The awareness and usage levels of the government schemes for SMEs to venture overseas.

It has been recognised that the roles played by the Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) in helping to shape the economy of Singapore are very crucial. The local SMEs have contributed much to her economic performance and well-being. In 1993, the Economic Survey of Singapore reported that local SMEs constituted 91% of the total number of establishments and contributed 26% of the value-added to the economy. Thus, recognising this importance, the objective of this study is to determine the awareness and the usage levels of the government schemes that are available to SMEs in helping them to go overseas. The scope of this study is only limited to the government schemes that are offered to the local SMEs only. The first part of this project is to review the importance, growth and problems faced by the local SMEs and their contribution towards Singapore’s economy. The second part is the methodology used in determining the objective of this project. There are two phases being carried out in this part. The first phase is an in-depth interviewing. This is followed by the mail survey to support the objective of this study. An in-depth interview with nine companies was done to provide the qualitative aspect of the study. From our research findings, the awareness and the usage levels are quite low despite the many arrays of government schemes that are made available to the SMEs in aiding them to go overseas. After which, a mail survey was sent to the local SMEs to solicit responses from them to find out whether they know the schemes and how much they have utilised these schemes in helping them to go abroad for businesses. This is the quantitative aspect of this project. The response rate was low even though an impromptu “fax” survey was done immediately after knowing the low response rate from the mail survey. Finally, recommendations are drawn up based on the in-depth interviews the nine companies.BUSINES