Resilience can help Singapore private equity leapfrog to pole position

SINGAPORE'S recent budget announcements have been trade focused. Simplifying regulations, the launch of a US$5 billion private markets programme to encourage global private equity investment, and the establishment of the SME Co-Investment Fund III, to bring in additional funding, are all measures which boost the attractiveness of Singapore as a private equity hub.

Further, Enterprise Singapore's scale-up programme, Scale-up SG, will work with local firms to build new capabilities to innovate and expand into international markets. This builds on the existing work that the Infocomm Media Development Authority is doing to upskill businesses with its Industry Digital Plans for SMEs.

With significant effort put into networks and resources, Singapore has been hard at work boosting its reputation as a regional hub for private equity. The World Bank's Doing Business 2019 report, for example, ranks Singapore third in the world for its ease of starting a business.