Promoting Awareness for Government's Assistance Schemes for SMEs

Madam, MTI has regular channels of communications with our SMEs. For example, we work closely with the trade associations and chambers through SPRING and IE Singapore to understand the needs and concerns of their members and the business community as a whole.

In 2011, I accepted the Singapore Business Federation (SBF)'s invitation to be the Advisor to the SME Committee (SMEC). One of the missions of the SMEC is to garner all the feedback from the trade associations and members of these associations to know the issues and the problems that these SMEs are facing today.

It is a key platform because it forms a bridge between the SME community and policymakers or the Government, and it surfaces the issues for us to analyse and understand what the SMEs and businesses are facing today, and how these affect the policies and the policy reviews. We conduct reviews every single time during the Budget session.

This SMEC has submitted its Budget recommendations every single year since its inception. Many of these recommendations have been accepted, especially this year, when more than half of the recommendations were accepted.

In this year's Budget, we announced new measures to help all SMEs, including micro-enterprises. Some of these are focused on making our schemes more accessible to the SMEs. For example, we have expanded the Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) into integrated one-stop SME Centres. These SME Centres are not limited to the five that exist today. We intend to have a hub and spoke system where there will be satellite centres that cater to the needs of micro-enterprises. These satellite centres can be set up by merchant federations or smaller federations that exist within the heartlands.

SMEs can access information and obtain advice on a wide range of assistance schemes. We know that the Government has rolled out several schemes and there needs to be some hand-holding. Officers will be on the ground to help these SMEs, especially the micro-enterprises.

SPRING Singapore, with its SME Centres, will also streamline its various schemes. In fact, we have already done so. One of those schemes was called the Capability Development Grant (CDG) which is several different schemes combined into one. A change that was made, for example, is the streamlining of the pages in the application process. There used to be 10 pages in the application form. Today, it has been reduced to two pages. This helps SMEs in their application for the productivity scheme and in capability development.

We will continue to work closely with our SMEs and business associations and chambers to help them transform. This is a difficult period for our SMEs, especially the micro-enterprises. We want to make sure that the schemes are better utilised and can effectively help all the businesses.

Last year, when we were reviewing all the schemes for the SMEs, we formed a Committee called the SME Review Committee. This year, we have converted that Committee to be the SME Implementation Committee. Instead of coming up with new programmes and schemes, it is important for us to focus on implementation for the entire year to make sure that all the programmes and schemes work.

With the new measures in place, we hope to encourage more SMEs to embark on the transformation journey. It is important that we have the schemes. The SMEs must also step forward to tap on those schemes.

Mdm Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of State, from the ground, does he get the feedback that there are higher take-up rates from the SMEs for these schemes?

What I understand is that because of the various schemes that are in place, some are "macro" – that is, they are focused on the industry. Some schemes are "micro" and these are for the individual firms. It takes awhile for the SMEs to understand the schemes. We need to create greater awareness. That is why SME Centres are very important today to play that part. Trade associations and chambers of commerce are also very important to help educate the SMEs.

The take-up rate is slowly increasing, but if you ask me, we have some way to go to reach the benchmarks that we have set and the milestones that we need to reach.

Madam, in Mandarin, please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech on Pg xxxx.] I am glad there are already a number of schemes to help SMEs now. However, many SMEs are still not following up as they have had unpleasant experiences in the past. I would like the Minister of State to tell us if there are better ways to reach out to and help those SMEs who have suffered unpleasant experiences in the past as well as those who cannot understand the schemes due to language problems, so that more can better utilise the schemes. Can we do better to help them succeed in the next three transitional years?

I will make my reply in English. The Member has highlighted a very important issue. We have been trying to have a better understanding of the issues that are facing the SMEs and the micro-enterprises, in order to come up with schemes and make sure that the utilisation rate of these schemes is up to a satisfactory level. It is not easy. The SME Centres will be staffed by officers with bilingual abilities, and even with dialect abilities. Some of the micro-enterprises, for example, the stalls and small businesses in the heartlands, do not even speak Mandarin and converse in dialects instead. We want to help all of them and reach out to them.

There are some schemes – for example, those involving vouchers like the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) vouchers – that help to defray some of the costs of process re-designing in the micro-enterprises. We want to make sure that these small micro-enterprises would be able to understand some of the schemes and the rationale behind how to apply for them. The officers need to be able to handhold them and help them. Some of these satellite centres will be on the ground, either within the CDC, CC, or in the heartland areas. The officers would be able to be on the ground to handhold them and guide them.

It is not just for the three years of transformation. Some of the schemes take longer than three years. For example, some of the schemes are focused on the industry as a whole, like the Collaborative Industry Programme. This programme needs substantive effort over a longer period of time – definitely more than three years – because you need an entire industry to be able to tap on the process redesign or IT or automation in order to get its effects. Implementation can take more than three years. That, we understand. We will implement the scheme and make sure that it achieves its effects even though it may take more than three years.

Madam, I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The question also relates to communication. The point raised by Member Teo Siong Seng is right – that it is also about feedback. The Ministry is getting a lot of feedback but the feedback back to the SMEs themselves, like the recommendations that have been accepted, is also important to say that they are being heard too.

The other challenge is this: what else is the Ministry doing in order to improve the level of communications. The schemes are there; the centres are there. Many of them are still not coming forward perhaps due to prior bad experiences, but perhaps something new needs to happen. Perhaps the Ministry could look into this.

Definitely, we will look into it and look at different ways of communicating. What is the most important is that it is not just going to be a national level push on promotion, and creating awareness through advertisements and promoting it generally or in the mainstream media, but we are going to be walking the ground, and going on the ground to engage the different businesses and organising dialogues, and so on. I also urge Members and advisors to assist in this process. It is important that we touch the ground in every area, every constituency, where possible.