Soundbite

 

The SMEs form the lifeblood of Singapore economy. In fact, SMEs employ 70% of the workforce in Singapore. And we understand the challenges that our SMEs are facing. We have been regularly engaging them. We know that the SMEs now face challenges in an increasingly complex world as well as a competitive environment.

 

And I want to assure the SMEs that the Singapore Government is committed to supporting our SMEs’ growth as well as transformation. The SMEs’ concerns and feedback are important to us as we continue to work together to build thriving businesses and a vibrant economy. In fact, the Singapore Government, including the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), as well as various government agencies work closely with the SMEs by engaging them regularly.

 

Last week, I was just with friends of the media talking about the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Business Competitiveness just before the commencement of our fifth AfA main committee meeting. One of the three pillars of the AfA focuses on strengthening the regulatory competitiveness. In addition to all these interactions, we also have the Pro-Enterprise Panel from MTI that offers our enterprises, including SMEs and the public sector, a dedicated channel for such feedback. And we hear in our regular exchange and feedback sessions with the SMEs that some of them are concerned that application processes or licenses and approvals sometimes take a long time. This inevitably increases operating costs for the SMEs, and can post significant hurdles for the SMEs. To support our enterprise growth and SMEs, we need shorter and smoother regulatory processes and minimal regulatory barriers. And this is even more vital with the rapid emergence of new technology as well as the fast-evolving business environment.

 

Just last month, we heard at the National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong highlighted the importance of further easing the regulatory burden for SMEs. And he highlighted the important work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for Pro-Enterprise Rules Review. The IMC is chaired by DPM Gan Kim Yong, together with Minister Shanmugam, Minister Desmond Lee, Minister Tan See Leng, Minister Chee Hong Tat and myself. This work has begun in April, and we have had regular meetings to identify potential areas and potential solutions to address regulatory barriers and to reduce compliance costs. The IMC is established to examine cross-cutting issues that span across different sectors, different government agencies and ministries, and to take active approach and active steps to further reduce compliance costs for our SMEs. The goal here is to work together to reduce red tape and minimise regulatory burden, because in so doing, it will help our SMEs to better manage their costs, so that they can channel any cost savings to focus on innovating and transforming their business to stay ahead of the curve.

 

On that note, I am very pleased to announce that we will be setting up the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Pro-Enterprise Office, in short, SME PEO. The SME Pro-Enterprise Office's mission is to reduce regulatory burden for enterprises, especially for the SMEs, and also to further support their competitiveness. The SME Pro-Enterprise office will be a one-stop office for the enterprises, especially the SMEs, to approach to seek help on regulatory matters and to channel feedback. The functions of this SME Pro-Enterprise Office can be encapsulated by three “Ts”. The first “T” is triage. We will triage the feedback that is collected from the enterprises, especially from the SMEs. We will organise it, bring it to the attention of the relevant regulatory agencies for review, speedy action and resolution. The second “T” is track, we will establish and track whole-of-government service standards with regards to regulatory issues that span across sectors and across ministries and agencies. The third “T” is treat, we will treat because we will want to use the feedback, as well as data analytics to analyse the feedback from the SMEs to identify if there is any systemic regulatory issue that we need to look at, focus the attention to iron it out so that we can further reduce red tape and regulatory burden. We will also develop a system to track, analyse and monitor case resolution outcomes. The setting up of the SME Pro-Enterprise Office will strongly support our SMEs to navigate the whole-of-government rules and regulations, especially in very emerging and nascent sectors, where they are not so clear which agencies, how to navigate the regulatory landscape, etc, as well as the broader cross-cutting issues that span across different sectors that cuts across different ministries and agencies.

 

Earlier on at ADDP, they shared with us their journey of using CORENET X. We have seen how CORENET X managed to consolidate more than 20 approval touchpoints from multiple regulatory agencies into three main submission gateways – design gateway, piling gateway and construction gateway. Instead of liaising with the individual regulatory agency separately, ADDP can now coordinate the submission into these three gateways and in fact, receive coordinated reply from the relevant regulatory agencies. We understand from the ADDP team that by using CORENET X, it has helped them to achieve about 20% improvement in time taken to obtain approval from the various regulatory agency. This is derived from fewer iterations required with each of the regulatory agency. If anything, I think CORENET X really exemplifies how the whole-of-government and various regulatory agencies are committed to serve our SMEs better. With the support from regulatory agencies and with the use of CORENET X, we are very happy to hear that the ADDP team and their staff have managed to achieve time savings, which also translates into cost savings.

 

The setting up of SME Pro-Enterprise Office will be very important, like in the case of CORENET X, which allows the various players in the built environment to coordinate their submission to receive coordinated replies, achieve time savings in terms of getting approvals from regulatory agencies. In a similar fashion, we hope that through the setting up of the SME Pro-Enterprise Office, it will help us to identify areas as well as solutions that can help us to further lighten regulatory burden for SMEs. The Singapore Government wants to assure our SMEs that we are committed to supporting them in improving our regulatory processes so that our SMEs can stay competitive and focus on seizing new business opportunities. The SME Pro-Enterprise Office is expected to commence operations in the first quarter of 2025. MTI and EnterpriseSG - where this unit will be housed - are working very closely with the respective ministries and agencies. We will work closely in partnership with Pro-Enterprise Panel, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Pro-Enterprise Rules Review, as well as the various regulatory agencies to coordinate and drive this whole-of-government effort to create a pro-enterprise environment so that our enterprises, especially our SMEs, can thrive.

