IE helps SMEs go overseas

This article is more than 12 months old

May 09, 2017 06:00 am

Trade agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore has helped Singapore companies seeking to venture overseas in some 99,000 cases since 2014, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Sim Ann told Parliament yesterday.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounted for about 80 per cent of companies that benefited from these efforts, she said.

Ms Sim highlightedthe Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) and Global Company Partnership (GCP) schemes.

The MRA provides broad-based assistance to companies starting to go abroad. The GCP gives targeted assistance to companies with a more established overseas presence.

Through these schemes, IE Singapore supported over 3,500 internationalisation projects for SMEs since 2014, 30 per cent of which were to help them penetrate new overseas markets, she said.

Ms Sim added that IE Singapore has also partnered trade associations and chambers to organise business missions to overseas markets. These have benefited 1,190 companies, most of which were SMEs. - THE STRAITS TIMES