SPEECH BY MR LEE YI SHYAN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY AND MANPOWER AT THE CXO SEMINAR, WEDNESAY, 13 OCTOBER 2010, MANDARIN ORCHARD SINGAPORE, 915 AM

Mr Bob Tan, Honorary Treasurer, Singapore Business Federation

Mr Teng Theng Dar, CEO, Singapore Business Federation

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

Good morning. It is my pleasure to join you this morning at the CXO Seminar “Becoming the Most Admired Business Leaders & Companies”.

Growing Globally Competitive Companies

Business leaders and companies are admired usually because they achieve superior performances over a sustained period of time. Great leaders lead great companies. Outstanding companies produce outstanding leaders. Sometimes great companies and leaders are nearly synonymous.

As we look at our economy in the past 20 years, I think we can proudly say that our economy has done well and grown by 3.3 times (1990 to 2009). Corporate Singapore has also grown as shown in indicators such market capitalization of SGX, Singapore 1000 and SME 500 rankings. Our stock of FDI abroad has also reached nearly S$300 billion as of end-2008, compared to S$38 billion in 1994. Many of our SMEs started small, had became regional and even Asian multinationals within this time period.

The question we should ponder over is: what will our economy look like in 2030. What kind of industry structure will we have? Is it an extension of the present? Or is it going to be mixed, with new industries been introduced? How many more S$100 million, S$1 billion, and S$5 billion revenue companies will we have? Are these questions unthinkable? Are the benchmarks unachievable?

Right up to this moment, Asian economies have done well in leading the world’s recovery from the global financial crisis. While there may still be short term fluctuations and poor visibility in global demand and supply, or some say global imbalance of demand and supply, few have doubts that the demographics of Asia will propel consumption and many decades of steady growth within the Asian region. In short, Singapore companies are situated in the heart of high growth. The prospect for our companies to grow to be much larger is very good, provided we know how to take advantage of the opportunities.

One of the key reasons why Singapore is able to recover so well from the financial crisis, and achieved a 17.9% growth for the first half of the year was that our production capacity was still very resilient and competitive. However, we all know that competitiveness today needs renewal and reinvestments to be relevant. We cannot stand still.

Because of this, the Government has always reminded our companies to never lose sight of building long term strength in the marketplace. The way we invest in technology, human resources, organization development, market and channel development, we must do it with a long term perspective. We must sustain these efforts through business cycles. A feast and famine approach will not work in capacity building.

Leveraging on Local Trade Organizations to Drive Growth and Internationalization

This is why government agencies such as SPRING Singapore and IE Singapore have been working closely with the industries to build strengths. Under the Local Enterprise and Association Development programme (LEAD for short), and the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) initiative, SPRING Singapore and IE Singapore hope to make capacity building programmes readily available with Industry associations and business chambers. At this year’s budget, the government announced the commitment of $100 million over five years to further boost our support for business associations. These programmes will help drive productivity at the industry and cluster levels, and to facilitate international market access for their members.

Enhance Access to Human Capital for SMEs

The government is also providing support to companies by enhancing access to human capital for SMEs. For example, SPRING Singapore recently launched an initiative worth almost S$30 million to help build a talent pipeline in SMEs, by co-funding the training and internship of university and polytechnic graduates with the SMEs. In terms of grooming senior business leaders, SPRING Singapore is also working closely with trade associations and Institutes of Higher Learning, to facilitate a network of business advisors to provide strategic and expert advice.

SBF Mentorship Programme

This morning, I am very pleased to note the launch of a new programme called the “SBF Mentorship Programme”. Jointly developed with SPRING Singapore, the programme aims to offer companies professional guidance on business management, talent attraction and all other best business practices. The Mentorship Programme is kicking off with a pool of experienced and savvy business leaders serving as mentors. They will seek to mentor participating SMEs on a wide range of subjects: from business positioning, building of functional capabilities to building sustainable business models.

Conclusion

One of the recommendations from our ESC was to expand the number of Globally Competitive Companies (GCCs) with sales more than S$100 million to 1,000 in 10 years. This is achievable if we continue to improve the quality of our talent pool; by raising productivity, by innovating with new products and services, by increasing the skills level of our workers and by enhancing the qualities of our business leaders. All these have to come together for sustained success. They are not easy to achieve but not unattainable based on the confidence of what we have achieved in the past four decades. Let’s us work together. Let’s us share our experiences and best practices with each other at this seminar. We will get there.

Thank you.