SINGAPORE (Feb 18): To support industry transformation, Budget 2019 will continue to support deep partnerships among companies within Singapore and across the world.
“To succeed, companies need to both compete and cooperate – compete to differentiate themselves, and cooperate to solve common challenges,” says Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat.
As such, the local Trade Associations & Chambers (TAC) will be strengthened through the Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) programme.
Enterprise Singapore will develop five-year roadmaps with TACs that have demonstrated strong leadership and shown ambition to do more for the business community, enabling them to take on a more strategic and longer-term approach in driving industry transformation.
These TACs will then be able to access funding and potentially take in public sector secondees through LEAD.
Over the years, Singapore has negotiated Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with partner economies.
To draw greater value from these trade networks, Singapore will be streamlining and digitalising its trade processes further to increase efficiency, enabling easier access to global markets and helping firms make better use of these FTAs.
Last year, the Networked Trade Platform (NTP) was launched to streamline trade processes and provide a one-stop information management for traders.
“We will also be working with partners to facilitate the secure exchange of electronic trade documents, to unlock further productivity gains,” says Heng.
