The objective of the Singapore Global Enterprises (SGE) initiative is to transform a new generation of promising Singaporean businesses into global market leaders.
While maintaining a strong presence in Singapore, these SGEs will have a substantial global footprint and market presence, a robust supply chain, and market leadership in innovation and product segments. This will result in substantial economic advantages and employment opportunities for Singapore and its citizens.
The SGE initiative expands on the flagship Scale-Up initiative. It will use existing schemes and programmes, as well as create new ones, to provide targeted and tailored assistance to selected companies with ambitious growth plans in certain areas.
Increasing the companies’ capabilities in key areas such as digitalisation, sustainability, internationalisation, and growth financing, as well as assisting them in expanding and anchoring core business activities in Singapore.
Businesses can invest in cutting-edge digital technologies and tools to boost operational efficiency, customer engagement, and data analytics. They can also use digital marketing strategies to increase their reach and online presence. They can also use automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve business processes and decision-making abilities.
Other areas that can be scaled up include enabling companies to develop and deepen a strong talent pool for the future through the Singapore Global Executive Programme (SGEP) and building sustained innovation capabilities through the establishment of in-house R&D centres, allowing innovation to be developed as a core competitive strategy.
Besides, it expedites companies’ global expansion to grow their market networks and international footprint, as well as diversify their supply chain. To amplify this effect, EnterpriseSG will launch a new Scale-Up X programme, which will include a variety of targeted capability development support, one of which will be on Investment & Initial Public Offering (IPO) Readiness, which will strengthen companies’ capabilities to tap public and private markets for growth capital to help them scale up.
Additionally, as part of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP), EnterpriseSG and its partners are launching new courses for businesses on decarbonisation and sustainable finance. The courses will begin in April 2023.
Along with the new courses, EnterpriseSG is collaborating with three new partners to provide additional ESP Foundational Courses. Since their inception in January 2022, the Foundational Courses have benefited nearly 400 participants.
According to Geoffrey Yeo, Assistant Chief Executive Officer (Sustainability and Enterprise Finance), EnterpriseSG, participants of their first series of foundational courses have provided positive feedback that the courses have helped to provide a structured framework to view sustainability as a business strategy and how it is relevant for their business.
They hope that the additional foundational courses will help more businesses bridge the knowledge gap and kickstart their sustainability journey. They have also seen an increase in the number of companies eager to delve deeper into specific areas such as decarbonisation and sustainable finance. The new thematic courses on these two topics will provide businesses with a better understanding of how to decarbonise their operations and access sustainable finance to propel their businesses forward.
In addition to the ESP courses, EnterpriseSG will create thematic and sectoral sustainability playbooks to help businesses understand sector-specific opportunities and key sustainability topics like decarbonisation and sustainability reporting.
EnterpriseSG will create a one-stop website to house resources and information on whole-of-government support measures to make it easier for businesses to access sustainability information and resources. Companies interested in embarking on sustainability projects such as strategy and product development, resource optimisation, and standard adoption can also take advantage of the Enterprise Development Grant, which has been extended until 31 March 2026.