TRUE to the enterprising spirit of the genre, an upcoming event for entrepreneurs, The BlueSky Festival, focuses on what's positive in the current downturn. The theme of the event is Growth Opportunities in Difficult Times. Historically, difficult times have often catalysed great business breakthroughs. This time, too, the conditions appear ripe for a flowering of new business ideas.

For a start, there is ample indication that it is getting easier to begin, and to run, a business in Singapore. This is primarily due to the efforts by both the public and private sector to promote a business-friendly environment here. National infrastructure, be it the road and rail systems or online highways, is constantly being improved. And on the government front, there have been unceasing efforts to minimise business-related red tape.

Business financing - that major bugbear of small firms, in particular - is notably more accessible now. This year's Budget, for example, included a raft of financial support schemes for businesses, including a $900 million allocation for the sole purpose of fostering innovation.

Initiatives like these are clearly bearing fruit. A study published in March found that significantly fewer start-ups cited raising capital as a major issue compared to a year earlier. Manpower was also less of an issue for these start-ups. More recently, figures released by Spring Singapore post-Budget showed a stunning doubling of government-backed loans to businesses in just one month, from Feb 28 to March 31. SMEs accounted for 90 per cent of such loans disbursed since last December. The situation is still far from perfect, but clearly there has been good progress.

One area of encouragement is the burst of innovative offerings here, particularly in infocomm technology (IT) and new media. Some of these products and services were on display at the recent imbX 2009, the region's leading infocomm trade show. More are featured in this week's The Games Xpo and World Cybergames Asian championships, underlining Singapore's presence in the highly promising business of gaming.

Interestingly, environmental consciousness and corporate governance appear to be integral to the new entrepreneurial culture. Obviously, there are business opportunities in servicing organisations and individuals seeking to be green and transparent. But the transformation is more profound than that. The new entrepreneurs are more conscious of their social roles and responsibilities than their predecessors ever were. Social entrepreneurship is another aspect of the new movement that has been gathering momentum. Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank has replaced Gordon Gekko as corporate hero.

The conditions are ripe. The question, then, is whether these will lead to the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs here in Singapore. The signs are promising.