Social Entrepreneurship Sector

Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports what are the Ministry's plans and future directions for the social entrepreneurship sector.

MG [NS] Chan Chun Sing: Social enterprises are businesses with a social mission. They play a useful role in our society. Examples include those that provide training and employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups. Others provide subsidised services for the needy, or plough back profits from commercial operations to support the social mission of their parent non-profit organisations.

MCYS offers support to new social enterprises through the ComCare Enterprise Fund, especially "Work-Integration" Social Enterprises. These are enterprises that provide training and employment opportunities for individuals from needy or disadvantaged groups, such as persons with disability, ex-offenders, youths-at-risk, persons recovering from psychiatric illnesses, etc. Since 2003, about $10 million has been disbursed to about 80 social enterprises. These have brought about benefit to needy or disadvantaged groups. For example, more than 1,600 beneficiaries have found employment opportunities in these social enterprises.

Page: 713

Beyond grant financing, MCYS recognises that mutual support is needed for social enterprises to progress. In 2009, the Social Enterprise Association was set up with seed-funding from the Ministry to provide voice and leadership for the sector. In addition to running networking platforms and educational programmes, the Association has also set up a Social Enterprise Development Centre in 2010 to provide business advice for social enterprises.

MCYS is reviewing its plans on how it can better support social enterprises. We hope to do more in the following areas.

First, we would like to raise awareness and knowledge of local social enterprises. We hope to work with partners like the Social Enterprise Association to educate consumers and help social enterprises better profile their products and services. This may entail creating more platforms and opportunities for them to showcase themselves to consumers.

Second, MCYS hopes to nurture greater interest and involvement in social entrepreneurship amongst youths, many of whom have an interest to further a social cause through small businesses. We will explore with schools and Institutions of Higher Learning to support student-initiated social enterprise projects, and programmes to equip youths with the competencies needed to be successful social entrepreneurs.

Third, MCYS hopes to facilitate in the areas of talent attraction and capability building. It is challenging for social enterprises to manage both its social mission and business viability. To better support social enterprises in managing its double bottom-lines, MCYS will look at developing new programmes, increasing accessibility to training, and bringing in expertise from the private sector to assist social enterprises.