S'pore to attract entrepreneurs

S'pore to attract entrepreneurs

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Wednesday unveiled a scheme to attract
foreign entrepreneurs into the city-state based on their business
plans instead of their educational qualification and salary
levels.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry
Raymond Lim said the "EntrePass" scheme will ease the
requirements for foreign investors to start up businesses here.

"This scheme will allow them to work in Singapore on the basis
of their business plan, instead of educational qualifications and
salary as was the case previously," he said in a speech to the
Foreign Correspondents Association.

Details of the plan are still being finalized and will be
announced next month, said Lim, who is also minister of state in
charge of entrepreneurship.

Lim's job includes encouraging the spirit of taking business
risks in a nation whose people are often said to be more used to
being told by the government what to do.

Critics have said that for Singapore to encourage
entrepreneurship, the government must ease many of the strict
rules which have stifled creativity among its people. -- AFP