 

Q&A

 

Like I have mentioned, the setting up of the SME Pro-Enterprise Office will come under the direct supervision of EnterpriseSG, and it will report directly to MTI, DPM Gan himself, as well as myself. I mentioned the “three Ts” approach – triage, track and treat. We are now already developing and fleshing out the details, the KPIs, the monitoring mechanism. Earlier on to the question of how fast can we come back within the whole-of-government, there are very standard Quality Service Management (QSM) KPI standards. We intend to overlay that with the consideration with the “three Ts” framework that I've mentioned, we will triage the cases depending on the complexity and severity of the issue. For complexity – does it come under a particular regulatory agency? Or does it come under a few agencies? Then, to be fair, if it comes under, say, 10 agencies, we got to make sure that we give the agencies enough time to come back on how do they plan to work together to resolve the matter. But we intend to take a “No Wrong Door” Policy, whether is it singular feedback from a company or whether it's feedback from trade association and chambers (TACs) like Singapore Business Federation (SBF), reflecting the voice or particular sector, we will make sure there is a “no wrong door” approach.

 

If you're familiar with EnterpriseSG, you will know that under the EnterpriseSG’s ambit, they look after specific sectors, for example, food & beverage (F&B), retail, and precision engineering. Some other sectors, for example, advanced manufacturing comes under Economic Development Board (EDB) and built environment for which you are talking about CORENET X, actually comes under the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and also the Ministry of National Development (MND). Not every sector comes under the ambit of EnterpriseSG now, but with the setting up of the SME Pro-Enterprise Office, like I mentioned earlier, there's a “no wrong door” policy with regard to feedback from SMEs. The SME Pro-Enterprise Office will lean forward to take the feedback from the SMEs, including micro-enterprises, and apply the “three Ts” approach, triage it, track it, and treat it, ensure that the relevant regulatory agencies pay attention to it and resolve it as swiftly as possible. And if we receive substantial data points that tell us that there is a systemic regulatory issue, it will be escalated, not just to the SME Pro-Enterprise Office management, but also potentially to the IMC for the various ministries to resolve and align on a policy decision.

 

At this point in time, it makes sense for us to pull together concerted efforts to set up an SME Pro-Enterprise Office, even if the feedback from the particular industry or sector does not currently come under the ambit of EnterpriseSG. I think it says a lot about the Singapore Government and the regulatory agencies’ commitment to better serve our SMEs, such that we are not going to say that this particular issue falls under a different ministry, so it's not under MTI. This will not be the approach. In fact, we will make sure that the setting up of the SME Pro-Enterprise Office, a one-stop office that will look forward to interacting and engaging the SMEs with regards to regulatory matters, take their feedback, apply the “three Ts” approach with the relevant regulatory agencies. And very importantly, in the future, we intend for EnterpriseSG to also work closely, potentially with the SBF. For example, key TACs also support their business advisors in equipping them with the relevant knowledge so that they can help their member companies better navigate the government rules and regulations. Here we want to make sure that our SMEs are well placed to navigate the rules and regulations, such that they will be able to achieve cost and time savings, and this will allow them to channel their attention and resources on innovating and transforming to future proof themselves.

 

When we commence operations, likely in 1Q 2025, we will take a broad-based approach and there will not be a wrong door issue. And more importantly, I think today, why we're using CORENET X as an example is, in the last 12 months, we have been engaging different SMEs from built environment, especially through our AfA. The third pillar for our AfA focused on strengthening regulatory competitiveness. Interestingly, we have gathered enough data points that tell us that architects, designers, contractors, etc, felt that we can better leverage our digitalisation and technology to develop a system that will allow the different stakeholders that are involved in the built environment to come together to make coordinated submissions of applications for licenses, as well as approval for design constructions and piling. The Government took in the feedback from the sector, and made the necessary investment in partnership with GovTech so that we can today leverage on CORENET X to allow our architects and also various stakeholders in the built environment to make coordinated submissions and also receive the reply from the various regulatory agencies in a timely fashion, that will yield them about 20% time savings. This is the first focus on the built environment.

 

Earlier on, I also mentioned that we will also focus the attention of the SME Pro-Enterprise Office on nascent and emerging areas, for example, in the area of solar panel installation. Together with Energy Storage Systems (ESS), where it cuts across different agencies, like Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), potentially BCA, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the National Environment Agency (NEA), there is space for the various agencies to work together to harmonise the rules and regulations, so that it is something that will be easier for the SMEs that are going to install solar panels. And as you install solar panels, you know that the energy is intermittent, you need to pair it with ESS, whether the ESS is above ground or basement, they have different considerations due to fire safety reason, and also due to safety of the people in the vicinity. These are two potential areas. Having said that, like I mentioned, we will also take a broad-based approach, and we welcome feedback from the SMEs when the SME Pro-Enterprise Office commence operation in the 1Q 2025. Thank you very much.