By Shukry Rashid
Singapore’s wholesale trade history can be traced back to when it was founded in 1819. Thanks to its conducive geographical location and country’s free port status, the mouth of the Singapore River served as the preferred port of call then and a busy marketplace. Wholesale trade remained as Singapore’s main commercial lifeline for the next century as traders all over the world flocked to the little red dot.
Pivotal to the development of modern Singapore, wholesale trade still plays a big role in our economy – albeit no longer just at the Singapore River. The country currently has over 10 container terminals located islandwide.
In 2016, it provided jobs for 325,000 workers and contributed $47.3 billion to our Gross Domestic Product.
Industry Transformation
On 6 September 2017, the Wholesale Trade Industry Transformation Map (ITM) was introduced with International Enterprise (IE) Singapore taking the lead. Through the ITM, 10,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the industry by 2020.
IE Singapore CEO Lee Ark Boon said: “Asia’s boom in urbanisation and consumerism presents new opportunities. ‘South-South’* trade is also growing much faster, and Singapore is well-positioned to play an important role. However, external volatility and digital technology are changing how trade is conducted.
“Companies need to transform business models and be equipped with new skillsets. A strong core of Singaporean talent and companies will underpin our sustainability and long-term success.”
Digitalisation
The Wholesale Trade ITM was launched to help companies adopt digitalisation, and build a talent pipeline with skillsets for digitalisation and internationalisation.
This will be done through enhancements to global trade connectivity, developments in innovative trade financing solutions to better capture value from e-commerce trade flows, and increasing small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) market access and productivity through digital marketplaces.
The ITM will work with trade associations and private enterprises to help SMEs to be listed on digital marketplaces, which will enable them to enjoy economies of scale through shared services with other SMEs.
Jobs and Skills
The ITM will address the training and development needs of both entry-level graduates and mid-career professionals as various institutes of higher learning will be launching courses for the industry.
Additionally, the Singapore Management University has also launched the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for International Trading Executives, which will help mid-career Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) switch into the wholesale trade industry through a place-and-train model.
The ITM will also work with the Singapore Business Federation to develop a PCP-South East Asia Ready Talent to place local PMETs into a market immersion training programme that is designed and driven by private companies.
*South-South refers to countries in the southern hemisphere.
