SPEECH BY MR LIM HNG KIANG

MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY

AT THE SINGAPORE MALAY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

ANNUAL GALA DINNER 2009

HELD ON SATURDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2009, AT 8.40 PM AT ORCHARD HOTEL 

Mr Abdul Rohim Sarip, President, Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Members of the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good evening.

Introduction

I am very pleased to join all of you at this evening’s Gala Dinner.The Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SMCCI) have been around for the last 53 years, assisting local businessmen, especially from the Malay/Muslim community, to meet the various challenges.

It started off in 1956 as a small group of Malay/Muslim businessmen with one common vision – to develop the growth of their own business community.Today, SMCCI is a growing, well-organised business grouping of entrepreneurs and businessmen, providing a wide range of services to members and enjoying a strong partnership with like-minded institutions and agencies, both in the public and private sectors.

Towards Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship

The Ministry of Trade and Industry announced early this week that the Singapore economy expanded by 0.8 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2009.Growth was mainly driven by three factors - continued expansion of biomedical and electronics manufacturing output, improvements in the trade-related and tourism sectors of the economy and the gradual stabilisation in global economic conditions. The worst seems to be behind us. MTI has also upgraded the economic growth forecast for this year to -2.5 to -2.0 per cent.

There are however still many uncertainties in the short term and global growth will remain sluggish. All of us must hence rally together to ride through this period and prepare ourselves, our businesses and our workforce for the upturn. Associations like the SMCCI will play a critical role in helping our local businesses better navigate through the challenges and seize the opportunities that the new economy presents.

The theme for this year’s Gala Dinner - “Towards Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship” – recognises that we live in a world where, to borrow a well-known cliché, “Change is the only constant”. The current recession is a stark reminder of how things can change suddenly and drastically worldwide, driven by forces that are often not within our control. With such changes come great insecurity and uncertainty in the global economy and employment prospects. The only way to survive and prosper in these times of great change is to continually adapt and ensure that we remain relevant to the new economic paradigm.Just as Singapore needs to adapt as a small nation in the global economy, each of us too need to continually renew our skills in our field of expertise and to continually adapt and innovate to stand us in good stead when the economy recovers.

This evening, the SMCCI will launch the Chamber’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award Alumni Club, which is an initiative to engage winners and finalists for the Award. As members of the Alumni Club, the past winners and finalists of SMCCI’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award will help to relay their skills and expertise, as well as be role models for budding entrepreneurs.This is a platform for the Malay/Muslim business community to share knowledge and help cultivate greater success in entrepreneurship.

Success in entrepreneurship depends on the individual’s motivation and capacity to identify an opportunity and pursue it. In addition, a number of other factors, which together constitute what we call the business environment, contribute to the degree of success as well

SMCCI’s Collaboration with the Government to help SMEs

In this aspect, the Government has been stepping up efforts over the past decade and introduced various incentives and assistance schemes to encourage entrepreneurship.Organisations both in the private and public sectors have also been actively doing their part to enhance the business environment and groom entrepreneurship in Singapore.

A good example is the network of Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) and the EnterpriseOne Business Information Services initiative established at the various business chambers and associations.The EDCs reach out to SMEs and provide them with advisory and consultancy services.We have seen very encouraging numbers from the EDCs. Since its inception in 2005, the five EDCs have handled some 30,000 enquiries on the various government assistance programmes available.

SMCCI had set up its EDC in 2006 to create a positive business environment for the Malay/Muslim business community. This year, the chamber successfully organised seminars and talks which addressed the importance of stepping out and diversifying in order to remain significant in this competitive economy. On top of that, with a professional team of consultants under the same roof, the EDC@SMCCI is readily available to assist SMEs and entrepreneurs in core areas such as financial management, dealing with competition and business innovation. For more than three years, the EDC@SMCCI has handled about 4,500 enquiries from SME.

In addition, when the government opened up the Local Enterprise and Association Development (or LEAD) programme to provide business chambers and associations with more resources to help their members this year, SMCCI was amongst the first to tap on the programme in a concerted effort to deliver more value to its members. It aims to strengthen competencies and develop enterprise effectiveness of its micro enterprise and SME members.

There are many ways that the SMCCI is reaching out to your members, especially during this period and I am sure that the chamber is making a difference to many of them.

Conclusion

On this note, I congratulate SMCCI on their sterling efforts in guiding our Malay/Muslim business community, and I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Thank you.