(SINGAPORE) Nine homegrown businesses have been shortlisted for the inaugural Emerging Enterprise Award 2008 (EE2008), co-presented by The Business Times and OCBC Bank.

They are from a range of industries including animation, lifestyle, and food and beverage (F&B).

AG Delta provides consulting and business services to the global capital markets industry, while Aldon Technologies Services and McCoy Components cater to the electronics manufacturing and semiconductor industries, respectively.

San SeSan Global is a regional distributor of party and educational products and snacks such as Japanese crispy seaweed and seasoned cuttlefish. Also in the F&B business is kaya toast chain Wang Jiao Group.

Meanwhile, operating on similar turf are KinderGolf and OAAG. The former is a pre-school golf academy, while the latter organises golf clinics and other events for corporate clients.

Joining the fray are two companies from the media industry: Scrawl Studios, an animation content provider for television and new media, and Sparkfury Creative Consultants, a creative advertising agency.

The Emerging Enterprise Award, launched in February this year, is aimed at local small-and-medium enterprises with annual turnover of between $1.5 million and $10 million, and which have been operating for more than three years but less than seven years.

'These nine finalists have shown immense potential and have impressed us with charting new frontiers in their respective fields despite the size and relative young age of their businesses,' said Tan Chor Sen, head of emerging business, enterprise banking, at OCBC. 'We believe they will serve as inspirations to their fellow entrepreneurs as well as contribute to our local business community.'

The nine finalists will make their presentations next week to a judging panel that comprises representatives from co-presenters BT and OCBC, as well as from the other four partners - Spring Singapore, HP Singapore, RSM Chio Lim and NUS Enterprise.

Up to three winners will each receive $380,000 of interest-free loans, grants, consultancy services, and educational and information technology (IT) packages. They will be selected based on, among other criteria, their management teams, achievements, business models and business structures.

Aldon managing director Allen Ang hopes to increase publicity for his company should it win the award. 'We've been keeping a low profile in this business and I think that for strategic reasons we need to be known to the market,' he said, adding that Aldon would use the prize package to boost its research and development and IT systems.

Scrawl Studios, on the other hand, hopes to send its key management for further education as well as upgrade its software should it clinch the award, said managing director Seng Choon Meng.

This article was first published in The Business Times on May 8, 2008