22,100 enterprises in Singapore had leveraged on the support of government agency Enterprise Singapore (ESG) in 2021 to embark on projects to build new business capabilities, innovate and expand overseas.
The latest number is a 44% surge from that in 2020, ESG – an agency parked under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) - revealed in its year-in-review press conference on Feb 11.
When fully realized, these efforts are expected to generate some $17.9 billion in value-add and create 23,000 skilled jobs for the Singapore economy.
“2021 has no doubt been another challenging year for our enterprises, especially SMEs. But we are comforted that many showed the resilience and resolve to overcome the difficult situation,” said ESG’s chief executive officer, Png Cheong Boon.
He went on to express happiness at how many enterprises have also been pressing on with their transformation efforts.
For instance, ESG supported 21,900 enterprises in their productivity and capability upgrading projects, up from 14,800 in 2020 and 8,300 in 2019.
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More than half of these enterprises came from the food services, retail, wholesale trade and manufacturing sectors, with many focusing on automation, process and workflow redesign and digitalization.
Benefits of adopting these initiatives are already starting to show. For example, Container Printers has been able to improve the efficiency for processes like ink-colour adjustment by 50% simply by adopting digital colour management solutions and eliminating certain manpower intensive processes like final print checks.
As for innovation, 600 enterprises embarked on such projects, the same as in 2020. Such efforts include developing new products and solutions to meet local and global market demands in hopes of gaining a competitive advantage.
Even as more companies reached out for support for productivity and capability upgrading, 2021 saw fewer pandemic-related loans being disbursed.
ESG facilitated $8.6 billion in loans to 12,600 companies in 2021, largely under Covid-related loan programmes, compared to $18 billion to 21,000 companies the year before.
The top sectors which received support were wholesale trade, construction, manufacturing, professional services and retail.
Small and micro businesses received the most help, with 50% and 41% of loans being disbursed to these enterprises respectively.
With more sectors recovering in 2021, Png noted that fewer companies needed to tap on the statutory board for financial support compared to 2020 when Covid-19 first hit Singapore.
And since some loans have multi-year tenures, some companies which received financial aid in 2020 did not need to apply again this year, he added.
Meanwhile, ESG notes that 1,600 enterprises had pursued internationalisation projects in 2021, down from 2,600 in 2019.
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“While the top destination markets were China and Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, many enterprises also ventured to markets further afield,” notes Png.
He adds that some companies had also tapped on ESG’s Market Readiness Assistance grant to venture into markets like Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Plans for 2022
Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong stressed that Singapore businesses need to “urgently recover the lost ground” after internationalisation efforts took a hit from the travel restrictions that had been imposed in the last two years.
"We now have to prepare ourselves so that when the world economy reopens fully and recovers quickly, we are the first out of the gate to seize these opportunities," said Gan.
Going forward, ESG’s chairman Peter Ong highlighted that the statutory board is looking to ramp up its internationalisation drive in 2022, for it remains imperative for Singapore’s growth.
“The return of global growth to pre-pandemic levels presents good opportunities for companies,” he said, adding that Singapore should must step up our engagement in tandem with the re-opening of borders to match the offerings of our companies.
For instance, ESG Is looking to help companies with businesses overseas to deepen their market presence by encouraging them to look beyond major cities.
It will also help companies enter new markets depending on the opportunities available in each specific market. For instance, Latin America and Africa present opportunities for consumer-related, trade and digital and infrastructure solutions, while the US and Europe offer possibilities for the green economy, logistics and supply chain resilience.
A second priority for the year is innovation and startup growth, said Ong. Last year, ESG supported about 2,300 tech start-ups gain access to funding, incubation and mentorship through the Startup SG programmes as well as assistance from partners.
In this time, its investment arm – SEEDS Capital - invested $48.6 million into 46 early-stage tech startups, catalysing close to $334 million of private sector investments.
2021 also saw ESG working with more than 60 organisations from 11 countries for Open Innovation Challenges. "To take it one step further, ESG will step up our focus on driving cross border innovation," said Ong.
"For 2022, we have already identified more than 10 innovation calls with countries across Europe and Asia and we will be announcing them in due course,” he added.
A third priority for the ongoing year is to seize new opportunities in emerging fields such as sustainability and emerging tech.
This follows the rollout of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme in October where ESG is working with industry leaders to offer courses for companies that are new to sustainability, with the first run to begin this March.
Touching on the plans for emerging tech, Ong said the aim is to build on existing plans to groom companies in niche areas such as blockchain and immersive tech.
Even as ESG looks to groom enterprises, it acknowledges that while foreign direct investment continues to be an important part of Singapore's economic strategy, there is room to invest more resources into "locally grown and globally competitive enterprises”.
This is not a new strategy, but ESG will "provide even stronger support" for local entrepreneurs, noted Gan.
To this end, ESG is looking to ramp up its efforts to groom more home-grown companies by identifying and partnering with more up-and-coming local companies and supporting them in areas such as internationalisation, financing and talent development, among others.
"The last 2 years have presented many challenges for our businesses. ESG has partnered many companies to tide them through this period. Now, we need to shift gears, prepare for a shift in the environment, recover lost ground and focus on capturing growth,” stressed Ong.
Cover image of ESG CEO Png Cheong Boon: ESG
