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[+2 sentences]Sir, my speech is in two parts. In the first part, I will speak about the overarching thrust of the Budget. In the second part, I will address three specific areas covered by the Deputy Prime Minister: one, Jobs and the new Jobs-Skills Integrators; two, the raising of the CPF income ceiling; and three, the increased grants for buyers of HDB resale flats.[+11 sentences] Let me start with my views on the principal thrusts of the Budget. At last year's Budget, which was titled "Charting our way forward together", the Deputy Prime Minister outlined the Government's approach towards strengthening Singapore's social compact. Deputy Prime Minister Wong reiterated a commitment to further improving social policies, saying that this would be a multi-year agenda to prepare Singapore for the future. The Workers' Party sees this year's Budget as another plank of that multi-year agenda. This Budget also coincides with the Forward Singapore exercise launched last June. The Forward Singapore exercise is intended to build on the expression "social compact" that was employed at last year's Budget. My view is that Singapore's social compact must be one where we move forward together as one Singapore to tackle an unpredictable and potentially disruptive future. We must guard against a split in society, where the rich and the well-off high-earners are pitted against the rest of Singapore. To achieve that end, significant work needs to be done. I say this because one theme that was carried by some outlets, both mainstream and online, was that this year's Budget was, I quote, a "Robin Hood" Budget. Referring to it as such pits one group, high-earners and the rich, against the lower- and middle-classes. For those of us on the ground, our social trends are clear – a rapidly ageing population, a belief that social mobility for younger Singaporeans contrasts markedly with that in our parents' generation and a view that meritocracy has developed a perverse edge, allowing the well-off to move ahead much faster than the broad middle-class.[+4 sentences] Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament Leon Perera will speak more on this theme in his Budget speech. These are forces that have to be properly managed and it is critical for any Government to make the fight against inequality a central policy agenda and to decisively intervene to lift those at the bottom. It would be remiss of me to say that the Government has not made moves in this regard. In his Budget speech for example, Deputy Prime Minister Wong spent time highlighting how disadvantaged children need an early leg-up. If Singapore does not do more, a threat that has loomed large on the horizon in the last few years, of the potential emergence of "two Singapores", may become reality.[+19 sentences] One Singapore is connected to the world as a hub economy. It is where high salaries and opportunities abound and where locals and crucially, many foreigners too, power diverse nodes of the economy. This Singapore gives meaning to the promise and lure of Singapore and how we remain relevant to world. It is a Singapore that always strives to be at the cutting edge of global developments. The other Singapore is one where the majority of Singaporeans live. It is one where there are perceptions of slowing social mobility, connected to the reality of high housing prices. Today, the prospect of upgrading to a condominium or a landed property, unlike in decades past, is not as realistic for HDB home owners. Buying a car is an out-of-reach luxury for most people, unlike in many other countries. I have also heard it summarised this way. In the past, you may not have done well in school, but if you were prepared to slog and save, you could become rich and successful. Today, the view is that once you have not succeeded academically, even if you slog for years, success, let alone wealth, may not follow. These "two Singapores" could easily become a reality that causes frictions in society. Singapore is a tiny red dot and both these Singapores would unavoidably rub up against each other. There is no countryside to retreat to, where the pace is slower and prices of things are lower than in the city. Human nature and the instincts of envy and chauvinism and a narrative of haves and have-nots can quickly poison society and accentuate cleavages. With people living cheek-by-jowl, such views can easily take root and manifest themselves in cruel ways. As much as the Government endeavours to keep society open and bring new businesses and opportunities to Singapore and Singaporeans for the greater good, it is that second Singapore, where a very broad middle of Singapore lives and works and plays, which should never find itself unmoored and cynical about the future of Singapore. There are some Singaporeans within the bureaucracy and they include members of the Executive and other senior civil servants, who are fixated about keeping Singapore relevant to the world, thinking of how to enlarge the pie even as they keep the other eye on making sure the pie does not get smaller. Their efforts cannot and should not be underestimated or ignored. It is not lost on many Singaporeans including the Workers' Party that it is because of these efforts and those of their forebears that we have the capacity to propose other redistributive policies for our fellow Singaporeans today. I note the moves through the Budget to better equalise opportunities through fiscal intervention, such as raising taxes and duties for high-end property and luxury vehicles.[+11 sentences] And I note also the policies that came through last year, such as hikes in personal income taxes. In contrast, when some commentators characterise the Budget as a "Robin Hood" budget, they reinforce the perception of "two Singapores" being created. To combat both the perception as well as the reality in some quarters of "two Singapores" inexorably emerging, redistribution must be at the core of Government policies. To that extent, the Workers' Party supports the idea of a progressive society, where those who earn more pay proportionally more in taxes. Equally, we honour the centrality of a strong work ethic even as we are not only empathetic but also sensitive towards the disadvantaged and those who need extra support. The interventions of the Workers' Party for this debate would be in the spirit of this review of our social compact, envisioning how best society can position itself for an unpredictable and potentially far more disruptive future. I will now go on to the second part of my speech that will address three specific announcements in the Budget. In as much as the Budget is titled "Moving forward in a new era", a look back at the past is a useful guidepost for the new policies that are being introduced. Onto the first point of jobs and specifically equipping and empowering workers through the Jobs-Skills Integrators, the Budget seeks to ensure that training translates into good employment outcomes. Labour market intermediaries are being developed for two purposes: first, to ensure that training leads to real jobs; and second, to ensure job placement for those who have been properly trained. At first glance, the initiative holds much promise as many jobseekers may not have information on what opportunities there are out there, what they should train for or what organisations will need their new skills. The Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Jobs-Skills Integrators are being piloted for the precision engineering, resale and wholesale trade sectors.[+1 sentence] To get a sense of how this initiative might fair, we should look at past efforts in these sectors. In a 2016 press release on the Industry Transformation Map, or ITM, for the precision engineering sector with respect to digital manufacturing, the then-Minister of Trade and Industry reported that the move towards digital manufacturing would see the creation of 3,000 PMET jobs by 2020.[+4 sentences] Specifically, the press release noted that the workforce could expect strong support from the Government and that a new skills framework for precision engineering would be launched under SkillsFuture Singapore. In addition, employers and workers would be equipped with insights on career pathways for 13 occupations, job roles, and specifically training programmes. Professional conversion programmes were also promised to support the reskilling of mid-careerists who were keen to embark on new careers. Sir, what has become of these training and placement efforts and how are they qualitatively different from what the Deputy Prime Minister has proposed in the Budget? A sum of $4.5 billion was committed to the first Industry Transformation roadmap.[+8 sentences] When the Government was transiting to ITM 2.0, I asked in this House when the Government's report card on the first ITM would be ready. The Government replied that it was still early days and those details were not available. We have yet to hear in this House a proper accounting of the success or otherwise of the first ITM. I hope the Government can provide some details in this regard. Separately, on job placements. The then-Minister for Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say announced at Budget 2017 that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), specifically Workforce Singapore (WSG), had roped in two foreign job matching firms, namely Ingeus and Maximus, to help unemployed professionals with their job hunt. It was reported that Ingeus and Maximus would work on an outcome-based payment model. In 2019, WSG reported that the two appointed firms had demonstrated an ability to deliver satisfactory placement outcomes, which were comparable to that of NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) with more than six in 10 PMET jobseekers finding jobs within two months after tapping on Workforce Singapore and e2i's career matching services. Crucially, this move came after WSG stated that it had worked with four local employment agencies, but with I quote "lacklustre results" where the placement rate was less than 50%.[+14 sentences] I note that the new Jobs-Skills Integrators have not been named. Can the Minister tell us who they are and what KPIs will be used to determine the effectiveness of this latest pilot and which agencies will anchor this initiative? Can the Government also flesh out the fiscal outlay set aside for the Jobs-Skills Integrators? Sir, related to the issue of jobs, Sengkang GRC Member of Parliament He Ting Ru will speak about the announcements that pertain to the Baby Bonus and more specifically work and family life in Singapore. Separately, Sengkang GRC Member of Parliament Louis Chua and Hougang SMC Member of Parliament Dennis Tan will speak on the changes to the Working Mother Child Relief. I wish to add some comments on the extension of paternity leave. I understand some employers, particularly smaller SMEs, may find greater difficulty in accommodating two further weeks of paternity leave for their staff members because of manpower and operational challenges. It is a legitimate concern but I hope employers can empathise with the importance of strong families and the lived reality of raising children in Singapore. The time dedicated to raising children is in addition to other filial responsibilities such as spending time with our seniors and parents. This is a fact of our Asian culture. Many parents endeavour to strive hard and chase the pot at the end of that rainbow at the workplace for a better future for our children. More paternity leave is certainly welcomed and I hope SMEs make the adjustments necessary to accommodate male employees, just the same way as they do for their female employees with respect to maternity leave. To better negotiate this transition, employers should review the important mindset shift that the Government has sought to cultivate for some years and that is the hiring of mature workers. SMEs should adjust and constantly reconsider their HR policies and job scopes to hire seniors permanently, with a view to make up the temporary absences of younger staff not just due to either paternity or maternity leave, but also due to those unplanned days and events where young children fall ill and parents scramble to make alternative plans. For this reason, I support the extension of the Senior Employment Credit (SEC) up to 2025. The SEC pays up to 8% of wages, up to a salary of $4,000 a month.[+17 sentences] However, for workers between the ages of 55 to 64, this contribution from the Government pays only up to 3% of wages. For example, a company that hires a worker who earns $3,000 and is between the ages of 60 and 64, the company would get about $90 for that senior hire. I believe employers can be given more support to encourage them to hire senior workers. Studies should be carried out to see how the SEC can be increased to better motivate employers to hire seniors. In view of our rapidly ageing population, has the Government undertaken any studies to consider the fiscal impact of raising the SEC? There must be an upside for employers as we undertake this cultural shift towards making the workplace more family-friendly. Notwithstanding the efforts thus far, greater support towards senior employability will open new vistas for our SMEs. Sengkang GRC Member of Parliament Jamus Lim will cover other Budget initiatives for businesses such as the Enterprise Innovation Scheme and advance other important Workers' Party alternatives, whose time we believe have come, such as the Redundancy Insurance. One additional point on paternity leave I wish to address is that some have commented that men be excused from their NS duties for the year they are child is born. Speaking as an NSman, I would be very cautious about moving in this direction. I would suggest leaving it to unit commanders to determine how best to accommodate the specific requests of their servicemen as they have been doing so for many years already. If a unit is having a major exercise of conducting a critical operation, the needs of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) or the Home Team agencies cannot and should never be compromised. Sir, the second Budget announcement I wish to address is the move to help middle-income Singaporeans save more for their retirement by the raising of the CPF monthly salary ceiling. CPF rates and income ceilings have been used as a macroeconomic counter-cyclical tool in decades past to combat recession, help employers save jobs and the prospect of slower economic growth. The Finance Minister stated that the salary ceiling was last raised in 2016. While this is correct, it should be noted that the salary ceiling of $6,000 was first put in place in 1985. In response to economic uncertainty, it was reduced to $5,500 in 2004 and further reduced to $4,500 in 2006 before re-establishing itself at the 1985 of $6,000 only some 30 years later in 2016. There is much catching up to do with respect to retirement adequacy, particularly since so much of our CPF funds are dedicated to housing. Because of the importance of retirement adequacy in the longer term, the Workers' Party supports the rise of the income ceiling to $8,000.[+5 sentences] However, I have a few questions for the Deputy Prime Minister. First, in view of the policy reason for this new salary ceiling which is to allow Singaporeans to save more for retirement, I am of the view that it would have been appropriate to simultaneously reconsider the percentage of CPF funds credited into the three CPF accounts with a higher proportion allocated to the Special Account. For example, currently out of 37% of total wages for a member aged 35 and below, 23% of the CPF contributions is allocated to the Ordinary Account. The contribution to a member's Ordinary Account drops to 21% when the member turns 36 years of age and is gradually reduced in five-year intervals to reach only 12% when a member returns 56. In contrast, contributions to the Special Account increased from 6% to 7% when a member turns 36 years of age and peaks at 11.5% between the ages of 50 and 55. To achieve the Finance Minister's policy intent of better retirement adequacy, a reduction in the range of 1% to 2% in the allocation to the Ordinary Account from one's early years in favour of the higher interest-bearing Special Account in step with the salary ceiling hike would serve the retirement needs of Singaporeans better.[+17 sentences] The CPF system after all is designed primarily for our retirement needs. May I ask the Minister if such a redistribution was considered; and if not, why not? On this point, Mr Speaker, numerous studies have been conducted on the income replacement rate, or IRRs of pension funds worldwide. The IRR is the ratio of retirement income to pre-retirement income. The World Bank recommends that countries should aim for an IRR of 53% of net final year wages or 78% of net average lifetime wages. For many, their CPF LIFE payouts are unlikely to meet this threshold since much of our CPF funds are locked up in housing. The Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Government was considering what more can be done to enhance retirement adequacy in its Forward Singapore deliberations. The decline in retirement adequacy in the past was mitigated by the appreciation of home values. However, the Government has also stated that housing is unlikely to see steep rises in value as in the past. The Government should begin a deep conversation to re-centre the CPF system towards its original purpose, especially as the cycles of job disruption, job redesign and job obsolescence become more pronounced and frequent in the face of rapid technological advancement. There have been suggestions made most recently by former Nominated Member of Parliament Walter Theseira to reduce the usage of CPF funds for home purchases. This call was met by consternation from the public because of the already high prices and the reduced affordability of housing. However, achieving better retirement adequacy would require a hard look at how much the CPF system dedicates towards home ownership. More affordable public housing will inevitably improve retirement adequacy. This leads me to the next part of my speech – the announcement that CPF grants will be increased, which is for the ostensible purpose of making resale flats more affordable for first-timers. Sir, over 6 and 7 February this year, this House debated the Motions on affordable and accessible housing. Some 10 days later, the Leader of the House was quoted in The Straits Times saying, "but I think in the longer term, we are looking to see how we can make housing more accessible and affordable". From this it would appear that at the highest levels, the Government intends to intensify its efforts in this regard. Also, in a Facebook post of 12 February, the Minister for National Development alluded to going beyond building an additional 2,000 to 3,000 short-wait flats by 2025. The Minister said that the HDB will recalibrate its building programme from 2025, so that short-wait time flats form a larger proportion of our new flat supply than before. While the details for the moment are restricted to broad thinking, these public pronouncements were followed shortly by the Deputy Prime Minister's Budget Day announcement of higher CPF grants for resale flat buyers.[+1 sentence] Almost immediately, there were concerns about the impact of such measures on house prices by property watchers, especially for larger flats and those in popular areas. Would they feed into higher prices and only make a future correction even sharper when the reality of lease decay for resale fats set in? I hope the Minister can share the Government's thinking behind this move and the assessment of its intended effects, particularly in view of 11 quarters of growth in HDB resale prices.[+19 sentences] While these additional grants may appear on the surface to be a panacea, there is a real prospect of home prices rising to match the new grants for eligible first-timers. This could happen as a response to the increase in grants. But more likely, price rises could happen because buyers will be tempted to bid more for a flat they want because they know they have the additional grant to enhance the price they can pay. Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of Parliament, Gerald Giam will further elaborate on the affordability of resale flats in his speech. More fundamentally in line with the renewal of the social compact through Forward Singapore, would the Deputy Prime Minister share more details on the differences between the valuation of land for public and private use? I asked some questions about this recently in this House and asked if the establishment of a committee akin to the Land Working Group of the Economic Review Committee of 2002, but one that would include Ministry of National Development (MND) and Housing Development Board (HDB) to review the principles of how land is sold for public housing would be something the Government would consider. Specifically, I also call for an understanding of the principles and rationale behind the market discount of up to 15% of land allocated for Government land sales and industrial Government land sales and the sale of some private land even below this market price threshold. In addition, I enquired how such sales of private land below market valuation intersected with the Government's call that HDB land not sold at market valuation would amount to a raiding of the reserves. The Government should reply to these questions which are asked with a view to considering alternative approaches the valuing of land for 99-year leasehold public housing. These are questions that members of the public are interested in, particularly since the details and principles of this subject have not been significantly ventilated in public. To illustrate the public interest in this matter, on 11 February, Gov.sg released a set of infographics on Telegram. The lead slide was titled "Does disregarding land cost mean BTO flats will be cheaper?" The second last slide put across the Government's narrative as follows: "Selling land below fair market value = eroding reserves. This diminishes resources available for you and your children." As of 21 February, 176 individuals gave the post the thumbs up while a far larger 553 individuals chose the emoji which I would describe as showing they were not being convinced. In the spirit of refreshing our social compact, I renew my call for the Government to also release the price of land for specific public housing, projects and their associated subsidies on a BTO project basis, so that Singaporeans can more meaningfully engage the Government in the course of the Forward Singapore exercise. Before I round up, I mentioned in the first part of my speech that the Budget titled "Moving Forward in a New Era", would find the past to be an important reference point. The release of an occasional paper by the Ministry of Finance earlier this month on medium-term fiscal projections has been helpful to the extent that it responds to the calls by the Workers' Party at the last Budget for additional details on medium-term projections. Singaporeans would recall that this was a call that had been made even earlier when the Goods and Services Tax hike was first mooted. Like the Finance Minister's Budget, the occasional paper was unable to shed significant light on the impact of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting 2.0 (BEPS) on our fiscal position. However, it did hypothesise the prospects of greater corporate tax revenue collection under Pillar Two, which it said is expected not to deliver any fiscal upsides as any additional revenue would be ploughed back to encourage investments into Singapore by way of grants. With the Minister’s announcement in this Budget to top up the National Productivity Fund by $4 billion for, I quote, "investment promotion", the impact of BEPS is likely to be a significant question mark with regard to the Ministry’s medium-term fiscal outlook.[+1 sentence] Sengkang GRC Member of Parliament Louis Chua will speak more about BEPS and share his analysis of the Budget in his speech. Be that as it may, the Workers' Party looks forward to more of such papers and recalls its proposal two budget cycles ago for the establishment of a Parliamentary Budget Office for a closer scrutiny of the Government's budget. In view of tighter fiscal environment in the years to come as predicted by the occasional paper, such an office would hold much promise for greater Parliamentary and public scrutiny on Government expenditure and whether programs are worth the taxpayer monies that have been allocated to them.[+5 sentences] In conclusion, Sir, in an Institute of Policy Studies' Study of Social Capital in 2017, the report stated, the sharpest social divisions in Singapore may be based on class, instead of race or religion. The perception of two Singapores that we must guard against which I raised earlier in my speech reinforces the point that fiscal redistribution, better social protections and greater support for our most vulnerable Singaporeans must remain a mainstay of our future budgets. It is imperative that policies should be continually refreshed and reviewed, including the applicability of the principles they were originally based on. Singapore, a young country, where Singaporeans feel, live and experience the emotions of nationalism and citizenship must continue to thrive in a fair, broad and balanced way, so that we leave a better future for today's generation and those that come after. Mr Speaker, the Workers' Party supports the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Liang Eng Hwa.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang)2378 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Speaker, as in every Budget, there is always some "give and take" on the part of everyone. I will first speak on the "give and take" part and thereafter, on Singapore's longer-term positioning in the new era. Sir, Budget 2023 gives Singaporean households a major lift to tide through the period of high inflation and defray the impact of higher Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates. The further upsizing of the Assurance Package and the permanent GST Vouchers, coupled with the newly introduced Cost-of-Living Special Payments, the increased Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers, doubling of U-Save and topping up of the Child Development Account (CDA), demonstrates the Government's commitment to journey through this difficult period of rising cost with Singaporeans.[+13 sentences] The various support measures have been thoughtfully formulated with significant cash component and targeted assistances towards essential cost items like electricity, Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC), medical and education. For the businesses, the Enterprise Financing Scheme and the Energy Efficiency Grant are extended to help companies weather the immediate challenges of tighter financial conditions and higher energy prices. This Budget also enhances various measures to support Singaporeans at various stages in life and in various circumstances. Sir, I can understand the angst of young Singaporeans wanting to own their homes at the soonest possible time. I welcome the further measures to help first-time home buyers improved chances of owning Build-To-Order (BTO) flats with the additional ballots as well as the higher CPF Housing Grant to help first-time home buyers purchase resale flats as another option. In my conversation with young parents, many told me that while they cherish the joy and fulfilment of being a parent, they are often worried about the costs of raising their children. Understandably, we all want the best for our kids. Currently, there are already a generous set of support package such as the Baby Bonus Scheme, preschool and education subsidies to support parenthood as well as the various tax benefits. But every bit of additional help the Government can give to our young parents would be most appreciated. Sir, while I applaud the increased Baby Bonus and CDA, which would avail more disposable cash to parents to meet the costs of raising their child, I do receive mix reactions on the changes to the Working Mother's Child Relief (WMCR). Middle-income group parents will see some cash impact with the WMCR no longer pegged to a percentage of income. On the seniors' front, we can expect the healthcare needs to increase in the years ahead. I am already seeing these increases in my constituency at Bukit Panjang, where there are more requests to help pay for healthcare related and hospital expenses. We are also building more senior care centres at the neighbourhoods to serve seniors who need more longer-term chronic care services at more convenient locations. Hence, I support the top-ups of the Eldercare Fund by $500 million and the Medifund by $1.5 billion.[+5 sentences] These are the funds that we often tapped to help our senior residents meet their ageing related expenses. The extension of Senior Employment Credit (SEC) and Part-time Re-employment Grant are helpful support to enhance seniors' employability, while the increased co-funding share for Progressive Wage Credit Scheme, Enabling Employment Credit and the Uplifting Employment Credit are meaningful additions to support the more vulnerable segments of our society. These moves, among others, are part of the overall effort to build a stronger social compact and a more compassionate society. Sir, but as in every budget, besides the giving by the Government, there will some taking as well. Budget 2023 outline some policy adjustments that would have some impact to Singaporeans. The higher marginal Buyer Stamp Duty for higher-value properties and the upward adjustment of the Additional Registration Fee (ARF) is very much in keeping with our approach to steepen the progressivity of our tax structure and where the better-off contribute more.[+6 sentences] The 15% increase in tobacco tax would add costs to smokers, of course, but I hope that it would help discourage the overall consumption in tobacco products. Sir, at Bukit Panjang, we have a Platform Delivery Workers Support Group where I regularly met and engaged the delivery workers. While they appreciate the good intention of Government to improve protection and retirement adequacy, they are also very concerned on how the changes to CPF contributions and other implementations would impact the viability of the delivery business and eventually their livelihoods. So, I would appeal to the Government, to not only provide transitional support to these workers but also dedicate resources to help with the reskilling and re-employment should their livelihoods be impacted. We will await more details on the transitional support in the MOM COS debate. One other measure that I have also heard concerns is the phased increase of the CPF monthly ceiling to $8,000. As inflation is expected to stay elevated in the next few years, my concern is that raising the ceiling at this juncture would add further cost pressures to businesses and also reduce the take home pay of middle-income households, just when they need the cash to meet the higher cost needs.[+9 sentences] While I can understand and support the rationale for the raise, I hope that the Government can review the implementation timing of this measure. Sir, while our budgets do tackle the immediate challenges and offer timely and targeted relief, a budget should not be an exercise just about "what’s in it for me" or otherwise. Beyond about how we slice the pie and who gets what, budgets must also be about how can we grow the pie bigger. And here we must not lose sight on the need to grow our economy. A growing and vibrant economy not only create good jobs; which is the best welfare for workers and best counter against inflation, but growing the economy also generate revenues to pay for our needs and wants. The troubling external environment has made growing our economy an even more uphill task. The US-China strategic competition continues to intensify and more countries are taking steps to shore up their economic security, through policies to safeguard strategically important technologies and data. We have also seen countries attempting to decouple in areas of trade, technology, finance, investments and people flows. The US has introduced the US Chips and Science Act while China has also implemented the China Export Control Law, just so that they reduce their vulnerabilities and dependence on other countries. Last year, the US introduced the US$369 billion Inflation Reduction Act.[+16 sentences] The original intent is meant to finance sustainable transition in America. However, it now appears more like a state-funded industrial policy plan. The Act has trigger EU and other countries to call for their own policy response measures to rebalance the playing field. These developments will have profound implications how Economic Development Board (EDB) and our agencies attract direct investments into Singapore. Against this increasingly complex and volatile operating environment, Singapore is also running up against serious resource constraints among others – our ageing resident workforce and rising wage aspirations, carbon constraints and longer-term fiscal constraints. The growing pain question is: how can we continue to grow in a setting of an almost full-employment economy? Economically, we are not only in full employment of our domestic economic inputs. We are leveraging on significant pool of foreign labour to stretch our overall growth potential; which brings to my next point on economic competitiveness. How do we stay competitive in this daunting external and domestic landscape? Business costs have risen significantly in the last two years. Though much of it are externally induced such as the rising prices of energy and materials imports, we do increasingly face domestically driven costs pressures. Rising wages, escalating rentals, higher financing costs, impending higher carbon taxes, among others, would have the overall effect of diminishing our economic competitiveness vi-a-vis our competitors and negating the favourable economic attributes that we have. Therefore, we need an even sharper prioritisation in the allocation of our resources going forward and to pace our policy initiatives roll-out so that it would not add further constraints and tightness in our resource utilisation. In other words, we must pick the battles that play to our strength. The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister spoke about redoubling our efforts to attract high quality investments and to focus on growth sectors that we can be highly competitive, such as finance, transportation, logistics and advanced manufacturing. Innovation is another key ingredient. To nurture and sustain pervasive innovations, the new Enterprise Innovation Scheme is introduced, under which tax deductions are enhanced. There is also a new cash conversion component of up to $20,000 for companies yet to turn profitable. To help support scaling up of the local enterprises, the SME Co-Investment Fund and the Global Enterprises initiative are there to invest and support promising companies to internationalise and to seek global markets.[+23 sentences] But, ultimately, to overcome our inherent resource constraint, we need to significantly beef up productivity as an economic system. Sir, I welcome the expansion of the scope for the National Productivity Fund to include the promotion of quality investments in Singapore as a supportable activity. While we continue to work on upskilling our workforce, the productivity of work is not solely dependent on workers. A company's overall productivity to a large extent depended on management, how resources and workflows are designed and organised, harnessing the use of data, technology, innovation and creativity to invigorate efficient solutions. We need a more ecosystem approach to rev up productivity and I hope that the ITMs that we have set up can galvanise industry stakeholders to work productively towards this cause. The Jobs-Skills Integrators is a refreshing approach to tackle stubborn jobs-workers mismatches. This is akin to having relationship managers bridging the information and connectivity gap between employers and jobseekers. So, I applaud the Government for getting down to the micro level to close the gap. It shows the Government's resolve and commitment to improve employability of Singaporeans. I look forward to more positive outcomes in this endeavour. Mr Speaker, I am heartened that the Deputy Prime Minister has also devoted a significant part of his Budget Statement speech on building national resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of the war in Ukraine further underscored the critical importance of being resilient against external shocks, catastrophic events, or a devastating crisis. During the pandemic, we experienced various supply disruptions, including sudden export restrictions on essential items by countries. The economic blockade on Qatar by its neighbours in 2017 is another reference point. With land, air and sea lanes cut off by its neighbours, the population in Qatar were immediately hard hit by rising food prices and job insecurity. It had to quickly find alternative sources of supplies and to also boost domestic food production. Singapore has always taken the mindset that there will be a crisis around the corner waiting for us, whether it is the stockpile of food and various essential materials or our Four National Tap strategy for water or our Four National Switches strategy for energy, Singapore will always plan for various scenarios, invest in total defence and be operationally ready for any emergencies. The war in Ukraine has triggered a major energy crisis in Europe with countries like Germany which heavily depended on Russia for piped gas for their electricity generation, among those most impacted. And this has led to a major scramble to build LNG terminals to import liquified natural gas to replace the lost supplies from Russia. Fortunately, in Singapore, our LNG terminal was built more than a decade ago at Jurong Island. It allows us to import natural gas from just about anywhere in the world and not having to depend solely on piped gas. This terminal has not only contributed to our energy security. It has also enabled us to be a major player in the LNG market and help position Singapore as a LNG hub for the region. At a cost of about $1.7 billion, the terminal was a major financial outlay for the Government then.[+4 sentences] So, credit goes to Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Energy Market Authority (EMA) for the foresight and their will to press on with this massive project. I believe Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was the Chief Executive of EMA then and got the project off the ground. Sir, my point to illustrate this example is that resilient building also requires significant financial commitments and hence, the need to have the adequate fiscal capacity. There are many more strategic projects that are needed to be built to strengthen resilience, to reduce our vulnerabilities – infrastructures, such as climate adaptation, energy diversification, food security and so on, which is why we need to continually strengthen our finances and not the other way round. Our best defence against any future external shocks, whether it is a black swan event or any catastrophic incident is responsible and prudent fiscal management today.[+1 sentence] Sir, the recently released Ministry of Finance (MOF) Occasional Paper signposted our medium-term fiscal challenges. We are heading towards a spending milestone where expenditures is projected to hit 20% of our GDP. Our operating expenditure will keep rising and at a faster pace in the years ahead.[+4 sentences] Healthcare, education, wage subsidies, security and other social spending are the expected key drivers. Even in the non-operating expenditure areas, there are also a long list of infrastructural spending items, whether it is investment for capabilities building or for building a more resilient home. We also need to keep the powder dry, so as to have the fiscal firepower to respond to external shocks or major disruptions which is likely to happen more often, in my view, going forward, and can be even more impactful than the pandemic that we have experienced. So, we cannot afford to decumulate or stop building our reserves. Reserves are not only to buffer against a crisis but its returns are also a main source of income to finance the budget, as well as to help maintain confidence in Singapore.[+2 sentences] Sound, prudent and fiscal management today will enhance our survivability, give us the safety cover when needed and importantly, position us strongly to seize the opportunities in the new era. Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Foo Mee Har.
Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast)1556 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Speaker, Budget 2023 coincides with Singapore's DORSCON level finally reverting to green. This is after three long years of restrictions, shielded by extraordinary Budget measures. Even as Singaporeans return to their lives they were accustomed to, the effects of the pandemic coupled with the Ukraine war, has left the Government dealing with the significant inflationary pressures in a more fragmented world. We are debating Budget 2023 one year after Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was endorsed as the leader of Singapore's fourth generation (4G) political leadership. So, this Budget sets the tone for the years to come. I am heartened by the Government's decisive moves to address Singaporeans' needs and aspirations. They form the headline in this Budget. These include a slew of pro-family initiatives, coupled with generous support to cushion cost of living pressures and measures to bolster retirement adequacy. Budget 2023 will give Singapore's social compact a significant boost. But amidst all this good news on continuing support for Singaporeans, Deputy Prime Minister Wong did not shy away from warning us about the sustainability of such Government support. In fact, some economists have cautioned that Government handouts, such as GST Vouchers and our cost of living support measures may increase demand and further stoke inflation pressures. This has, in fact, already happened in other countries where huge government handouts had created a vicious escalation in prices. So, I would like to ask Deputy Prime Minister for his assessment of such risk in Singapore.[+25 sentences] Sir, I would like to focus my speech on our need to stay competitive and relevant in the new world order. This is because redistribution is only possible if the economy continues to grow so that benefits of the growing pie from healthy tax revenues can be shared. Singapore's continued growth in the new era of global development is not guaranteed. It is predicated on our ability to navigate the volatile and uncertain operating environment to steward industries, enterprises and our workers toward long-term, sustainable growth. Sir, the constant gripes from our business community are around escalating costs and manpower shortage. To employers, especially our SMEs, these Budget measures, such as the raised CPF monthly salary ceiling and the doubling of paternity leave, are like adding fuel to the fire. Even before they have had the chance to fully digest impact of earlier moves, such as cost increases associated with Progressive Wage Model and CPF contribution rate for older workers, employers feel overwhelmed by another flood of pro-worker initiatives. Sir, it is unfortunate that there is no silver bullet for the longstanding manpower challenges confronting businesses. The war on talent is increasingly a world-wide phenomenon. We have seen moves made by other countries, such as UK's Global Talent Visa and Hong Kong's Top Talent Pass Scheme, designed to attract talent from around the world. Even China, who has traditionally thrived on their pool of over 300 million migrant workers to maintain their reputation as the "Factory of the World", now struggles to attract workers back to their big factory hubs. So, employers must accept that the tight labour market is here to stay. They must embrace this new normal where the balance of power has shifted from employers to employees. They must up their game in offering compelling value proposition to attract and retain staff, rewarding them fairly, engaging them skillfully and investing vigorously in their capability development. Sir, through SkillsFuture, we have successfully ignited the movement to embrace lifelong learning. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced the introduction of Jobs-Skills Integrators to further strengthen the SkillsFuture ecosystem. This is a welcome news. We need to urgently shift to a higher gear in order to make training truly count. The task of linking workers' training to securing good jobs is a huge challenge. This requires fundamental changes in how the current lifelong learning ecosystem is set out and governed. This is an area where strong Government intervention is needed, in the setting of standards, the rallying of stakeholders and the provision of resources beyond the simple training subsidies. Evidently, Deputy Prime Minister has set his sights squarely on fixing this, and I look forward to understanding Government's plan to take SkillsFuture forward in the upcoming Ministry of Education (MOE) Committee of Supply (COS) debate. Mr Speaker, our overall response to the revamp of international tax rules under Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS 2.0) initiative, will be important. We have historically leveraged tax incentives to encourage multi-national enterprises (MNEs) to place high value functions in Singapore. BEPS 2.0 will impede Singapore's use of tax incentives to attract new investments, requiring us to compete on other capabilities to anchor quality investments. Deputy Prime Minister Wong announced that the implementation of Singapore's Domestic Top Up Tax (DTT) is currently planned for 2025. He also announced the $4 billion top-up of the National Productivity Fund to include investment promotion as a supportable activity, along with a very generous new Enterprise Innovation Scheme (EIS) with up to 400% tax deductions on qualifying expenditure, with potential to enjoy tax savings of nearly 70% of investments.[+5 sentences] The question is whether such moves will be sufficient to attract business investment into Singapore during this period of global change. Other countries, such as US and China, are rolling out vast subsidies to build up their strategic industries. Countries in the region are also strengthening their competitive positioning with respect to costs, manpower and energy. The transition to a low-carbon future will also present significant challenges given Singapore's inherent limitations in energy resources. So, Sir, there is no shortage of support schemes to help companies based in Singapore build capabilities and invest in innovation. On top of these, the Government has committed significant resources to R&D over the years, including investing $25 billion from 2021 to 2025 to catalyse research, innovation and enterprise.[+15 sentences] MNEs who operate across jurisdictions understand the attractiveness of our schemes and are well-positioned to take full advantage of the benefits the schemes offer. We have also nurtured a vibrant start-up ecosystem in Singapore, including a cohort of Singapore-based unicorn startups with valuation exceeding US$1 billion. But more can be done to help our SMEs leverage public R&D and innovation capabilities to build new products and solutions. This will require a closer nexus to be drawn between them and our public research institutes and Institutes of Higher Learning. Catalysing high-impact research and translating them into enterprising innovations that benefit industry and society, should be a prioritised KPI when granting research funds. Sector-based innovation roadmaps and solutions are the way to go, in nurturing an innovative SME ecosystem. Sir, one distinctive strength that has always stood in Singapore's favour is our trusted brand. Our trust quotient has now been further strengthened by the way in which we navigated the pandemic. Investors value our open economy, as well as the safety, reliability and transparency that the Singapore system accords them. With MNEs building resilience to secure their supply chains post COVID-19, we must leverage our trust premium to seize the re-shoring opportunities. We should also fully leverage this window of opportunity to expand key sectors such as finance, services, logistics and transport and manufacturing to leap forward. Sir, for FY2022, I applaud the Government for rolling out three successive packages, totally more than $3.5 billion, that were not in the original budget to address cost of living concerns, especially for the lower- and middle-income families. This is funded entirely from stronger than expected revenues. Rather than record a surplus, the Government acted nimbly and tapped into its fiscal space to help people cope with inflation. I think that is commendable. Special transfers, including top-ups to endowment funds and trust funds, were revised to $9.2 billion in FY2022, representing a $2.9 billion increase from the estimated figure.[+2 sentences] This I would like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister to share the reasons behind the top-ups and how this may impact Singapore fiscal space in the years to come. Mr Speaker, I would now like to speak on Singapore's fiscal challenges. The Occasional Paper put out by the Ministry of Finance projected a fiscal gap of $7.5 billion to $15 billion over the medium term from 2026 to 2030 mainly to fund healthcare, uplifting lower-wage workers and improving childhood education.[+2 sentences] The projections have not factored in future policy moves such as additional spending to further strengthen our social compact and economic competitiveness. It is clear that the Government will need to continue to review and adjust its fiscal strategies. Taking the cue from the Government's recent tax moves, it is right that we continue to make our taxes progressive, as in the case of this year's increase in stamp duties for higher-end properties and luxury cars.[+1 sentence] On other areas worthy of review include a lift in gambling and alcohol taxes, as well as introducing tax on sugar. With limited fiscal space, it is imperative that the Government continuously review schemes to assess value for money and have the discipline to retire programmes appropriately.[+3 sentences] Lastly, we need the fiscal buffer to give ourselves enough capacity to deal with future shocks, including black swan events like the COVID-19 pandemic, as mentioned by my hon Member, Mr Liang Eng Hwa. Sir, I agree with the Deputy Prime Minister's position that our financial reserves are our greatest insurance. With that, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member)2071 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, we welcome the financial assistance that the Deputy Prime Minister has announced in Budget 2023 to help Singaporeans cope with the rising cost of living and inflation. However, we are not sure whether more of the same short-term ad-hoc financial assistance will strengthen the resilience of Singaporeans and help them move forward in a new era. The dozens of short-term handouts, like CDC vouchers, Assurance payouts, our Cost-of-Living Special Payment, Public Transport vouchers, and so on, are more likely to breed dependency – "what is in it for me?" – but unlikely to strengthen resilience. We have said many times in this Parliament, that we need long-term programmes to give Singaporeans Comfort over their current and future financial positions. Before they can concentrate on becoming Innovative workers and enterprising risk-takers to build Singapore into a competitive information economy. We do not understand why the Government is reluctant to implement long-term programmes. Although, according to our estimates, Singapore has sufficient fiscal resources to fund these programmes without drawing on the national reserves. The Government likes to argue that alternative policy proposals will raid the reserves. But Singaporeans should note that this is a baseless allegation. Singaporean should have guessed, from the COVID-19 experience, how large our reserves are and how strong our fiscal position is. If we do not have that, the Government would not be able to commit to a $100 billion COVID-19 response package, which is equal to more than 20% of Singapore's GDP in 2019. In the end, the Government spent a total of $72 billion, fighting COVID-19.[+1 sentence] But the interesting part is how the Government has funded it. The Government did not need to draw $72 billion from the reserves but only $40 billion because it was able to find $32 billion of excess fiscal resources in the Budgets of 2020 to 2022 to fund the balance. On top of that, in the same three years, the Government was able to set aside $24 billion from the Budget to top up various endowment and trust funds whose spending are for future years. Hence, we can say that there is a total of $56 billion – $32 billion plus $24 billion – of excess resources in the Budgets over the past three financial years.[+12 sentences] This translates into an annualised amount of about $18.7 billion a year. This amount is roughly equal to the Net Investment Return Contribution (NIRC) allocated to the Budget each year. This is proof that the NIRC has always been a slack in the Budget, which is normally not used to benefit Singaporeans in the year it was allocated. The Government has argued that the NIRC is pooled with the rest of the budgetary resources and used for other purposes. But by setting aside a sum of money almost equal to the NIRC in trust funds and endowment funds. It is equivalent to not spending the NIRC in the current year. In fact, there may be more slack in the Budget because we cannot understand why the total expenditure has stubbornly stuck at the $100-billion level in 2023. The total expenditure was only $75 billion in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic. It shot up to $100 billion from 2020, presumably for fighting COVID-19. Hence, we have expected the expenditure to drop significantly in 2023 as we wind down the exceptional COVID-19 expenditures. We look forward to the Deputy Prime Minister explaining with specific figures why the total expenditure has not come down. However, even ignoring the potential spending cuts, it is quite safe to say that we have excess fiscal resources each year, mainly from the NIRC, which can be deployed more proactively for the benefit of low-income and middle-income Singaporeans. In 2023, the NIRC has reached a new record of $23.5 billion.[+13 sentences] The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has always been confident that we have excess fiscal resources from the NIRC and other potential spending cuts. That is the reason why we have argued during the Budget 2022 debate, that there was absolutely no necessity to increase the GST and other taxes to increase revenue. This year, PSP will present an alternative Budget with long-term programmes to give Singaporeans an idea how our budget can be restructured to better strengthen their financial security. First, the alternative Budget will implement the Affordable Homes Scheme and Millennial Apartments Scheme to reset the public housing policy. This is a single most-important long-term structural programme that will boost the financial security of Singaporeans. In Budget 2023, the Government has increased the CPF Housing Grant to help young Singaporeans buy resale flats. While we agree that young Singaporeans need help with affordable housing, the CPF grant may not be the best solution because it will further inflate the resale market. This will necessitate higher CPF grants in the next round and the cycle will repeat itself. In order to get out of this vicious cycle, we need a more fundamental solution and PSP has proposed the Affordable Homes Scheme and the Millennial Apartments Scheme as one policy option. With the schemes, every Singaporean in each generation will enjoy an affordable HDB flat to start a family, without sacrificing his retirement in the future. So, we do not understand why the Government said such schemes would negatively affect the future generation. To counter other narratives that the Government is spreading, we would also like to reiterate that the schemes will not cause a sharp fall in resale prices because the demand and supply situation remains tight and the Affordable Homes sellers will need to sell above current resale prices in order to earn a profit. On the other hand, Singaporeans who want to sell their flats after the Minimum Occupation Period need not worry about paying a big clawback because the breakeven price for a seller will be roughly the same whether under the current BTO scheme or the Affordable Homes Scheme. The Affordable Homes Scheme and Millennial Apartments Scheme will not draw down the reserves.[+11 sentences] Although land cost is waived for Singaporeans who live in HDB flats for their entire lives, most Singaporeans aspire to upgrade and about half to two thirds of the deferred land cost will be paid to the reserves eventually. In the alternative Budget, we have budgeted $2 billion a year from the excess fiscal resources to reflect the upfront investment cost. Second, the alternative Budget will promote the financial security of middle-class Singaporeans as a priority. It is the decline of the middle class that has given rise to the "two Singapores" that the Leader of the Opposition has described just now. While the middle class may not be a homogenous group, it stretches roughly from the 20th percentile to the 80th percentile income brackets and is the group targeted by the Government for spreading the tax burden over as wide a spectrum of the population as possible. In contrast, the top 10% income bracket is doing well because Singapore's tax regime favours them and the bottom 20% do not pay taxes. It is not wrong as a fiscal principle to spread the tax burden as widely as possible. However, middle-class Singaporeans are already overtaxed relative to their income. Personal income may be low but there is a whole range of indirect taxes they pay: the GST, high housing prices, stamp duties, MediShield and CareShield premiums, COE, ERP, ARF, foreign domestic worker levy and so on. During Budget 2022, besides the GST, we have spoken out against the property tax increase which affected middle-class Singaporeans. This year, the stamp duty and ARF increases will affect them again. In the alternative Budget, PSP proposes that some of the tax increases of Budget 2022 and 2023 should be reversed. GST will be reverted to 7% and property taxes for owner-occupied properties will be restricted to those with annual value of more than $50,000.[+10 sentences] The stamp duty increase will be limited to properties that are worth more than $3 billion and the ARF increase will be limited to cars with Open Market Value (OMV) of more than $60,000. PSP believes if tax increases are really necessary, they should be targeted at wealthy individuals and corporates. PSP would also budget $4 billion for the nationalisation of the MediShield and CareShield schemes, which we first recommended during Budget 2021. This will relieve, especially middle-class and senior Singaporeans, of the anxiety over ever rising healthcare insurance premiums. After the HDB flat, healthcare expense is the largest drain on the CPF savings of Singaporeans. While we should maintain the MediSave Account for Singaporeans to share in their healthcare expenses to prevent over-consumption, the existence of multiple healthcare insurance schemes has added unnecessary costs and complications to the healthcare system. By taking over the whole healthcare insurance, we hope the Government will be in a better position to develop an optimal healthcare system together with the new Healthier SG initiative. Third, PSP is very concerned about the job security and job prospects of Singaporeans. The Government should always be mindful that Singaporeans are disadvantaged when competing with Employment Pass (EP) holders who are exempted from CPF contributions. While we welcome the move to increase the contribution cap to $8,000 to boost retirement adequacy, it will exacerbate the disadvantaged position of the Singaporean PMEs relate to the EP holders. In the alternative Budget, to level the playing field between Singaporeans and foreign employees, PSP will introduce a $1,200 monthly levy on EP holders, which we have recommended since 2021.[+11 sentences] This EP levy is estimated to generate additional revenue of $2 billion to $3 billion, which will add to our excess fiscal resources. In Budget 2023, there is one positive change in the Government's approach, which is the Jobs-Skills Integrator programme. Finally, the Government realises that the funding of skill training should be tied to specific job prospects. We have always been skeptical about the nearly $1 billion of annual spending on SkillsFuture and all the other spending on retraining and placements of Singaporeans who have lost their jobs, because it is unrealistic to expect all Singaporeans who have been displaced by foreign PMETs to acquire totally new skills and join new sectors. We should have focused our spending on training Singaporeans to acquire skills that help them to hold on to their existing jobs or find jobs in fields with similar required core competencies. A good manpower policy is one that will not allow the displacement of Singaporeans from the job market. Fourth, PSP will increase the amount of compassionate spending for low-skilled workers and disadvantaged segments of our society. PSP proposes budgeting $3 billion for a living wage, which guarantees a minimum monthly take-home pay of $1,800 for all Singaporean workers. We have recommended this during Budget 2021. The living wage will allow all Singaporean workers to attain the minimum standard of living. The Progressive Wage Model can remain but for helping workers to achieve a higher wage level than the living wage. Next, PSP proposes budgeting $1 billion to help the disadvantaged segments of our society by doubling the ComCare payout for the poor and providing an allowance for caregivers and stay-at-home parents in recognition of their sacrifices and contribution to society.[+1 sentence] In conclusion, Mr Speaker, Sir, in the Occasional Paper on the medium-term fiscal projections, the Government has painted a scenario of looming current and future Budget deficits. But PSP has pointed out that in fact, there are excess fiscal resources in the Budget that can be deployed better. This is before further potential savings that we can have from spending cuts partly due to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.[+1 sentence] PSP has proposed an alternative Budget to demonstrate how the Budget can be restructured to deploy these resources. For a start, we have increased net spending by about $8 billion – a fraction of the excess resources we have – to implement long-term programmes that will: one, proactively deploy excess fiscal resources in the Budget for the benefit of the current generation of Singaporeans; two, promote the financial security of the middle-class, who are the bedrock of the society, as a priority; and three, reduce socioeconomic ills caused by high property prices by resetting our public housing policy and eventually wean off Singapore's over-dependence on property as an engine of economic growth.[+3 sentences] I invite Singaporeans to be the judge of the merits of the proposals in the alternative Budget. Singaporeans deserve better. For country, for people.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Janet Ang.
