Singapore agency providing aid to member companies
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, February 9, 2009
SINGAPORE — The Singapore Furniture Inds. Council says it will provide subsidies of S$500 to S$4,000 ($330 to $2,640 in U.S. dollars) to member companies to help them weather current economic conditions.
The program, called the Members Assistance Scheme, expects to give out financial packages totaling up to $1 million.
Subsidies will be designed to help reduce business costs, strengthen capabilities and allow members to explore new business opportunities to ensure sustainability and diversify, the organization said.
“As the official representative body of the furniture industry, SFIC's core objective has always been to add value to our members' businesses and help them adapt and remain competitive,” said Andrew Ng, SFIC president.
“The global economic slowdown will affect a majority of our members as their businesses are essentially export-driven. Being industry players ourselves, we fully understand the current challenges that our members are facing today,” he said.
Members can tap into the MAS program to offset participation costs in any SFIC activities or certain other industry development programs. This includes participation in overseas trade fairs and missions, the organization said.
About 260 companies are eligible to participate. The SFIC represents about 95% of Singapore's furniture manufacturers.This is the third assistance program established by the council and the first since 2005.
The previous programs disbursed some S$2.3 million in assistance and benefited 229 members.
