Govt will work with SMEs, business group

SINGAPORE - The Government will help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) achieve the long-term productivity growth target of 2 per cent to 3 per cent a year.

Several recommendations for this will be announced in the first half of next year, Channel NewsAsia reported.

The Government will work with the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the SMEs on the proposals, it quoted Minister of State for Trade and Industry Teo Ser Luck as saying.

"I can understand that for some of the SMEs, it may be difficult to reach some of the productivity targets based on the nature of their business and the size of their businesses," he said.

"That itself will pose some challenges for them.

"As such, for the different sectors, we would have to work with them closely and see how best we can help them achieve those targets.

"Also along the way, what can we do better with our schemes, so that they can tap on and effectively use them and achieve those targets."

The SBF, Singapore's largest business group, had said last week that the productivity goal may be difficult to achieve.

It said then that the 2 to 3 per cent a year productivity growth that Singapore is aiming for "appears to be a stretched target".

It called for a stay on any further tightening of foreign manpower inflows for one to two years.