Lack of Talent, Competition Slows Down Singapore SMEs: StudyLack of talents and competition are two major reasons behind the business slowdown of Singapore's Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), a study released in Hong Kong by a leading Asia market research company said.According to a September 2001 syndicated study by Asia Market Intelligence (AMI), there are a wide range of reasons contributing to the slow down of the business of Singapore's SMEs. The top factors impacting the slowdown are competition in the local market, competition in foreign market, lack of suitable talent in the employment pool and slow decision-making process, said Piers Lee, a senior researcher of the AMI. "The survey also indicated that SMEs in Singapore ranked the US slowdown as one of the major factors affecting their growth prospects. This is greater than the corresponding slowdown in the Japanese and European economies," Lee said. "The interesting thing to note is that although only 10 percent of Singapore SMEs export directly to the United States, SMEs are suffering the supply chain effect of depressed demand from other companies who in turn export to the US," Lee added. "The data results also indicates that securing the best stuff will remain as important business recovery in 2002 as winning business from the competition in both domestic and foreign market, " he said. |
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