Budget 2024: Short on expertise, small local firms face challenges in utilising schemes

Supporting SMEs to stay competitive and build capabilities must remain a national priority to avoid a two-track economy of big innovative firms and a backwater of local firms.

Implementation will be key to determine whether local firms can access and utilise the intended assistance, says the writer. ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
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Comprehensive, forward-leaning and pro-enterprise: These are words businesses have termed this year’s Singapore Budget. 

Compared with Budget 2023, described by some commentators as “all quiet on the economic front”, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong has clearly taken heed of concerns on rising business costs in Singapore and the call for more support to help our companies embrace technology and be more sustainability-centric.

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