Our Silent Heroes: the SME Centre@SICCI

Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) have multi-faceted roles in Singapore, and very often, the public and the business community get a glimpse of the frontline activities that the Chamber embarks on or organises.

There are, however, a group of essential players in the Chamber of commerce, including the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce, who play a critical role in how Singapore businesses can upgrade themselves and stay competitive. These individuals also help businesses in difficulty obtain the much-needed grants to stay afloat until they come out of their complex business cycles.

They are the staff and leaders from the SME Centres which the chambers of commerce operate, very often behind the scenes and that consoling voice over the phone or zoom call listening to your problems and business concerns and then giving you the best available and tailor-made advice that can fit your company to address your peculiar problems.

At the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, its SME Centre@SICCI is staffed by some ten dedicated men and women who offer a slew of services for the Indian business community. There are also occasions when the Centre receives calls from other businesses too.

The SME Centre@SICCI is an initiative of Enterprise SG.

It was set up in collaboration with SICCI in 2008. The Centre works closely with Enterprise SG and other government agencies such as Info-communications Media Development Authority and Workforce Singapore to help enterprises better understand available government schemes to improve their businesses.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SME Centre played a critical role in advising companies about the various special schemes that the Ministry of Finance had announced in its various Budget presentations and how they can take advantage of them.

And post-pandemic in 2022, the focus has turned to seizing global opportunities and a call to the Indian business community to join hands with the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce ad Industry to march forward and capture the local and global business pie. In this regard, in 2022, the SME Centre provided business advisory services to almost 2900 members.

Enterprise SG too places much importance on the work being done by the various SME Centres in Singapore.

Enterprise SG reports in its annual year-in-review that the network of SME Centres operated by the Trade Associations and Chambers assisted more than 25,000 SMEs through business advisory, capability workshops, and upgrading efforts in 2022.

Looking ahead, in 2023, the SME Centre@SICCI has been busy running several capability workshops to help businesses stay updated. A recent workshop on cybersecurity issues and the need for vigilance amongst companies in ensuring PDPA rules have been well adhered to attract much interest at a session held at the SICCI Headquarters.

Another recent workshop on digital marketing capability touched on digital transformation for businesses.

There is much work ahead for the SME Centre@SICCI as companies continue to transform and chase that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Now is the time to also put into place all the necessary systems so that come another pandemic or economic downturn, it is all systems go for small and medium enterprises in the Indian business community to react quickly, retain their skilled workers and continue to survive a challenging business cycle.

So, what are you waiting for?

Just pick up the phone and contact our silent heroes at the SME Centre or drop them an email and make the best use of the business capability improvement services and advice they provide the Indian business community.

The SME Centre@SICCI can be reached at 65080147 or by email at [email protected]