Progress on Economic Strategies Committee's Target to Grow Successful Local Enterprises

Mr Thomas Chua Kee Seng asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) (a) what is the progress of the Economic Strategies Committee's target set in 2010 to double the number of local enterprises with revenue of over S$100 million to 1,000 enterprises by 2020; and (b) whether this target needs to be reviewed or new indicators be formulated to determine the growth and success of our local enterprises.

Mr S Iswaran: In its 2010 report, the Economic Strategies Committee set an aspirational goal of having 1,000 Singapore enterprises with annual revenues exceeding $100 million by 2020. Notwithstanding a challenging external environment in the intervening period, we have made progress towards this goal. As of 2016, we have around 800 such enterprises, up from around 580 in 2009. With the sustained efforts of our economic agencies to help enterprises scale up and internationalise, we remain on track to achieving the ESC target.

The 2017 Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) affirmed ESC's focus on developing a strong base of globally competitive enterprises to create a vibrant corporate ecosystem in Singapore, grow the external wing of our economy, and create good jobs for Singaporeans. The CFE report highlighted the importance of providing high-growth and promising enterprises with focused support to help them scale up and become global leaders in their respective fields. MTI and its agencies, especially Enterprise Singapore, will continue to focus on this initiative and track the number of companies crossing $100 million in revenue, as one of the indicators of growth and success of our enterprises, and review the indicators regularly.