This morning, I got the news that Dyson, the technology company best known for the electronic vacuum cleaner had scrapped its electric car project. This is particularly significant because it was only in May of this year that there was a big fanfare in our local news of how Dyson was making Singapore the centre of its electric car project and there was an even larger song and dance of how Dyson’s boss, Sir James Dyson had decided to shell out pots of money to buy an exceedingly expensive piece of real estate. Now, after all the fanfare, it seems that this “dream project” will not happen and details can be found at:
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/dyson-kills-singapore-electric-car-project-with-closure-of-auto-division
This juicy bit of news has helped to stir a sore spot with SME owners, who have long complained that the government has gone all out to win foreign investment while neglecting the SME community. While the government would undoubtedly dispute this claim and point out to the pots of money that it lavishes out on grants and schemes to help the SME community, there are plenty who would argue that this is more of a PR exercise than actual help.
Having spent most of my working life as a one-man shop and having worked with both the Economic Development Board (“EDB”) and Enterprise Singapore and Spring Singapore, I’m inclined to sympathise with the view that its “foreign companies” that get the lion’s share of glory. A comparison of the government agencies says it all.
EDB, which is all about bringing foreign investors into the country (read – money into the country), works like Aladdin’s Genie. All you must do is to ask, and things will get done. You want a minister to grace your opening, it shall be done. If you need press coverage, they’ll make sure the press attend.
Things are a wee bit slower and Enterprise Singapore, which is all about helping the local SME expand and grow in foreign markets (read – money out of the country) struggles to get a working microphone into its events.
To anyone who has seen the difference in how these organisations work, it becomes clear how the powers that be view things. Singapore, we often reminded, needs foreign investors to give the local people jobs and to generate wealth. Home grown SMEs by contrast, don’t seem to be regarded as doing very much.
This is a shame really. In most parts of the world, the SME’s form the backbone of the economy. While multinational corporations bestride the world and cause us to marvel at their resources, it’s the SMEs who have to stay in the country and make things work for the community they operate in.
In most countries, it’s the SME business that are viewed as heroes of the business world. I take the UK as an example. Napoleon dismissed them as a “Nation of Shopkeepers,” but if you watched the Iron Lady, it was people like Mr. Roberts (father of Margaret Thatcher) who argued that this was the strength of the nation.
In the day and age of disruption, small companies will play an even more vital role in the economy. They’re the ones who do the “innovation” which is so crucial to the modern system. I remember my one of my favourite data analytics entrepreneurs who said, “You put a lot of money into the EDB and bringing foreign investors into the country – but you’d get a lot better returns if you pumped of that money into the SME sector.”
I am by no means denigrating the role of the EDB and the importance of foreign investors in our local economy (I sell to them), this entrepreneurs’ words are worth remembering. An investment in local sme’s would give us better returns in terms of job and productivity growth, which in return would be best for the government’s coffers.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/dyson-kills-singapore-electric-car-project-with-closure-of-auto-division
This juicy bit of news has helped to stir a sore spot with SME owners, who have long complained that the government has gone all out to win foreign investment while neglecting the SME community. While the government would undoubtedly dispute this claim and point out to the pots of money that it lavishes out on grants and schemes to help the SME community, there are plenty who would argue that this is more of a PR exercise than actual help.
Having spent most of my working life as a one-man shop and having worked with both the Economic Development Board (“EDB”) and Enterprise Singapore and Spring Singapore, I’m inclined to sympathise with the view that its “foreign companies” that get the lion’s share of glory. A comparison of the government agencies says it all.
EDB, which is all about bringing foreign investors into the country (read – money into the country), works like Aladdin’s Genie. All you must do is to ask, and things will get done. You want a minister to grace your opening, it shall be done. If you need press coverage, they’ll make sure the press attend.
Things are a wee bit slower and Enterprise Singapore, which is all about helping the local SME expand and grow in foreign markets (read – money out of the country) struggles to get a working microphone into its events.
To anyone who has seen the difference in how these organisations work, it becomes clear how the powers that be view things. Singapore, we often reminded, needs foreign investors to give the local people jobs and to generate wealth. Home grown SMEs by contrast, don’t seem to be regarded as doing very much.
This is a shame really. In most parts of the world, the SME’s form the backbone of the economy. While multinational corporations bestride the world and cause us to marvel at their resources, it’s the SMEs who have to stay in the country and make things work for the community they operate in.
In most countries, it’s the SME business that are viewed as heroes of the business world. I take the UK as an example. Napoleon dismissed them as a “Nation of Shopkeepers,” but if you watched the Iron Lady, it was people like Mr. Roberts (father of Margaret Thatcher) who argued that this was the strength of the nation.
In the day and age of disruption, small companies will play an even more vital role in the economy. They’re the ones who do the “innovation” which is so crucial to the modern system. I remember my one of my favourite data analytics entrepreneurs who said, “You put a lot of money into the EDB and bringing foreign investors into the country – but you’d get a lot better returns if you pumped of that money into the SME sector.”
I am by no means denigrating the role of the EDB and the importance of foreign investors in our local economy (I sell to them), this entrepreneurs’ words are worth remembering. An investment in local sme’s would give us better returns in terms of job and productivity growth, which in return would be best for the government’s coffers.
2 comments
This is so very true. Good observation Li.
SMEs also employ proportionally more people than the big MNCs. SMEs also keep staff employed locally longer than the MNC as they dont have the luxury of "off=shoring" their workforce to lower cost locations or where tax incentives (read none) are offered to the MNC. It may be true that the salary of the CEO of a SME is significantly less than that of a MNC but he or she is way more committed to the success of the business. It would be interesting to see long term how many of the grantees have remained once the initial blush of courtship ended?
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