New centre in Ang Mo Kio to help SMEs upgrade

By Charissa Yong, The Sunday Times, 5 Jan 2014

Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners in Ang Mo Kio who need advice on how to improve productivity or tap government schemes will benefit from a new facility in their neighbourhood.

The SME Centre at the Ang Mo Kio Community Centre will be the 11th such facility when it opens its doors later this quarter. It will be the first to be located in such a venue, with the previous ones in business chambers or at Community Development Councils.

Announcing the move yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the Government is helping SMEs continue to thrive and succeed, even as they grapple with tighter foreign worker policies and a slower economy.

"The last few years have been difficult for SMEs, because the economy is changing and foreign workers are hard to get," he said at a bursary award ceremony in his Teck Ghee ward, which is part of Ang Mo Kio GRC.

"On the ground, we are reaching out to SMEs, understanding their needs, and helping them take advantage of government schemes." The effort to reach out to SMEs at the local level comes amid ongoing national ones such as tax rebates and funding to increase productivity, he added.

SMEs form a significant portion of Singapore's economy, accounting for nearly half of its gross domestic product.

Mr Lee praised SME owners and workers for continuing to contribute to worthy causes - such as a Teck Ghee welfare fund which provides education bursaries - despite the challenges they faced.

In his speech at Townsville Primary School, Mr Lee said of the centre: "There'll be help available. You can go talk to the people there, they will be able to advise you how to make use of government schemes to... upgrade yourselves."

The centre will be useful especially for the about 87 per cent of the 10,000 registered businesses in Ang Mo Kio GRC which are micro and small enterprises.

Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Yeo Guat Kwang, who is part of a national SME Workgroup that looks into how the Government can better help such firms, told The Sunday Times he had pushed for the centre as many SME owners he met had thought that government assistance was only for large businesses.

Industrial oil firm owner Ng Cheow Boo, 50, said he would feel more comfortable walking into such a centre in the heartland compared to a ministry.

"Uncles like us have a self-reliant culture and tend not to seek help (from ministries)," he added.

At the event, Mr Lee also presented 493 students with bursaries worth $93,000 in total. These were drawn from the Teck Ghee welfare fund. Recent "seventh month" auction dinners raised almost $150,000 for the fund, and Mr Lee cited such dinners as an example of the community coming together to help one another out.