Singapore in talks with banks to enhance financing schemes for businesses

Local companies have expressed concern on delayed and cancelled orders.

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong of Singapore said that they are in talks with banks to see if they can enhance financing schemes for companies.

“We are also talking to the banks, and also reviewing our various financing schemes that we have already put in place, to see whether they are adequate, and whether there is room for us to enhance them,” Gan said, speaking at the media doorstop of the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce (SERT), 16 May 2025.

Gan said that they are preparing schemes to be rolled out should the situation warrant it, that will reportedly help companies in specific areas of needs.

Local companies have reportedly expressed concern about delayed and cancelled orders and are worried about receiving payment from their customers.

“Some of the orders have been delayed or cancelled. So therefore, their revenue will be affected, and cashflow will be affected,” Gan said.

“Some of them are concerned about working capital, and these are the issues that we will take into account to help them deal with the immediate concerns,” he added.

Gan said that the outlook remains “very uncertain” especially at the end of the 90 days of the US reciprocal tariff pause.

While he called China’s and US’ recent decisions to reduce their tariffs on each other an encouraging development, Gan said that this is just the starting point.

“I think the journey will be quite long. It will take time for the two countries to come to an agreement with one another, whether they will eventually be able to come to an agreement is, again, uncertain,” he said.

SERT has been engaging with local businesses to prepare for the impact of the tariff, he said.

They also talked with the workers and households, who expressed concerns on job security and cost of living, respectively.

Gan said that for workers, they see creating more job opportunities is the key. They have also reportedly rolled out training opportunities.

They are also reportedly working with schools to see how they can step up efforts on job assistance.

For households, Singapore recently launched a S$500 tranche of CDC vouchers.

“We want to assure Singapore households that we will be there to support you to make sure that you will be able to cope with the impact of the economic slowdown if it happens,” Gan said.