Thursday, December 02, 2010

High cost of operating a business in Singapore

Sent to Forum Page, Straits Times
I recently looked at the cost of renovating a small office of 1,300 sq ft and was shocked to receive several quotations exceeding $70,000, in spite of my modest requirements. This shows how costly it is to operate a business in Singapore.
Included in the cost is a sum of $3,500 to obtain the approval of the authority for fire safety. I learned later that this is the fee payable to professionals to certify the safety of the renovation. This same fee is charged for a small premise as well as a large premise of 10,000 sq ft.
It does not make sense to impose such a costly requirement for a small premise. I suggest that renovation of small premises should be exempted from the need to get the certification of a professional. Perhaps this certification should only be required in exceptional cases where the premises have activities that could impose a danger to fire safety.
Over the years, I have heard many complaints from small enterprises about the high cost of operating a business in Singapore. Several initiatives were taken to address these complaints. I am surprised to learn now that these initiatives did not seem to address this regulation, which seemed to be unnecessarily costly.

Tan Kin Lian

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I tend to agree. Setting up a brick and mortar shop is too expensive. Online business is the way to go in Singapore.

Regards,
www.sgwebreviews.blogspot.com

Spur said...

High costs of living in S'pore all traced to rent-seeking methods of govt and elites. All the costs will be passed on all the way down the food chain, until it reaches the ordinary consumer looking to buy rice and simple groceries for his family.

Renovation is closely linked to the root source of problem --- high property prices. Hence the vendors also wish to cash in and raise their fees as high as customers are willing to pay. Maybe better to forgo the renovation first, just get off-the-shelf basic infrastructure for time being.

yujuan said...

A small businessman told us, before he sets up an office to do business, he is first given 10 strokes of the cane. The initial costs really floor him.
He is now operating from home.

Gary said...

This is called taking a cut - between govt , renovation contractor and landlord. Won't be surprised if many of these landlords and contractors are also pap grassroot 'leaders' too.

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