SINGAPOREANS should not be overly concerned about the financial crisis and recession, said Spring Singapore's chairman Mr Philip Yeo on Wednesday.

'I think Singaporeans should not be unduly worried and pessimistic. Everybody will be affected, but it's not end of the world, and it's not doomsday,' he said, speaking on the sidelines of the German-Singapore Business Forum.

'I think we will survive. We have low government debt, we have low bad credit debt, we have no sub-prime. Employment-wise, we're still okay.

'If you see American television, foreclosures are real. Here, we don't have this because the government has been very careful that people should not borrow too much. Singaporeans are very lucky.'

But small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may face challenges such as declining purchase orders in the electronics sector, due to the slowdown in the US and Europe.

But he was optimistic, noting that the biomedical, manufacturing and finance sectors are 'still okay'. 'Luckily, we have diversified beyond just electronics alone,' he said.

Private equity firm Crest Capital Asia in Singapore, which has been funding SMEs for the past 20 years, is also upbeat about SMEs surviving the crisis.

Its managing partner Peter Chan, a speaker at the forum, said, 'Size-wise, they are smaller, but the other off-balance sheet item which SMEs have is that they are more tenacious. They know more ways to survive and they are more nimble.'