Mr Kho Choon Keng, President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI),
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests from both Singapore and overseas,
Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

Good morning, everyone. I am very happy to join all of you at the opening of the 29th SME and Infocomm Commerce Conference (SMEICC) 2026.

As SCCCI’s flagship event, the SMEICC is an important platform where the business community, including business leaders, entrepreneurs and trade association representatives, gather to explore technology-driven business innovations and exchange constructive ideas.

The theme for this year’s conference, “Beyond Partnerships – Where Growth Comes Next 深化伙伴协作：共启增长新格局” is a timely one.

At a time when the global environment is increasingly uncertain and challenging, businesses including our SME community need to look beyond established playbooks to plan your strategies.

Companies need to consider how they can operate more efficiently, collaborate more effectively and adapt more quickly to a constantly shifting landscape, so that you can continue to achieve sustained growth.

Navigating the New Economic Landscape

The global world order that we have been operating in for decades has shifted. It is a changed world.

Geopolitical tensions are rising and the spillover effects have made global trade increasingly unpredictable. What was once a relatively open and rules-based system has become more fragmented and contested.

Countries around the world including Singapore are also facing the impact of climate change, from rising temperatures to record rainfall.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly redefining how work looks like and how businesses operate, bringing both disruptions but also new opportunities.

This morning, I would like to share how the Government can work together with our businesses to tackle these challenges, to enable our employers and workers to adapt to the new economic landscape.

Internationalisation

First, how can we help our businesses to enhance international collaboration and expand further into overseas markets?

Amid global trade tensions, Southeast Asia remains an attractive place to do business.

The region has a young population, fast-growing middle class, and is increasingly connected via trade and digital linkages.

We have been pushing for greater economic integration across the region, through agreements such as the Upgraded ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) and ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA).

These agreements will strengthen our region’s resilience and unlock concrete benefits for our companies and our people, giving them greater access to opportunities in wider markets.

In the current global environment, there is greater impetus for ASEAN member states and our companies to move more quickly and decisively on this front, and give regional economic integration a bigger push. This is something which we have been talking about for some time – how to enhance regional economic integration. I hope everybody agrees that with this changing global environment, now is the time to take action, now is the time to think broader and move faster, and be prepared to make some changes that may have some short-term disruptions, but in the medium to longer term, will be important to strengthen the regional integration and create new win-win opportunities for the entire region.

Singapore’s ASEAN Chairmanship next year will be an opportunity to build on what previous Chairs have achieved and set a forward-looking agenda that we hope will benefit the entire region. We welcome suggestions and collaboration ideas from everyone on actionable initiatives that will help to strengthen ASEAN’s competitiveness and resilience.

We are also working with Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) like SCCCI to help our businesses expand into new markets.

For example, the GlobalConnect@SCCCI initiative provides services such as business advisory and business matching, which enable Singapore companies to deepen their internationalisation capabilities and accelerate market access in China.

Through the Singapore Enterprise Centre (SEC) based in Shanghai and Chengdu, SCCCI has reached out to more than 3,000 companies and assisted over 800 of them with their internationalisation plans.

Establishment of SCCCI’s International Advisory Panel (IAP)

SCCCI will continue to support its members in strengthening their international connections and expanding their business prospects, particularly in Southeast Asia and China.

I am glad that SCCCI is establishing a new International Advisory Panel (IAP) to further efforts on this front. I am very honoured to be invited by SCCCI to take on the role as Patron to this Panel, and I will certainly do my very best to support its work.

I also like to warmly welcome the IAP members who are here with us and I look forward to working together with all of you. Your involvement and advice will give SCCCI’s internationalisation drive an important boost, and allow more companies and workers to benefit from the initiatives. At the end of the day, that is what all this work is for. It is to benefit our people, our companies, and our society.

