SMEs take overseas plunge with help from IE Singapore

Singapore

SMALL and medium enterprises have taken big steps in expanding overseas - thanks in no small way to International Enterprise Singapore, which in recent years has tailored its help packages more to the specific needs of companies.

The trade promotion agency, which is also pushing Singapore companies to venture abroad, has reported in its Year-in-Review that half of Singapore SMEs now have overseas revenue - and more are looking to markets beyond Singapore for growth.

"Size of the company is not a consideration on which companies we assist," IE Singapore said about its latest Joint Action Plans scheme. "Because IE Singapore customises our assistance based on whether companies are ready to internationalise and/or which stage of their internationalisation journey they are at."

Unveiled in mid-2013, the Joint Action Plans package is designed for IE Singapore to work more closely with companies in their overseas expansion. So far, IE Singapore has helped 107 companies under the new scheme.

Overall, IE Singapore lent a hand to 28,000 companies here to go global with a wide range of assistance packages in 2014, up 5 per cent from 2013. The bulk of these companies - 80 per cent - were SMEs.

Of the total, 20,000 companies got assistance from IE Singapore in preparing to internationalise as well as relevant information and advice for investing overseas.

Another 4,000, which were dipping their toes in international waters for the first time, received grant support through such schemes as the market readiness assistance programme.

Still another 4,000 companies got a leg-up from IE Singapore's Global Company Partnership Grant Support and schemes such as double tax deduction. These were companies that already have a presence abroad.

IE Singapore facilitated a total of 342 projects last year. These cut across a wide range of sectors such as food, retail, infrastructure, environmental services and consumer technology.

Over S$44 million in IE Singapore grants were approved, with the agency helping companies to secure another S$756 million in trade and financing loans and S$2.3 billion in insured sums.

In 2013 alone, IE Singapore said, Singapore companies invested S$33.7 billion overseas - despite the headwinds from global economic uncertainty. The result: Singapore's direct investments abroad hit a milestone at end-2013 with the investment stock reaching S$503.5 billion.

Asia accounted for 57 per cent of this total and China, Hong Kong and Indonesia were the most popular destinations for the investments.

Among the SMEs that IE Singapore helped to go overseas are online fashion retailer Love, Bonito; travel specialist HalalTrip; and electrical contractor Cyclect Group.

"We felt that was a natural progression to move onwards to overseas expansion," said Viola Tan, co-founder of Love, Bonito, "and IE Singapore helped us greatly by providing us contacts on ground - public relations, marketing, manufacturing and branding companies that smoothened the transition for us when we wanted to expand into Malaysia."

IE Singapore also helped open doors for HalalTrip in the Japanese market and Cyclect in Myanmar.

IE Singapore said that the business landscape remains stable in Asia. "Businesses are generally optimistic about the leadership of large markets, such as China, India and Indonesia."

It added that "opportunities continue to rise from strong trends in developing markets such as the growing middle income group, urbanisation and adoption of new technologies, especially info-communications technology".

According to IE Singapore chief executive Teo Eng Cheong, this is the time for Singapore companies to step out. "By expanding abroad, not only can they be more productive, they can also develop new capabilities, new track record and global branding that enable them to compete on the global stage."