The Singapore government on Monday committed to rolling out more schemes to help local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) upgrade expertise and business skills.

Such a new program will be launched to help SMEs develop talented management staff after the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (SPRING Singapore) completed last year a pilot 18- week executive training program for SMEs.

In addition, the International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore), the city state's external trade promotion agency, will also introduce an exporters program to help SMEs gain know-how on exporting.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan announced these as he talked about his Ministry's commitment to develop a vibrant SME sector in Singapore during the Parliamentary debate for his Ministry's budget.

A pro-business environment, financing, capability building and internationalize are key thrusts for SMEs, Lee said.

"Since 2001, the government has provided 40 million Singapore dollars (about 26 million U.S. dollars) in equity financing for 170 start-ups and extended 3.6 billion (about 2.4 billion U.S. dollars) worth of loans to 14,000 SMEs," he said.

Lee said his ministry's target should be that every bankable project should be able to find its financing from an efficient financial market.

"We see the government's role in financing as a catalyst, identifying and filling gaps not well-served by the private sector, " he added.

To help local enterprises internationalize, IE Singapore provides a comprehensive suite of government assistance, such as the Internationalization Finance Scheme, which extends loans to enterprises venturing overseas, according to Lee.

The government agencies organize missions and trade fairs to bring Singapore enterprises to new markets and also introduce foreign buyers to Singapore enterprises.

In 2006, over 300 trade missions and fairs led to 1.7 billion Singapore dollars (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) of overseas sales for 3,500 companies.

While the government agencies' outreach programs helped 3,000 companies learn to exploit the Free Trade Agreements, saving 470 million Singapore dollars (about 307 million U.S. dollars) in tariffs last year.

According to SPRING Singapore, the SMEs are those with 15 million Singapore dollars (about 9.8 million U.S. dollars) or less in fixed asset investment and, for non-manufacturing enterprises, 200 or fewer employees.

SMEs form an important pillar of the city-state's economy, employing 56 percent of workforce and contributing 42 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Source: Xinhua