News Stop: 8 March 2006

Some interesting news for the day (Updated):

Stay for the long haul… with cash dated 8 March 2006 (Valerie Law, Today)
– The proposal to set up a third board to provide an additional channel of funding to SMEs is interesting, as it follows the model which I know in the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the London Stock Exchange. Of course, not all companies need financing. The article also talks about the cultivation of an entrepreneurial culture within the entrepreneurs. Earlier, I have advocated the idea of bootstrapping to my students lately, and I begin to see them thinking of how to generate revenue with what they have, instead of fundraising. Only once we see our entrepreneurs learning how to make use of the difficult environment to generate cash and be more open to win-win situations, the SMEs will generate an alternative and vibrant economy to what we have in the present.

Emerging markets draw longer-term investors: Fitch (Jeana Wong, Channel NewsAsia).

$3.9b more to help SMEs get capital, boost know-how(Erica Tay, The Straits Times, needs subscription)
– They are going to spend $3.9 billion on the small and medium enterprises. So, if you are an entrepreneur, you should be working towards how to raise additional moneyty. According to the report, the government is going to allocate the cash over the next five years as either loans and grants, and also more help to upgrade their know-how.