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Passionate about SMEs

Mr Ko finds his work "immensely rewarding".
PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG

MR KO Zhihong's career marries his passions for economic policy-making and business. The 25-year-old is a senior officer in the Lead Programme Office, part of the Industry Development Group in Spring Singapore.

He says: "The Lead Programme is an incentive scheme funded by Spring and IE Singapore for industry associations to encourage them to spearhead industry development and capability upgrading efforts, in partnership with key government agencies."

Mr Ko is a scholar with Firefly, a grouping of seven statutory boards including Spring, which have joined hands to recruit and develop talents.

He signed on with Spring because he wanted to study in a top foreign university and have exciting career opportunities.

Mr Ko graduated with an economics degree from the University College London in the United Kingdom last year.

He says: "My interest was in public policy and developmental economics. I learnt that people respond not to the overall purpose of policies, but to their specific incentives. This allowed me to be more analytical when reviewing policy incentives, to ensure that these are aligned with the scheme's objective."

Mr Ko describes his work as "immensely rewarding" as he is in touch with the movers and shakers of the local business scene.

On his future, he says: "I hope to continue to contribute to the development of our local business enterprises."