3.20 Next, we have to press ahead in our efforts to create a vibrant and supportive environment for enterprises, big and small. Our strength and reputation as a base for MNCs and leading global companies is well known around the world. We will make Singapore equally reputed for being the best place for SMEs, local and foreign, to locate, to grow and to globalise.
3.21 I mentioned Rotary and Food Empire earlier. Both started off very small but they found themselves having to extend their reach out of Singapore at an early stage, and now depend on markets abroad for most of their growth. In fact, about one-quarter of all our SMEs in Singapore now derive at least 50% of their revenue from overseas. Globalisation is there with our smaller firms.
3.22 Many of our younger local players are going out to global markets at an even earlier stage of their growth. Dextrans Worldwide Group, founded just four years ago by two young Singaporeans, already has a bustling logistics business, managing inventory for major electronics manufacturers in China like Flextronics. Heulab was started by two NUS graduates in 2002 to create educational software on tablet PCs. Over 140 schools in Singapore, Australia, Taiwan and Qatar use their products to introduce creative learning in the classroom. All this in just four years. And Heulab was selected a few days ago as a launch partner for Microsoft’s Windows Vista Programme.
3.23 Dextrans and Heulab are part of a new generation of local firms: fleet-footed, unafraid to venture out to the world early, and working at the leading edge of technology.
3.24 We are also seeing the rise of a new breed of players in the form of global SMEs — much smaller than the traditional multinationals but typically larger than the traditional SMEs, rooted in one place, but taking advantage of globalisation to expand rapidly. Some of them are in fact very fast-growing companies, or “gazelles”, as they are called in Silicon Valley.
3.25 More of these global SMEs are now coming to Singapore. They may not make huge investments like the MNCs, but they add vibrancy to our economy and expand the demand for financial and other business services, IT and logistics. Many are now listing on the SGX, and are expanding rapidly.
3.26 We should attract and root this new breed of global players in Singapore. I mentioned Bob Chandran and Chemoil as an example of a global SME that we have brought to Singapore. Another is LMA, a medical equipment firm that was based in the UK but which decided to establish its headquarters operations in Singapore to manage its global regulatory affairs, quality assurance, and R&D. It has operations all over the world, and its products reach patients in over 100 countries.
3.27 OLAM, too, shifted from London to Singapore. It has a presence in 52 countries, managed from Singapore. Last week, OLAM announced that it is tying up with Chinatex, a leading Chinese state-owned enterprise. OLAM and Chinatex will jointly invest to source soybeans in Brazil. They will also invest together in the Chinese market to process and supply soybeans, and to supply cotton for the Chinese market.
3.28 That’s how globalisation is being played — globalisation out of Singapore. We want to grow more Food Empires and Dextrans, and attract more OLAMs and LMAs to Singapore. We can provide the best conditions for them to start up, grow, raise funds, and reach out to markets in Asia and the world. We are already recognised as one of the easiest places in the world to do business. Each year, the World Bank compiles assessments from about 3,000-4,000 experts around the world. In its latest report, for this year, it put Singapore as the most business-friendly economy in the world, ahead of New Zealand, the US, Canada, Hong Kong and the UK. Later, I will announce how we will strengthen further this advantage we have in attracting businesses, small and big, to Singapore and growing them out of Singapore through our tax regime.
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