Media OutReach
Singapore SMEs Hit by Record 8.47% Borrowing Costs and Shrinking Loan Access in 2024: Linkflow Capital Survey
New data shows sharp contraction in loan sizes, rising business cessations, and shifting lender dynamics as SMEs struggle with tighter financing conditions.
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 30 April 2025 – Singapore’s SMEs battled tighter financing conditions in 2024, with average borrowing costs rising to 8.47% per annum — the highest in recent years, even as loan sizes shrank and access to larger financing amounts dried up, according to Linkflow Capital’s latest SME Financing Accessibility Survey.
Drawing on data from over 2,216 unique users on its SME loan comparison platform, Linkflow Capital’s research reveals a stark financing environment for SMEs:
The survey also captured shifts among lenders. While local banks maintained the largest share (59%) of loan origination within Linkflow Capital’s platform, foreign banks have significantly increased their share to 26% (up from 19%). Digital banks saw their loan share decrease more than half to 8% of loan originations (down from 17% in 2023).
Beyond higher costs, SMEs encountered tighter credit access, particularly for substantial funding needs. Linkflow Capital’s data showed a sharp decline in approvals for loans above S$300,000. These larger brackets constituted only 3% of approved loans in 2024, down from 10% in 2023.
Notably, approvals for loans exceeding S$500,000 ceased entirely in the surveyed data for 2024.
“SMEs were caught in a difficult bind in 2024 – needing capital to navigate rising operational costs but facing the highest borrowing rates we’ve seen in years and finding it much harder to secure larger loan amounts required for expansion,” said Benjamin Teo, spokesperson for Linkflow Capital. “This reflects increased lender caution driven by higher SME debt servicing ratios and the unwinding of earlier government support schemes.”
Outlook: Early signs of stabilization, but risks remain
Looking ahead, early signs of rate relief are emerging. The 3-month SORA benchmark has fallen from 3.03% in January to 2.55% by April 2025. However, business lending rates are expected to adjust slowly and partially, with any reductions possibly materializing only from Q3 2025 onwards.
Policy support remains critical
The permanent raising of the SME Working Capital Loan cap to $500,000, announced in Budget 2024, provides a key buffer. Nevertheless, cashflow pressures are intensifying:
Teo concludes:
“Given Singapore’s heavy trade exposure, with trade volumes three times GDP, SMEs remain vulnerable to external shocks like the US-China trade war. Pre-emptive financing planning and maintaining liquidity buffers will be crucial to navigating the uncertain quarters ahead.”
The full survey detailed findings and charts are available at: https://smeloan.sg/blog/2024-sme-finance-accessibility-survey/
Hashtag: #Linkflow
https://smeloan.sg/
https://sg.linkedin.com/company/linkflow-capital-pte-ltd
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Linkflow Capital
Founded in 2012, Linkflow Capital is a leading SME loan consultancy in Singapore. Through its loan comparison portal and advisory services, Linkflow Capital assists SMEs in navigating the financing landscape and securing funding solutions from an extensive network of banks and financial institutions.
Media OutReach
Woodfibre LNG Marks 2025 as a Year of Construction Progress, Environmental Stewardship and Community Partnership
Over the past year, the project advanced from planning into visible, on-the-ground execution. Major construction milestones included the pouring of foundations for key modules, continued progress on marine piling, and further implementation of modular construction techniques designed to reduce on-site footprint while accelerating delivery timelines.
These advancements were achieved through close collaboration with project partners, suppliers and contractors, and in partnership with the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation).
In 2025, Woodfibre LNG, a member of the RGE group of companies founded by Sukanto Tanoto, continued to operate its floatel workforce accommodation solution, designed to minimise pressure on local housing and community services. As of November, two floatels were in active operation, providing high-quality, safe and comfortable living conditions for the project workforce while supporting construction efficiency.
Environmental protection remained a central focus throughout the year. The project’s Marine Mammal Monitoring Programme, which includes hydroacoustic monitoring, exclusion zones and shore-based observation posts, delivered measurable outcomes by enabling real-time operational decisions, including pauses to marine activities when marine mammals entered exclusion areas.
In parallel, remediation of legacy materials from the former pulp mill site continued, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of historical waste removed. These efforts have contributed to improving site conditions for both local communities and marine and terrestrial ecosystems in Howe Sound.
Woodfibre LNG’s Operator Training Programme, delivered in partnership with the Squamish Nation Training and Trades Centre and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), progressed throughout the year. The programme’s first cohort of graduates transitioned into full-time roles, supporting the development of long-term, skilled local employment opportunities linked to the project.
Through its Community Partnership Programme (CPP), Woodfibre LNG continued to invest in local communities across the Sea-to-Sky corridor. In 2025, the programme surpassed $1 million in total grants since its inception, supporting initiatives in sports, healthcare, emergency services, arts and culture, and youth development.
Luke Schauerte, CEO of Woodfibre LNG, said, “2025 has been a year of significant progress for Woodfibre LNG. We are proud of what our team and partners have accomplished together and look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.”
With more than half of the project’s development now complete, Woodfibre LNG remains focused on advancing construction safely and responsibly, while maintaining strong partnerships with Indigenous communities, local stakeholders and regulators.