Greener Economy

Let me now move to the second area, which is the greener economy. Businesses need to prepare for a low-carbon and climate resilient future. Climate change is happening, and we are already experiencing some of its initial effects such as stronger heat waves, colder winters, bigger storms and more severe flooding. And we see this happening in different parts of the world, not just in Asia.

Sustainability is not just about reducing environmental impact or meeting stakeholder expectations. Increasingly, businesses need to build up their sustainability-related capabilities that can help to lower operating costs, unlock new markets, strengthen supply chains and future-proof their operations.

Businesses need to carefully assess their vulnerability to climate risks and consider measures to ensure business continuity under more extreme climate conditions. And as more investors use climate-related disclosures to understand companies’ environmental strategies and to inform their investment decisions, business also have to build their capabilities in areas such as sustainability solutions and reporting.

Attika Group is a good example. Last year, with support from the Sustainability Reporting Grant by EnterpriseSG and EDB, they produced their sustainability report, referencing standards under the International Sustainability Standards Board for the first time.

This has strengthened Attika Group’s ability to identify climate risks and opportunities, integrate sustainability considerations into business decisions, while enhancing accountability and transparency in sustainability reporting for their shareholders, customers and financiers.

We welcome more businesses to tap on the grant which can help to strengthen your sustainability capabilities and to better position your company for a low-carbon economy.

Technology Adoption and AI

The third area that I want to talk about is technology adoption, especially AI.

AI is transforming how businesses operate, from automating routine tasks to generating insights that drive better decisions.

The Government has been supporting broader and deeper AI adoption across our economy and to enable businesses to increase productivity and improve their operations.

We understand that some workers may be worried about AI affecting their jobs and livelihood. We need to be clear. AI indeed will disrupt some jobs. But it is a tool that can also create new jobs and improve existing jobs, and if we do it well and use it effectively, it can create an overall net job gain, which can enhance our competitiveness and grow our economy.

I will even put it to everyone that we don’t have a choice. For Singapore, as an open and small economy, if we don’t use the latest technology, including AI, that can help our businesses and our workers to remain competitive, and our competitors use AI, then what will happen is that we will lose our competitive advantage, investments will flow elsewhere, businesses will flow elsewhere, and we will lose the jobs anyway, perhaps more than what we will lose through AI. So we should embrace the technology, look at how we can make good use of this tool, train our workers so that they are able to use the technology effectively, prepare our companies so that you are able to use AI in your operations, and all with the end in mind of enhancing competitiveness to make our businesses more efficient and more productive, to make our workers more able and ready to use the tool. I think if we can look at it that way, then AI is a tool that can help us to remain competitive, to remain productive, and if we do it well, to increase the economic pie of Singapore, which will benefit our companies and our workers.

One example that I will share with you is Minmed Group. This is a local healthcare group. They have enhanced their service efficiency by incorporating Generative AI digital solutions into their offerings. With support from Enterprise Singapore, Minmed introduced an AI chatbot to assist with customer inquiries and this has helped to significantly shorten its response time.

Government agencies will continue to work with our labour unions and Government partners, including our TACs like SCCCI, to support our business community on this AI journey. As shown by Mr Kho earlier in his slides, there is an uneven extent of AI adoption and readiness. We understand that this is not easy. The key is not to have individual companies or individual workers deal with this transition alone, on your own. Instead, we do it together. The Government will come in, together with our TACs, our employers, our unions, to provide that tripartite support for our companies and our workers. This is one of the things that we can do well in Singapore because of that trust and that tripartite partnership that we have built up over the years. So we should use it to our advantage, use it to help our companies and our workers with this AI transition.

I also like to encourage our SMEs to tap on the SME Centres, which provide a wide range of support, including business advisory, that can help to facilitate the adoption and implementation of AI solutions.

