Week 2 - UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

During Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally speech this year, he emphasised on "A Home with Hope and Heart" where he wanted Singaporeans to treat each other better and not possess negative feelings towards foreigners. To quote, he said, "Singaporeans must show a generosity of spirit to one another, including new arrivals... We can be from a small island, but we cannot be small-minded." (Barker, 2012, para.11). He then went on to further encourage for more social enterprises (SEs) throughout Singapore. A widening income gap is plaguing this emerging global city of ours, and we have to do something to resolve this now. PM Lee believes that Singaporeans should not just rely on practices of their company's corporate philanthropy as our own respective individual choices can make a big difference. Multuply that by the projected 6.76 million of us living on this small dot by 2050 (Institute of Policy Studies, 2012, p.2). To give my own version of what PM Lee has said, "We can be from a small island, but we [can do great things to improve the lives of everyone here in Singapore and generations to come]".

Image from newnation.sg

Nevertheless, with such efforts and even publicity by our PM, SEs still cease to be a popular trend in Singapore. As of this year, there are currently only 170 SEs in Singapore. The numbers are definitely increasing, but with us coming in close to a 6 million population count right now, 170 social enterprises are lamentable. In my personal opinion, Singaporeans are still more willing to venture into setting up of small medium enterprises (SMEs) rather than SEs, but why is this so?

According to a Channel News Asia article by Gross, reports show that there is not enough knowledge about SEs amongst Singaporeans. Upon conducting a nationwide survey, it was found that "out of 2000 respondents, only 13 per cent knew [the meaning of] a social enterprise". (2011, para. 2).

Image from http://www.mcys.gov.sg/

However, the new formation of Ministry of Social and Family Development (a restructuring of MCYS and MICA), set to be official on 1st November 2012 hopes to address such challenges and promote awareness on social enterprises and what social entrepreneurship is about once it launches. This new formation of MSF will provide Singaporeans with a much stronger and clearer focus as to the support of social enterprises. Training and skills development support for the set up of new SEs or growth of existing ones will be given and as for funding, MSF will be informing the public about its funding schemes more fervently because there are a lot of funding outlets available as of now, it's just that the public are not aware of them. (Siong, 2012). I must say that I agree with the last few words of the public not being aware of the funding schemes available. Throughout my first and second year as a Business & Social Enterprise student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, I never knew of all the funding opportunities available for social enterpreneurship ventures. I had heard of the funding platforms that were offered by my school for entrepreneurial ideas, however none specifically for SEs. It was only when I came into my third year and set out on my Industry Project that it came to light - there were numerous funding schemes from the ComCare Enterprise Fund by MCYS to the SIF Young Social Entrepreneur seed funding to the SE Hub's funding platform of up to a million SGD.

There are so many things I myself as a student in the course of Business & Social Enterprise am just finding out. I do not blame a majority of Singaporeans for not being aware on what social entrepreneurship is because even in the world it remains as a growing manifestation. I hope that through such governmental efforts and efforts from international non-governmental organisations that social entrepreneurship will be promoted throughout Singapore and the world because this is a concept that allows for profit both economically and socially - a true balance that this world is in dire need of right now.



References

Barker, V. (2012, August 27). PM Lee on building a Singapore of hope and heart. In News@AsiaOne. Retrieved on 28 October 2012, from http://www.asiaone.com/print/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120827-367706.html

Gross, S. (2011, September 3). Study shows low public awareness of social enterprises in S'pore. ChannelNewsAsia. Retrieved on 28 October 2012, from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1150901/1/.html


Institute of Policy Studies. (2011, March). Scenarios of future population growth and change in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew school of public policy. Retrieved on 28 October 2012, from http://www.spp.nus.edu.sg/ips/docs/enewsletter/Mar2011/MT_Scenarios%20of%20Future%20Population%20Growth%20and%20Change%20in%20Singapore_010311.pdf

Siong, O. (2012, August 10). New ministry to provide better support for social enterprises. ChannelNewsAsia. Retrieved on 28 October 2012, from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1219356/1/.html