EnterpriseSG extends Partners for Business Growth programme for SMEs to May 2025
The programme, in collaboration with SME Centres, has supported more than 250 companies in developing their business growth plans to date
MORE small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can receive dedicated assistance from SME Centre advisers under a business growth programme by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), which has been extended to May 2025.
The Partners for Business Growth (PBG) programme – which was piloted in October 2020 – helps a select group of SMEs to develop business growth plans.
Enterprises must first demonstrate a consistent track record of revenue growth, possess scalable business models and have business transformation ambitions to participate in the programme, which is fully funded.
The PBG programme’s extension was announced by Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling at this year’s SME Centre Conference on Wednesday (Jul 31). Singapore has 10 SME centres, which are run by EnterpriseSG, and five trade associations and chambers.
Under the programme, business development advisers from the 10 SME centres will work alongside participating SMEs to provide customised business support and advisory services for a year.
These include one-on-one in-depth business diagnosis; developing detailed business plans in areas such as digital transformation, talent development and internationalisation; co-developing road maps with objectives and key business milestones to achieve; business coaching; as well as implementing growth road maps and initiatives.
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To date, the programme has supported more than 250 companies in growing their revenue and business networks, developing new capabilities or expanding to new markets. With the extension, the programme is expected to support an additional 70 SMEs.
One beneficiary is home-grown manufacturer Wistech Consulting. It worked with the SME Centre at the Singapore Manufacturing Federation in 2021 to build its own artificial intelligence (AI) engine and establish online AI-driven platform Qallix, which supports sellers on e-commerce platforms.
Under the programme, Wistech embarked on a data analytics project to improve the Qallix platform, making it easier for sellers to identify opportunities to enhance their marketing and sales efforts.
This year’s SME Centre Conference, held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, was centred on how SMEs can leverage AI-related technologies for business growth.
Low said: “Today, the rise of AI has fundamentally reshaped how we as individuals and business leaders gather, process and transmit information.”
By using AI effectively in their business, she said enterprises stand to reap significant productivity gains and increased output.
Low also announced that solutions under the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and EnterpriseSG generative AI (GenAI) sandbox for SMEs will now be supported via the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG).
Launched in February, the sandbox has supported more than 150 companies over the past three months to adopt GenAI solutions in marketing and sales, and customer engagement.
From Wednesday, GenAI solution vendors can apply to become an IMDA pre-approved vendor under PSG. By year’s end, SMEs can adopt GenAI solutions under PSG and receive up to 50 per cent grant support.
Low said IMDA is exploring new GenAI solutions for the next sandbox. This will give SMEs more opportunities to experiment with GenAI, before deploying their solutions on a larger scale.
The GenAI sandbox is one of three initiatives launched by the government over the past year to help SMEs embark on their AI journey. The other two are Microsoft’s AI tool, Copilot, and a new applied AI programme at institutes of higher learning, which kicked off in June.
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