From 2014 to 2019, The Federation of Merchants' Associations, Singapore (FMAS) and Lianhe Wanbao jointly organised Singapore Heartland Enterprise Star Award (SHESA) five times. Hundreds of heartland businesses have won hundreds of awards. It has also created many heartland enterprising stars. The success stories shared by the participants and winners are also learned by the rest of the heartland enterprises.
In order to allow more heartland enterprises to have the opportunity to participate in this award, we decide to adjust the award mechanism of SHESA. Starting from 2020, the award is planned to hold in two stages. The name of the award in the first stage is "Precinct Enterprise Star Award" (PESA) and participants are recommended by the FMAS' member associations. These participants are businesses that haven't participated in SHESA before. Winners of the five categories of PESA (one winner per category) are eligible to compete for the highest honors in SHESA 2021.
In other words, PESA caters to those heartland SMEs and micro-enterprises with potential, and at the same time, through recommending participating merchants by FMAS' member associations, a stronger sense of involvement in the award and stronger cohesiveness amongst the member associations are built.