Rule Changes Make It Easier for Singapore SMEs to Bid on Public Projects
Small business in Singapore may soon be able to start bidding for government projects with the new changes to the rules in place which make it much easier for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to get in on the bidding game.
SMEs with a yearly revenue which sits below $5 million will no longer have to show their audited financial statements should they want to be involved in government tenders, making the bidding process much cheaper for SMEs. Some 3,900 suppliers in Singapore are expected to benefit from this change, and this number is based on the current number of suppliers who have registered to participate in government tenders in the past.
Out of the 200,000 SMEs in Singapore, approximately 160,000 are currently estimated to be earning an annual revenue which sits below $5 million per year.
Businesses will no longer have to affix their company stamps
Beginning October, businesses will no longer have to affix their company stamps onto the government forms they submit, which includes tender-related documents which are being submitted through the government procurement portal GeBiz unless those stamps are a legislation requirement. In some cases, company stamps may be needed for the purpose of identity verification.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) Pro-Enterprise Panel brought about these changes following a review which was conducted that found it was both “time-consuming and cumbersome” for SMEs to download, print, stamp, scan and send the required documentation back to the respective agencies via e-mail.
When it came to the risks involved with these new rule changes, the risks were still viewed as manageable as smaller companies were likely to bid for contracts which were of lower-value, and work on instead building a good track record before attempting to bid for the bigger contracts.
