Transcript of SMS Low Yen Ling at Alliance for Action on Business Competitiveness Report Launch

We are very heartened by the progress that the AfA on Business Competitiveness has made in the last nine months to co-create solutions to strengthen Singapore’s business competitiveness. 

This AfA comprises representatives from the government agencies, as well as the business community. For the business community, we have been engaging the SME business owners as well as the MNCs’ C-suite executives. We also engaged the trade associations and chambers, and trade unions. 

In the last nine months, 25 engagement sessions have been held, in addition to 8 focus group discussions, and 11 brainstorming sessions. We are very happy to be able to release the AfA report today.

The AfA report is the culmination of thousands of hours of careful listening, close engagement with the industry, and deep exchanges with the SME business owners, MNCs’ C-suite executives to understand their pain points and needs. 

The AfA report comprises 27 recommendations in three critical areas of need. One, in manpower. Second, land. Third, in regulatory environment. 

On manpower, in our engagements, we hear from the companies that they need help from the government to achieve productivity-driver growth. To that end, the AfA recommends that we hope to expand the Non-Traditional Sources Occupation List (NTS OL), for companies in manufacturing and services sector. Specifically for certain job roles like machine operators, in order to facilitate our Manufacturing 2030 goals. 

The AfA also recommends to enhance the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities (M-SEP) Scheme. M-SEP, which was launched two years ago, is the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities. The AfA recommends lengthening the support period beyond the two years, so that it can provide greater certainty to the companies. In so doing, to allow our companies more time to take part in programmes that will qualify them for M-SEP.

For the land pillar, the AfA recommends to lengthen the industrial land lease tenure by up to three years. For greenfield projects, they will need to undertake efforts and significant time for construction. By providing additional lease tenure for greenfield projects, it will then allow the companies to enjoy the full 20 or 30-year lease period to recover their significant capital investments.

For land, the AfA also recommends to include auditable investments in innovation, in R&D and intellectual property, as part of the lease renewal considerations. Now, as we pursue productivity-driven growth and high value-add jobs, the AfA is going to recommend more flexible lease tenure for companies who have proven that they are able to generate productivity-driven growth and good jobs for people. 

On the regulatory front, the AfA proposes a Whole-of-Government approach to coordinate regulatory issues, especially to support the green transition journey. To that end, the EMA will take the lead in championing, driving and coordinating regulatory issues, and regulatory review, for all matters related to the solar sector. 

This will be supported and complemented by the SME Pro-Enterprise Office, which I announced two months ago, which will be set up by 1Q 2025. 

The Government will take the AfA report seriously, and review each one of the 27 recommendations with the relevant Ministries and agencies. We hope to continue to build on the good momentum of the AfA and continue to strengthen this partnership between the public sector agencies and the private sector, whether is it the SMEs or the MNCs, or the trade unions, as One Team Singapore, to strengthen Singapore’s business competitiveness. 

Mandarin Soundbite by SMS

• 过去九个月，新加坡工商联合总会和公共部门齐心协力携手举办了25场对话会，咨询了来自商界、工会和公共部门的代表， 还有中小企业的企业家， 了解他们所面对的一些难题。

• 我们今天为出台这个很重要的行动联盟报告， 将有27个建议和方案。

• 政府将会非常慎重的考虑这27个建议和方案。这么做呢是希望大家可以共同的努力， 从这三方面 - 人力资源、土地资源以及监管方面的竞争力， 大家齐心协力， 把挑战转换为机遇， 一起加强我们企业的竞争力。