Ms Janet Ang (Nominated Member)2782 words
[+14 sentences]Mr Speaker, I am honoured to participate in this year's Budget debate. I would like to declare that I am a council member of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF). Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered his Budget 2023 speech in this Chamber, one day after Singapore declared DORSCON Green. I had goosebumps just thinking about how blessed we have been to have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and is in a reasonably good shape. I am grateful to everyone – from President Halimah and the Presidential Advisory Council to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Cabinet Ministers, from the Multi-Ministry Task Force to the hon Members of this House, from our healthcare workers to our public transport workers, from our Police officers and Civil Defence Force to our SAF and diplomatic corps, from our locals to the migrants at the front lines – for leading us through the darkest nights of the COVID-19 pandemic to emerge on 13 February with a bright DORSCON Green and a future full of hope. A big thank you from all of us in the business community to all of you. Mr Speaker, for me, Budget 2023 is a clear signal that the pandemic is behind us. The Government is clearly moving away from giving handouts to survive COVID-19 to a Budget that invests to build for growth, sustainability and resilience. At the same time, it is apparent that the Government is mindful of the current business climate driven by high cost pressures, with inflation at a 14-year high level, fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war, the US-China geopolitical tensions and the hangover of supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. Budget 2023 has been hailed as a redistributive Budget. Those who have more contribute more but everyone contributes what they can and together, we leave no Singaporean behind. I am glad to see a Budget that appears to have taken an integral development approach that ensures that our people, our environment and our economy progress in tandem and in harmony. Whether Budget 2023 delivers on its design now depends on how well Team Singapore executes together. For my speech today, let me start with the business lens on Budget 2023, with data points based on the latest National Business Survey 2022/2023. Business sentiments in Singapore are more positive now with 52% of the businesses being satisfied with the current business climate in Singapore compared to 37% in the prior year.[+1 sentence] Despite expecting inflationary pressures to persist, 80% of our businesses remain confident in the resiliency of their operations in the next 12 months. Trade grew 17.7% to reach S$1.37 trillion, and, as shared by the Deputy Prime Minister on Budget Day, Singapore’s economy grew 3.6% with resident unemployment below pre-pandemic levels, at 2.8%. However, as we entered 2023, businesses which had expressed optimism about the reopening of the global economy are now conveying a more cautious outlook as new disruptions surface and geopolitical fault lines deepen: 32% of the businesses stated that they had been negatively impacted over the past six months, with an average decline in revenue of 25%; 66% of both large and small companies have called out: one, overall business cost as their top challenge; two, availability of manpower; and three, retention of manpower following close behind. They were certainly relieved to hear the Deputy Prime Minister extend the Energy Efficiency Grant (EFG) and the Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS) to March 2024.[+30 sentences] These measures will help businesses cope with the unusually high business costs. Meanwhile, cash flow too is a major challenge for SMEs, and it will be of much help if the Government can take the lead to pay all invoices within 14 days, albeit electronically of course. This could perhaps even be the impetus needed for the nation-wide e-invoicing initiative to take off. As for manpower challenges, 96% of our businesses identified the following as key areas of concern: one, rising manpower cost; two, attracting and/or retaining younger workers; three, new foreign manpower policies that raises cost; four, limited pool of local high-skilled labour; and five, stricter policies that restrict the supply of foreign workers. Finding sufficient and appropriate manpower to meet their business needs has been a key challenge for our businesses. The new Jobs-Skills Integrators programme should help optimise training and job placements for Singapore businesses and help workers identify the right fit for training and ensure better earnings prospects. The Government might want to consider the TACs and the IHLs in partnership with human capital experts to perform this role. Employment support is another key feature of Budget 2023. This will help make inclusive workforce closer to reality. Our older workers, vulnerable jobseekers like the physically disabled and the ex-offenders as well as current platform workers are resources who may be tapped and reskilled to work in sectors facing labour shortage. There is definitely a need to channel workers into jobs that are growing or into jobs that are being transformed. Community initiatives like Yellow Ribbon and SBF Foundation’s Employability Fund and so on, complement what the Government is doing and should be encouraged. For example, SBF Foundation has set up a platform in partnership with social services agencies like New Hope, Daughters of Tomorrow, Singapore Association for Mental Health and SHINE Children and Youth Services to connect enlightened and compassionate companies with vulnerable jobseekers and journey with them from resume writing to onboarding to retention. To date, there are about 100 companies who are part of this network and we hope more will be inspired to come forward. This is the many helping hands approach in Singapore that will enhance employability and give vulnerable individuals dignity and hope through employment. Lifting the wages of our low wage workers via the Progressive Wage Model is one of the most important policies that this House and collectively as a society we have made. We must not let inequality widen. It is good to see that our income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has been steadily declining. Kudos to the Tripartite partners for doing what we all know is the right thing to do. Of course, many opinions have been heard in this Chamber with regard to Singapore having too many foreign workers. And, yet we have our businesses screaming “workers not enough”. Our businesses probably are experiencing “cold turkey” with the new foreign labour policies. Yet, from the many dialogues and engagements with businesses, it just might be that we simply do not have enough Singaporeans to do the jobs that need to be done. I would like to put forward three recommendations for Government and businesses to consider. One, more perhaps need to be done to attract local Singaporeans into job roles at or higher than the S Pass and the EP qualifying salary levels. And if there are no takers, we need to understand why. Two, perhaps the work environment and work conditions can be made more attractive to interest our local Singaporeans. For example, the jobs being enabled by productivity tools, a maximum number of work hours per day, flexible work arrangement, strong skills and career mentoring. If all done well, this could drive improved human capital productivity for the organisation and provide a more effective work-life health for our workers. Three, tripartite partners will have to find the right balance between capital and local and foreign labour for their sector, and perhaps some re-balancing of foreign quota may need to be worked out. In short, the paradigm has shifted and 64% of our businesses recognise that it is very important to drive transformation, build capabilities and upskill their workers to become more productive and more competitive. They are glad that there will be a S$4 billion top-up for the National Productivity Fund (NPF) to support their efforts.[+8 sentences] Next, allow me to share the story of Singapore Polytechnic undergraduate, Ms Reis Lim who is taking the Industry Now Curriculum in Perfumery, a diploma with up to half of the polytechnic workload over three years made up of work-based training with industry partners, including internships. Reis interned at Senses International, a Singapore-based fragrance manufacturer, acquiring deeper skills in fragrance evaluation. Her outstanding performance led to her being offered a position even before graduation as a fragrance evaluator trainee, a position that is mostly filled by expats. I am telling this story to encourage companies to tap on the polytechnic and ITE students as a valuable skilled pool of resources, right from even when they are still in the IHLs. There needs to be a re-think of the pathways to a career, one of the most important being the alignment of jobs to skills and pay for value. More than half of the businesses agree that transformation is very important. However, when it comes to R&D and innovation, more than half of the CEOs rated this as “unimportant or only somewhat important”. As for sustainability, 75% of our SMEs and 54% of our large companies are “not prepared at all or only somewhat prepared” for transitioning to low carbon. With the Singapore Exchange (SGX) implementing mandatory climate reporting for listed companies in selected sectors from 2023, SMEs will increasingly be held to similar expectations as they are critical value chain partners.[+5 sentences] SMEs that are slow to adopt sound sustainable practices will eventually lose out on business opportunities. There is an urgent need to support the acceleration of SME participation in the green economy. Perhaps the Government can consider a one-off top-up of the PSG specifically for the adoption of sustainability solutions and tools and do some risk-sharing to improve SMEs' access to sustainable financing. Budget 2023’s highlight for me is the new Enterprise Innovation Scheme. Forwarding thinking companies know that innovation is key to creating new value. With the enhanced tax deductions to 400% of qualifying expenditure on five categories including innovation carried out with the polytechnics and ITE, and even an upfront cash for companies that pay little or no taxes, it is clear that the Government is encouraging innovation and prepared to co-share risks.[+2 sentences] Singapore companies, especially SMEs, should and must definitely leverage this scheme. Next, SMEs need capital and talent, access and networks. The additional $150 million for the SME Co-Investment Fund and the enhancement to the Singapore Global Enterprises initiative in Budget 2023 could be helpful to our small to medium-sized companies to build Singapore brands that can last.[+5 sentences] What is the process of application and criteria for selection to be considered for such capital funding? To wrap up this section, let me share a quote from fellow SBF Council Member, Ms Kwee Wei-Lin, who is also President of Singapore Hotel Associations, and I quote: “Budget 2023 is a balanced and fair budget and we are glad to see the continued support from the Government in encouraging innovation and productivity, and the support for having a more inclusive workforce. However, the additional CPF contribution will further add to the escalating business costs”. One final feedback from the industry is that Budget 2023 is lacking on measures to support internationalisation. For my remaining time, I will share my reflections on Budget 2023 beyond the business lens. Many are comforted that Budget 2023 gives assurance and extra lift for the lower to middle income households and retirees to defray the GST rate increase.[+12 sentences] I can also see that it is a budget that support families, encourage marriage and childbirth. It is also about tackling the related issues of inequality and social mobility, and providing better care for our rapidly ageing population. These expenditures need to be funded responsibly and Singapore’s approach of keeping our overall system of taxes and benefits fair and progressive is the right thing to do. Our reserves have proven to be our greatest insurance. We have our generations of leaders to thank for their prudence and their stewardship in having shored up the reserves we have today. Singapore has been blessed in so many ways and if I have to name one, it would be the founding father of modern Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. There are probably many places which have similar geographic advantages like Singapore but it took a visionary, passionate and courageous leader like Mr Lee Kuan Yew, together with the Pioneer Generation of leaders, to make what many would see only as a large rock in treacherous waters, a mere fishing village and outpost for the British, into who we are today – a Singapore that is admired by many, a Singapore that you and I can be proud to call “Home”. Had Mr Lee Kuan Yew been still alive, he would turn 100 on 16 September 2023. I for one, look forward to paying tribute to his contributions to Singapore and celebrating the memories, legacy and wisdom of this great man. Notwithstanding the good place that we are in today, there are a couple of challenges that we face in Singapore. And I ask you to indulge me as I share my thoughts on three points. The first point, I have said it during the recent Motion on housing and I thought it important to raise this here again. In a UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index Report, it is reported that most households can no longer afford to buy property in the top financial centres of the world without a substantial inheritance.[+1 sentence] While we do want Singapore to be one of the top global financial hubs, how can we prevent and limit our risk of being in that same situation? How does MAS and MND collectively plan to help ensure that Singaporeans can still get to own our limited residential real estate even as we welcome wealthy family offices into Singapore, whose purchasing power will inevitably drive up property sale and rental prices?[+10 sentences] Secondly, I have been in tech all through my career. Tech can do a lot of good for society and has contributed much and its impact will be even more pervasive. But we have also seen the harms that tech can bring about, whether it is online scams, online bullying, unethical artificial intelligence – and the list goes on. We have debated in this House on this very issue, and bills have been passed to safeguard our people and our businesses from potential ills. But by the time the laws have to be called into play, it is already too far downstream. I am encouraged and proud that Singapore was the first country who tabled at WEF, the Governance Framework for Ethical AI, a couple of years back. This is testimony of our values and our forward-thinking visionary approach. But we know that more needs to be done. Developing Singapore to be a smart nation – that we must continue to pursue. Our challenge is to remind ourselves ever so often that technology must be at the service of humanity and not humanity at the mercy of technology. Technology cannot replace the human contact and encounter, and must not forget the vulnerable. So while the Government and the army of volunteers help our Seniors Go Digital, and support their efforts to keep up with times, there will be many who just cannot go digital and these people must not be denied of essential services.[+11 sentences] Thirdly, we have a good number of foreigners who become PRs and citizens over time. How well are we integrating our new PRs and citizens into the social fabric of Singapore? Volunteering and engaging in purposeful and soul-ful activities can bring diverse people together, build bridges for each other to cross as they help and serve the vulnerable communities amongst us. And, of course, even guests who are here on S Pass, EP or work permits, should be encouraged to volunteer and to engage in service in the community. Our sense of neighbourliness seems to be a challenge as I listen to the nightmares of litter bugs, the "neighbour from hell" and the story of an elderly dying alone in her HDB flat without anyone discovering her for days. Budget 2023, alone, cannot address these challenges. It will have to take all of us – citizens, PRs, migrant residents, businesses, civil society, social services agencies and Government – collectively to be caring and purposeful in living out our social and civic responsibilities. On that note about being purposeful, I would like to share a quote by Mr Samir Singh, Chief Marketing Officer, Unilever Asia, during a panel discussion with Minister Edwin Tong at the Company of Good Summit in January 2023. I quote: "Brands with purpose grow, people with purpose thrive, companies with purpose last." And to that beautiful quote, I add my line to close: "Communities with purpose serve." I stand in support of Budget 2023.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Cheryl Chan.
Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling (East Coast)1357 words
[+17 sentences]Mr Speaker, as we emerge from the pandemic, the world and Singapore are now facing other challenges brought about by the macroeconomic climate. Prices of goods continue to escalate, access to supply has not returned to normalcy and the headwinds remain strong while we find a new balance and world order. In my conversations with residents the past week, some welcome the different measures in Budget 2023 to help address the cost of living, others are heartened by the support given to young families and some mentioned that the intent to strengthen our social compact is an area we need to put stronger focus as we progress as a nation. I am also supportive of the various measures to help those in need and how the Government is finding other sources of income to balance a tight fiscal position. In order for us to manage the challenges ahead and have financial wherewithal to provide for more diverse societal needs, I feel strongly that we must look at the topic of how to ensure Singapore's competitiveness can be sustained in the long run. This cannot simply be a quick fix or measures that allow Singaporeans to cope for the short term, but rather we need solutions that can enable us to navigate more complex environments and external threats which compete with Singapore for both investments and talent. As I have highlighted in my 2018 Budget debate speech, our competition today is no longer local. The real competition is dynamic and beyond our shores. I believe there are some important factors for our continued competitiveness. Let me explain them. First, investing in our local workforce and the successful implementation of the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs). When the ITMs for 23 industries was first introduced in 2016, it was indeed a huge undertaking by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). To develop roadmaps for each industry which is inherently different in nature, having wide ranging and some unique issues faced in each industry and the broad spectrum of stakeholders to be engaged made this task very challenging. Yet, if we had not taken this first step, it would have been even more difficult today to keep pace with the rapid global market development and more workers would have been adversely impacted by the fiercer competition and the lack of skills to manage the changing nature of jobs. As we all recognise, skills or multi-skills of any worker cannot be developed overnight. Keeping workers relevant on the long horizon takes more than just policies. SkillsFuture was introduced for this purpose and to send home the message about the need for continuous education training (CET) after formal schooling ends. To better enhance the scheme, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong introduced the Jobs-Skills Integrators to better match the industries' skills gap and the learning required to be put in place. I appreciate the concept and see the need to plug this gap, but would like to further understand how the current CET curriculum available and ITMs that have made significant progress are pushing the boundaries for industries. Also, can Deputy Prime Minister Wong outline some of the key industries in which we are trying to develop a competitive advantage in and how the Enterprise Innovation Scheme can complement ITMs and imbue a stronger innovative culture?[+6 sentences] From a talent pipeline perspective, how are we able to concretely identify the progress of this development and further complement the progress for future strategic investments that we wish to anchor in Singapore? Second, leveraging overseas network as multipliers to develop our local talent. With a limited population and an ageing workforce, we must, first, acknowledge the need to retain our experienced workforce while we develop the next generation of workers. The pandemic has shown that work can take place virtually, productivity is not determined by the number of hours in an office and innovation can come about through collaboration of great minds. Even with that, we must also allow our talents to explore and venture out as they become co-creators of work clusters globally that provide job opportunities for our workforce. Attracting top talent to Singapore is one approach and over the years, we have been finding ways to have more global talents augment our ecosystem. Recently, the Overseas Network and Expertise Pass was introduced as we hope to fill the gaps for new emerging growth areas like the digital and sustainability space.[+11 sentences] It is true that on a broad level, these global talents will have a rub-on effect for our SMEs and make the local ecosystem more vibrant. On the other hand, we are still missing mechanisms that enable these global talents from directly benefiting SMEs through consulting services, being advisers to the local boards, providing expert sessions for the locals to learn alongside or acting as mentors to contribute deeply to the talent development. As we continue to monitor the efficacy of our measures and initiatives implemented for the dollar value invested, it is probably important, too, for us to understand if there are missed opportunity cost with the current approach. Third, the Government as a catalyst, innovator or change-maker. Often, when we talk about innovation, it is associated with having new technologies and doing things in a new way. But we sometimes forget that some innovations are not about radically new things, rather a new way of perceiving existing resources or chipping on ideas that were not rigorously pursued under past contexts. As we continue to attract investments to Singapore and create quality jobs for our workers, have we thought about what role the Government intends to play for future nation building? Today, we maintain our competitive status with heavy investments in skills, knowledge, physical assets and upkeeping the Singapore brand. This is what we have going for us. Indeed, it has given us the competitive advantage even with small acts of innovation. But what we may need to caution is that innovations responding to circumstances that are peculiar to our home context may result in impeding our international competitive success at some point. For example, a critical resource like energy supply, one that our nation clearly requires from residential to commercial, or industrial demands. We have long known that Singapore has no natural resources, limited land space and no geological attributes to generate much electricity from clean energy sources. But for us to meet our climate targets, we need the value chain to be in place to transport the clean energy sources from other geographies to Singapore. The Government has utilised different options to pilot projects, build partnerships with different countries and urged the private sector to be a strong proponent in developing solutions that may be feasible for our needs. Thus far, the Government's role continues to be that of a catalyst, a regulator and a facilitator.[+12 sentences] What if that role changes to be a co-producer with differentiated governance for critical resources that our country needs? Will our pathway to achieving the climate target be accelerated and will this better secure our supplies with greater resiliency and reduce the overall cost of essential resources for our citizens? Sir, we sometimes need to challenge our assumptions and conventional wisdom and be open in order to succeed. We need to know simply what works, why they work and how to apply them. In fact, it is fair to say that innovation usually requires pressure, necessity and even adversity to thrive. And I quote what Michael Porter said: "National prosperity is created, not inherited". Singapore, as a young nation, has much more to give and to constantly create for the benefit of our current and future generations. But the Government alone cannot fulfil this task. It takes our citizens, our industries, our talents, our global partners to collectively harness the strength, knowledge and our social responsibility towards one another to materialise our dreams. Only we can define the social fabric and the signature of our society that we wish for. Let us take the lead and not wait for the external environment to shape us, nor be limited by our imagination to achieve greater heights and greater things together. Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Sitoh Yih Pin.
Mr Sitoh Yih Pin (Potong Pasir)1324 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, in my recent speech in this House, I said it was dangerous to not feel pain for a long period of time. Pain reminds us that something needs to be done. If we feel nothing, we do not react. Therefore, we should not aim for analgesia to feel no pain but, instead, aim to ameliorate the pain. Pain is a call to action. I will take this occasion to speak further about how we should respond to pain. If pain is slight and fleeting, it can sometimes be dismissed. But when pain becomes more than a niggle here and a mild ache there, and is persistent, it is crucial that we acknowledge its existence and not dismiss it nonchalantly. It is the same with the polity as it is with the human body. The Government must recognise the pain that people are going through and, more importantly, act on them. Today, there are a number of pain points that are evident. First, there is high global inflation, coupled with sluggish economic growth.[+1 sentence] Our local inflation is hovering around 5%. Second, the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices remain high.[+4 sentences] And here, I am not discomforted by high COE prices for big or luxury cars, but for smaller cars and motorcycles. Many people need either a small car or a motorcycle for work. Workers in the point-to-point transportation and platform delivery industries are good examples. Third, the wait for HDB flats. And fourth, the wait for appointments in our public healthcare system brought about by the pandemic and exacerbated by the global competition for nursing and other healthcare manpower. And of course, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase.[+17 sentences] The PAP does not walk away from these pain points. We face them head on and we come up with viable and sustainable long-term solutions. But like a good doctor, we know that suggestions for instant pain relief, like instant gratification, is temporary and may cause us greater grief in the future. While we do not profess to have all the cures to all pains, we are prepared to take time to address the root causes of pain, while taking steps to ensure that the pain does not overwhelm us. Indeed, as the Confucian saying goes: "知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也". Loosely translated, this means that the path to wisdom is to know what you really know and to be aware of what you do not know. The true danger then, lies in what some people call the "unknown of unknowns". Here, we need to gather information and listen to as many people and stakeholders as possible, to minimise the magnitude of "unknown of unknowns", so that we are not unnecessarily blindsided. The next step is to come up with solutions. We can learn from what it takes to be a good doctor and the axiom which is taught to all medical students is, "To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always". A good doctor knows that there is a limit to the illnesses he can cure. Indeed, even with modern medicine, complete and permanent cures are rare. But he can often provide relief and, with empathy and compassion, he can always comfort his patients. Likewise, there are few problems that politicians and governments can fix permanently with policies and programmes. Let us not kid ourselves on this. There are few equivalents to smallpox in public policy-making, where an effective vaccination programme has eradicated smallpox from this planet. But policies and programmes do provide substantial relief. Examples of these in this year's Budget include enhanced GST Vouchers, additional CDC Vouchers, an Assurance Package that addresses rising cost-of-living and aims to support, amongst others, students and seniors, help for families with young children.[+27 sentences] Finally, we must also acknowledge the pain and provide comfort at the emotional level. A listening ear, a gentle pat, a nod, all these are small things we can do to provide emotional comfort. And sometimes, I feel that we focus too much on finding solutions to the pain that we may well fall short on empathy. We can improve ourselves. Sir, the record of the People's Action Party (PAP) speaks for itself over the past 64 years. Through our policies and programmes, we strive to improve the lives of the less fortunate. The social mobility of Singaporeans over this period demonstrates this. But sometimes, we do come across as a bit lacking in empathy. And empathy goes a long way when it comes to providing comfort. But as I have said, we can improve. Finally, there is another part to providing relief and comfort that is beyond focusing on our present-day problems. It is like looking at whether a glass is half-full or half-empty. We need to also focus on the half-full glass and ask ourselves where do the possibilities lie, what is the potential to make the glass of water fuller than what it is now? Or do we believe that the glass will get emptier and emptier as time goes by? Is the best behind us or is yet to be? I might add, Sir, that it is also the aim of any Opposition who aspires to be the Government one day to convince the people that the glass is getting emptier and emptier and also to get them to focus on the pain points, to persuade the people that these pain points are unremitting, intractable and, in fact, getting worse and worse to the point of being life-threatening. They want you to change your doctor. But we have to ask ourselves: will this so-called new doctor have better solutions and cures or worse? Are they like the proverbial "koyok-seller" of yesteryear, trying to sell you miracle cures? Mr Speaker, Sir, as we transition from 3G to 4G, it must be the responsibility of the incoming 4G leadership to inspire Singaporeans to greater heights, to convince a new generation that the glass is going to be bigger and fuller at the same time, while acknowledging that pain points exist and to provide adequate and effective pain relief here and now, while working towards viable and sustainable long-term solutions. So, there are at least three broad responses to pain. One is to go for complete analgesia, which as I have said before, can be dangerous over a long period of time. Another is to be overly focused on the pain and be paralysed by it. And then, there is the better way, which is to live with it and get on with life, but take pain relief when available and necessary, because life is seldom ever totally pain-free and miracle cures seldom, if ever, really work. Sir, 10 years ago, when I turned 50, I said in this House that the Government must listen to the people, labour for the people and lead the people. Now, as I turn 60, I believe that these fundamentals remain. How do we make sure that the glass of water gets fuller and not emptier? If there is one truism in geopolitics, it is that no one owes us a living, especially for a city state that is nothing more than a little red dot on many maps. We have to stay relevant, be nimble and embrace change. Staying relevant means we have to offer the services and products that other countries want and pay a good price for.[+1 sentence] If we can do that, we will continue to have the things that we want, such as good jobs for everyone and a safe environment and good schools to raise our children in, as well as affordable housing and reliable public transport. In 2014, Sir, I said in this House that for Singapore to survive and prosper, we need to have the relevant skillsets, right attitude and the moral compass and values.[+2 sentences] I am optimistic for Singapore because I see these three important ingredients in the 4G leadership and the people. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Xie Yao Quan.
Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong)2894 words
[+38 sentences]Sir, today, I would like to discuss cost-of-living. When the GST was first introduced at 3% in 1994, it had minimal impact on prices. Our inflation rate rose marginally from 2% to 3% but fell below 2% after 1994 and stayed there. And we were in a decade of robust economic growth. So, low inflation, high growth – when the GST was first introduced. Then, in 2002, in then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's first Budget as Finance Minister, he announced the increase in GST from 3% to 5%. At that time, our economy was at a different stage. It was facing a series of shocks and setbacks, and the growth outlook was troubled. But inflation was projected to be zero or even negative. And in this benign price environment, then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee said that, "I am confident that the 2-percentage point increase in GST will not significantly raise prices." Subsequently, when the GST went up from 5% to 7%, the economy was again back to a period of strong growth. So, this time, it is different. GST is going up when our growth outlook is once again troubled, and concurrently, our inflation is high, and expected to be higher for longer. To be clear, GST is not the main factor driving prices up. Indeed, as I said in my Budget Debate speech last year, we should "refrain from making GST a strawman, or a convenient scapegoat", for high prices. There are many other factors, external factors, driving prices up. But when GST goes up in this environment, it adds to the overall pressures facing Singaporeans and it exacerbates Singaporeans' overall anxieties on cost-of-living. It is a clear and present concern. Looking at the external factors driving prices up, take shipping, for example, thankfully, freight rates have come back down, quite significantly, from 2022 highs. Oil prices have come down too. Natural gas prices as well. And we see this in the petrol stations. The unit price is once again starting with the digit "2", rather than "3". But fertiliser prices are still up. And so, grain prices are up. Rice is up. Corn feed, up 50% versus 2019. And consequently, across the chain, price of chicken meat, for example, has stayed up. Eggs have stayed up too, 25 cents at least per egg. Overall, core inflation in Singapore is expected to ease off in the later half of this year, but only slightly. High inflation appears here to stay. So, what can we do, what must we do, to help Singaporeans with cost-of-living pressures? First, our exchange rate policy has really helped. Without a decisively stronger Singapore Dollar, we would be feeling the impact of imported inflation much more sharply. Yet, the central bank would need to be very cautious with any further move, as a stronger Singapore Dollar makes our exports more expensive and the outlook for exports this year is already challenging. Second, we need decisive fiscal measures to mitigate cost-of-living pressures. And on this, I am cheered by the moves in this Budget. And I wish to highlight, in particular, the permanent GST Voucher – Cash component. In last year's Budget, Deputy Prime Minister Wong announced that this GSTV – Cash would be raised to $400 in 2022 and $500 in 2023, for eligible Singaporeans living in smaller flats. But this year, the Budget has outdone itself, because before the increase to $500 in cash can be implemented this year, this Budget provides for another increase, to $700, and then, to $850 in 2024, versus just $400 in 2022.[+3 sentences] For eligible Singaporeans in larger flats, it is a similar story. Based on last year's Budget, $200 in cash last year, and on plan, to go up to $250 this year. But in this year's Budget, the payout for the year is raised from $250 to $350, and for next year, to $450. In other words, within the space of two Budgets, two fiscal years, GST Voucher – Cash has been essentially doubled, permanently, for every one in two adult Singaporeans.[+1 sentence] This will permanently deal with the effects of higher GST on overall cost-of-living pressures. Indeed, this year's Budget tops up the GST Voucher Fund by $2.4 billion, after a similar top up of $2.4 billion last year. Very decisive and a real commitment to keep this going permanently. And separately, under the Assurance Package, a 65-year-old retiree who owns no more than one property will receive – on top of the $700 cash under the GST Voucher Scheme, this retiree will receive another $1,300, in cash, this year alone, under the Assurance Package.[+15 sentences] And his or her child, who may be an upper-middle-income working adult owning one property, will also receive $550 in cash alone. And so, the Budget last year provided for $1.1 billion in such cost-of-living special payments and this year, another $1.3 billion has been set aside. Taken together, these fiscal measures will go quite some way towards relieving cost-of-living pressures brought about by both higher GST and more saliently, larger inflationary drivers. In fact, when speaking to residents about the Budget, some have turned around and asked me, is the Government giving too much? How is the Government going to sustain this, because we need to stay prudent? I certainly agree, but I think the Government must also do what it can to address a clear and present concern of Singaporeans. And so, on this note, I strongly support the Government's fiscal measures in the GST Voucher Scheme and Assurance Package. But third, beyond fiscal measures, I believe we can do more to keep in check the rental rates of Government-owned and managed commercial properties, especially for coffeeshops in our heartlands. To be fair, rental is not the largest cost component of cooked food and served meals in the heartlands, nor should we expect that lower or steady rental would bring down the overall prices of meals, as there are other cost drivers at play. But I do believe that lower or steady rental would at least help to keep everyday meal prices steady and relieve the pressure on businesses to keep increasing prices to cover their costs. Fourth and most importantly, to sustainably mitigate cost-of-living concerns, real wages and spending power of Singaporeans must go up. Wages and spending power must grow faster than inflation. Certainly, for the broad middle, but also, and especially for the lowest-wage workers amongst us, because consumption takes out a disproportionate part of income for low-wage workers, and so higher prices hit low-wage workers disproportionately hard. To help low-wage workers, the Government has announced decisive moves, especially in the Progressive Wage Model. Many of these moves will start taking effect this year, to give wages at the bottom a sharp uplift over the next few years. For a cook in a full-service F&B outlet, monthly gross wage will be at least $2,050 starting from this March, going up to at least $2,380 in March 2025. For a conservancy cleaner, at least $1,795 from this July, going up to $2,835 by July 2028. For a cashier, at least $1,850 already from last September, going up to at least $2,175 by next September.[+10 sentences] So, significant wage moves. And paradoxically, these wage moves under the Progressive Wage Model would likely push prices up. We may all have to pay more for meals, for Town Council conservancy, and so on. But the important points are these. One, the Progressive Wage Model should grow wages at the bottom faster than prices rise, so that our low-wage workers will get higher real wages eventually. And as importantly, all of us will be sharing in the burden of these higher prices brought about by progressive wages. It is spread out across all of us, in order to support higher wages for a segment at the bottom. So, we can, and should all do our part, and pay a little bit more, in order to help those who are impacted the most, more than the rest of us, by higher costs of living. This must be a key part of our social compact. And the Government is doing its part too. In this Budget, topping up $2.4 billion to the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme Fund after a top up of $2.8 billion last year.[+25 sentences] More than $5 billion in total over two years to share the heavier labour cost burden with employers in the next few years. And on top of this, the Government is also giving directly to low-wage workers another $150 to $350 every month to further top up their wages through enhanced Workfare, announced last year and kicking in this year. But ultimately, besides Government and consumers, employers of low-wage workers and buyers of their services – if these services are outsourced – must also play their part to uplift our low-wage workers. Because the Progressive Wage Model provides for a whole ladder of job grades and sets wage levels not only at the starting grade but at higher, more senior grades. Employers, service providers and buyers of outsourced services must do all they can to keep to the spirit of Progressive Wages, preserve the ladder, keep the ladder intact and preserve an appropriate mix of junior and senior job grades in their workforce and keep alive for low-wage workers the hope and prospects of promotion and career advancement up the ladder. Service providers and service buyers must do their part to prevent the collapse of the ladder and the regression of the mix of job grades in their workforce towards the starting rung, whereby the starting rung in the ladder effectively becomes the final rung. We must avoid this. And I would urge relevant regulatory agencies in the Progressive Wage Model to also regularly review if there is a need to possibly update their strategies from time to time to enhance alignment of the market with licensing frameworks. As for growing real wages and spending power in the broad middle, much has been said about productivity, upskilling and economic transformation to keep creating good jobs. I wish to focus today on a sub-segment within the broad middle, a particular "sandwiched" group, comprising working adults in the 30s to 50s, with a school-going child or children between seven and 16 on one hand, and parents in their 60s and above on the other. This is not a big sub-segment, probably around 200,000 households or 20% of total households, but they face particular, "sandwiching" pressures in cost-of-living. Now I believe as parents, all of them will want to do their best for their children and what is "best" can be very personal and varies from individual to individual. But if we look at the Household Expenditure Survey in 2018, a household spends $112 per month on average, on private tuition and other educational courses. This is the average across all households. But if we suppose that in fact, private tuition expenditure is concentrated within this sub-segment of "sandwiched" young parents, then the average amount that each of these households spends on tuition is probably closer to $600 per month. And they spend on this because they want the best for their children. My point is this: we have been analysing household expenditure primarily by income bands, I think it would be useful to also study household expenditure by household archetypes and for an archetype such as this "sandwiched" sub-segment, we may uncover or confirm particular spending needs on tuition, for example. And in turn, we can form a better, more nuanced understanding, of drivers of cost-of-living pressures for this particular sub-segment and work towards addressing these where possible. Now I think this "sandwiched" group should get more support from the Government. First, beyond the Edusave account and Government top-ups thereto, I think parents should get a "Child Development Bonus", in cash, for each child seven to 16, each year. Think of this as an extension of Government support, in the child's life, beyond the Baby Bonus Cash Gift which has been enhanced and beyond contributions to the Child Development Account for preschool years, which has also been enhanced. Second, especially for the elderly parents of this "sandwiched" sub-segment and for seniors across the board, we should have more healthcare subsidies, especially in intermediate and long-term care such as nursing homes and in increasingly prevalent services in the hospitals such as MRI scans. Sir, let me conclude. I started with a reference to the 2002 Budget, the first by then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee. It actually makes for a fascinating read. Back then, total operating and developmental expenditure was $28 billion or 17% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Fast forward two decades, in this year's Budget, it is $104 billion – four times – but we have managed to keep this at 16% of GDP.[+8 sentences] In other words, the Government has been spending more and more, and doing better and better for Singaporeans, year after year, and it has been doing so sustainably and responsibly. How has the Government done this? First, and most obviously, by ensuring our economy grows. So, between 2002 and 2023, our economy has grown by four times in nominal terms too, keeping pace with spending. The Government has grown the pie, so that it can do more for Singaporeans, sustainably. That is the first order of business. But second, in these years, the Government has also found new, important ways to maintain our fiscal sustainability. It transited from a Net Investment Income (NII) framework to a Net Investment Return (NIR) framework, to leverage more on the strength of our reserves to fund current needs. NII contribution in 2002 was $2.4 billion, 1% of GDP. Today, NIR contribution is $24 billion or 4% of GDP.[+30 sentences] On the other hand, in 2002, taxes and fees amounted to 17% of GDP. Today, it is 15%, lower than in 2002, although our spending needs have gone up – shot up dramatically. And the Government has done this while keeping personal and corporate income tax regimes highly competitive. That is why we need GST, which taxes consumption rather than income, as another part of our fiscal base, and that is why GST has gone up. Yet, with our unique system of permanent offsets, we make sure the bulk of higher GST is net-net raised from foreigners, tourists and higher-income Singaporeans, but channelled towards benefiting all Singaporeans. In our revenue base today, taxes and fees are already at 15% of GDP, how much lower do we want to go? NIR, on the other hand, is already at 4%, how much higher do we want to go? How much more do we want to leverage on our reserves? As a society, we will have to make our own judgement based on our shared values. Higher GST, in a high-inflation era, creates anxieties for Singaporeans. But it is the right thing for all of us to do, for ourselves and for future generations. While raising GST, this Government has rolled out decisive moves to put cash in Singaporeans' hands, to uplift real wages, especially at the bottom and to provide immediate assurance. It shows a remarkable political will to do right by Singaporeans in the long-term and to take care of Singaporeans' needs in the short-term. In management studies, there is a concept by Jim Collins about eschewing the "Tyranny of the Or" and exercising the "Genius of the And". In the context of governing a country, I would refrain from using the word "Genius", but "Gumption", perhaps, or "Steel". The Government has, over the decades, steadfastly eschewed false choices, avoided the "Tyranny of the Or", and held on to a "Gumption and Steel of the And", and it shows in how it has raised GST responsibly while taking care of cost-of-living concerns compassionately. There is something else to be gleaned from the 2002 Budget Statement. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee introduced an offset package while announcing the increase in GST from 3% to 5% and he said this, in 2002, "the offset package will cover at least five years' worth of additional tax payable for all flat sizes. In fact, those living in one- or two-room HDB flats will be covered for the next 10 years". Sounds very familiar. In 2007, then-Minister Tharman rolled out an offset package along essentially, similar lines. Twenty years on, today, the Government carries on the tradition and remains consistent in its commitment to take care of Singaporeans. It is remarkable. Sir, the 2002 Budget was billed "A Budget for A Different World". Singapore was coming out of its worst recession at that time, since Independence. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee said, "we are entering a very different world. Conditions are uncertain and volatile, competition is intense, change is faster than ever… we cannot prevent the changes from happening. Instead, we must act decisively…" Today, we are debating a Budget that is titled "Moving Forward in a New Era", indeed another different world and the words uttered in 2002 ring as true today. But I am confident that if we stay open as a country and embrace the world, stay nimble as a tribe and seize opportunities to make hay when the sun shines, and stay united as a people and take care of each another, we will have another brilliant 20 years ahead of us, towards SG75 and towards SG100. Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang)3588 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Speaker, after more than three years of battling COVID-19, it appears we have finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel. However, while the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is now over and we can all wave goodbye to the wearing of face masks, there remain many other challenges facing Singaporeans in the horizon. The one thing that is top of mind for many of my residents during our house visits, is the mounting cost of living pressure they face. Inflation, unfortunately, is not a phenomenon that Singaporeans can wave goodbye to in 2023. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) expects inflation to stay high in 2023, with the Consumer Price Index for All Items (CPI-All Items) inflation projected to come in at between 5.5% and 6.5%, and even core inflation is expected to average 3.5% to 4.5%, both of which includes the effect of the 1% increase in GST rates this year and likely next year as well.[+8 sentences] While the Government still expects economic growth in 2023, amid recessionary concerns globally, I believe the risks to the economic outlook remain to the downside. The MOM too has observed a recent uptick in retrenchments in Singapore and unemployment rates could trend higher. Just over the last weekend, even Google is reported to have retrenched 6% of their Singapore workforce. Against this backdrop of continuing household vulnerabilities, my speech today will cover three broad areas. First, my observations on the Government's fiscal position; second, suggestions on growing our recurrent revenue sources from those better able to contribute; and third, recommendations on truly strengthening our social compact. Thankfully, it is not all doom and gloom when it comes to the Government's finances. Over the past year, I shared in Parliament my observations on what appears to be the better-than-expected fiscal outturn in Financial Year 2021 (FY 2021) and FY 2022. It appears that against the spectre of COVID, operating revenues and the primary deficit in the last two years, have indeed, been much better than expected. In FY 2021, actual operating revenues were about $5.9 billion higher, while the primary deficit was $13.4 billion smaller than initially estimated in Budget 2021. This meant that instead of a S$11 billion overall deficit that was expected, the Government's fiscal position in FY2021 turned out to be a surplus of $1.9 billion instead! Similarly, in FY 2022, operating revenues are now expected to be $8.5 billion higher than what was initially estimated in Budget 2022.[+17 sentences] Despite higher expenditure and special transfers, the overall fiscal position is still expected to improve by $1 billion. Had it not been for higher special transfers, the Budget would have similarly turned in a surplus instead of an estimated $3 billion deficit instead. But, do not get me wrong, it is not that I am against the idea of these transfers in 2022, as I recognise that the top-up to the GST Voucher Fund following the enhancement of the Assurance Package announced in November 2022, was a key source of the increase in special transfers from $6.2 billion as initially estimated to $9.2 billion, thus contributing to the deficit for the year. After all, even without raising the GST rate to 8%, GST collections rose $1.8 billion in 2022. Looking into FY 2023, I note that the Government expects a modest deficit of $0.4 billion. Despite slowing growth, operating revenues are expected to see strong growth in the year, up S$6.4 billion compared to 2022. Corporate income tax, personal income tax and GST are expected to reach new record highs for the third consecutive year. Meanwhile, $185 billion is set to be transferred from the MAS to Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) in phases to reach the optimal reserves amount. With the deployment of these funds into a higher return seeking portfolio compared to that of the MAS, this would naturally mean higher potential returns to the Government and hence, higher NIRC contributions over time. I thus hope that the Government will not hesitate to support the livelihoods of our fellow Singaporeans, should inflation pressures persist and not slow "more discernibly in the second half" as is expected by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and if labour market conditions continue to deteriorate. I do wonder though, what is the cumulative budget deficit from the start of the Government's term to FY 2023, and would the need to maintain a balanced budget constrain the ability of the Government to activate the "drawer plans" that Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong spoke about, should the need arise? Moving into the second segment of my speech on suggestions on how best to grow our recurrent revenue sources and raise contributions from those segments that are better able to contribute. I agree with what Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong shared about keeping “our overall system of taxes and benefits fair and progressive” and that “those who are better off contribute more”. However, I believe there is significant scope for us to do more to better achieve these stated objectives, such that the drive to have everyone contribute something does not risk morphing into common suffering for the man on the street. In my Budget debate speech last year, I spoke extensively about BEPS 2.0. Not only has corporate income taxes been consistently the largest contributor to the Government’s operating revenues, in FY2023, it is now the single largest contributor to the Budget, higher than that of the NIRC. This is not surprising at all if we look at some of the largest companies here in Singapore, with DBS full-year net profit up 20% to a record $8.2 billion, while Sembcorp Industries’ net profit was up three times, supported by higher power prices and margins in Singapore and the UK. BEPS 2.0 is one of the most significant reforms to international tax rules to ensure that Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate.[+4 sentences] Their fair share of tax. I note that in the Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Occasional Paper on medium-term fiscal projections, the impact to our single largest contributor to the Budget from BEPS 2.0 is not taken into account, which makes the published medium-term revenue and fiscal projections a lot less meaningful. I recognise that there are uncertainties and the Government needs more time to study these issues thoroughly and will announce changes in the corporate tax system when ready. However, while BEPS 2.0 may have been delayed, the OECD has on 2 February released technical guidance to assist governments in implementing the global minimum tax. If all goes according to plan, this could happen in less than a year’s time, in the beginning of 2024.[+18 sentences] While precise numbers may not be feasible, does the MOF have a range of blue sky and grey sky projections as to the impact of the implementation of a Domestic Top-up Tax? Is the MOF sufficiently prepared to implement this landmark tax reform from 2025 as what Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong shared? As I have shared in this House last year, I hope that the Government will view the global minimum tax reforms as an opportunity rather than a threat, given Singapore's strong non-tax advantages and attractiveness to MNEs. If a global MNE is already operating in Singapore, what incentive would it have to incur additional relocation costs when the minimum corporate tax rates of 15% would be normalised globally? I hope it is not the case that over the past years, global MNEs’ decision to invest in Singapore boils down to mere tax incentives as the deal-breaker. