ATTRACTING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
At this year’s National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong spoke about keeping the regulatory burden to a minimum and ensuring a business-friendly environment amid growing global competition.
Mr Ang Yuit, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), said SMEs, in particular, are typically short on resources and often “have to really firefight” problems that come their way.
“At the same time, SMEs are also the bedrock of our economy and they actually help cushion a lot of the economic shocks,” he added. “And this ground really needs to be watered.”
The new office to help SMEs navigate regulations is a timely initiative, said Mr Ang, adding that rules could be simplified to help these firms.
“Over time, we were just concerned, from our perspective, that there has been more focus on the larger enterprises and less on the smaller ones,” he noted.
“And I think that there’s a lot of opportunities for SMEs to grow when given the right attention.”
Observers believe the SME PEO would help attract new opportunities, and give the overall business environment a boost.
“SMEs are currently dealing with a lot of costs,” said Mr Ang. “So if you can reduce the regulatory burden, that will reduce the costs and that leaves them the headroom to actually look at growing.”
