify into the e-commerce space, and train employees in various aspects of business and financial management.  The importance of the digital revolution and the impact it is having, particularly in the retail sector but across the board in all our verticals in our economy, cannot be underestimated.

7. This year’s effort will also help to sustain capability development of SMEs beyond the “99%SME Week”.  SPRING will work with Singtel and DBS to organise seminars and workshops to share key capabilities in areas such as e-commerce and digital marketing.  SMEs can tap on Government schemes like SPRING’s Capability Development Grant (CDG), which supports capability upgrading projects for SMEs, and IE Singapore’s Market Readiness Assistance, which supports companies taking their first steps towards internationalisation. 

Showing Support for SMEs

8. It is my hope that Singaporeans will continue to support our SMEs during this year’s 99% SME Week, so we can put it in another way – we hope for 100% support for 99% SME Week.  The duration has been expanded from 4 days last year to 10 days this year.  I understand that DBS and Singtel aim to engage 2,500 SMEs in this year’s campaign, a 50% increase from last year. I urge our SMEs to see how they can benefit fully from these various resource packages, courses, and workshops and to participate actively in the activities organised as part of the campaign.

9. I am also pleased that the 99% SME campaign has the support of trade associations such as the Federation of Merchants’ Associations and the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who will help their members participate in the campaign.  This epitomises the kind of collaborative effort that we want to encourage as part of this economic transformation journey that we are embarking on.  The nature of the challenges is complex.  Different stakeholders can bring diverse capabilities which collectively can enhance our ability to adapt. Whether it is the large companies like Singtel, DBS, with their perspective on technology, payment systems and how they are fast evolving, whether it is medium companies like MediaCorp and also MasterCard in the payment arena. 

10. The trade associations and chambers have a good sense of what is happening amongst their members – the broad based level of our industry. We need these stakeholders to come together, working hand in hand with government agencies, so that we can come up with relevant, durable and sustainable solutions.   This is really the objective of the exercise, and I am enthused by the response that is already been forthcoming from some of the larger companies who are already behind this campaign.  We would like to see more of such collaborations take place.

Conclusion

11. In closing, I would like to thank DBS, Singtel and their partners for the sustained effort in organising the campaign to support our SMEs.  I look forward to higher levels of participation from our SMEs and support from the public for this year’s campaign, and for the event to continue to grow in scale and be able to reach out to benefit an increasingly growing community of SMEs.  I wish you a successful event.

12. Thank you for inviting me.

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