Minister drops hints on what's coming in Budget

Singapore

MORE companies may be able to participate in government-led programmes that can strengthen their competitiveness while helping them scale.

That was a hint from Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing on what Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat could announce at Budget 2020 on Feb 18.

One initiative is possibly "different versions" of Scale-up SG - announced during Budget 2019 - which aims to help high-growth companies scale rapidly and go abroad. Mr Chan said the government conducted two runs of the 2.5-year programme to help companies transform their business models.

"This year and going forward, we will see more runs of such programmes, and we will have also different versions to cater to companies that are not as established or not as big as those in the pioneer batches of the Scale-up programme," Mr Chan said, adding that this would allow them to reach out to more companies.

Another initiative in the works is "a suite of programmes" aimed at micro enterprises, including heartland enterprises, to help sustain their competitive advantage.

"Many of these solutions will require the adoption of the digital solutions, the aggregation of the supply chains, so that they can enjoy the economies of scale to be more competitive," Mr Chan said.

This means there will be a range of programmes aimed at enterprises that are of different sizes and different stages of growth, he added.

However, the programmes may not simply be in the form of a grant, unlike in the past, Mr Chan said, noting that their approach this time will differ.

"Our belief is increasingly that in order to do real enterprise transformation, we must go down to each and every enterprise to redesign their processes, their operating models, and so forth."

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