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SINGAPORE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY DIRECTORY 2022/2023
In addition, an Accelerated Pathways for Technicians and Assistant Engineers (Manufacturing) Grant will be piloted with selected companies.
This, according to Mr Gan, will support companies in hiring and training ITE graduates for critical technician and assistant engineer roles through on-the-job training, with career progression and competitive salaries.
Apart from manufacturing, the other pillars are trade, services and enterprises.
On trade, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) intends to raise Singapore’s export value from S$805 billion in 2020 to at least S$1 trillion by 2030.
The Republic also wants to double its offshore trade value to US$2 trillion (about S$2.7 trillion) over the same period, while capturing more re-exports and transhipment flows to embed Singapore more deeply into the global supply chains.
“Given our small domestic market, global connectivity is essential to help our enterprises
grow beyond our borders,” Gan said of the strategy’stradeambitions.
To achieve this Trade 2030 strategy, Singapore will work on building a strong ecosystem of trading companies and activities by attracting leading global traders to anchor more of their upstream, downstream and innovation activities here in Singapore.
These traders will also serve as platforms to help other Singapore firms to break into overseas markets, the minister said.
More efforts will also go into growing a strong core of local traders “that command global scale and are highly innovative.”
Mr Gan noted that Enterprise Singapore will tap on its programme offerings, such as Scale-Up SG, that helps selected high-growth local companies expand; and the Enterprise Leadership for Transformation Programme (ELT), a one-year programme that supports business leaders of promising small and medium enterprises to develop business growth capabilities. The support is tailored to each firm’s
circumstances and ambitions and will cover areas such as talent development, innovation, internationalisation and financing.
Growing Singapore’s trading volume will create “good jobs” for Singaporeans, said Mr Gan, noting that the trading sector employed more than 300,000 people in 2020. Of which, the majority were locals and close to 70 percent were PMET jobs.
As the trade sector continues to grow, the country must build a workforce with the necessary skills and knowledge, he added.
On top of a Jobs Transformation Map and other sector-specific workforce upgrading initiatives that are already under way, authorities are also working with the industry and institutes of higher learning to develop more talent in the trading of commodities such as liquified natural gas and carbon credits.
For the services sector, which represents more than 70 percent of Singapore’s economy, Mr Gan pointed out the need to develop new engines of growth and highlighted two “major waves of opportunities” – sustainability and digitalisation.
The Singapore Economy 2030 vision will also need to be supported by a vibrant ecosystem of local enterprises that are future- ready, globally competitive and possess deep innovative capabilities.
These enterprises will in turn create good jobs and meaningful careers for Singaporeans.
Likewise, the country will embark on an Enterprise 2030 strategy to “scale up efforts to identify and support promising local businesses.”
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