Access to Government Digital Infrastructure by Micro and Small Businesses

Mr Thomas Chua Kee Seng asked the Minister for Communications and Information how can the Government better help the micro and small SMEs to take advantage of the digital infrastructure of the Government to benefit their businesses.

Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: It is increasingly crucial for companies to leverage infocomm technology (ICT) to be competitive and remain relevant in a digital economy.

The Government recognises that micro and small SMEs may require additional assistance in adopting ICT and have introduced programmes that meet their different needs. Under IMDA's iSPRINT scheme, SMEs enjoy subsidies when they tap on a range of pre-qualified and proven ICT solutions to boost their productivity and growth, or when they adopt more advanced ICT solutions that are tailor-made to their business processes. To date, over 8,000 SMEs have benefited from iSPRINT. In addition, SPRING's Capability Development Grant and Innovation & Capability Voucher provide other forms of support for SMEs to adopt ICT in improving business efficiency.

While using ICT enables new possibilities for companies, it also raises the risk of cybersecurity breaches that would impact the business and reputation of these companies. The Government is mindful that many SMEs may not know what to do to secure their ICT systems. To help SMEs, the Cyber Security Agency and the National Security Coordination Secretariat have worked with the Singapore Business Federation to develop an Employee Cyber Security Kit. The toolkit is a useful resource to enable SMEs to assess their own cyber security readiness, and guide SMEs in developing a cyber security education programme for their employees.

Additionally, the Government offers several digital services that help all companies, including micro and small SMEs, with their business processes. The Business Grants Portal is an accessible one-stop-shop to easily apply for government grants, while LicenceOne plays a similar role in the application and payment of government licences. We are also in the process of rolling out CorpPass, which provides a corporate digital identity for businesses to conduct secure online transactions with the Government.