Speech by Minister Chee Hong Tat at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025
Oct 17, 2025
Opening
Good evening. I am very happy to join you tonight at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Singapore Awards Gala.
Let me begin by congratulating all our award recipients.
Each of you has made a mark in your field, showing how homegrown businesses can do well in Singapore, and reach beyond our shores.
Your journeys are inspiring examples of how entrepreneurs turn challenges into opportunities and turn innovative ideas into lasting impact, including creating good jobs for others in society.
Like the theme of this year’s Gala – The Shapers – you have played important roles in shaping your company and industry, shaping our society, and shaping Singapore’s business ecosystem.
Shaping Companies and Industries
First, let me talk about how entrepreneurs shape companies and industries. Entrepreneurs innovate, push existing boundaries, and lead ahead of the curve.
For example, one of the award recipients, Mr Kelvin Lim at the LHN Group redesigns under-utilised properties into co-living and co-working spaces that meet modern needs.
This is innovation through resourcefulness – using what we already have more efficiently and sustainably, and finding new value in existing assets.
Shaping with Purpose
Second, entrepreneurs shape society through the values that guide their businesses.
Ms Carolyn Choo at the Worldwide Hotels Group shows how business growth and giving back to help others can go hand in hand, through donations from the Group’s foundation to local institutes of higher learning.
Businesses that act with purpose to do right and do good will build stronger relationships with their stakeholders, and this trust is what fuels continued success in the long run.
Shaping the Business Ecosystem
Third, many of you who are present tonight are also contributing to strengthening our business ecosystem by mentoring younger entrepreneurs, investing in start-ups, and building networks.
Such partnerships – between large corporations and SMEs, among the Government, businesses, research institutes, and unions, and across different industries – form the backbone of a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Shaping the Future Together
Supporting our companies and helping businesses to do well is a key priority for this Government. One key role we play is through the provision of grants and incentives.
This is an important area of work for our economic agencies. Grants and incentives can provide businesses with additional capital to invest in growth and innovation.
Our agencies are reviewing how they can streamline the grant application process to make it simpler and quicker for businesses.
However, we know that grants and incentives, while they are important, these alone would not be enough. It is critical for the government to also provide a pro-enterprise environment, that our businesses can flourish.
Tonight, please allow me to share more about this.
Streamlining Rules and Processes
First, the Government must continually review our policies, rules, and processes to cut red tape, support new innovative ideas, and help companies to save time and save costs.
This is best done, I believe, through a partnership between the Government and the industry.
Why? As businesses, you are more familiar with the pain points and areas for improvement. But on your own, you do not have the authority to change the rules and processes.
The Government has the power to do so, but we may not always know which specific rule is causing problems and should be amended.
Therefore, if we work together, it is a win-win partnership.
The Government has set up an inter-ministerial committee chaired by DPM Gan Kim Yong, to review inter-agency regulatory issues faced by businesses. I am part of this committee, and I will continue to do my part in support of this important area of work in my different capacities.
When I was at MOT, we introduced several pro-enterprise rules review initiatives, including the fee reduction for drone light show operators that PM Wong mentioned at last year’s National Day Rally, from more than $25,000 for a lightshow involving 1,000 drones, to a flat fee of $500.
This fee is now charged on a show-by-show basis, instead of a drone-by-drone basis. Last time we used to charge $25 per drone. So, if you have 1,000 drones, for a light show you need to pay $25,000.
CAAS also removed the need for authorisation stickers to be pasted on every drone, cutting processing time significantly.
At MAS, I have been working with colleagues to implement changes to the Single Family Office Fund tax scheme, such as shortening the time it takes to receive application approvals from 12 to three months.
As I mentioned in my recent speech at the WMI Global-Asia Family Office Summit last month, we are reviewing the scheme parameters further to reduce documentation, ease reporting requirements, and expand the type of investments eligible for the fund tax scheme. All this without compromising on our high standards.
We also embarked on a comprehensive review of our equities market in Singapore, together with SGX and others, to improve investor interest and liquidity, and increase the number of new listings on SGX. This work is still ongoing, and we are going to release our final report at the end of this year. I think so far, the efforts - thanks to the support from all the industry players - have shown encouraging results.
As Minister for National Development, I have made the pro-enterprise rules review a key priority for my Ministry.
Some recent changes that we have implemented under the MND family include streamlined applications for Outdoor Refreshment Areas, as well as improvements to CORENET X to provide greater certainty and time savings for developers and built environment professionals.
My colleague MOS Alvin Tan also recently announced the changes we are making to our land tenure arrangements for landscape firms and orchid nurseries, including an extended first-term tenancy from three to six years, which will help provide operators with greater business stability and certainty of costs.
MND is reviewing many other suggestions from the industry, and we will continue to do more.
I have started the engine at MND to focus on this area, and mobilised my colleagues across the different agencies.
The flywheel is gaining momentum, and I am happy to see proactive participation from our staff, including our younger officers, in working closely with our industry partners and taking calculated risks to push the boundaries.
If we try, we may not always succeed. Sometimes we will fail. And it is ok. We pick ourselves up and try again.
Because if we are scared of failure and we don’t try, then our chances of success will be zero.
My aim is to turn our culture within the MND family into one which is more entrepreneurial and where people are encouraged and supported to take risks and try new ideas.
Where we ask ourselves “why not?” and “how come cannot?”, and not “why do I have to try this new idea?” We need to ask ourselves how we can work with the industry to find solutions to address the risks and concerns, instead of saying no to something just because it has not been tried and tested.
In other words, we must think and act like entrepreneurs and not just as administrators, or worse, as bureaucrats.
We want to encourage more risk-taking and not just risk-avoidance.
