For starters, they can do the networking that is needed for local enterprises to expand into overseas markets.

“They can do trade delegation, identify opportunities and organize the potential customers at the other end with their counterparts,” said the Second Minister for Transport and Finance in an interview on 3 February.

“What these organizations need to understand is the power of aggregation, said Mrs Lim.

“The feedback from (SMEs) is that they get very bogged down with admin and corporate functions,” she noted.

“If you have a trade association to help aggregate demand, some of these functions can be outsourced to a provider who can then support a few companies, rather than for each SME to employ one company secretary, one accounts person and so on.”

Eventually, trade organizations can even sow the seeds for rival SMEs to band together in overseas markets for added strength, or even to merge outright, she suggested.

Mrs Lim’s committee is suggesting that the Government pay special attention to these associations.

“The Government can start by working with the bigger (associations) first to see how we can really make a concerted sort of of penetration into markets like India and China to begin with,” she added.

“Then once people are used to working together, providing  solutions alongside each other, and sharing networks and contacts, I think it will just add so much value to the smaller companies especially.”

Different associations will need different types of help from the Government, she said.

“It could be giving them money, or it could also be giving them actual people who are able to help drive some of the programmes,” she said.