Refreshed industry map to boost wholesale trade’s efforts to go global

SINGAPORE’S updated industry transformation map (ITM) for the wholesale trade sector will help grow globally competitive local traders, expand global traders’ presence in Singapore, as well as create more than 10,500 new PMET (professional, manager, executive and technician) roles by 2025. 

The Wholesale Trade ITM 2025, one of the 23 sectoral ITMs to be refreshed, was launched on Thursday (Jan 5) at the official opening of seafood trader Fish International Sourcing House’s (Fish) new processing facility at Boon Lay by Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong. 

“While the goods and services we trade have grown significantly in volumes and sophistication, the ambition for Singapore to be at the heart of regional and international trade remains,” he said.

The wholesale trade industry is the second-largest sector of Singapore’s economy, making up 18 per cent of gross domestic product in 2021. 

The ITM is hence being refreshed, so the wholesale trade sector can better adapt to global developments, such as supply chain disruptions, digitalisation and the increasing focus on sustainability, Gan added. 

Fish hopes to expand to Africa and is looking to double its revenue in four years through its new manufacturing facility in Singapore, said chief executive Alvin Loy. 

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The new processing factory will allow the trader to meet increasing demand by automating more than 50 per cent of its seafood processing operations. The products from the new processing facility are expected to contribute to 40 per cent of Fish’s overall projected revenue within two years.

The ITM has four main strategies. First, it will encourage local enterprises diversify their businesses, grow exports, and enter new markets. Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) will help facilitate partnerships with business-to-business e-commerce players and collaborations between enterprises and large global distributors. A hundred local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to benefit from this strategy by 2025.

EnterpriseSG will work with the various trade associations and chambers (TACs) to enhance enterprises’ export-competitiveness. 

“I hope to see more companies taking advantage of our free trade agreements to maximise tariff savings and market access when exporting overseas,” Gan said. 

Given the rise of the green economy and sustainability movement, traders are also encouraged to diversify their trade to include sustainable products, such as biofuels and plant-based proteins. 

Fish has invested in research and development to create plant-based seafood products and upcycle fish waste into more sustainable fish feed.

Second, the ITM seeks to expand global traders’ presence in Singapore and anchor their innovation activities here. 

“We will partner Institutes of Higher Learning to pursue innovation projects and help companies build new competitive advantages in product development, so that they can fast-track their innovative products into the consumer market here and overseas,” Gan said. 

Global traders will also have opportunities to collaborate with local traders, SMEs and startups

Third, enterprises will receive differentiated support to boost their capabilities and evolve into globally competitive traders.

High-growth potential businesses will have access to resources and expertise to scale up their businesses locally and overseas, deepen their research and innovation efforts, and enhance their human capital development. 

EnterpriseSG will also target sub-segments with relatively lower productivity, such as household goods and agriculture-related industries, and work with multipliers such as TACs and SME Centres to advance technology and automation adoption.

Finally, the ITM will build on the wholesale trade jobs transformation map that was launched in 2021 to create new roles for Singaporeans and offer upskilling and reskilling programmes. 

Scholarships will also be offered to undergraduates under the Singapore-Industry Scholarship programme from 2023.

The wholesale trade ITM was launched in 2017 and aimed to grow a vibrant ecosystem of wholesale traders in Singapore, build a digital marketplace, and create new jobs in the industry. 

Over 8,000 wholesale trade enterprises have since adopted at least one digital solution between 2018 and 2020. Local PMET roles in the industry also increased by about 6,000 between 2017 and 2020. The overseas sales of local wholesale trade enterprises grew at a compound annual growth rate of around 7 per cent between 2016 and 2020.