Speech by SMS Chee Hong Tat at SME Centre Conference 2019

Mr Roland Ng, President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI), 

Business leaders and friends from the Trade Associations and Chambers,

Distinguished Guests,  

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

1. Good morning. I am pleased to join you again this year for the SME Centre Conference, an annual event organised by the SME Centres to help our SMEs learn how to grow their businesses and accelerate their transformation journeys. 

We need to grow competitive and innovative SMEs 

2. SMEs make up 99% of our enterprises, employ two-thirds of our workforce and account for about half of our GDP.  They are the base from which many successful brands have emerged, and we want to continue developing more competitive SMEs into local champions that will grow Singapore’s economy and provide good jobs for our people. Many of the successful companies we see today started as SMEs, before they became large, multinational companies. It is not your size today that matters, but it is your ideas, capabilities and potential, that determine where you will be in the future.

3. At last year’s SME Centre Conference, I spoke about the three “T”s which are critical to our economic competitiveness, namely technology, trade and talent. At MTI’s Committee of Supply (COS) debates earlier this year, I explained how the Government’s enterprise development efforts are centred around three “Ups” to support businesses in their transformation journeys. These are: Level Up, to strengthen enterprise capabilities to become more productive and competitive; Scale Up, to help companies achieve scale by growing in Singapore and abroad; and Team Up, to encourage companies to work together to capture new opportunities. This includes partnerships between large companies and SMEs, partnerships amongst SMEs and partnerships with other entities such as government agencies and research institutions.  

4. Enterprise transformation must start with a vision of what the business wants to achieve, what problems it wants to solve and what capabilities it needs to build to reach its goals.  The Government will help our companies, but we can only achieve effective transformation when our efforts are enterprise-centric and transformation-focused, not scheme-centric and grant-focused.  

TACs and SME Centres play an important role as industry enablers 

5. What makes transformation even more challenging, is that businesses still need to run your operations while you embark on the transformation journey. It is like changing the tyres of your car, while the car is still moving. Not an easy task.  But we know that if we don’t change the tyres and service the engine from time to time, the car will eventually break down. So what can we do? When I visited the SME Centre at Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce recently, the Centre’s Chairman Mr Azhar Othman told me that one way is to put the car on a truck.  So the car can still move together with the truck, while its tyres are being changed.  I like Mr Azhar’s analogy as I think it is a useful way to think about how we can embark on enterprise transformation.  

6. Today, I would like to speak about how our TACs and SME Centres can be the equivalent of the trucks to help you in your transformation journey, to help you change tyres while your car is still moving, when your business is still operating.  Our key TACs have a good understanding of the needs of their members.  They have also established strong industry networks amongst their members, suppliers and customers.  The TACs can thus serve as important intermediaries, to help companies level up, scale up and team up.  Over the years, our TACs have embarked on many initiatives and projects to add value to their members. 

a. For example, the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) is operating a Singapore Enterprise Centre (SEC) in Shanghai. The aim of the SEC is to work with and assist Singapore companies and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in China. With the set-up of a new centre in Chengdu later this year, there will be a secondary node through which Singapore companies can access new opportunities in Western China. 

b. Another example is the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF) which has been actively supporting the design community in Singapore. In March this year, they launched The Cocoon Space, a co-working and event space in Design Orchard. TaFF has also launched a programme called The Bridge Fashion Incubator (TBFI) to equip and enable aspiring enterprises to launch and scale their business in the fashion industry.  

7. Our SME Centres, which are managed by the key TACs, also serve as useful touch-points for our SMEs across different sectors.  Business advisors at the SME Centres help enterprises diagnose their business needs and recommend solutions for business owners to consider.  The decision is ultimately taken by the business owner, with inputs and suggestions from the business advisors.  Besides the consultation sessions, SME Centres facilitate networking and cross-learnings through workshops and seminars.  Where there are synergies, the business advisors in the SME Centres will also facilitate collaborations across enterprises. 

a. For example, the SME Centre at the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), in collaboration with several organisations, spearheaded the Little India digitalisation project in November 2018. The project was to assist Little India retailers in scaling their digital readiness. Through the engagement of selected vendors such as DEI.com, Shopee, Fave and S-Cash, the project has enabled businesses to conduct precinct loyalty programmes, attract diverse customers including locals and tourists through various transaction options such as Alipay and Grab, as well as increase traffic through the use of vouchers. By placing products in e-marketplaces, merchants are also able to expand their customer reach beyond the offline space.  

