SMa President's 4th AGM Speech - Singapore Manufacturing ...

I would like to take this opportunity to share 3 challenges SMa faces.1) SMa has not been able to collect some payment of membership subscriptionfees promptly from members. You can see from the large provisions we haveallowed of over $600,000 reflects the severity of the problems we face every year.Your understanding and support is needed as it is at this time in our growth anddesire to support and add value to our members that SMa needs these funds.We cannot afford to write off $600,000 every year.2) Globalisation has impacted many MNCs and has caused them to relocate tolower-cost countries. With increasing competition, Singapore will have to remakeitself and restructure to move up the manufacturing value chain. There are asmany as 200 other business and trade associations in Singapore. Many of theseassociations provide specialised services and products to a specific industry.There are also many of these associations offering their membership for free.SMa will have to try and generate more business revenue so that in time we canlower the membership fees to make the SMa’s value proposition more attractivefor members. We therefore have problems of membership attrition yearly.3) The recruitment and retaining of staff has continued to be one of our greatestchallenges due to Singapore’s buoyant employment market. As the economycontinues to grow more jobs will be created in the near future. Hence, retaininggood and capable people to work in SMa will be even tougher. I ask you to be10