Last week Singapore’s Senior Minister of State, in the Ministry of Trade & Industry, Lee Yi Shyan, delivered the keynote speech at the 2015 Singapore Retail Industry Conference. In this speech he urged local Singaporean retailers and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) offering unique Singaporean products to explore partnering with global platforms like eBay to export their products worldwide.  

Mr. Lee, who was the Guest of Honor at the SRIC 2015, unveiled a new Retail Productivity Plan. This five-year strategy aims to increase topline growth by helping retailers sell online and market their products on international platforms. This is an upgrade from the very first Retail Productivity Plan, which focused more on operational efficiency, technology adoption, human resource upgrading and customer-centric initiatives. The Singapore government now aims to further enhance the Retail Productivity Plan by providing support and know-how for retailers in ecommerce in a bid to help them sell online and market their products on international platforms such as eBay.

"Ecommerce levels the playing field between small and large enterprises by allowing our local retailers to reach an international audience and enables enterprises to better engage existing customers, all at a significantly lower cost," Mr Lee said.

The Singapore Government is providing strong support to businesses seeking to adopt ecommerce. eBay, in turn, is working with SPRING Singapore, a Statutory Board for SME Development, on a customized mentorship program to help small and medium sized retailers with unique Singaporean products sell their products worldwide through the eBay platform. eBay is honored to be able to contribute to Singapore’s National Agenda.