SMEs get digital leg up in new wholesale trade industry plan

They can access a broad range of technologies at different stages to enhance cross-border trading.

Over 33,000 small and medium-enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from the new wholesale trade industry digital plan (IDP) which assesses their readiness and opportunities to go digital at different phases of their growth, an announcement revealed.

The IDP was launched by senior minister of state for trade and industry Koh Poh Koon and is part of the SMEs Go Digital Programme jointly developed by Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

The wholesale trade IDP is a step-by-step guide to help SME’s start their digitalisation journey and keep pace with industry transformation. However, larger enterprises can also refer to the IDP to support their digitalisation efforts, IMDA noted.

It comprises of a three-stage digital roadmap that charts out different digital solutions SMEs can adopt at each phase of their growth. SMEs get geared up for the digital economy in Stage 1 and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for sales and inventory management are provided to streamline operations and optimise resources.

Stage 2 highlights digital solutions that enable SMEs to access and connect with the global trading system through initiatives such as plugging into B2B e-marketplaces and online platforms for supply chain financing and procurement.

Meanwhile, Stage 3 identifies the advanced digital technologies SMEs can leverage on to improve their competitive edge in cross-border trading. Such technologies include blockchain technology to enhance trade documentation processes and artificial intelligence (AI) to predict sales trends.

The wholesale trade industry is a major contributor to Singapore’s economy as it accounts for approximately 16% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, with SMEs making up 97% of the establishments.

“With more than 80% of its sales derived from overseas markets, the sector is highly influenced by the evolving global trading environment such as the rise of digital B2B marketplaces and the use of blockchain and artificial intelligence to improve trade processes,” IMDA said in a statement.

In addition, seafood associations the Punggol Fish Merchants association, Seafood Industries Association Singapore and Singapore Fish Merchants’ General Association inked a Memorandum of Understanding with technology platform solutions provider VCargo Cloud to establish the first seafood B2B e-marketplace in Singapore in bid to boost local seafood trade.

“Though this platform, seafood associations aim to improve operational efficiency by streamlining seafood trading processes such as procurement and sales management, and deliver better business insights through analytics,” IMDA said in a statement.

The platform will also offer Singapore seafood merchants greater access to overseas markets through online trading of chilled and frozen seafood, whilst reducing the cost of fulfilment and enabling merchants to achieve economies of scale through shared services, the agency added.

Singapore’s wholesale trade in seafood accounted for about $1.5b in imports and $400m in exports in 2017. During the same year, Singapore consumed roughly 120,000 tonnes of seafood, of which more than half were locally produced.

The industry-led initiative is said to bring on-board approximately 50 seafood merchants and their trading partners within the first two years.