Local companies can tap a range of avenues to access capital that they may need to innovate, transform and scale up their businesses.
"To catalyse the flow of capital and bridge market gaps, the Government will step up risksharing arrangements with providers of capital and provide grants to support businesses at various stages of growth," Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said yesterday.
For high-growth companies including start-ups, the Venture Debt Programme will be extended and enhanced - with an increase in the cap on loan quantum support from $5 million to $8 million.
"With this, we expect about $45 million of venture debt to be catalysed over the next year," Mr Heng said.
For more mature firms, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Government will co-fund their plans to adopt digital solutions and new technologies.
For mature firms, $1 billion has been set aside for new digital transformation schemes such as the Emerging Technology Programme, Digital Leaders Programme and Chief-Technology-Officer-as-a-Service (CTOaaS) initiative.
The Emerging Technology Programme will co-fund the costs of trials and adoption of frontier technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and trust technologies. "This will support commercialisation of innovations and diffusion of technology downstream," Mr Heng said.
To help firms identify and adopt digital solutions, the CTOaaS initiative will provide SMEs with access to professional information technology consultancies. The Digital Leaders Programme will support firms in hiring a core digital team and developing and implementing a digital transformation road map.
Association of Small and Medium Enterprises president Kurt Wee said these programmes will provide critical support to businesses here. "It will ensure that our economy, financial system and companies will sit on future-proof tech infrastructure, allowing Singapore companies to lead very competitively," he said.
Mr Ajay Kumar Sanganeria, head of tax at KPMG, said access to talent and skills is one of the hurdles enterprises face in their digital transformation journey. "The Budget's Emerging Technology Programme and especially CTOaaS and Digital Leaders Programme will help address this gap to drive greater digital transformation."
Enhanced support of up to 80 per cent for existing enterprise schemes - including the Scale-up SG programme, Productivity Solutions Grant, Market Readiness Assistance Grant and Enterprise Development Grant - will be extended till the end of March next year. The Productivity Solutions Grant for job redesign will also be enhanced by raising the government co-funding ratio from 70 per cent to 80 per cent till the end of March next year.
For large local enterprises ready to transform or expand overseas on a larger scale, the Government will complement existing grants and loans, and support them through equity investments, tapping market players to ensure commercial discipline.
A sum of $500 million will be set aside to be co-invested with Singapore's Temasek in a Local Enterprises Funding Platform, which will be managed commercially.
Temasek will dollar-match the Government's funds, so the platform will have $1 billion to invest in non-control equity and mezzanine debt of selected large local enterprises, which will work with the fund manager to pursue their next phase of growth.
-
Scheme to transform built environment sector
-
A new scheme will be introduced to digitalise processes and upskill workers through the entire value chain of the built environment sector that encompasses the construction, real estate, and environment and facility services businesses.
The Growth and Transformation Scheme for the built environment sector will require developers to work closely with consultants, contractors and suppliers to level up as an ecosystem or value chain, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said yesterday.
The Ministry of National Development will give further details of the scheme during the debate on its budget.
Mr Heng noted that since the launch of the Construction Industry Transformation Map in 2017, the Government has made a big push to drive transformation in the built environment sector and companies have adopted new ways of doing things, such as design for manufacturing and assembly and building information modelling.
However, Mr Heng stressed that the sector can do better, especially after the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"This sector has just experienced an existential threat last year, and is recovering. Developers, consultants and contractors now realise the urgency to radically improve productivity and reduce the reliance on labourintensive methods," he said.
While the Government will continue to support the sector's recovery, the focus of the support will tilt to enable the sector to transform decisively, he said.
"Our resolve in achieving transformation of the industry is clear and unwavering."
Ovais Subhani
