FORMATION OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (Effects on small and medium enterprises)

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FORMATION OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE:

(Effects on small and medium enterprises): 11.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) how can his Ministry assure the SMEs and small players that the formation of the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) with Government's money and resources is not an unfair competition over the private and professional parties; and (b) what plans are there to assist the SMEs with such schemes through some sort of funding.

The Second Minister for Finance (Mr Lim Hng Kiang) (for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Sir, the purpose of the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) is to expand and develop Singapore's pool of expertise to meet the needs of a growing wealth management industry. It is a concerted effort to bring together existing academic institutions, wealth management institutions and industry associations in a private and public sector collaboration to provide training and development of wealth management professionals.

The WMI is the first of its kind in Asia. It will work with, rather than compete against, professional and private training service providers. The WMI's academic and industry partners are involved in the curriculum-planning, programme development and provision of on-the-ground training to WMI students. Its flagship programme, the Master of Science in Wealth Management, will be conducted by the Singapore Management University in collaboration with the Swiss Banking School. The WMI is prepared to work with relevant SMEs as its training service partners.

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As for whether the Government has plans to assist SMEs who can offer suitable training through some sort of funding, SPRING Singapore already has various assistance programmes such as the Local Enterprise Financing Scheme (LEFS) and the Local Enterprise Technical Assistance Scheme (LETAS) which can help SMEs strengthen their capability as training service providers.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast): Sir, it was reported in the newspapers that it was very difficult for the WMI to justify on a commercial basis initially. I would like to check with the Minister on what basis was it very difficult for the WMI to justify on a commercial basis initially such that the Government has to pump in millions of dollars into this project.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Mr Speaker, Sir, for many of these basic infrastructures for training and development, sometimes you need to kickstart the programme, and the Government finds it very important to be the catalyst, so as to get the industry, the private sector and the other collaborators together. So I think this is the whole idea of the WMI putting together a group of people and kickstarting the programme. And we are confident that as time goes on and as the critical mass of the wealth management professionals develops, the process will be commercially viable.