Level playing field for SMEs regardless of parentage
I REFER to reported remarks by the chairman of the National Research Foundation, Tony Tan ("Promote local high-tech start-ups: Tony Tan", BT, Nov 28).
He said that more needs to be done to grow a technopreneurial eco-system, and the time is ripe to adopt a more supportive mentality among entrepreneurs and a more risk taking culture of funding. The government has various schemes to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are defined by size of capital and assets.
However, such assistance is not available to SMEs which are subsidiaries of parent companies whose size is outside of the definition of SME.
I presume the reason for such exclusion is that such SMEs can call on the support of their respective parents.
However, such an assumption is not always correct, and goes against the concept of intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship is quite prevalent in the US and Europe, where corporations are willing to fund employees who have good business ideas, and set up subsidiaries where they can exploit their ideas freely.
Such intrapreneur subsidiaries are then often left to thrive or fail on their own merits without any further financial support from their parents.
Being not eligible for government assistance, such intrapreneur SMEs in Singapore would be placed at a disadvantage compared to other SMEs set up by individual entrepreneurs or funded by venture capitalists.
In relation to Dr Tony Tan's timely and embracing call to develop technopreneurship in Singapore, I suggest that the government should relax the rules governing assistance to SMEs, and level the playing field for all SMEs in Singapore irrespective of their parentage.
As a start, perhaps eligibility should apply to SMEs which are not in the same line of business as their parent companies.
