SINGAPORE – A report with key recommendations to improve the competitive edge of Singapore businesses will be published before the end of the year.
The report involved 19 industry engagement sessions between the government and the more than 100 businesses and trade association leaders from the private sector being held over the past seven months.
Feedback was taken from across all sectors of the economy with the aim of helping local businesses stay competitive amid an uncertain global environment.
The report is being compiled by the Alliance for Action (AfA) for Business Competitiveness, which comprises 19 representatives from the government, industry, trade associations and trade unions.
“We’ve made good progress,” said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling, at a doorstop before she co-chaired the fifth AfA committee meeting on Sept 18, likely the last top-level meeting ahead of the report’s publication.
Mr Mark Lee, Singapore Business Federation’s vice-chairman and AfA co-chair, noted how the initiative cannot be seen as a panacea to solve all business challenges.
“Companies will need three things to be competitive: to invest in upgrading and reskilling; to innovate and transform; as well as to identify mega trends and then reshape the business accordingly,” he said.
Greenphyto founder and chief executive Susan Chong, another AfA committee member, said there was a need to have greater clarity and transparency when it came to lease extensions for industrial land.
She noted that businesses needed this certainty, not only to make longer-term plans and decisions, but also to obtain critical financing.
Ms Chong suggested that JTC Corporation may have to look at each sector carefully and see what they require.
Meanwhile, Mr Neil Parekh, a partner at Tikehau Capital who is in charge of looking at regulatory issues for the
