SMEs want help with productivity

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) here facing a manpower crunch and rising labour costs want more government help to raise workers' productivity.

Some of their wish-list items for this year's Budget include extending the tax benefits of the Productivity and Innovation Credit Scheme to cover staff training.

This was one of the 33 recommendations made by the SME Committee for Budget 2013, released yesterday by the Singapore Business Federation.

SMEs also hope that the Job Flexibility for Productivity programme could cover more sectors than just the hospitality sector.

It now allows work-permit holders working in hotels to hold up to three positions in the same hotel.

Before the scheme, it was illegal for such workers to perform tasks they were not hired to do.