8. Our SME Centres have also been stepping up their support through group-based upgrading projects. This initiative aims to address common business challenges faced by SMEs within the same vicinity or trade by pooling resources, ideas and coming up with a collective solution.

a. The SME Centre at the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SMCCI) worked with 10 SMEs in the Halal food sector to participate in a food exhibition in Chengdu, China, in March 2018. Through the initiative, these companies were able to gain first-hand knowledge of the halal market in China and establish business contacts for potential collaborations. The SME Centre also collaborated with Veritag to facilitate the export of Singapore-based Halal products into the Chinese market by ensuring that the packaging, labelling and shelf-life of the food products complied with the multi-layered food regulatory system in China.

Reducing compliance costs and streamlining work processes 

9. To create a pro-enterprise environment for businesses to flourish, the Government will continue with our efforts to ensure that rules remain agile for businesses.  The Pro Enterprise Panel (PEP) under MTI regularly reviews Government rules and processes to help businesses reduce costs.  Companies give us feedback on specific rules or regulations.  We then work with public agencies to review the rules to simplify the regulations, lower compliance costs or reduce processing time.  It is not always possible, but we will try.  We have announced several initiatives on this front, I won’t go through one by one due to time constraints.  The main point is that we are committed to working with TACs and companies to keep our rules and regulations pro-enterprise and to support new business ideas.    

10. Let me share one new initiative.  Over the past year, the PEP worked with the Energy Market Authority (EMA) to streamline the process of electricity connection for new facilities such as factories and warehouses.  Previously, business owners have to go through 4 different procedures to equip new facilities with electricity. The process can take up to 30 days.  The PEP and EMA have reviewed the procedures for electricity connections for small warehouses, and I am pleased to announce that for these facilities, we will reduce the time required to complete the connection for electricity supply from 30 days to no more than 19 days.  This will speed up the electricity connection for SMEs and reduce the delay for companies to commence operations, and we will not increase the fees and charges. 

11. The PEP serves as an internal advocate within Government to help businesses with rules review.  We do this together with our TACs.  Today, I am also happy to announce the launch of the SBF-ASME Pro-Enterprise Clinic. This is a regulatory concierge service to make it easier for businesses, particularly SMEs, to approach public agencies on matters regarding regulations.  This initiative seeks to reduce the number of touch-points SMEs need to have with public agencies, by providing a one-stop channel for companies to enquire on matters pertaining to rules or regulations.  If companies have questions or suggestions regarding rules, they can approach ASME or SBF who will serve as the first point of contact to collate the feedback. 

12. For straightforward queries, the TACs can help provide the answers to the companies.  For more complex queries or suggestions on rule enhancements, the TACs will channel the feedback to MTI’s PEP to work with the relevant public agencies to address the query or suggestion.  I think this partnership will benefit the TACs, the companies and also the Government.  The first clinic kicks off today and I encourage all of you to use this service.  Over time, we want to involve more TACs to work with the PEP to provide such services, and further support our companies in this area.  When we review our rules, we help our companies.  We also keep our regulatory system nimble and responsive to new changes in business requirements and technology.  It is a win-win partnership.  

Conclusion 

13. In conclusion, I would like to thank our TACs and SME Centres, and all the board members and staff, for their contributions over these years by supporting our enterprises in their growth journeys.  We want to work together with you to scale up this network to help more SMEs transform and build stronger capabilities.  

14. I would also like to express my appreciation to the SME Centre@SCCCI for taking the lead in organising this year’s conference. I wish all of you a fruitful and fulling conference ahead. 

15. Thank you.