Enterprise S’pore a one-stop help centre: Iswaran
Enterprise Singapore will be a one-stop help centre for companies of all sizes and at different stages of growth.
Speaking at its official launch yesterday, Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S. Iswaran said: "Enterprise Singapore will work with a broad spectrum of businesses, from start-ups, to SMEs and high-growth companies and serve as the single point of contact for Singapore-based enterprises who are committed to growth."
He said the new agency, which is a merger of International Enterprise Singapore (IE) and Spring Singapore, will help companies upgrade, innovate, transform, adopt new technologies, improve productivity and expand overseas, but the support will be tailored to a company's circumstances such as its state of growth.
While Enterprise Singapore's mission is critical to the success of Singapore's long-term economic strategy, its scope of work is wide, and the scale can be daunting, because of the large number of enterprises involved, Mr Iswaran said.
"There is a limit as to how many of the over 200,000 enterprises that government agencies can directly engage," he added.
That is why Enterprise Singapore needs private and public sector partners, especially trade associations and chambers, unions and other stakeholders, to help "broaden the reach and magnify the impact of our industry transformation message".
Mr Kurt Wee, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said the merger of IE and Spring is "a significant structural optimisation for our economic system from many angles".
He said SMEs have "lots of confidence" in the leadership of Enterprise Singapore because its chief executive Png Cheong Boon, who used to head Spring and JTC Corporation, understands SMEs from the policy as well as the business point of view.
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