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Spring-funded projects to crank out 21,400 jobs

This article is more than 12 months old

Projects backed by Spring Singapore last year to do better than 2015's projects

Enterprise development agency Spring Singapore is poised to get more bang for its buck from the projects it funded last year.

When fully realised, these projects are expected to crank out 21,400 new skilled jobs and contribute $7.8 billion in value-add to the economy.

This is a significant jump from the 15,000 jobs created from Spring-funded projects in 2015, which had a projected value-add of $6.9 billion.

Last year's outcomes are expected to be better as the agency is now consciously supporting projects that are more impactful and add greater value, said Spring chief executive Poon Hong Yuen.

"Basic" upgrades proposed by businesses no longer cut it, said Mr Poon, in a review of the agency's showing last year.

That is why the Innovation and Capability Voucher scheme, which helps small businesses become more productive or innovative, got a facelift.

This meant there were no more incentives for adopting applications such as basic accounting software, said Mr Poon.

Meanwhile, the Capability Development Grant, which subsidises deeper skills and equipment upgrading, was tapped by 2,400 firms last year - almost twice the number in 2015.

MORE AMBITIOUS

The more ambitious approach saw more jobs created last year even though fewer projects - 16,700 - were funded, compared with 22,000 in 2015.

The job projections are provided by companies when they make their grant applications.

Spring then follows up to see if these outcomes have been achieved.

In the same vein, the agency's focus in the start-up arena has moved beyond infocomm ventures. Last year, it financed more "deep technology" sectors such as medtech and cleantech.

This year, Spring will continue to channel its efforts towards helping small and medium-sized enterprises scale up, as well as supporting industry-wide transformation.

The agency will also push harder to make Singapore a more attractive start-up destination for foreigners as well as locals.

About 7,000 new start-ups are formed each year, including an average of 700 a year in high technology sectors.

Mr Poon added: "From what we see, many of the start-ups, especially those that can run a bit faster, tend to have at least one foreign founder, maybe because of the knowledge of their home markets; maybe because they are so-called immigrants, they are hungrier and run faster.

"We think the combination is very interesting."

Mr Howard Tang, co-founder of agritech start-up Smart Animal Husbandry Care, which received venture capital from Spring last year, welcomed the approach.

He told The Straits Times: "South-east Asia is 11 governments, 11 regulations, many languages - it is good to have people here who know different markets ."

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