On Wednesday this week, I had the opportunity to participate in a dialogue with Women Members of Parliament, courtesy of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (or ASME). There were 30-odd ladies in attendance, and many of them were entrepreneurs like me.

The “women in white” that evening were Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport, and Ms Jessica Tan, MP for East Coast GRC. The session was chaired by Ms Irene Boey, the Immediate Past President of the Singapore Business and Professional Women’s Association (SBPWA), an organization I have supported for the last two years.

Brief introductions were made by all and the floor opened up for questions. The topics were wide and varied, yet addressed the concerns we face today as business women, colleagues, wives and mothers, juggling economic and domestic roles, both crucial in Singapore today.

We bounced from a lack of benefits to SMEs in the 2010 Budget, financial education, child and elder care options, casinos in Singapore and more. The questions raised were refreshingly direct and included:

• Can the Government ensure tenders less than S$100,000 were only open for companies less than S$3 million in revenue?
• Youth enterprises get S$50,000 grants from the educational institutes – can women over 30 avail of similar funding?
• What criteria do you need to fulfill to become an MP?
• Can paper qualifications be lowered so more women can qualify as teachers at childcare centres?
• Why do Singaporeans need to pay a levy to enter the casinos here?
• Can the Government help by providing more options for eldercare?
• How can women raise their productivity?
• Won’t the new foreign worker levies hurt the manufacturing industry as it becomes less competitive globally?

In turn, the responses from Mrs Lim and Ms Tan were honest, open and to the point. What I learnt that evening was:

• The role of the Government is not to artificially support companies that are not financially viable to begin with. Firms need to stand up to the market test and succeed in order to survive tomorrow.
• Women should be able to find funding up to S$50,000 if they want to be successful in the future. If you can’t get your friends and family to invest in you, why should you expect the Government to?
• A good MP is first committed to the country before all else, and appreciates the feelings of the people above self. (Women MPs constitute 20% of the numbers in Singapore and more are needed.)
• The rising expectations of parents make it necessary for even pre-school teachers to be able to stimulate and educate their children, making it mandatory for basic certifications. (One participant has devised a programme of 50 hours of training, funded up to 50% by the Government, but lacks takers.)
• The Integrated Resorts debate was settled with two caveats – the floor space would be limited, and Singaporeans and Permanent Residents would pay a S$100 levy to enter. (This figure was estimated based on the cost of a cruise-to-nowhere trip, the floating casinos that operate off the coast between Singapore and Indonesia.) This is aimed at protecting citizens and permanent residents, which is the first priority.
• One thing the Government can’t do is force people to work. With an acute shortage in trained nurses and helpers to look after the old, Singapore will continue to rely on foreign workers to meet the shortfall.
• Women considering a return to the workforce need to adjust their expectations. There are ample opportunities in F&B and childcare, but not enough takers.
• The family unit has broken down and more elders are financially dependent, so we need to encourage people we know to take up jobs available first.

As Ms Tan succinctly put it, “everyone expects someone else to solve the problem. As Singaporeans, we need to start somewhere.”

When Rice Communications started, I invested S$20,000 to buy machines and software and we were up and running. In the last 15 months, we have not relied on any Government support or taken out any loans and have been fortunate to be profitable from our first month.

I do believe there is enough support available within the system if we were to ever need it, but the success comes from good clients, a strong team and hard work. Hopefully we will all “work till we drop” and never need to be dependent financially on anyone but ourselves.