Number of Business Closures and Formations since Start of Circuit Breaker

11 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what is the total number of business closures and formations since the start of the circuit breaker period; (b) what is the sectoral breakdown of those most affected to the least affected; (c) what is the Ministry's outlook on the business cessation trend and sectoral implications for the remainder of 2020 even as the global and domestic economies gradually open up.

The Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Chee Hong Tat) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in April 2020, around 3,800 business entities were formed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was almost a third lower than the average of 5,500 recorded over the same period between 2015 and 2019. Most sectors saw a fall in the formation of new business entities during this period.

The cessation of business entities numbered around 3,800 in April, which was comparable to the average of 3,700 recorded over the same month in the past five years.

For the rest of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a severe impact on many sectors of our economy. Outward-oriented sectors such as wholesale trade will be adversely affected by the global economic slowdown, while the air transport and tourism sectors will continue to be badly affected by travel restrictions. Sectors such as retail and food services will also be adversely impacted by reduced demand from tourists and local consumers. On the other hand, there are sectors which continue to grow, such as biomedical manufacturing and the information and communications sector.

Against this backdrop, MTI expects the formation of new business entities to remain subdued, while cessation numbers could see an uptick in the coming months.

Sir, it is not possible to avoid firm closure and retrenchments. These happened even before COVID-19, but with COVID-19, we must expect the situation to worsen and these numbers to go up. We will help every worker. Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is chairing the National Jobs Council. The council aims to support close to 100,000 jobseekers through the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. This includes initiatives to expand job opportunities in both the public and private sectors, provide a range of traineeships for jobseekers to gain industry-relevant experience and build professional networks, as well as increase training capacity to enable jobseekers to upgrade their skills.

This is a very challenging task. There is no certainty that we will succeed in creating all the jobs and opportunities in adifficult economic environment. But we will do our best. We will rally together. We will bring on board all tripartite partners. We will support one another and spare no effort to achieve our goals. And we will overcome this crisis as one united Team Singapore.

Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh): I would like to thank Senior Minister of State Chee for the detailed answer. I just have one supplementary question. In relation to his answer, with MTI and EDB's announcement that from January to April, there is an investment commitment of about $13 billion coming to Singapore. In terms of job creation, going forward, and also those investment commitments beyond April to end of 2020 and possibly early first half of 2021, can Senior Minister of State share a bit more about whether the trajectory of investment commitments will continue to be positive and in which sectors in particular, going forward?

Mr Chee Hong Tat: Sir, I thank Mr Saktiandi for his supplementary question. Minister Chan Chun Sing shared earlier this week that the investment commitments that EDB has managed to attract amounted to $13 billion and this will create thousands of jobs. We are heartened that investors continue to have confidence in Singapore and that is very important because we do need to create jobs from a range of different sources – public sector, but also private sector.

As to how well we can continue to attract investments, I think a key factor is how well we respond to this crisis as a country. If we can demonstrate resilience, fortitude, we can show unity, we are able to overcome this crisis together as one united Team Singapore, we are able to rally our tripartite partners to work closely together, I think we can inspire confidence and we can attract investments. We can demonstrate that Singapore has the capabilities and the resilience to overcome this crisis. That is very important – how we respond to this crisis together.

We continue to have to remain as an attractive business hub because it is not just about retaining our current capabilities and companies but also attracting new ones. I shared earlier in my main reply that there will be some sectors that will show a decline and some sectors will show growth. How we navigate in this new COVID-19 environment, how we are able to adapt, how quickly and how flexible we can be to adjust to attract new growth sectors – agri-tech, biomedical, e-commerce, financial sector, infocomm and technology – those are the areas which we have to work together to be able to grow the pie so that there is more to go around; better jobs, more jobs, more opportunities.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Next, question. Mr Seah Kian Peng.