SINGAPORE'S economy is evenly spread - between small and large, foreign and local - and benefits greatly from the mix, said Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang on Thursday.

With the aid of a slew of charts, Mr Lim told Parliament that growth has been driven by a combination of all segments - local and foreign small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and foreign multi-nationals and large homegrown enterprises.

'Our economy in fact is as diversified as it can be,' he said. 'One quarter of the value-add comes from foreign [multi-nationals], one quarter comes from local big companies, one quarter comes from foreign SMEs and one quarter comes from local SMEs.'

Mr Lim cited the data in defence of Singapore's growth model, arguing that the country did not just dwell on a strategy of attracting multi-nationals to set up shop at the expense of neglecting its sizeable SME population.

Mr Lim's comments come in response to some MPs asking whether this so-called system of attracting multi-nationals in an 'all are welcome' approach can still be considered relevant.

Mr Inderjit Singh (Ang Mo Kio GRC) noted on Monday that the resources allocated to growing SMEs were a 'far cry' from what was invested in the multi-national strategy, resulting in weaker local enterprises.

Mr Lim told MPs on Thursday that in certain sectors like manufacturing, local firms, and in particular, SMEs, dominate.

Then for precision engineering, for instance, this sector has a combination of both foreign and local SMEs.

But there are reasons for the foreign multi-nationals to have a presence in sectors like electronics, chemicals and biomedical sciences, Mr Lim said.

'If we want to be able to promote the diversification of our manufacturing sector and if we're not prepared to embrace foreign multi-nationals in our strategy, then we must be prepared to lose out in very important competitive sectors such as biomedical sciences or petrochemical where our local companies do not have a strong presence.'

Read the full report in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.