By Francis Chan

THOUSANDS of businesses here are enjoying increased market access, stronger management and better industry capabilities, thanks to projects supported by the $70 million Lead programme.

Many of these projects were set in motion in the four years since Lead was established - and more are set to follow after a broadening of the programme.

Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang is pleased with the progress so far. He spoke at last week's Lead forum, jointly organised by Spring Singapore and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.

'Over the past four years, the Lead programme has achieved good progress in supporting our enterprise growth and industry competitiveness,' he said.

The Lead programme is a multi-agency assistance scheme launched in 2005 by Spring and IE Singapore with an initial kitty of $50 million - which has since been beefed up to $70 million.

The programme involves the two agencies forming partnerships with industry associations to help improve the competitiveness of their members.

Lead funding covers up to 80 per cent of each approved project introduced by industry associations. It was recently expanded to include training of staff of those associations.

Lead-backed projects initiated by 18 industry associations here since 2005 include projects that encourage businesses to improve their capabilities and productivity by leveraging technology, developing industry expertise through training and industry-wide certifications, and improving market access.

'To ensure that potential leads for our companies are not lost just because of the economic downturn, Lead recently also introduced support for reverse missions to encourage and attract key buyers from foreign countries to visit and purchase from local companies instead of having our companies incur the expenses of overseas travel,' said Mr Lim.

Support from Lead covers up to 70 per cent of expenses for air travel and provides a fixed allowance for accommodation and local transportation for each delegate nominated by the associations.

To date, associations like the Container Depot Association (Singapore) and Singapore Industrial Automation Association have already tapped Lead for reverse missions.

The first 18 industry associations under Lead funding are embarking on $85 million worth of projects to boost their industries' performance.

When completed, about 3,000 enterprises stand to benefit from the projects.

Mr Lim said that the Lead projects are expected to generate about $1.5 billion in value-add to the economy, $3.5 billion in revenue and create 9,000 new jobs in Singapore.

Last week, the first two non-industry- specific organisations - the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Singapore Manufacturers' Federation - were included in the programme's stable of associations receiving Lead support.

With the Franchising and Licensing Association and the Singapore Water Association, Lead now supports 22 associations here.

For more information on Lead, call EnterpriseOne on 6898-1800 or e-mail enterpriseone@spring.gov.sg