If we want to win in a soccer match, we must be prepared to take some risks, so that we can score goals. If we only play defence, then at the very most, we will end up with a draw.
In August this year, I shared that URA was streamlining its Change-of-Use process.
Currently, businesses need to obtain URA’s permission to set up land-based solar farms. The application process takes about one month, and applicants need to pay a fee of $3,500 to URA.
From 31 October 2025, business owners who want to develop solar farms on land owned by the State or Statutory Boards will only need to obtain the consent of the agency landowner and ensure that their proposals are compliant with the requirements of technical agencies. They no longer need to obtain approval from URA.
This means that an applicant can save $3,500 and one month of waiting time.
This is a win-win for both the Government and industry, and I hope it can encourage more solar deployment in Singapore.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in the months ahead, we have a pipeline of changes to address other suggestions we have gathered from our interactions with industry stakeholders. I think some of you may have participated in some of these sessions. I would like to thank you for your feedback, and I would like to encourage everyone to continue to share your ideas and suggestions with us.
Each rule review may seem small on its own, but collectively, they can help foster a more business-friendly environment and strengthen the spirit of collaboration between the Government and the industry.
Enhancing Procurement
Beyond rules and process review, another way that the Government is supporting enterprise growth is through our procurement.
Government procurement is not just a way for Government agencies to buy products and services. It also serves as a platform for our local businesses, especially the SMEs, to establish their track records, refine their capabilities, and testbed new solutions. If they succeed, then hopefully, this can help them to expand, both locally and overseas.
Currently, about 80% of Government contracts are awarded to SMEs every year.
It is important for the Government to continue to support this and to ensure that our procurement conditions and approaches will not become barriers of entry for local suppliers and vendors, while ensuring the quality of products and services.
When I was at MOF, my colleagues and I worked with Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Association of Small Medium Enterprises (ASME) to introduce a new category of Government tenders called “Tender Lite”, which comes with fewer and simpler conditions and covers over 70% of all Government tenders awarded to SMEs.
By reducing cost and tender requirements, we can help our smaller firms compete more effectively, showcase their capabilities, and demonstrate their value.
MOF has been working with industry associations to further develop and expand Tender Lite, to benefit businesses in the construction and ICT sectors. We look forward to more of our SMEs being able to benefit from this.
MND will do our part to support this goal. During our industry engagements, some of the consultants for the Built Environment sector raised concerns that the Government’s contracts did not specify limits on their contractual liability. In other words, we are too “kiasu”.
They highlighted it was rather unfair for them to be subjected to unlimited liability, and they faced challenges in purchasing professional indemnity insurance to cover their potential liability claims. I understand their concerns.
There is no winner in such a situation – whether the businesses or the Government. Without limits on their liability, consultants face significant risks of financial losses. This adds to their costs to purchase indemnity insurance, that is provided they can still purchase such insurance, which in turn reduces their willingness to take on Government projects. So, this is actually a lose-lose situation for both the consultants and Government agencies.
In November 2024, we added an option in the Standard Consultancy Agreements between Government agencies and their consultants to limit a consultant’s contractual liability. I think we can go further.
I am happy to announce that we have since acted on the feedback and will be making the Limitation of Liability clause a mandatory provision in the Standard Consultancy Agreements, starting from 1 December 2025.
I think this is a fairer arrangement for our industry partners. We hope that this will reduce the cost for them to participate in Government projects and more of them will step forward. This allows for more effective and equitable risk-sharing between the Government agencies and industry.
This is just one example where I think we can go further. Today as I mentioned, some of our arrangements are a little bit too “kiasu”. Government takes zero risk. We pass all the risk to the industry. I’ll give you one example. When I was at the Ministry of Transport, the Maritime and Port Authority would collect Banker’s Guarantee from the shipping companies when they use our facilities. This costs money. When I asked MPA why they are doing this, they said “Just in case someone decides to default and not pay, we have the Banker’s Guarantee”. I understand - we have to protect ourselves. But we also need to balance this with the cost that we are imposing on the industry. So I asked them: how many percent of people default? Turns out it is 0.7% - very small. So, after a review we decided that for the large majority of companies, where we already know who you are and have a relationship with you, there is no need to collect Banker’s Guarantee. We will only collect the Banker’s Guarantee from you, if I think you are a risk. This move, it seems simple, but it saved the industry collectively more than $30million dollars every year. We must thus review of all our policies and rules and see if there are other areas where similar logic can apply, for a fairer, more equitable sharing of risks between the industry and the Government.
We are also looking to provide more financial assurance to our contractors for public housing projects.
Today, HDB’s contractors can claim up to 2% of the contract sum as initial preliminary payments when a building project commences.
This provides contractors with the capital to deploy equipment, mobilise manpower, and set up the site, during the early stages of a project.
To further ease their cashflow, HDB will be raising the proportion of these initial payments within the contract sum from 2% to 5% for its building projects, and extending this approach to other contract types by the first quarter of next year.
This move will particularly benefit smaller contractors, as they may not have the financial reserves that the larger industry players hold. I hope this will ease their cashflow and help them to participate in our projects.
Closing
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me conclude my speech. As we press ahead on this pro-enterprise movement, our goal is not just to simplify rules, but more importantly, to build a culture that supports innovation and risk-taking.
We want businesses and our government agencies to have the confidence to experiment, knowing that even if not every attempt succeeds, they are supported in their journey of innovation.
This requires close partnership between the Government and the private sector – to be bold, to push boundaries, and to take risks together.
Let's continue to work closely with one another so that Singapore can remain an attractive place for entrepreneurship, a place where entrepreneurs and their businesses can take root, grow, and thrive.
Thank you very much, and I wish you a wonderful evening ahead.