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Scheme helping firms to meet new challenges enhanced

SINGAPORE — The Government will expand the scope of the Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV) scheme to step up support for businesses that have been hard-pressed by the challenges of economic restructuring.

SINGAPORE — The Government will expand the scope of the Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV) scheme to step up support for businesses that have been hard-pressed by the challenges of economic restructuring.

Beginning March 1, the scheme will be enhanced to help fund businesses in areas related to innovation, productivity, human resources development and financial management. Currently, the ICVs are applicable only to consultancy services.

Announcing the changes yesterday during a walkabout at Alexandra Village, Minister of State (Trade and Industry) Teo Ser Luck said a more comprehensive ICV scheme would be of most help to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and heartland shops. “Some businesses may not need consultants; they need more direct help. So, we enhance ICV to allow SMEs and even heartland shops to purchase computers and equipment to automate and become more productive,” said Mr Teo, who leads the SME Workgroup that coordinates the ICV’s expansion.

As the push for a productivity-led economy continues, the ICV scheme’s expansion marks the Government’s latest move to help businesses upgrade themselves despite mounting manpower and business cost pressures.

Further support will probably be announced in Budget 2014 on Feb 21, and the Government is also looking at whether to extend the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme, which will expire in the year of assessment 2015, Senior Minister of State (Finance) Josephine Teo said on Sunday.

The Government is aware of issues that businesses are facing but productivity improvement must remain a priority, Mr Teo said yesterday,

“We at the SME Workgroup are certainly concerned about how businesses are facing the challenge in relation to the current policies,” he said. “But we are also concerned that they’ll face greater challenges in future if they don’t pick up their pace quickly. That’s why we enhance the ICV scheme, so that it can have a greater outreach. The enhanced ICVs should gain a lot more traction. And if it proves to be effective, we intend to have a similar approach towards other schemes.”

The ICV scheme can issue up to eight S$5,000 vouchers to a local company with annual sales of less than S$100 million or fewer than 200 employees. About 3,000 vouchers have been given out since the scheme’s launch in 2012. With the expansion, up to two vouchers can be used for each of the four new capability areas. The Government is setting aside another S$10 million for the ICV scheme, pushing the total amount to S$42 million.

Many shopkeepers at Alexandra Village whom Mr Teo spoke to welcomed the slew of Government support measures, but some, such as antique dealer Alan Wong, remained unconvinced. “The schemes only help to a certain extent but, for us, manpower is the biggest problem. It’s not easy to get the specialist workers in Singapore necessary to repair and maintain the antiques. That’s why we relied on foreigners. But a shop like ours can’t possibly do that, with all the levy and quota requirements,” Mr Wong said.

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