Minister in Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Say gave this update on Wednesday at an event for companies to share their learning points from their service training initiatives.

He said it was heartening to see more companies putting their staff through training, to upgrade their skills during this economic downturn so they are in a better position to seize opportunities when the recovery comes.

The new sign-ups will go through the Customer Service Initiative, a programme to improve service standards under the national service drive Go the Extra Mile for Service (Gems).

Some 1,181 establishments with 27,000 employees will be trained, bringing the number of companies which have joined the CCI to 193, covering a total of 5,586 establishments and some 100,832 employees.

Mr Lim noted that the take-up rate for CCI and Gems is much higher than previously. It took three years for 160 companies to go through and sign up for CCI.

But since the launch of the new $100 million funding for a second phase of Gems three months ago, various organisations like Spring Singapore and Singapore Workforce Development Agency have achieved much more.

He urged companies that are still not on board to take this opportunity of increased funding support from the Government and slowdown in business to upgrade the skills of their workers.

Mr Lim added that the economy is not likely to turn around so soon, so companies must do all their can to ride out the downturn.