The past decade has seen ACE and the entrepreneurial community it supports evolve and grow from strength to strength.
This month, the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) celebrates 10 years of supporting entrepreneurship in Singapore. We take a look at how ACE has kept pace with Singapore’s economic development and helped shape the entrepreneurial landscape here.
Improving the entrepreneurial environment
One of recommendations put forth by the Economic Review Committee in 2003 was to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, which would generate wealth and create jobs in Singapore. As part of the efforts to achieve this goal, ACE was started in May that year as a national movement to foster a pro-enterprise environment in Singapore.
At the time, two key concerns of the business community were difficulties in getting access to financing, as well as too much red tape. Hence, ACE also focused its efforts on facilitating discussion and debate on the regulatory framework and business environment in Singapore, and improving access to financing.
Mr Inderjit Singh, who was Deputy Chairman of ACE from 2006 to 2011, recalls, “When we started ACE, we set out to tackle the obstacles to entrepreneurship, especially rules and regulations which were not businessfriendly, and the lack of financing for the different stages of a company’s growth. The government roped in the private sector and entrepreneurs to drive the changes, so ACE became a community of entrepreneurs who worked with the government to change the eco-system in Singapore.”
Extensive consultations were held with the business community and entrepreneurs, which led to more than 1,800 suggestions on how to make the environment more pro-business. ACE, working together with the Pro-Enterprise Panel, reviewed and ultimately implemented more than 980 of these suggestions. The other focus was to change mindsets towards entrepreneurship and improve the culture, with the goal of nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. ACE introduced a Speakers Circuit, as a platform for entrepreneurs to share their experiences in schools in order to educate and inspire youths. The Speakers Circuit continues till today, with more than 150 sessions held and reaching out to some 60,000 youths. ACE also introduced regular BlueSky Exchanges, which continue to bring both seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs together to network and exchange ideas on a regular basis.
Entrepreneurship going strong
ACE’s efforts have clearly paid off. The improvement in the business environment has led to a rise in entrepreneurship – 56,000 new businesses were formed in Singapore in 2012, up from 43,000 in 2005. Furthermore, start-ups are having
a growing impact on the economy, employing some 300,000 people in 2010 and 2011, up from 167,000 in 2005.
In 2009, Singapore was ranked fourth out of 122 countries and second in Asia for providing capital access to entrepreneurs by the US Milken Institute. Indeed, according to start-up surveys conducted by DP Information Group, financing is no longer the foremost concern of start-ups, unlike 10 years ago. The World Bank also consistently ranks Singapore as first out of 183 countries in terms of “ease of doing business”.
In addition, the findings of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012 Report showed that Singapore ranked second, just behind the United States, in terms of total entrepreneurial activity, and came in first in terms of availability of funding and support given by government policies to new businesses.
With an environment that is now more conducive to entrepreneurship, ACE shifted its focus to supporting aspiring entrepreneurs in launching their first business. Last year, the ACE Start-ups programme replaced YES! Start-ups, and the age limit for application was lifted to encourage even more Singaporeans to take the first step towards their first venture.Beyond funding, ACE aims to link entrepreneurs to critical resources, such as mentors and business networks, to increase their chances of success.
Indeed, having an experienced mentor to act as a sounding board and providing strategic guidance can help accelerate a start-up’s growth, especially at the initial stages when start-ups require the most handholding. To date, more than 70
business leaders and professionals have signed up as ACE Mentors. This complements the government’s efforts in supporting incubators and venture accelerators to mentor and nurture innovative start-ups.
ACE is also putting emphasis on nurturing differentiated startups, particularly those looking to commercialise the wealth of groundbreaking R&D work done in Singapore. There has already been some success in this regard, with start-ups such as Clearbridge, Sofshell and HistoIndex winning international awards and venturing into overseas markets successfully.
Dr Steven Fang, ACE’s Deputy Chairman and the founder of CordLife Ltd, notes that internationalisation is another key area of focus. “We will be helping entrepreneurs to develop the skills to grow their businesses beyond Singapore and become global players. With Singapore’s limited market size, it is important for ACE to nurture entrepreneurs that can go global.” To this end, ACE established its first overseas chapter in Beijing in 2012, with plans to set up others in the years ahead. These overseas chapters will offer a platform for networking, mentoring and support to springboard Singapore start-ups into key overseas markets.
The next lap
In addition to supporting existing start-ups, ACE is intensifying efforts to nurture the entrepreneurs of tomorrow by putting in place a more structured approach to entrepreneurship education. Central to this is a three-year Entrepreneurship Programme for students in secondary schools. This will expose them to real-world businesses through workshops, company attachments and competitions. There is also a framework in place to help older students in polytechnics and ITE Colleges to convert their ideas into businesses.
These efforts, which are a continuation of earlier policies, are meant to develop a stronger entrepreneurial culture in Singapore, where the risks of starting a business have traditionally been shunned in favour of the security of jobs
with established companies. Some headway has already been made and the future looks more promising today – especially with eight in 10 youth respondents in Singapore thinking about starting their own business according to a recent global poll!¹
¹2011 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey
Reproduced with permission from SPRINGnews May 2013 Issue. Published by SPRING Singapore.