I also want to be quite clear that this is a journey that we all need to embark on together without a very clear roadmap. Because it is new, so we don’t have a well-documented SOP, we don’t have a map that can show you that if you take this road then you will reach there. That is not how it is going to work. We know what is the broad direction that we need to head towards, but in the process of crossing this river, as Mr Deng Xiaoping used to say, we need to feel the stones as we cross that river. We need to adjust, be nimble, be flexible, and support one another, as we cross this river together. That is the approach that I think we need to take. There will be some unanticipated challenges along the way, there will be some new opportunities that we will come across, new risks that we need to deal with – that we must expect. But when we encounter these risks, when we encounter these challenges, when we see these new opportunities, how then do we help support one another in our ecosystem, so that collectively our companies and our workers will be more ready, more able and better prepared to make this journey, this transition together.

Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Pro-Enterprise Rules Review (PERR)

One other thing that we need to do, is to look at how our rules and regulations can support such as new operating environment, where we are trying to encourage our companies to go overseas, we are trying to encourage them to build capabilities in new areas like sustainability and green economy, and to make good use of new technology like AI. Our rules must also evolve over time. We cannot use the old set of rules because we are dealing with a changed world and a new set of challenges. And this is why we need to take a look at how our government policies, rules and regulations can help to support this new pace of working, new ventures and entrepreneurship. I think that is something we will have to focus on.

The Government will continue to support the broader ecosystem, looking at important areas like talent, funding, and also how we can better support new entrepreneurs, new ideas, and help our entrepreneurs to start well and to foster a more supportive ecosystem to enable them to scale up their business operations.

In April 2024, we had set up the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for Pro-Enterprise Rules Review. This is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. The purpose is to oversee agency efforts to improve regulatory efficiency and reduce compliance burden, especially for our SMEs. I am a member of the IMC as well. For MND where I am in, and for MAS where I serve as Deputy Chairman, I also embark on similar pro-enterprise rules review exercises within MND and MAS, with the purpose of seeing how we can improve efficiency, cut red tape, take on board new ideas from our industry, and do this to help our companies save time, save costs and save manpower. And in the case of MAS, that was also how we did the Equities Market Review, where we brought on board good ideas from the industry that can help us to build a stronger public equities market in Singapore. At the moment, we are doing a review through the Workgroup, focusing on growth capital - how to position Singapore as a growth capital hub, to support infrastructure financing, to support entrepreneurs, to support new ventures. That is also something that I would like to do together with our industry.

I would like to use this opportunity to share some updates of the IMC’s work, focusing on two examples, changes that we are going to make.

First, we will simplify the regulatory process for commercial spaces to be converted to medical clinics.

Currently, medical clinics in commercial buildings are not allowed to exceed 3,000 square metres or 20% of the total commercial Gross Floor Area (GFA), whichever is lower. This is to maintain a healthy mix of uses and prevent buildings from becoming de-facto medical centres.

Besides obtaining approval from MOH, operators intending to set up clinics within commercial buildings also need to submit a change of use application to URA, except in cases where the building’s total medical clinic space is within 1,000 square meters.

URA has reviewed and will be streamlining this process. After the changes are made, operators will no longer need to submit a change of use application to URA if prior approval has already been obtained from MOH for the proposed clinic and the building’s total clinic space does not exceed 3,000 square metres or 20% of the total commercial GFA.

Second, we will also make it easier for the change of use between different types of commercial uses within the Changi Airport Development.

Currently, businesses must obtain approvals from both CAAS and URA when switching between commercial uses within the airport, such as from a shop to a restaurant.

Moving forward, we will remove the need for an application to be submitted to URA. Instead, URA will upfront authorise all commercial uses – as well as childcare centres and community building use – within approved commercial units in the Changi Airport Development, subject to conditions such as obtaining prior approval from CAAS.

Both measures will reduce double handling and we can do this because we have worked together with the other agencies, and to take a look at, have we over time been introducing unnecessary checks and applications. When you require an application, it means that the applicant will have to submit it, and that requires time and effort. And because the Government agency will then have to process it, then it will have to charge you a fee. So it is a lose-lose situation if we have too many of these unnecessary red tape in the system. We have to remove the red tape, make no mistake about that. So by making these two changes that I have just mentioned, an applicant can save $500 and two weeks of waiting time for each application. URA will provide more details later this year before they implement the changes.