As the project looks ahead to 2026, Woodfibre LNG continues its work toward delivering lower-carbon, responsibly produced Canadian energy to international markets.
Hashtag: #RGE #PacificEnergy #PacificCanbriamEnergy #WoodfibreLNG #LNG #environment #partnerships #LNG #liquefiednaturalgas #energy #sustainability
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Woodfibre LNG
The Woodfibre LNG Project is owned by Woodfibre LNG Limited Partnership, owned 70 per cent by Pacific Energy Corporation (Canada) Limited and 30 per cent by Enbridge Inc. The Woodfibre LNG facility is being built on the site of the former Woodfibre pulp mill site, which is located about seven kilometres southwest of Squamish, B.C. Woodfibre LNG will source its natural gas from Pacific Canbriam Energy, a Canadian company with operations in Northeastern British Columbia. Pacific Canbriam is an industry leader in sustainable natural gas production. Woodfibre LNG and Pacific Canbriam Energy are subsidiaries of Pacific Energy Corporation Limited. Woodfibre LNG is the first industrial project in Canada to recognise a non-treaty Indigenous government, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), as a full environmental regulator.
Media OutReach
New Opportunities in Southeast Asia’s Digital Shift: Thailand Emerges as the New ASEAN’s AI Hub
The expansion of AI and data centers (DCs) in Thailand is driving several transformative trends:
- Changing data traffic patterns. As DCs multiply in Bangkok, Chonburi, and beyond, Thailand is evolving from a traditional data “transit point” into a regional “convergence hub.” East-west digital traffic is accelerating, with Thai DC clusters increasingly meeting the computing demands of Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific.
- Optimized data routing. Data flows that once relied on submarine cables via Hong Kong and Singapore are gradually shifting to land-based digital corridors linking China, Laos, and Thailand. This route reduces data transmission latency from southwestern China to Southeast Asia.
- Elevated business expectations. Demand is shifting beyond “sufficient bandwidth” toward “high-quality experience.” Thailand sits in a “latency sweet spot” for key Asia-Pacific markets, with latencies to Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia falling within an optimal range—a crucial advantage for latency-sensitive sectors like autonomous driving, telemedicine, and fintech.
New opportunities inevitably bring new challenges, and Thailand also addresses the following three challenges:
1. Massive traffic impacting existing networks: Compared with mature hubs like Singapore, Thailand has insufficient international submarine cables. A large volume of cross-border data still needs to be transmitted through detours. Meanwhile, as DC investments continue to accelerate, traffic will keep rising. Analysis shows that by 2029, Thailand’s DC capacity may reach 2000 MW, with cross-region traffic surging to 630 Tbps. The current network architecture is no longer capable of supporting such heavy traffic.
2. Latency advantages not fully realized: Despite its geographic advantages, Thailand’s network latency performance has yet to reach its full potential. Routes to key markets, like China, still require third-party transit. What’s more, traditional network scheduling lacks intelligent route selection capabilities, making it difficult to provide deterministic assurance for latency-sensitive services like financial transactions and real-time AI interactions.
3. Potential risks in network reliability: Thailand’s network reliability faces structural challenges. Single points of failure have previously caused hours-long interruptions to critical services, directly undermining enterprise users’ confidence.
To overcome these challenges, Thailand can take a systematic approach to upgrading its digital infrastructure, aiming to build next-generation AI-ready networks.
1. Building ultra-high-bandwidth “sea-land” connectivity. By actively introducing new submarine cables, Thailand can significantly enhance its connectivity with the Asia-Pacific region and the world. Meanwhile, accelerating the construction and expansion of key terrestrial cable routes—such as China-Laos-Thailand and Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore—will transform Thailand’s geographic advantage into a tangible connectivity advantage.
2. Optimizing network routes to create a regional low-latency core. Strengthening the Kunming-Laos-Thailand terrestrial cable route will continuously reduce transmission latency between China and Thailand, meeting the needs of real-time applications. In addition, the introduction of autonomous networks will enable automatic selection of the optimal, shortest route, shifting from “best effort” to “deterministic low latency.”
3. Designing a “never-interrupted” high-resilience architecture. Deploying active-active DC networks with millisecond-level switchover capabilities ensures the continuity of core services. Meanwhile, AI-driven intelligent O&M can reduce fault detection and diagnosis from hours to minutes.
Thailand’s booming AI and DC industries are driving rapid growth in regional and cross-border business demand. In this trend, network infrastructure construction centered on DCs is the core engine that drives AI transformation, propelling Thailand toward its vision of becoming the new AI hub for ASEAN.
Hashtag: #huawei
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Media OutReach
MyRepublic Launches Card Sub, Singapore’s First Subscription Service for Trading Card Game Fans

Hashtag: #CardSub, #MyRepublic #MyRepublicCardSub #CardSubSG #TCG #GeeksUseUs
https://myrepublic.net/sg/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/myrepublic
https://x.com/myrepublic
https://www.facebook.com/MyRepublicSG/
https://www.instagram.com/myrepublicsg/
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
MyRepublic
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