Singapore SME Innovation Support Schemes - PRO INNO Europe

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eing an important approach to the reduction of youth unemployment, and integration of youth into the labour force. Moreover it can capitalise on the latent entrepreneurship which is considered to exist in the youth in many countries. It can also capitalise on the fact that young entrepreneurs can sometimes be more tuned in to new trends and new opportunities. In addition a recent report on the impact of entrepreneurship education by the European Commission found that enterprises founded by alumni of entrepreneurial education courses could be characterised as being more innovative, ambitious and having high growth. Such programmes may also help in changing the cultural attitudes to entrepreneurship, i.e. seeing entrepreneurship as a viable career option. For example a recent study iii on entrepreneurship attitudes in Europe indicates that 45% of EU citizens would prefer to be self-employed (although there is wide variation across countries) compared to 55% in the USA and 71% in China. The study also indicated that the perception of the impact of school education on entrepreneurship was considerably higher in the US and China than in Europe. 5.1.1 Transferability In principle there is no difficulty in transferring such a policy approach and indeed the approach used in Singapore is of relevance in a European context as many member states already recognise the importance of entrepreneurship education with several countries recently implementing dedicated strategies iv . It is also well recognised in Europe that there is a need to stimulate entrepreneurship in young people with this being a part of the EU 2020 strategy. There already exists many schemes in Europe targeting youth entrepreneurship, the Erasmus Young Entrepreneur programme, the activities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the Young Entrepreneur Programme for postgraduate and postdoctoral students in the UK, and the Education Networks Enterprise in the Netherlands, being just some examples. Although most European countries have some form of Entrepreneurship education at primary and secondary level iv very few seem to focus on the practical “learn by doing” approach which is emphasised in the Singapore YES!Schools programme. The Singapore approach, which seems to be characterised by a co-ordinated effort to address different aspects, probably requires a top-down will to address all the barriers mentioned above. Addressing regulatory and legal framework issues may also be necessary. For example in Singapore the age at which you can start a company was revised downwards from 21 to 18 in 2009. Another important consideration in this respect is perhaps bankruptcy legislation. If failure of the business is not an unexpected outcome then national rules relating to bankruptcy, etc. must not be such as to attach a significant stigma to failure – otherwise the point of the programme is defeated v . 5.2 EntepriseOne Approach The overall concept of the EnterpriseOne approach can be considered a good practice in terms of integrated service delivery of basic information and advice to a very broad client base. What is perhaps most important as a good practice is that it attempts to provide a single first point of contact for SMEs into the public support system. It is a good example of a delivery system set-up to cater to the basic need for non-customised advice and guidance required by the large number of SMEs and micro-enterprises. An important aspect of the provision of such systems is the need to achieve some balance between the on-line provision of standard information and the more customised support PAGE 24 www.proinno-europe.eu/partnering-forum
which can be given by human interaction. EnterpriseOne achieves this though the use of the hotlines and the enterprise development centres. Moreover EnterpriseOne seems to have been designed with the client, - i.e. the SME firmly in mind, i.e. the focus is on the presentation of the information in a manner which is expected by the SMEs as opposed to the manner in which the information might be organised within an agency. There is quite a significant depth of information available though the website, with “how to” guides, case studies, links to news and events under a topic, toolkits (to help SMEs in aspect such as customer service, design, human resources, marketing, etc.). Also impressive is the way in which the website attempts to co-ordinate and provide access to the information from a relatively large number of agencies. 5.2.1 Transferability The concept of providing an information portal and first access point to public services is entirely transferable. Indeed the EnterpriseOne approach of providing an information front end, applied on top of existing information from a different agencies, is in some ways easier to set-up than a fully integrated e-service delivery. Nevertheless there are important barrier to successfully implementing such as system. The learning from Singapore is that it requires a significant top-down push to make such a system work and to ensure that all agencies co-operate effectively in keeping the information up to date and relevant. The resources required in larger countries may also be considerable, e.g. in Singapore the service with hotlines and EDC is provided by approximately 30 staff, serving a client base of approximately 150,000 companies. The back-up by hotline is an important aspect, although transfer to larger countries might involve significant investment to make such a hotline effectively complement the on-line service with more detailed/customised help and information. Transferring the service to a different context, particularly a country which has a complex pre-existing support system (i.e. numerous different agencies which do not necessarily collaborate), would be challenging due to the need for constant updating of information, which requires excellent relationships between contacts at agencies and the EnterpriseOne team, as well as a top down or strategic agreement to work together. There are similarities between EnterpriseOne and some of the US websites such as Grants.Gov. In considering implementation of an EnterpriseOne type service in such a country it would be worth considering also transferring the collaboration protocols developed by Grants.Gov etc. 1 i ”Singapore’s Salad days are over” Nature 468, 731, December 2010, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7325/full/468731a.html ii Stimulating Youth Entrepreneurship: Barriers and Incentives to enterprise start-ups by Young People, Ulrich Schoof, SEED Working Paper No. 76, International Labour Office, Geneva, 2006. 1 Covered in more detail in IPF ‘First Stage Review Report’. PAGE 25 www.proinno-europe.eu/partnering-forum
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Page 3 and 4: Summary This report describes the r
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Page 9 and 10: The RIE2015 has six main thrusts; o
Page 11 and 12: global trading companies in Singapo
Page 13 and 14: equip them with entrepreneurial min
Page 15 and 16: SPRING evaluates the proposals most
Page 17 and 18: Contact Points in the various agenc
Page 19 and 20: The service has a “For the Custom
Page 21 and 22: The study visit also included a vis
Page 23: 5 Good Practices & Transferability

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