Link between Entrepreneurship and Degree of Open Competition

Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) whether the Ministry will consider undertaking a study to determine the link between rates of entrepreneurship in specific industries and the degree of open competition in that industry as measured by the market share of the top companies.

Mr S Iswaran: The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) administers and enforces the Competition Act which prohibits anti-competitive conduct. This would facilitate market access by entrepreneurs, and ensure a level playing field for all businesses. CCS takes action against anti-competitive agreements and exclusionary conduct by dominant players by removing anti-competitive restrictions that could hinder new businesses.

While market share information can be used as an indicator for the level of competition and entrepreneurship in a market, CCS also takes into consideration other factors such as the degree of product differentiation, the responsiveness of buyers to price increases, and the price responsiveness of competitors. Besides regulatory aspects, industry-specific characteristics also cause significant variations. For example, the process from ideation to production could take a few years for deep technology sectors such as medical technology (MedTech) and clean technology (CleanTech) because of significant hardware development, larger capital investment, and deeper expertise.