Beyond giving grants, EnterpriseSG to be more proactive in helping businesses transform

ENTERPRISE Singapore (Enterprisesg) wants to provide not just grants, but personalised advice to local businesses on how to transform and innovate, said its new chairman Lee Chuan Teck.

This is the new proactive role he wants the statutory board to play from now on, as Singapore aims for annual growth of 2 to 3 per cent on average over the next decade.

“The approach is quite different. Now, companies come to us when they want a support grant. Henceforth, it’s not just that one-way track,” he said in his first interview with the local media since taking over from former chairman Peter Ong on Apr 1.

“Henceforth, we go to the company – and not just a fraction of companies… but actually across all the companies, across their lifespan.”

Currently, Enterprisesg engages about 20,000 out of Singapore’s 240,000 local enterprises each year, with most only approaching the agency for the Productivity Solutions Grant.

Many companies are therefore losing out on valuable information that could help them, as the agency usually offers advice only when asked.

For example, many local enterprises are unaware that their goods are eligible for preferential tariffs under Singapore’s many free trade agreements, said Lee.

“They say: ‘Why didn’t you tell me more?’... Going forward, I know that I can proactively tell them rather than wait for them to ask,” he said.

To facilitate this, a digital platform will be rolled out “not too long” from now. The idea is to provide personalised suggestions to each company on the schemes and grants they can tap.

Companies can also use the platform to give feedback, which Enterprisesg will take into account when it designs future products and schemes, said Lee.

Maximising growth

Lee became Enterprisesg’s chief executive officer on May 1, 2023, having served previous stints at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

In January this year, Enterprisesg announced that it would change its leadership model from a structure of having a non-executive chairman and a CEO to one with an executive chairman and a managing director.

Actively engaging companies is one of three strategies that Lee will focus on as chairman, under an overall transformation push.

Over the next decade, most of Singapore’s growth will have to be fuelled by productivity, meaning gains of about 3 per cent a year.

“That is actually very ambitious, and really requires us to take on a bolder, more transformational approach to economic development, including enterprise development,” he said.

A second strategy is to maximise growth in external-oriented sectors. Such sectors are where Singapore can “get the biggest uplift in terms of growth”, he said.

In 2023, Enterprisesg supported about 18,000 local firms with transformation and capability building projects that are expected to boost their total revenue by S$16.4 billion.

But most of this expected revenue growth came from projects with just 3,000 companies, with almost all of them in external-facing sectors, said Lee.

“So we think that’s where our biggest growth potential will be, and we want to maximise that growth potential.”

These companies fall into two main groups, said Lee. The first is made up of “highly competitive” companies in mature sectors, such as PSA International, which will continue to generate growth in the near-term.

The second group comprises those in new industries where Singapore has a competitive advantage. For a start, Enterprisesg will focus on precision medicine and renewable energy – in particular, offshore wind.

They “may not generate immediate dividends for us in the next two (or) three years, but if we go beyond five to 10 years, they could actually have very strong growth potential”, said Lee.

For companies in mature sectors, Enterprisesg will facilitate projects and keep pushing them to internationalise.

For those in emerging sectors, the agency hopes to encourage more risk-taking and innovation, said Lee.

For instance, in precision medicine, promising startups face challenges in commercialising their tech. Enterprisesg thus wants to help with that “last mile”.

One way is by linking these startups with multinational healthcare providers in the United States and Europe who may be interested in their products.

Another is by bringing in “venture builders” – successful biotech companies with “deep pockets, resources and connections” – to men

“What we need to do is find a way to deliver the same amount of services and products by using less manpower, less energy and less land.”

Enterprise Singapore chairman Lee Chuan Teck

tor these firms and provide financial support, guidance and networks.

As for how Enterprisesg evaluates whether an emerging sector is reaping the expected dividends, Lee said that the government makes assessments regularly with data from various agencies and ministries, as well as through discussions with the private sector.

“The starting point is to make an assessment on whether it’s something that the world will need, and whether it’s something that we can be good at providing,” said Lee.

If it needs change, better solutions emerge, or it becomes clear that Singapore does not have the expertise to compete, then the government will make an “honest assessment” of whether to stay committed.

“If we wait for everything to be fully aligned before we step in, chances are it’ll be too late,” he said. “But if we say: ‘Go all out’, then it is a bit – in my view – foolhardy.”

“What we need to do is take a step, and then if things pan out as we anticipated, then we take another step. This is the way the companies approach it. This is the way we support them as well.”

Spurring innovation

The third strategy Lee will focus on as chairman is to make domesticoriented sectors more efficient, with Enterprisesg focusing on retail, logistics and food services. Businesses “must be prepared to experiment and try new and more radical solutions” to improve productivity, said Lee.

This is the most sustainable way to bring down costs, rather than to rely on government aid or to expect prices of resources to fall, he said.

“What we need to do is find a way to deliver the same amount of services and products by using less manpower, less energy and less land.”

The various Industry Transformation Maps have boosted the productivity of individual firms by helping them digitalise and adopt solutions.

“Now, I think the next leg of productivity growth for the domestic sectors has to be at the industry or sector level,” said Lee.

In retail, for example, there could be “creative solutions” to help sole proprietors realise some of the economies of scale enjoyed by chain store players.

For instance, different businesses could “aggregate demand and aggregate their supply chains”, he said.