Government grant impact tracked by measures such as skilled jobs creation

THE economic impact of grant projects undertaken by small and medium-sized enterprises is measured in a few ways, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling in Parliament on Wednesday (Oct 5). They include committed value add – which is the direct contribution a company makes to Singapore’s gross domestic product, excluding multiplier effects – and the projected number of skilled jobs created by such projects.

These indicators are published by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) in an annual year-in-review, she added.

The minister was responding to questions by Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Leon Perera, who asked about the indicators used by the government to measure the impact of grants on the firm-level productivity of SMEs and micro-SMEs, and whether the ministry can publish grant key performance indicators and outcomes in yearly reports in aggregate terms.

Such grants include the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG), which was launched in April 2018 to help businesses enhance their processes with technology.

The government conducts regular studies on the impact of its grant schemes, Low said. She cited the example of a study conducted by EnterpriseSG in 2020, which surveyed 129 companies on the impact of the PSG.

According to the study, more than 80 per cent of PSG projects had achieved “various forms of productivity gains in terms of cost savings, revenue gains or time savings,” Low said.

An impact analysis for the Market Readiness Assistance grant that supports SMEs to enter new markets was also published in the Economic Survey of Singapore Third Quarter 2021, she added.

Following this, WP MP Jamus Lim asked whether the studies Low cited could be provided “on a more disaggregated basis” and if the underlying background papers could be made available, as it “would be interesting to understand the extent to which these grants could causally be attributed to improving the productivity of these firms”.

In response, Low said that the ministry “is looking at the data” from the impact studies and will share more details “in due course”.

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Approval rates of 85%, 95% for Enterprise Development Grant, Productivity Solutions Grant schemes

She cited how there was a 95 per cent approval rate for completed applications for the PSG between the 2019 and 2021 financial years, with businesses submitting more than 116,100 PSG applications over the 3 years.

The top 3 sectors which applied for the PSG grant were retail, food and beverage and construction, she added.

These figures were previously announced by Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong on Monday, in a written response to a parliamentary question on how the grants’ application and approval rates compare to the annual budget set aside for the grants.