DBS and Singtel are giving digital goodies to Singapore’s small businesses

The 99% SME campaign launch event. Photo credit: Singtel.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore are getting a little digital love from DBS bank and major telco Singtel. The two companies announced today they’re launching a bunch of resources meant to help small businesses with ecommerce and cashless payments.

The initiative is part of Singapore’s 99% SME campaign, a movement kicked off by DBS and Singtel.

DBS will offer the first 10 participating food and beverage establishments a discount on its DBS FasTrack monthly subscription fee and a sponsorship package. FasTrack is a system that enables ordering and payments in-store, developed by DBS that became available to businesses last month.

This could step on the toes of several startups who are targeting the same market with their own ordering and payment methods, like Sphere and Ordr.

The initiative is meant to help small businesses with ecommerce and cashless payments.

DBS is also offering various fee waivers for the first 250 business that sign up for the NETS and DBS Card Acceptance service. This allows merchants to use only one terminal for both the Singapore-native NETS payment scheme and regular credit card payments. Finally it’s going to give all participants a S$10,000 overdraft facility with an interest rate of 6 percent, which it claims is one of the lowest in the market for small businesses.

Singtel, for its part, will offer the first 500 SMEs its Ecommerce Solution package for 99 cents a day for six months – a total cost of about S$200. The package includes workshops, training, and hands-on assistance for SMEs to build and manage their own online stores.

Other offerings include training on things like data analytics, digital marketing, and cybersecurity, a MediaCorp contest to get advertising grants, and a campaign to incentivize consumers to shop at SMEs during the SME week, on October 14 to 23.

The movement’s name alludes to how SMEs make up 99 percent of Singapore’s businesses, according to enterprise support agency SPRING.

SMEs can apply to participate in the 99% campaign through the website. The deadline is September 30. To qualify for the program, they must have at least 30 percent Singaporean ownership, and have less than S$100 million in revenue per year or less than 200 employees.

The initiative is supported by SPRING, Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, Singaporean chambers of Commerce and Industry and trade and merchants’ associations, MasterCard, and media partner MediaCorp.