Singapore has merged two of its public trade promotion agencies into a single entity, which will be known as Enterprise Singapore.

The agency will support and promote Singaporean companies, products and services as it looks to become Asia’s dominant trading hub.

It absorbs the activity of International Enterprise (IE) and the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (Spring Singapore). At the helm will be Png Cheong Boon, who will act as CEO.

Png has been director of Spring since 2008 and has also served in senior positions at the Singapore Economic Development Board. He is concurrently working as a director of Jurong Port and of JTC Corporation, a state-owned real estate company and statutory board under the ministry of trade and industry.

In a release, Enterprise Singapore says it is “structured to help companies of all sizes – from startups, micro and small companies, to mid-sized and large companies – grow stronger and stay globally competitive”.

Png adds: “The success of Singapore companies is critical to our economy and to create good jobs for Singaporeans. Enterprise Singapore builds on the strengths of IE Singapore and Spring to drive and shape the future of our companies. To do this well, the work of Enterprise Singapore cannot be done alone. We will work closely with partners to help committed companies innovate and transform, be it to change business models, adopt technology, strengthen talent pool or deepen global networks.”

The Singaporean government takes a top-down approach to managing its trade economy. For example, its National Trade Platform is a public sector push to digitise its trade services, in an effort to make it an easier and more secure place to do business. Feeding into this are organisations such as Singapore Customs, which is working closely on the digital trade finance agenda, seeking to automate cumbersome and previously paper-based activity.