Singapore's economy growth is expected to be at about 3-4 percent for the rest of the decade, a sharp slowdown from twice that rate of growth since 2003, the city- state's Minister of Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang, said in Parliament on Monday.

In 2013 alone, the country will see even slower pace at about 1- 3 percent, mainly due to weak external environment and tighter labour situation domestically, the minister added.

According to official data, the city-state saw a 1.3 percent growth in 2012 amid the tougher export demands from the western countries as well as short labour force. In 2011, the country saw economy grow 5.2 percent, much higher than last year's data.

Lim said his minister will help the country to tackle with the problems that the country suffered from the painful economic restructing. One is staying open and flexible to tap global and regional opportunities, while the other is to restructure the economy so that companies and workers can achieve higher productivity and sustainability.

He pointed that the free trade agreements (FTA) can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) globalise through series of trade agreements with the country's major trading partners like China, Australia and India.

The FTA talks between the city-state and the EU concluded in last December, after nearly three years of negotiations ever since March in 2010. Singapore has also taken part in negotiations of Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement as well as Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which launched by the leaders of ASEAN and its six FTA Partners.

Lim said last year, "more than 1,700 companies benefited from our FTAs, and we expect this number to increase as we expand our FTA networks and make them more user-friendly."

The minister also said there are four sectors that the country may emphasize to tap Asia's growth and the continuing economic integration of the region. They include pharmaceutical industry, baby products and services, silver industry and high-end logistics services.

The city-state has announced earlier in its budget this year that it will continue to tighten the foreign labour force and conduct economic restructuring, which cause concerns about how SMEs could cope with the restructuring.

"This year, we will work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and private insurers to expand the ADB's Trade Finance Programme to enhance trade flows for Singapore-based companies. Many companies already benefit from this programme, which currently supports over 1 billion U.S. dollars of trade capacity. Given that our companies are exporting to Asia's emerging markets, demand for such trade financing programmes will continue to be high."

Besides some other measure to help the SMEs, Lim added there are no quick fixes in addressing the challenges, and the path of restructuring will not be easy but the government is committed to help companies face the challenges.

Xinhua