These are not major changes. Each one by itself will not be earth shattering. They are small, targeted, they benefit only a specific group of businesses. But I think what is most important is the mindset. And that is what we are hoping to do with this Pro-Enterprise Rules Review initiative – it is to get our Government agencies and our public service officers to think about how we can be pro-business, to think how we can take calculated risks, to think about how we can help make the process better and smoother, more efficient, save time, save money and save manpower, help our businesses to operate more efficiently and more productively. That mindset is important, because it is the same mindset that will help us to be able to cope with a changed world – where things are moving more quickly, where you have new ideas, new requirements, new technologies, it is this muscle that we need to develop in our system, we need to be open to new ideas, be prepared to take calculated risks to make changes, and be nimble and adaptive in dealing with the fast-changing environment. That is ultimately what we want to achieve through this exercise. Along the way, we will have specific examples of changes we can make, which I hope will benefit our businesses and our workers by reducing red tape and helping you to save time.

I like to encourage our business leaders and our industry leaders, to continue to share with us your feedback and suggestions, support this initiative, share your ideas. You can do this directly by emailing us, or through TACs like SCCCI and SBF – SME Committees where we gather input and feedback regularly from our industry leaders and our companies. So please continue to share your ideas with us. We hope that this can be a good platform for collaboration, where the Government works closely with our industry to make our business environment and ecosystem more competitive.

Please allow me to say a few words in Mandarin.

国际局势充满变数，我们过去所熟悉的国际秩序正在发生深刻的变化。地缘政治局势持续紧张，为国际贸易带来更多不确定性。原本开放、以规则为基础的国际贸易体系，也变得越来越碎片化。与此同时，包括新加坡在内的各国，也必须积极应对气候变化和人工智能迅速发展所带来的新挑战。

面对这些变化，政府会继续同企业、工会和商会携手合作，帮助大家更好地适应这个新环境。我们会继续支持企业拓展海外市场，协助企业推进可持续性发展，帮助企业和工友掌握新科技，从而提升竞争力和应变能力。

除了协助企业应对外部环境的变化，我们也会继续打造一个亲商环境。我们成立了亲商条例检讨跨部门委员会，由副总理颜金勇先生担任主席。副总理委任我当副主席，我会协助他和委员会，和企业一起合作，改善我们的条规。委员会除了检讨和简化跨部门监管程序，为企业节省时间、降低成本，我们也会进一步探讨如何制定更亲商的政策和条规，减少企业不必要的负担，让大家能够更专注于创新、投资和发展。我们也希望商会能继续发挥桥梁作用，把业界的反馈和建议传达给政府。我们会细心聆听并在恰当的领域做出调整，共同营造一个更亲商的运作环境，让我们的企业和工友能在不断变化的世界中保持竞争力，把握新的发展机遇。

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to conclude the speech.

I have shared about how the Government will continue to work with businesses to navigate the new economic landscape – from how to go overseas to international markets, how to navigate an environment which requires us to build new capabilities, for example, in sustainability and operating in a low-carbon economy, to how we can better adopt technologies like AI.

At the same time, we recognise that businesses are dealing with more immediate pressures. As we can see from the earlier survey findings, business cost is one of them. Last week, the Government announced a second package of support measures in response to the Middle East situation, to help businesses manage rising cost pressures. This includes time-bound enhancements to the Enterprise Financing Scheme to improve access to financing to meet cashflow needs, as well as one-off cash grants for SMEs.

The challenges that we face are real, but so are the opportunities. The Government will continue and we are committed to working with all of you to help our business community, especially our SMEs, to navigate this new landscape, to grow new partnerships and to achieve the next bound of growth.

Thank you very much.