MTI announces financing solutions to drive growth and Government’s commitment to reduce regulatory burden

25 March 2025

On 6 March 2025, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (“MTI”) announced financing solutions launched to drive enterprises’ growth and the Government’s commitment to reduce regulatory burden. Enterprise Singapore (“EnterpriseSG”) also published a webpage on Budget 2025 initiatives. Brief details of some of these measures are set out below.

Financing solutions to drive growth

To further accelerate enterprises’ growth through both organic and inorganic activities, the Government will be introducing two new financing instruments: the Private Credit Growth Fund (“PCGF”) and the Long Term Investment Fund (“LTIF”).

  • PCGF

To grow more promising local enterprises into Singapore-based global champions, MTI and Enterprise Singapore will establish the S$1 billion PCGF. The fund provides non-dilutive customised financing to best meet the diverse needs of promising local enterprises. The financing support is coupled with specialist advisory services from a commercial specialist private credit solutions fund manager (“fund manager”), who will be appointed to invest and manage the fund. Enterprises will be able to access advice and guidance in areas such as M&A, financial management, and supply chain improvement. MTI states that the PCGF is suitable for high growth enterprises that require bespoke, non-dilutive financing solutions for growth activities such as international M&As and/or large capital expenditures.

Further details about the PCGF, including the fund manager and eligibility criteria, are expected to be announced by Q3 2025.

  • LTIF

The Government will provide more than S$200 million in capital to establish the LTIF. The LTIF will make investments beyond the typical three- to seven-year term of the existing Government-backed equity funds, in order to provide highly patient growth capital. MTI states that the LTIF is suitable for growth enterprises with longer and/or more complex growth trajectories (e.g. longer product development cycles, companies in niche/nascent sectors with longer gestation periods, etc.) that require highly patient capital to pursue long-term organic and inorganic growth opportunities.

More details about the LTIF are expected to be announced by H2 2025.

Government’s commitment to reduce regulatory burden

At the MTI Committee of Supply debate 2025, three statements of commitment were announced to guide collective efforts across Whole-of-Government in reducing compliance burden:

  • All agencies should publish service standards for the processing of business regulatory applications. Where feasible, service standards should be within 30 working days. The Annex to the MTI press release includes a list of business regulatory applications with service standards within 30 working days. Agencies will review and expand this list over time.
  • All agencies should increase the validity period of business licences to a minimum of three years, with a target towards five years where possible. Where it is not feasible to have a minimum three-year validity period
    (e.g. due to public health, safety or security reasons, or where licensees have poor track records), agencies will explain why. Agencies may continue issuing provisional licences to new businesses, before awarding a longer validity period during renewal.
  • The Government will continue to streamline regulatory processes to minimise sequential regulatory approvals and duplicative information requests from multiple agencies.

The Statements of Commitment will be complemented by three pillars of work to enhance the business support ecosystem to navigate Government regulations, namely:

  • The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Pro-Enterprise Office (“SME PEO”), which was launched on 26 March 2025, will be the Government’s key coordination unit to help businesses with feedback on regulations that span multiple public agencies or relate to new or emerging sectors.
  • SME Centres, operated by trade associations and chambers, to help small and medium-sized enterprises navigate regulations with the support of SME PEO. EnterpriseSG will support SME Centres to provide more programmes and advisory services to address a wider range of business needs.
  • Digital platforms to streamline licensing and regulatory transactions and serve businesses at scale, such as GoBusiness2 and CORENET X3.

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the MTI website www.mti.gov.sg and EnterpriseSG website www.enterprisesg.gov.sg: