The MPA, which finished second over the past two years, clinched one of five ACE Pro-Enterprise Awards last night.

Its efforts included reducing compliance costs by, for instance, extending port dues concessions for container ships and lowering licence fees for pleasure craft.

Steps were also taken to simplify port clearance processes.

'We will continue to work closely with our partners, so as to enhance the business environment for the maritime industry,' said MPA chief executive officer Brig-Gen (NS) Tay Lim Heng.

That aim of striving to keep the customer satisfied figured strongly in the pro-enterprise performance survey conducted by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE).

The CEO of fourth-placed Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Mrs Cheong Koon Hean, said: 'We have focused on engaging our customers to better understand their needs and expectations and improving in areas that matter most to them.'

These include shorter response time, better customer service, availability of hotlines and keeping customers informed of changes in URA policies, she said.

The ACE survey measures agencies according to five components that make up the Pro-Enterprise Index.

These components are compliance costs, review of rules, transparency, customer responsiveness and pro-enterprise orientation.

The 24 agencies surveyed each emerged with a score on the Pro-Enterprise Index. The average was 73.3, up from last year's 68.6 and 67.3 in 2005.

Nineteen agencies improved their index scores over last year's, with 17 going above 70. Just 10 had made it last year.

The top five agencies clinched the ACE Awards for 2007.

'Regulatory agencies have put in a lot of effort to be more pro-enterprise,' said Singapore Press Holdings' editor-in-chief for its English and Malay newspapers, Mr Patrick Daniel, who also leads the Rules Action Crucible of ACE.

'What this survey has shown is that agencies which take the trouble to respond to their customers' needs and make customer satisfaction a high priority can achieve high ratings from businesses,' he said.

Almost 2,000 face-to-face interviews were conducted recently with businesses that interacted at least once with a government agency over the past year.

Spring Singapore chairman Philip Yeo told the ACE BlueSky gala event last night: 'The awards have been instrumental in raising better awareness among our many government agencies and bodies to be pro-enterprise.'

He urged government agencies to continually improve the rules and regulations to support and encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to prosper.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Minister in charge of Entrepreneurship, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, who also chairs ACE, said: 'ACE's vision is for all government agencies to adopt high benchmarks of being pro-enterprise and customer-centric.'

arthurp@sph.com.sg

'What this survey has shown is that agencies which take the trouble to respond to their customers' needs and make customer satisfaction a high priority can achieve high ratings from businesses.'
MR DANIEL, on why more agencies had higher scores in the ACE survey