The Singapore Department of Statistics recently released its 2020 Singapore SMEs statistics.  Undoubtedly, the report has shown the importance of SMEs to the growth of the Singapore economy.  We will go through the key takeaways from the report in this article.

Singapore SMEs Overview

In 2019, there were almost three hundred thousand businesses incorporated in Singapore.  Of that, *SMEs makeup 99% of all enterprises and support 72% of total employment.  81% of SMEs are locally owned, whilst 18% are foreign-owned.

*Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are defined as companies with a turnover of less than S$100 million or employ 200 or fewer employees.

Singapore GDP

In 2020, Singapore’s overall GDP was S$469,096 million, which is a reduction of 8.2% compared to the previous year.  Almost 70% of the GDP nominal value added was generated by the service industries and 25% was generated by the goods-producing industries. 

The top 3 services industries are:

• 8%, Wholesale trade
• 7%, Finance, and insurance
• 8%, Other service industries

The top 3 goods-producing industries are:

• 5%, Manufacturing
• 3%, Ownership of dwellings
• 7%, Construction

In 2018, Singapore SMEs exported services internationally worth over S$550 billion.  The top 6 countries were; the United States (~13%), EU27 (~13%), Japan (~7%),  China (~6%), Australia (~5%), and Hong Kong (~4%).

Total merchandise trade in 2020 was S$969.1 billion, exporting S$515.6 billion and importing S$453.5 billion.  The top 6 trading partners are:

• China, S$136.2 billion (14%)
• Malaysia, S$103.5 billion (11%)
• The United States, S$102.4 billion (10%)
• EU, S$90.1 billion (9%)
• Taiwan, S$75.2 billion (8%)
• Hong Kong, S$69.0 billion (7%)

Others Interesting Statistics

Other facts worth noting:

• Singapore received 2.7 million international visitors in 2020 providing S$27.7 billion in tourism.
• There were almost five thousand restaurants in Singapore and almost 500 fast food outlets.
• There were 9.1 million mobile phone subscriptions whilst the Singapore population sits at around 5.69 million people.
• On average, Singaporeans made an average of 3.4 million trips on the MRT each day.