REVITALISING THE RETAIL SECTOR

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh asked the Minister for Trade and Industry, given the severe downturn of retail businesses in general, how the Government will help to revitalise this sector and what measures have been thought of, eg, lower rentals or subsidies for computer modernisation, to make retail owners more competitive as this is an important value-added sector for attracting tourists to Singapore.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Excluding the motor vehicle trade, the retail sector has grown at an average of 3.5 % per annum in real terms between 1993 and 1997, slower than the growth of 5.9 % over 1988-93. The sluggish growth is caused by a number of factors, some of which are structural in nature and existed even before the regional financial crisis.

To counter the decline in visitor arrivals, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is intensifying its promotion efforts in markets such as the USA, Europe, Australia, Taiwan, and China. Singapore hotels and SIA are establishing joint promotion tie-ups in Europe and the US. These efforts should have spin-off benefits for Singapore retailers.

STB will continue to spearhead schemes to help retailers restructure and upgrade through the following programmes:

(a) The Singapore Gold Circle. This is a quality recognition and branding programme. It will set performance benchmarks for participants, facilitate collaborative marketing and quality promotion, and assist individual members in business development activities.

(b) Tourism Development Assistance Scheme. This is aimed at encouraging the development and upgrading of the tourism industry. For example, grants will be provided to retailers to assist them in developing new marketing ideas and flagship stores, as well as to collaborate and form economic groupings (e.g. central warehousing).

(c) Mall of Singapore Thematic Zone. The first prototype of the Mall of Singapore will be Orchard Road. This aims to make Orchard Road more retail friendly.

(d) The Great Singapore Sale. Launched in 1995, this helps retailers present a more vibrant and attractive shopping experience for Singaporeans and visitors.

Within the more domestically-oriented retail sector, several schemes and measures are targeted at helping retailers improve their performance. Examples are :

(a) Encouraging retailers to join franchises or form economic groupings.

(b) Using Information Technology (IT) to help small shops improve shop management, eg, ShopNet (grocery trade) and BookNet (books and stationery trade).

(c) Generic upgrading programmes for retailers in areas, such as stock control, visual merchandising, housekeeping and customer service.

Concerning rentals, HDB and Pidemco have provided some assistance. In the private sector, the market trend is also towards lower rentals.