An independent national body to promote professionalism of management consultants and business advisors was launched on Friday by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Called the Singapore Business Advisors and Consultants Council (SBACC), the body aims to encourage the continual upgrading of the skills and knowledge of these consultants and advisors.

Mr Tharman said this organisation can play a key and constructive role in helping Singapore-based companies, especially local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in economic restructuring.

A memorandum of understanding was inked between SBACC and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency to raise standards of management consultants here.

An additional 2,000 consultants on top of the current 500 already certified will be trained and certified in three years.

These certified consultants will play a significant role in advising SMEs on areas such as productivity improvement, business management and finance.