Singapore’s first SME-focused digitalisation event was the announcement platform for new initiatives strengthening the broader industry ecosystem to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), ensuring no business is left behind in the digital transition.
The new initiatives were announced by Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information at the inaugural SMEs Go Digital Day, organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), that gives SMEs access to more than 200 of IMDA’s pre-approved solutions – the largest physical line-up of pre-approved solution providers at a single event. The one-day event saw more than 5,000 SME owners and industry partners registered.
According to the Singapore Digital Economy (SGDE) report released by IMDA in early October, 95.1% of SMEs which adopted at least one of six digital areas* measured had deepened their digital adoption intensity**. More local SMEs have also adopted AI, from 4.2% in 2023 to 14.5% in 2024, achieving an average cost saving of 52%.
These findings come as SMEs grapple with rising costs, customer expectations and competition. To help SMEs stay competitive, IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service serves as a 24x7 one-stop platform to support their digital journey. In 2024, more than 400,000 users accessed CTO-as-a-Service to:
- Browse and compare over 300 of IMDA’s pre-approved, market-proven solutions with grant support. As of 2024, 30% of these solutions are AI-enabled (up from 20% in 2023) to help SMEs boost productivity.
- Access Industry Digital Plans covering 22 industry sectors for a step-by-step guide on sector-specific solutions to address respective sector business challenges.
- Discover SME success stories and curated articles.
The SGDE report also highlighted that digitalisation delivers tangible benefits, from raising productivity and revenues, to unlocking new markets. Building on this momentum, IMDA has revamped the CTO-as-a-Service platform to be more SME business-needs driven with the launch of a new Go Digital Advisor.
The tool enables SMEs to identify the right solutions for their most pressing challenges in three clicks, making it easier for them to address business pain points through digitalisation. The Go Digital Advisor can also guide SMEs through business issues across functions such as sales and marketing, customer service, operations, human resources, sustainability, and cybersecurity. It then helps SMEs identify their top three business gaps and recommends pre-approved, market-proven digital solutions, with grant support from IMDA to give SMEs the confidence to adopt and scale.
Government initiatives to drive enterprise digitalisation are enhanced through strong partnerships with industry stakeholders. As of May this year, 11 partners – Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, DBS Bank, Google, Microsoft, Prudential Singapore, Salesforce, SGTech, Singapore Business Federation, Singapore Computer Society and ST Engineering – have pledged their commitment through various initiatives to uplift enterprises and workers in support of Singapore’s Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB) that was launched in May 2024. To date, more than 20,000 enterprises have benefited from these partnership initiatives and programmes.
Two new partners have come forward to support the DEB, joining IMDA to launch initiatives that uplift SMEs’ capabilities and cyber resilience:
- To help SMEs safeguard their businesses against cyber threats, Singtel, in partnership with Enterprise Singapore and IMDA, has launched the Singtel Cyber Protect Programme. Fourteen thousand SMEs can enjoy free Mobile Protect for 12 months to safeguard their business mobile devices from cyberthreats.
Another 35,000 SMEs can enjoy free broadband security for 12 months to secure business office networks from cyberattacks.
Beyond these services, Singtel will also conduct cybersecurity workshops and produce educational videos to enhance SMEs’ understanding of cyberthreats and mitigation strategies. To register interest, SMEs can visit Singtel Cyber Protect Programme or IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service platform to sign up from 1 November 2025.
- To help SMEs harness the power of AI to transform and grow their businesses, the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), in partnership with IMDA, has launched the SCCCI AI Experience for SME Programme. in SCCCI will strengthen SMEs’ AI adoption through hands-on workshops with IMDA's pre-approved AI and generative AI tools in conjunction with its network of 5,000 corporate members and 160 trade associations covering over 40,000 companies.
SMEs can also gain confidence in the use of AI tools for their business needs through interactive workshops and guidance from solution providers. Interested SMEs can sign up on SCCCI’s website or IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service platform from January 2026.
These efforts build on existing partnership initiatives, such as ST Engineering’s SME CyberResilience Programme that offers free cyberthreat scans to help SMEs protect their operations, and the DBS Spark GenAI Programme that strengthens AI adoption and helps SMEs harness the power of generative AI.
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Get the step-by-step guide to access the Go Digital Advisor (PDF).
*The six digital areas measured were cybersecurity, cloud, e-payments, e-commerce, data analytics, and AI.
**Digital adoption intensity refers to the average number of digital areas adopted per firm, out of the six areas measured.
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