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has shared with the Pillar Two solution, all economies will benefit from extra tax revenues. All economies. I hope the additional tax revenues from BEPS 2.0 will not simply be in substance returned to MNEs through other forms. Next on wealth taxes, particularly, those relating to property which is the Government’s preferred way to tax wealth. As I have shared last year, while the increase in headline marginal property tax rates appears high, the actual impact on the households involved are unlikely to be material. I further shared about how, based on my analysis, high-end condos in Cairnhill and Nassim Road need only raise rents by 2% to 7% to offset the higher property taxes. As it turns out, private residential rents rose by 30% in 2022. So, while I agree with Deputy Prime Minister that $380 million more per year in property tax revenues is not an insignificant sum of money, I still believe that it may not be that significant to those who are impacted. But I do recognise that the Government is doing more on the property front, with the higher marginal Buyers’ Stamp Duty (BSD) rates for higher-value residential and non-residential properties. In itself, again I do not believe the impact of the higher BSD rates to be that significant. To illustrate, for residential properties priced between $1.5 million and $5 million, the impact of the BSD rate increase only amounts to 0% to 1.1% of the purchase price of the property. Again, in the context of the near 9% rise in private property prices in 2022, the higher BSD may simply be an afterthought. I wonder though if more can be done for our property-related wealth taxes to be more targeted and progressive? Despite hefty ABSD rates for foreigners, that did not stop an entire luxury condo project, EDEN, from being sold to a single family for $293 million, for a single buyer to purchase 20 units in Canninghill Piers for $87.6 million or for a single penthouse unit at Les Maison Nassim to be sold for $75 million last year.[+5 sentences] In Budget 2009, Senior Minister Tharman as then Finance Minister removed the tax on Net Annual Value with effect from YA2010, for those who own higher-value homes or secondary residences. I hope the Government can consider re-introducing this tax, in which the AV threshold can be set at a high bar, for it to be effective as a wealth tax targeting on those who can afford the likes of our Good Class Bungalows (GCBs) and especially for those private residential properties that are not let out, given the situation we have today where private residential vacancies are near historical lows. To give credit where it is due, I welcome the Government’s recognition that there is scope to make our vehicle taxes more progressive. Last year, I highlighted that the Government’s move to introduce a new Additional Registration Fee (ARF) tier for cars is not meaningful in the grand scheme of things. So, I do welcome the Government’s move to further adjust the ARF and cap the Preferential ARF (PARF) rebates at $60,000. With the move, not only would a Ferrari Roma cost about 23% more as a result of the higher ARF, the capped PARF rebates would mean about 22% of the selling price would be lost as well, resulting in a more meaningful contribution of high-end vehicle-related taxes to Government revenues.[+21 sentences] I hope the Government will continue to consider various options to tax wealth effectively and other forms of progressive taxes to raise revenues more equitably rather than via regressive taxes such as the GST. Finally, on recommendations to truly strengthen our social compact, Mr Speaker, you would know that since I was elected as a Member of Parliament for Sengkang in 2020, strengthening our social compact and in particular fostering greater support for families is a topic which is very close to my heart. Parenting is definitely a struggle, especially if one wants to be an involved parent. Hard choices and sacrifices must be made. But my wife and I have not and will not regret our decision to bring our two boys into this world, who are now about three-and-a-half and one-and-a-half years old today. As Parliamentarians and leaders of this country, how then can we continuously strive to make it easier for Singaporeans to start a family? How can we make the sacrifices and trade-offs less stark and make parents and would-be-parents feel that balancing family, work and life is not a zero-sum game? I will be elaborating further on Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) and parental leave during the subsequent Committee of Supply debates, topics which I have been speaking on for the last two years. On FWAs in particular, I am increasingly anxious that whatever gains we have made as a country when it comes to workplace flexibility during COVID-19 are now rapidly being eroded and my worst fears of a return to pre-COVID-19 workplace norms are starting to come true. Residents, family members and friends are increasingly sharing that they are pretty much back to working from the office and working from home is now a distant memory. One friend quipped that his boss said, and I paraphrase, “If you are not in the office, how do I know that you are actually working?” Work from home is just one form of flexible work arrangement, but I fear that if we do not put in place legislation on this matter soon, the hard-earned gains from FWAs in the last few years will soon be permanently lost. On parental leave, I note that while unpaid infant care leave will be raised, there are no changes to maternity leave which was last changed 15 years ago in 2008. That said, the move to raise Government-Paid Paternity Leave from two weeks to four weeks is no doubt welcome, but I note that this is purely on a voluntary basis on the part of employers. As it is, even though Paternity Leave is a mere two weeks, only more than half of our fathers take paternity leave. Will would-be fathers be in a position to take their full entitlement of the expanded paternity leave and feel comfortable doing so? So, I do wonder if Deputy Prime Minister’s message that "we want paternal involvement to be the norm in our society” could in practice turn out as being construed as "paternal involvement is voluntary"? One of the most puzzling moves to me is the decision to worsen the Working Mother’s Child Relief (WMCR). While there could be a group of lower-income working mothers who would benefit from this change, the majority of would-be working mothers will be made worse off with the change in methodology. In the context of "building a Singapore Made for Families", I find this move highly ironic and self-contradictory. I did some calculations for WMCR for one child, assuming a working mother gets two months' worth of bonuses which is the average in Singapore, while benefiting from other standard reliefs such as earned income relief, CPF, NSMan (Wife) relief and shares the qualifying child relief with her husband. Essentially, for mothers who earn less than $2,610 a month, they would not be better off as they would not have paid taxes at all even under the prior methodology, while mothers earning more than $3,810 a month and above will be worse off. The only group of mothers who would be better off are those earning between $2,610 and $3,810 a month, and the extent of their tax savings range from a grand $0 to $40 in total tax savings a year. Based on my estimates of working mothers' income within married couples in resident households, roughly 20% of mothers will benefit from the WMCR change to the tune of up to $40, while the remaining 80% of mothers will either be unaffected or worse off.[+14 sentences] I wonder if the WMCR truly seeks to reward families with children and encourage married women to remain in the workforce after having children, or does it have the unintended opposite effect? If the aim is to benefit lower- to middle-income working mothers, why not just give a motherhood tax rebate to working mothers earning below a certain income? And I do not mean this as a motherhood statement as such a move can ensure that even a larger proportion of mothers will benefit as opposed to the design of the new WMCR. To further support lower-income working mothers, if the tax rebates granted exceed the tax payable, tax credits can be paid out in cash to ensure the reliefs are not lost. Moreover, unwed single mothers are ineligible for this relief. Single mothers already face significant challenges in singlehandedly raising their children and more often than not are working mothers. Even if we cannot raise their children on their behalf, the least we can do is to ensure that our tax policies do not discriminate against them. I strongly urge the Government to reconsider the changes to the WMCR. Finally, I welcome the move to raise the CPF salary ceiling from $6,000 a month to $8,000 a month. From those within this monthly income band, the lower monthly take-home salary could be a challenge given the pressures of being in a sandwiched class, with high monthly household expenses and relatively lower grants and support compared to the lower income. However, I do recognise that the benefits from a higher employers’ CPF contribution over time can contribute meaningfully to retirement savings. Yet, where I think the move falls short is in keeping the annual salary ceiling intact at $102,000. Can the Government raise the CPF annual salary ceiling in tandem with the monthly salary ceiling move to benefit this expanded group of workers? I did some calculations for a worker who earns $7,000 a month with a three-month bonus. When fully implemented in 2026, he or she could benefit from $1,530 worth of additional employers’ CPF contributions with the raised monthly salary ceiling. However, should the annual salary ceiling be raised in tandem, this would rise to $2,040 implying that the same worker will benefit from an increased CPF contribution of $510 a year.[+1 sentence] In the case of a worker who earns $8,000 a month and has a four-month bonus, whether through his or her exceptional work performance or otherwise, the worker would not benefit from the raised monthly salary ceiling at all. Yet, if the annual salary ceiling was raised in tandem, his or her CPF balances will be higher by $4,420 a year.[+1 sentence] When the Government says that it will review the annual salary ceiling periodically, what is the Government looking out for before deciding to make the move or rather what is stopping the Government from doing so immediately as it has done in the past? In Budget 2015, it was said that the higher salary ceiling will cover wages up to the 80th percentile of resident incomes.[+4 sentences] What is the coverage of the current CPF salary ceiling moves and what could it be if the annual salary ceiling was raised correspondingly today? Already, the higher monthly salary ceiling will be increased in four steps all the way to 2026 to allow employers and employees to adjust to the changes. I am sure everyone in this Chamber agrees that businesses value certainty and visibility on when exactly the annual salary ceiling move is going to take place, and this will be much appreciated by employers and employees alike. Before I conclude, Mr Speaker, let me just say a few words in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): Looking into FY2023, I note that the Government expects a modest deficit of S$0.4 billion.[+7 sentences] Despite slowing growth, operating revenues are expected to see strong growth in the year, up S$6.4 billion compared to 2022. Corporate income tax, personal income tax and GST are expected to reach new record highs for the third consecutive year. I thus hope that the Government will not hesitate to support the livelihoods of our fellow Singaporeans if the need arises. This is crucial, because inflation pressures will persist and are unlikely to slow down discernibly and labour market conditions might continue to deteriorate. One of the most puzzling moves to me is the change to the Working Mother’s Child Relief (WMCR). While there could be a group of lower income working mothers who would benefit from this change, the majority of would-be working mothers will be worse off with the change. In the context of "Building a Singapore Made for Families", I find this move self-contradictory. Based on my estimates of working mothers' income within married couples, roughly 20% of mothers will benefit from the WMCR change while the remaining 80% of mothers will either be unaffected or worse off.[+7 sentences] I wonder if the WMCR truly seeks to encourage married women to remain in the workforce after having children, or does it have the unintended opposite effect? I hope the Government can reconsider the change to WMCR. (In English): Mr Speaker, to conclude, I would like to share some final thoughts on Budget 2023. Recently, I read about the Cost-of-Thriving Index in America, which suggests that while many economists argue that America’s working families are more prosperous than ever before, families themselves feel that they have come under increasing economic pressure. The report suggests that the families are right. As the Government strategises on how to move forward in a new era, I hope the future Singapore will not be one where we worry about not being able to attract the rich and famous or the largest and most profitable corporations and hence, have the average Singaporean shoulder a higher tax burden. I hope it will not be one where we have a shrinking middle class owing to income inequalities and I hope it will be one where every Singaporean family can thrive.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Prof Hoon Hian Teck.
Prof Hoon Hian Teck (Nominated Member)1901 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, the presentation of the Government Budget in Parliament by the Minister for Finance is an expression of hope for the country. The Budget Statement looks at the prospects for the country, taking into account both the current challenges as well as the opportunities. How did things look when the Minister for Finance presented Singapore's first Budget after gaining independence on 9 August 1965? How do things look in 2023? We can get a glimpse of how things look more than half a century ago from the 1970 Budget Statement presented by the then-Minister for Finance, Dr Goh Keng Swee, as he chose in that Budget Statement, to do a review of Singapore's economic performance during the preceding decade. He said: "On the morning of 9 August 1965, I was in Fullerton Building, brooding over the enormous problems facing the country and the Government. The problems of the future loom in awesome and intimidating proportions." Nevertheless, Dr Goh was able to say in his Budget Statement in December of 1967, that after two years of independent existence, the Republic of Singapore continued not only to survive, but also to flourish, to the surprise of many observers. Singapore's first Minister for Finance expressed hope when our country was still a newly emerging economy, while the present Minister for Finance expresses hope in presenting Budget 2023 when we are already a mature economy. Yet, in preparing the Government's Budget, I believe that there are enduring lessons from the past that are still applicable today which have to do with the role of economic growth in creating fiscal capacity, the necessity of integrating into the global economy for sustaining economic prosperity and the centrality of job holding in a dynamic economy. First, the role of economic growth in creating fiscal capacity. Over the years, Singapore's tax revenue has grown in tandem with the expanding Gross Domestic Product (GDP), thus providing adequate resources to finance total Government spending.[+1 sentence] An analysis of the data shows the share of Singapore Government operating revenue as a share of GDP keeping pace with the Government spending as a share of GDP from 1965 onwards, except during the years of recessionary shocks, when we ran deficits. It is likely that Singapore's economic take-off that caused our economy to grow faster than the world's technology leaders in those years, expanded the size of the economic pie and raised tax revenue at given tax rates to help pay for our national expenditure. It is inevitable that with Singapore getting closer to the world technology frontier, growth must inevitably fall to a more moderate level that is typical among the advanced industrial economies.[+5 sentences] The more moderate growth rate is likely to be propelled by productivity growth. In the earlier years, the increase in investment rate, the increase in labour force participation, helped to boost growth. But in this stage of being a more mature economy, that moderate growth rate has to be propelled principally by productivity growth, which in turn will depend on technological diffusion from abroad as well as indigenous innovation. Indigenous innovation is partly driven by spending on research and development by the private sector as well as the higher education sector and public research institutes. However, indigenous innovation is importantly undertaken also by economic actors at the grassroots, conceiving new products to launch and better processes to churn out existing products. In this regard, the Enterprise Innovation Scheme introduced in Budget 2023 will help businesses press on with innovation.[+9 sentences] Established firms, the bigger firms, may be hesitant to launch new and higher quality products for fear that their existing product lines might be displaced as customers shift away their purchases. Small firms and new startups therefore have greater incentive to find new niches because they do not have the same problem as these established firms. They dare to venture into the dark and try something new. However, they are limited by the availability of financing. As new business startups drive innovation in the new economy, a central relationship that comes into focus is that of financiers and entrepreneurs. Angel investors provide financing for startups. As our education system invest in providing our students more and more, with the opportunity to venture into the unknown and increase the supply of entrepreneurs, the match between angel investors and people with good business ideas might improve. So, in this next stage of growth, as our students operate in a more innovative, exploratory, education system while learning all the basics, maybe we will see more of them daring to venture into the unknown, to try it out, being entrepreneurs. This will improve the expected returns to financiers and increase the number of startups that receive financing. More successful early stage business ventures might then stimulate the supply of financing from venture capitalists. Therefore, in Budget 2023, with the augmenting, the SME co-investment fund, that helps to strengthen our enterprise financing ecosystem.[+16 sentences] Second, the necessity of integrating into the global economy for sustaining economic prosperity. This is despite the fact that as the Budget Statement presented by the Minister has acknowledged the era of untrammelled globalisation is over and greater contestation and fragmentation of the global economy is likely. Still then, integrating into the global economy remains very important. Economic integration in the global flow of ideas, goods and services, capital and labour, I believe, remains necessary as this expands our GDP and provides the fiscal resources to strengthen economic inclusion. Integrating into the global economy boosts our GDP through several channels. As the industry expands through selling into the external market, each firm, even though small, experiences the productivity boost that allows it to expand output. For example, industry level trade missions into the regional economies gather useful information that each firm can take advantage of to expand sales. Another point, more productive firms also self-select into selling in export markets as they are better able to cover the fixed costs of establishing export platforms. You need to incur some fixed cost just to find out how the market looks like in an overseas economy. Export-oriented firms are therefore larger. Larger firms tend to devote more resources to screen workers and improve the quality of their work force. Consequently, larger firms pay observationally equivalent workers more. Empirical evidence suggests that neighbouring countries, after adjusting for country sizes, tend to trade more with each other. So, the regional market provides an opportunity for our domestic firms to gain experience of selling abroad and learn from exporting. The experience gained can later help this firm to achieve international competitiveness to sell beyond regional markets. The Budget Statement notes that our deep relationships with both the US and China as well as the ASEAN economies, make us an increasingly important place for global and regional businesses. Setting aside $1 billion to boost the Singapore Global Enterprises Initiative in Budget 2023 adds further support to our internationalisation efforts.[+10 sentences] Demographic trends create headwinds for Singapore even as we move to develop indigenous innovation. As our wages increase from the 1960s, the opportunity cost of having another child has also increased. While higher incomes means that people can afford to have more children, it has been observed that the total fertility rate tends to decline as countries become richer. This suggests that the substitution effect dominates the income effect of higher wages. In other words, if my wages are higher, sure, I can afford to have more children. On the other hand, raising a child is a very time intensive activity and possibly having another child means having less time in the market workplace. And that means forgoing a higher wage. That is the substitution effect and it is quite general across many countries of different cultures. As countries become richer, the total fertility rate steadily declines. So, people invest more in raising the human capital of their children, even as the family size shrinks. That is how they spend their added income – investing in their children. So, in that regard, increasing the Government-paid paternity leave from Budget 2023 from two weeks to four weeks for eligible working fathers of Singaporean children serves to widen the opportunity for children to benefit from their father's investment time in them.[+2 sentences] What poses a challenge for Singapore at this stage of our economic development is that an economy where older age structure appears to generate slower productivity growth. One reason for that, is that the lower labour force participation rate among older workers limits the extent of knowledge transfer from older and more experienced workers to younger workers. Another reason is that the pace of innovation tends to slow down due to a decline in the supply of entrepreneurs as we have more people who are older in the population. So, to generate economic prosperity in the mature phase, Singapore, I believe, will have to adopt a two-pronged approach, both to boost total fertility but at the same time to manage a controlled flow of immigrants to keep the population size from shrinking.[+12 sentences] My final point, the centrality of job holding in a dynamic economy. A person's self-esteem tends to be very much tied up with the ability to tackle challenges that the workplace throws up. There is a sense of accomplishment that comes from being able to size up a problem at our workplace and to pull together the available resources to solve the problem. When one's contribution to solving a problem is acknowledged, even if only tacitly, it boosts our self-confidence and encourages greater initiative. Work also gives structure to one's life. Many goals that we set are work related and these serve to give us a sense of purpose as we begin each new day. When we are absorbed in our work, time flies. On the other hand, there is a certain listlessness that accompanies prolonged joblessness. Many meaningful relationships are also developed at our workplace. This is partly due to the fact that the production process in modern enterprises is a collaborative effort requiring teamwork. As we work along with colleagues to achieve common goals and contribute jointly to problem-solving, we develop a social bond and a sense of belonging that are important for our emotional health. When workers across the whole economy find their work meaningful and are ready to think constantly about how to do their work better in novel ways, the result can be higher job satisfaction and a boost to aggregate productivity growth. Budget 2023 affirms the centrality of job holding as it introduces measures to uplift the wage earnings of lower-wage workers and also provide support to reskill displaced workers and match them to new jobs.[+6 sentences] Mr Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, Dr Goh Keng Swee, ending the narrative of the decade in his 1970 Budget Statement, also said, "Throughout the decade, there was a persistent search for practical solutions – a patient building of institutions and infrastructure, a generous allocation of funds and an accumulated collection of talented staff. In the end, it paid off. It is imperative that we should never either through extravagance or carelessness, fritter away all that we had so laboriously built up. We must build on the foundation of the accumulated experience of the decade and ensure that progress and prosperity will continue to higher levels of consolidation." I believe that Budget 2023 is consonant with this wise counsel. I stand in support of the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Christopher de Souza.
Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah)2296 words
[+15 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, this year's Budget is about moving forward in a new era. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has said that we cannot simply do the same things as we have in the past and assume success. It involves asking ourselves hard questions where solutions sometimes involve competing interests. Mr Speaker, today I would like to raise a few hard questions on two issues and consider whether the trade-offs we have made continue to measure up under examination. Instead of just raising questions on these topics, I would like to, humbly and sincerely, offer my own suggestions and solutions for this House to deliberate upon. The first issue is something deeply concerning to me and many other Singaporeans – that is, the growing number of workplace injuries and fatalities. Last year, on a Tuesday morning in December, Mr Ely Chow was struck and pinned down by a machine as it was being transferred by a forklift. He was taken unconscious to Ng Teng Fong Hospital and subsequently passed away from his injuries. I was there at his wake in Ghim Moh and it affected me deeply. Ely grew up in Ghim Moh, in Ulu Pandan, the constituency I serve, where his mother and father live. His sister, Ruth, and her husband also live in Ghim Moh. Ely was just 31 years old and was, together with his fiancé, waiting to move into their Built-To-Order (BTO) home in Ghim Moh, a stone's throw away from where he grew up. I felt the family's anguish at the wake. I promised them that I would speak up for Ely in Parliament. I am fulfilling that promise today. Ely was one of 46 workplace fatalities in 2022 – the highest number since 2016, despite a heightened safety period imposed in September.[+1 sentence] This year, there have already been five workplace fatalities in less than two months, most recently of which was the harbour pilot from PSA Marine. Additionally, the major injury rate per 100,000 workers has increased in the last few months from 16.8 to 18.7. In response to this, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has implemented a six-month heightened safety period since last September and has extended it till May this year.[+4 sentences] This is necessary and I am encouraged by it. I also acknowledge that the Government has accepted the eight key recommendations by the International Advisory Panel on improving workplace safety and health. Notwithstanding all that has been done by MOM and the relevant stakeholders, Mr Speaker, Sir, I believe there is far more we can do and we owe it to the workers to ensure their utmost safety. Let me explain and thereafter offer solutions. Our Workplace Safety and Health vision is to have workplace fatalities to be below one per 100,000 workers by 2028.[+41 sentences] I believe this is not only possible, but necessary as we continue to build and develop Singapore. The men and women working in these high-risk sectors, both locals and migrant workers, help to build and maintain our buildings and keep the infrastructure of our nation running. There are two things and two sub-issues I believe we can continue to strengthen our workplace safety. Firstly, we need to build a strong safety culture where employees are mindful of their own safety and employers take responsibility of their employees' safety. This involves all stakeholders and goes beyond the physical workplace. Many of the injuries and fatalities happen within the construction sector where there are high heights as well as the transportation and storage sector where vehicles are involved. A culture prioritising safety is a collective effort. Designers and developers must take into consideration how something can be safely built and maintained. Clear and simplified instructions of how to implement safety regulations can ensure that employees on the ground will be up to date. We must have a framework of safety to ensure regular maintenance of all equipment and checks by MOM to see that standards are upheld by both large firms as well as SMEs. Particularly for SMEs, where manpower constraints and the difficulty of implementing such safety regulations are more apparent, we need to consider how to make the adoption of industry safety standards as straightforward and sustainable as they can be. Secondly, getting the appropriate and sufficient training as well as regular refreshers are important to ensure that all equipment are safe to use. This applies to employees as well as more senior management such that this safety culture is inculcated into each firm's core values. Especially with new workers, proper training must be given so that each worker knows how to use the relevant equipment and knows what other safety measures to abide by. Proper training imparts a culture of responsibility and watching out for other workers as well. Mr Speaker, Sir, there are two other sub-issues I would like to raise in relation to workplace safety. Firstly, COVID-19 has heightened the difficulties for many industries. There is a crunch in manpower, delays in projects causing upward pressure to work faster and many workers and constructions resuming after a long time-off. A combination of all these, along with supply chain disruption, has increased the risk of hazards. I understand these pressures. But this is a trade-off I am not willing to pay. I am not willing to lose a life on the worksite. I have provided some solutions in my speech already. Sir, our economic success has been built upon how we value people and how we value life, and we cannot deviate from that. In relation to that, I believe we need better infrastructure of how we provide information and support for victims and their family members. Losing someone is always painful and particularly so when it is sudden and unexpected, which is the case with all workplace fatalities. There must be a more systematic way to inform family members if any incident has occurred so they can arrive as quickly as possible. In addition, while of course investigations have to take place and run their due course, information can be provided to the victim's families to assist in at least some partial closure in a very painful episode. Mr Speaker, Sir, by rethinking our safety culture, we can tighten our social compact by lowering workplace fatalities and providing the right care to victim's families. The second topic I would like to speak on is education. Singapore's education system is one that we can, and should, be proud of. It is world renowned for producing exceptional students across the board who are prepared to tackle the significant issues and challenges our world faces today and who consistently rank highly globally. Some may then ask, why speak about, or fix something, that is not broken. The answer is because we must focus on the true mission of education: to prepare our young for the world and give them equal opportunities to attain better lives. Rankings do not tell the full picture of our education system. Rankings have a purpose, but to an extent. This is especially so in uncertain times, where we must develop students holistically to achieve the best they can. We must therefore continually evolve and adapt to ensure our system is prepared for the future. Today, I would like to ask for a rethink of our education system and syllabus, and in relation to that, the PSLE and our heavy reliance on tuition. This issue is not new. In fact, the Ministry of Education has addressed concerns over the years and brought forth many changes in our curriculum to better equip our children, including removing the T-score for the PSLE. Nevertheless, tuition in Singapore remains a billion-dollar industry, possibly a multi-billion-dollar industry, with seven out of every 10 children in Singapore enrolled in tuition, with the PSLE, in particular, providing a great element of stress.[+20 sentences] Let me now, Sir, provide some humble suggestions and possible solutions. Firstly, I would like to propose that perhaps it is time for a rethink of the syllabus in order to right-size it. Reducing a syllabus to an appropriate size cannot be done arbitrarily and the syllabus is crafted according to the changing needs of our nation. I accept that. So, certainly, it would be hard to figure out what should be prioritised because every part of the syllabus is arguably important to prepare students for the future. I also note that there have been many revamps of our curriculum including the introduction of the "Teach Less, Learn More" scheme. Nevertheless, I take reference from the Finnish education system, an education system that has consistently ranked highly and is similarly well regarded around the world. Not only does Finland perform well on PISA, students face less stress and after-school tutoring is rare. While a direct pari materia importation of Finland's model is certainly not possible because of cultural and structural differences, a page can definitely be taken from their book. When the Finnish education system was reformed in the 1980s, Finnish educators shifted their focus away from test scores and Math and Science comprehension to building a "happy, harmonious and healthy student and learning environment". This focus was to help "every single child" in a way to combat social inequality. In Singapore, we already have, yes, the existing programmes to target inequality like the Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce (UPLIFT). But I believe, as the Finnish did, that we can consider a redefinition of success and the end goal of our education system. Especially in an uncertain world, these transversal skills I have just mentioned – particularly critical thinking skills and learning to learn and research – are what we must focus on. Having that in mind, we can tailor and reshape the syllabus around these core skills which hopefully would lighten the actual workload on students. Finnish students have little homework and thus do not spend more than half an hour outside of school time to finish homework. This lightened workload then allows for more sleep for students and less need to rely on tutors. Creating such a culture in Singapore would reduce the need for tuition merely to do school homework but rather focus on tuition merely to boost a child in particular areas in which he or she struggles in, where needed. So, the syllabus needs to be less stressful so that there is small, or little, or no need for tuition. Secondly, I would suggest having every primary school affiliated with a secondary school so that the student can transition to that affiliated school easily if he or she so wishes to go that school. That would allow nearly every student to be assured secondary school entry in a school familiar to him or her. I would even suggest perhaps that we need to consider doing away with the PSLE altogether.[+1 sentence] There are already continuous assessments every year in primary school – and with a proper scheme of affiliation, students can focus on more holistic and long-term learning. That would give them a longer runway till 16 to prepare and allow late bloomers to catch up.[+1 sentence] Finally, I would like to suggest that all secondary schools accommodate all streams in their campuses to ensure students of different academic abilities mix together in one school while still going to class according to their respective academic abilities. We have already introduced Subject-based Banding (SBB) and see the positive effects of it to allow students to learn at their own pace and to remove possible stigma associated with certain labels.[+9 sentences] Currently, SBB does not apply to all schools and certain schools only accept express students and IB students. I would like to humbly suggest that while such programmes are good, allowing more porous boundaries will allow groups of students to mix more freely. It is well known that the social environment of a school can positively influence a student's academic behaviour and performance. This is not a proposal I make lightly, nor is it something that can be simply implemented with the stroke of a pen or the wave of a wand. But its benefits are obvious. We need only look to National Service – an education and training system in its own right – to see how it has helped Singaporeans learn to live and work together, unite and forge a common identity regardless of race, religion or background. This is something we have done before and I believe we can do it again – this time in our schools. While it is certainly true that catering to specific segments of students, such as those with high academic ability or strengths in specific areas or those who prefer a more hands-on and technical training can have its advantages, these benefits are not necessarily negated if we start to mix streams within all schools. Mr Speaker, Sir, as we continue to rethink and redefine our school system, we must consider that there are many roads that lead to a fulfilling life and results cannot be the only marker. Removing the PSLE would reduce the pressure on students.[+1 sentence] Students would be geared towards education, not results. Learning to mix with people from all walks of life is invaluable and wholesome and rich, and it carries into the working world. I humbly submit that, together, all these suggestions, along with the many others that I know MOE is considering, will be able to help Singapore continue its legacy of developing students who can grow into citizens who can tackle the problems of tomorrow.[+1 sentence] Mr Speaker, as we deliberate over how to bring our nation forward, we have to make hard decisions on finding a balance between various trade-offs. I believe we owe this to the residents we serve and in that way, we can build stronger solidarity to take Singapore forward.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Shawn Huang.
Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong (Jurong)2048 words
[+18 sentences]Mr Speaker, those of my generation would fondly remember visiting the computer lab in school – bulky cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors and the screeching noise of a dial up modem. Twenty-eight point eight kilobits per second was what we had. Much later, the 56.8 modems were on after-burner. This was probably difficult to comprehend – why the hype over a computer lab? But back then, this was cutting edge. Access to computers was a luxury. Much earlier, I remember loading MS-DOS using floppy drives. I remember hardcoding my first html website in 1996 and uploading it onto Angelfire, a free hosting website. Computers back then were the 486 Pentiums and the thought of having dual core and quad core chips were to me, space technology. February 2023 marks the dawn of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This is becoming the new Internet in the pursuit of new experiences. We have heard this before. The rate of technological change is accelerating. It is unpredictable and unprecedented. But the pace of change has gained additional momentum with the arrival of tools such as ChatGPT. For a long time, the generic Google Search was much of everything we knew of the Internet. Chatbots are not a new idea. For a decade, we had Siri and Alexa, but the level of performance and adoption in Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) is astounding. What took Facebook four years, Instagram, two, Google, one to achieve 100 million users, ChatGPT took two months.[+4 sentences] More recently, Microsoft invested $10 billion into ChatGPT. In response, Google has invested $300 million in its rival, Anthropic. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an educational research institution with an endowment of $24.6 billion, committed $1.1 billion for AI research. A $2 billion investment from IBM, $4.6 billion from Volkswagen, and many more. Nvidia took the lead as the company positioned its latest Pascal chip architecture as purpose-built for AI, holding 90% of the market for processing chips using training and machine learning today.[+1 sentence] From 1959 to 2012, computing power doubled every two years, tracking Moore's law. Today, computational power used to train the largest AI models doubles every 3.4 months.[+23 sentences] That is a rate seven times faster than before. If you think that this progress is rapid, this was limited because graphics processing units (GPUs) could only condense computational power over a few hundred cores. An AI chip maker, Cerebras, recently built the largest chip in the world – 22 inch on each side, 2.6 trillion transistors on a condensed computational power of 850,000 cores, with a 100 trillion parameters. Compared to what I knew of 486 Pentium computers, this was not space technology. This was alien technology. This progress will keep pace with machine learning and robotics. In 2022, Amazon invested $1 billion into robotics. Amazon hires about 1.6 million workers at the end of 2021 and today, it adds about 1,000 robots a day. The number of robots to workers today is about a third. By 2023, Amazon will have more robots than employees. With global investments reaching $232 billion by 2025, these capabilities will soon be quickly moved from supply chain to manufacturing. Employment will be disrupted. Throughout history, there have been a handful of technologies that have truly transformed the world, unleashing new levels of productivity and prosperity. Think of the steam engine, which took 100 years, 25 years for the telephone, 30 years for electricity, and the printing press, which was invented in 1439, only widely adopted 500 years later in the 19th century. These technologies changed the way we live and work. However, this time, it will be different. It took a few years for Kodak to slide into bankruptcy. But with AI, the time required for a Kodak moment by pressing the camera button on the latest iPhone, a single AI would have generated more than a billion bits of information – a quantum leap by any measure. The UK plans to become a global AI superpower. From the codebreaker Alan Turing's early work to London-based powerhouse DeepMind, UK is ranked third in the world for investments to AI companies and a third of all Europe's AI companies – just behind the US and China. More recently, British Telecom quick-paced and established an AI developmental hub, launched an AI accelerator and registered more AIs than any UK entity. South Korea has similar ambitions and aims to become a powerhouse, with investments of $642 million into companies developing advanced AI chips. As part of the larger vision for South Korea, Seoul has set aside $795 million for AI semiconductors and another $235 million for next-generation platforms. According to the Global AI Readiness Index, Singapore ranks second behind the US.[+15 sentences] Looking deeper into the data, Singapore outperformed in government and infrastructure pillars and must strive to do better for the technology pillar – impressive for a small country of a population of 5.5 million. We must continue to do this good work, to be courageous in investing and building our future capabilities. We have a window of opportunity to become truly an intelligent nation to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life in Singapore. Quality of life is closely linked to our access to resources. The world consumes about 92 billion tonnes of resources each year – approximately 1.7 times the amount consumed in 2000. In the last 15 years, the global consumption of commodities increased by 40%. At the same time, investments in new mining projects have fallen to 15-year lows. The discovery of copper is on a gradual decline, with only one major discovery in the last five years. Many more resources follow a similar trend. We are just at the start of a long run of shortages and higher prices. Even if supply was available, we cannot assume that it is accessible, not least until the producer country has stored ample supplies for domestic consumption. Copper and critical materials are at the leading edge of this global shortage. In due time, the rest will follow. Who are competing with us for these resources? In the 1960s, most of the global population were living in poverty. Today, we have 2.5 billion people in the middle class.[+1 sentence] The uplift of the middle class, coupled with better access to healthcare and education, has increased the number of professionals and global talent. In 2020, China and India graduated over 90 million students from universities, with 2.7 million of them with degrees from science, engineering or technology. In the US and European Union (EU), 7.5 million students graduated from universities, mostly in business, healthcare, social science and law.[+17 sentences] This will continue to increase by another 30% by 2050. This is the global competition for good jobs and quality investments and it will be increasingly difficult. Mr Speaker, this Budget is well crafted, balanced, sustainable, with a progressive stance for the future. This Budget will help us to build strong foundations for innovation and collaboration, setting the right tone and pace. It sets out the importance to work on the strategy collectively – every stakeholder and entity, every Singaporean, a role to play. It reflects our values to give every citizen opportunities to discover themselves and contribute meaningfully, each contribution appreciated and cherished. This Budget reflects our vision and ambition to build with courage the Singapore we want for tomorrow. Each year, natural disasters have shocked the world – earthquakes, tsunamis, pandemics. Some deadlier than others. War conflict and failed government policies are disasters we strike upon ourselves. Famine, economic collapse, inflation – we may be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, but we can prepare for them. We may not have the influence over policies of others, but we can prepare for them. In the movie "World War Z", standing behind the impenetrable fortress and high walls, Mossad Chief, Jurgen Warmbrunn, explained the concept of the 10th person in the council of 10, the person charged with the responsibility, challenging every assumption, no matter how improbable it may seem to safeguard the "what-ifs" for the country. This gave them time to build up defences and face the threat. In the Six Thinking Hats of De Bono, white, red, blue, yellow, green and black, the black hat is to imagine everything possible that may go wrong and to build capabilities for it. In Finland, during the World War II, the Finns suffered greatly as a result of being cut off from imports. Today, the Finns would study anything that would possibly go wrong and prepare for it, never again to repeat history. According to one of the Finnish reports, it was this particular work that enabled Finland to stock up face mask as part of the strategic reserves which readied them for COVID-19.[+38 sentences] Then, many say it was paranoid, excess, a waste of public funds. But for catastrophic event for once in 100 years, I say it is for survival. Singapore has weathered many crises since Independence. Closest to World War Z was Covid-19. We had the oil crisis of 1970s, the economic crisis, SARS and global economic crisis of 2008. We also had our fair share of destructions throughout the years, some more dire consequences than others. But what's fresh in our minds was the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. It reviewed the vulnerabilities and independence of the global economy. First, medical supplies and equipment were in short supply. Then, food shortages worldwide, with rising prices of fertiliser, oil and grain, amongst many others. This was a race for resources and for survival. We must remember that, to survive, it is not just the 10th person or the black hat, but the contributions of all five other hats, doing their best to be innovative and creative with balance and poise, emotive and inclusive, building and fighting a strong team for Singapore. In my maiden speech two years ago, I shared the importance of relevance and how Temasek's 700 years of history had its fair share of turmoil and success. Last year, I spoke on the dramatic rise of China's AI development and holding more AI patterns than any other country. Today, we observe the emergence of ChatGPT and other tools, reading articles on Google's Survivor and Meta Facebook existential struggles. The pace of innovation, technological change and relevance is constantly shifting, more dramatic, the stakes much higher, opportunities and threats at every turn. Mr Speaker, existentialism is in our DNA. Singapore has been building his capability since our Independence, a strong banking and financial system, robust and progressive public housing. Robust because HDB has enhanced our public housing for seismic events – earthquakes. For food, with several months of strategic reserves – rice, eggs, poultry, vegetables. Stockpile of antiviral drugs, amongst many essentials. Reserves to rebuild our entire country in disastrous calamity. How do we retool our entire workforce when needed? Do we shrug our shoulders and say, it is just bad luck, it is beyond our control? I say, let us continue to prepare for our survival. We've heard those who suggested that we should prepare less, do less, take our time. We can cut the little and assume disasters and its recovery is preordained. Mr Speaker, I daresay we have no interest inverting to become a mud flat. We are not in the interest in building the country for a lifetime, but on a journey of building a country for many lifetimes – 100 years, 1,000 years, 10,000 years. Yes, no civilisation has existed that long yet. We will try. We may fail, but we will do our utmost. One of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's most memorable quotes, "Over 100 years, this was a mudflat. Today, it is a modern city. Ten years from now, this will be a metropolis. Today, we are here but we have not arrived. We must never think that we have arrived. We are on a journey, building a country and nation to thrive for 1,000 years and beyond. Today, we continue our work of our forefathers in building and fighting for a better future.[+1 sentence] We must not fail. We must not falter, not on our watch, not today, not tomorrow. For an impossible dream to a credible vision, we craft our reality for tomorrow. Majulah Singapura." Mr Speaker, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Dennis Tan.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang)2745 words
[+13 sentences]Mr Speaker, I will be speaking on three issues, First, I would like to speak on certain issues relating to the support for our seniors, followed by the proposed change in the Working Mother's Child Relief and finally, like in my previous years' Budget debate speech, I will continue with the issue of green transition this year as we edged one year nearer to many of our green goals for Singapore. Mr Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mr Lawrence Wong said that the Government will need to review and update our approaches to aged care. Aged care is another area that is close to my heart. Indeed, this topic is part of the everyday conversations I have with my senior residents when I talk to them in my house visits, or at the void decks, coffee shops, neighbourhood parks or the Active Ageing Centres (AACs) in Hougang. Deputy Prime Minister Wong said that as part of the Forward Singapore exercise, the Government is studying how it can enhance the range of care and support options within the community and this includes the operating model of AACs and how it can strengthen and coordinate the providers in the aged care sector which is highly fragmented today. I look forward to this. I must admit having had similar experience when I tried to help some of my Hougang residents navigate their way through the system especially when it comes to different needs or problems. I do agree with the need to review and sharpen how our AACs or eldercare centres can better serve the needs of our seniors in their cluster in a more holistic manner, all the more with Healthier SG coming on. We should work towards centres which cater to different needs of seniors whether social or medical. And when it comes to so-called more specialist areas like mental health, disabled persons who are seniors, the centres should still be the referring centres even if other organisations or sub-units are involved. In this way, seniors living in the cluster will be better served with less confusion and bureaucracy. Centre staff will also have better knowledge of seniors under their care. I would also like to repeat my call in my speech during the Healthier SG debate to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to study how outreach efforts can be made more effectively to seniors who are not active in the AACs, the eldercare centres or stay in touch with the centre staff or even with their neighbours, so that such seniors can better receive the intended care and support under Healthier SG as well as under the cluster support which can be provided by AACs. Deputy Prime Minister Wong also announced that he will top up the Eldercare Fund by $500 million to support means-tested subsidies for seniors who need home-based, centre-based or institutional care.[+3 sentences] I understand that for purposes of mean-testing, the income of all family members living in the same household is taken into consideration. Specifically, the monthly household income per person is used to determine the amount of subsidy allocated to eligible seniors. However, where households have no income, such as a retired couple or a retired single person, consideration for subsidies take into consideration the annual value of such retired seniors' residence. Recently, some of the seniors in Hougang gave feedback to me that as the Government has increased the annual value of their homes, this has affected the ultimate medical subsidies they get. Will the Government review the effect of the increase in the recent assessment of annual values on seniors' eligibility for medical subsidies?[+16 sentences] For retired seniors living alone and with no source of income, any increase in medical expenses adds burden and pressure. Even if they can theoretically downgrade to a smaller or cheaper home, this may not always be an appropriate solution and it could be for a variety of reasons including mental health. Some, if not many, may have bought into the notion that their house is an appreciating asset and it cannot be let go. There are seniors in my constituency who have continued to live in the same flats even when mobility issues and lack of lift access meant that they hardly left home or preferred to be physically carried to the next floor for lift access when they had to go out. Telling people to downgrade and/or shift to different home is never as easy and definitely not an empathetic solution. Deputy Prime Minister Wong also said that while nursing homes are suitable for the elderly with high care needs and little to no family support, we cannot rely on this as the mainstream solution. A few years ago, MOH began efforts to ramp up nursing homes. In June last year, we were told that MOH planned to double the number of nursing home beds to more than 31,000 in the next 10 years. May I take this opportunity to ask for an update on the current adequacy of nursing homes, including the adequacy of nursing homes for all and different categories of care? I am reminded of this issue as I recalled being told by a resident last year how his father had to wait for some time to be allocated a nursing home. This was under category 4 care, even though there were beds available for other categories of nursing home care. This issue was also brought up by my colleague Sengkang Member of Parliament Mr Louis Chua not long ago. Next, I would like to touch briefly on the proposed changes in this Budget to the Working Mother's Child Relief from 2024 onwards. At the onset, this relief is meant to encourage working mothers to stay on at work after having children by having a fairly significant tax relief. Under the existing scheme, working mothers are entitled to a fixed percentage of income reliefs for every child. The reliefs are capped at a maximum of 25%. Under the proposed changes announced during the Budget speech last week, the tax reliefs will be changed with effect from 1 January 2024 from a percentage of a working mother's income to a fixed sum for each of the first child, $8,000; second child, $10,000; third and subsequent child, $12,000.[+1 sentence] Essentially, such a change benefits the lower income earning working mother but for middle income earning working mothers from, say, $4,200 per month possibly onwards, they will experience relatively lower income reliefs from 2024 onwards as compared to what they are entitled to. Essentially, this affects working mothers having a child from January 2024 onwards. It remains to be seen whether and to what extent it may deter middle income earning working mothers from having children or more children under the scheme. Has the Ministry of Finance (MOF) calculated what is the net effect of this scheme on the Budget and whether it is one that significantly saves money?[+27 sentences] If so, like what the hon member for Sengkang GRC Mr Louis Chua has said, why not just give a motherhood tax rebate to lower income working mothers and if the tax rebates exceed the tax payable, tax credits can be paid out in cash? Regardless of the Government's intention, I think it sends a discouraging signal to affected working mothers and takes the shine off the originally intended symbolism of this scheme. I am not sure this is the right signal to be sent to our working mothers. Moreover, it is unfair to penalise only mothers who give birth or have children from 2024 onwards. Also, there are many working women who may have married later and/or those who struggle with infertility and some of these already come with additional costs. The change may also inadvertently apply time pressure which is unfair to these women. Let me now move on to our ongoing efforts for green transition. Mr Speaker, I am heartened that Singapore has raised its national climate target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The Government has said that these for Singapore require catalysing business transformation, investing in low-carbon technologies, pursuing effective international cooperation and adopting low-carbon practices. These key thrusts are indeed necessary to achieve Singapore's net-zero ambition. However, we also need a check on demand. While we adopt low-carbon technologies, such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage and low-carbon hydrogen for industrial heating, we must not feel that this helps to decouple industrial growth from the carbon constraint and that it allows us to continue business-as-usual. We live in an increasingly carbon-constrained world and we must downsize or allow carbon inefficient activities to leave our economy to decarbonise effectively. In order to do this, we need a detailed roadmap for re-training workers in these sectors as Singapore intentionally decarbonises. The management of transition of businesses and workers in carbon-intensive sectors contributes to a just-transition. SkillsFuture Singapore's Skills Demand for the Future Economy (SDFE) Report 2022 identified sustainability skills as one that has high demand and transferability. Yet, between the need to reskill and retrain our workers, and them actually acquiring the skills and applying it to their existing job functions or in new roles, there is a time lag. Understandably, businesses and workers need time to transition and pick up these new sustainability skills and transit to new jobs. I noted in my last Budget Debate speech that there were around 27,000 people employed in this sector in 2020, and I focused on the manpower transition and asked how the Government intends to manage the green transition, specifically in the petrochemicals industry. A year on, this is still a question mark and a concern of mine. Do we have sufficient sustainability-related courses that businesses and workers can afford to attend, both in terms of time and money? How much more time will it take for the learning to be internalised and applied? We must take deliberate steps to help workers transition and we have to do so mindfully, since jobs today still need to be done. But we can and must afford workers the time and resources needed to attend training, make it easier for course providers to provide subsidies, such as SkillsFuture Singapore funding to workers and to be patient as the learning-doing gap is bridged over time. I hope to hear some update on the progress made last year for green transition in the petrochemicals industry, generally, as well as on the issues of manpower transition. If, indeed, the Government expects that emissions may peak earlier than 2030, it is even more critical to have an accelerated timeline for our manpower transition. Mr Speaker, I next move to seek some update on the electrification of our vehicular fleet. The passing of the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Act last year is welcomed, as it helps to establish clear technical and performance standards of all EV chargers. However, I do feel that the Government can still do more to persuade people to make near-term plans to switch from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles, which is about just 11.7% of all cars registered in 2022.[+5 sentences] While the vehicular road tax changes for EVs last year, coupled with the increase in petrol prices in Singapore in the last half a year, might have made EVs a little bit more attractive to would-be buyers, it would be helpful to have a detailed roadmap on EV roll-out, so that consumers can make informed choices earlier. In addition to a strategic plan that defines a goal or desired outcome, a roadmap must also include the major steps or milestones needed to reach it. Currently, the EV vision still lacks some more details on the steps and milestones. Some key issues with EVs today include battery reliability, software problems and the lack of local infrastructures for charging EVs. It also remains unclear how fast certain logistics fleets, including but not limited to light goods vehicles, will be switching to EVs entirely and a number of prominent logistics companies have not yet made any plans, or have not announced any plans for EV conversion, or some have made only preliminary plans for limited initial conversion. The current public network for EV charging of around 3,600 charging points is still limited and inadequate to support any significant immediate increase in EV numbers.[+2 sentences] Yesterday's announcement of 2,000 EV charging points being slated to be installed in one-third of HDB carparks by the end of the year, is a welcome development. I know Minister Iswaran explained at the EV Charging Bill debate that we are dealing with an evolving space, that the technology is evolving, the adoption rates and, therefore, the consequential demand are also changing and the usage patterns, both in terms of driving and charging habits, have yet to normalise. The Government has, therefore, decided to focus on the 12,000 charging point deployment and that the data from this deployment may inform the Government about the need for adjustment thereafter.[+5 sentences] I certainly hope this data will be out sooner, and meaningful and adequate adjustments will be made quickly, so that at least we can work towards ramping up on the EV conversion rate sooner. As we move towards active mobility, there may also be a case for allowing charging stations to be more flexible, to be able to charge other mobility devices, such as electric bikes to cover the last mile distance. Since our national grid is still mostly powered by natural gas, I would also like to ask the Minister to elaborate on whether the Government is considering increasing the renewable energy choices for EV drivers. Can the Ministry provide an update on whether the EV Common Charger Grant allows or encourages the building of chargers powered by solar or renewable energy? For example, given that some 40,000 chargers, of the 60,000 to be rolled out by 2030, will be in public carparks, is it possible to have some of these powered directly from some of the solar panels fitted on top of the multi-storey car parks and what are some of the challenges to doing this? Still on the EV Common Charger Grant, I understand from the EV Charging Bill debate in November last year that the grant pays for half of the various costs involved in installing EV chargers and will be available until 31 December 2023, or when it has co-funded 2,000 chargers.[+2 sentences] I would like to seek clarification whether the grant will be extended beyond the current deadlines and parameters. Presently, Sembcorp and Shell have faster-charging, solar powered stations but the reach is still limited as Sembcorp's solar powered EV charging hub only caters to their electric trucks and there are still too few stations offering renewable energy options. Minister Iswaran said, in response to my queries at the EV Charging Bill debate in November, that the light goods vehicles segment saw the highest rate of EV adoption last year, at around 28%.[+2 sentences] This is encouraging indeed. But may I also ask whether there are plans to roll out policies to incentivise more logistics companies to switch from ICE vehicles to EVs? Minister Iswaran also mentioned at the debate that the challenge is with the conversion of the so-called big trucks, with the trade-offs with propulsion and so on, and that hydrogen or related fuel types are being considered quite actively in that regard.[+8 sentences] So, may I ask whether the Government has staged plans on the conversion of these heavy vehicles, be they heavier vehicles or logistics vehicles or other types of heavy vehicles, and whether to electric, hydrogen or other fuel types, given the stated challenges? And what is the road map for this? Will this affect our plans for 2030 and beyond? Regardless of the classes of goods and different heavy vehicles, there is, of course, a need to look into the time taken to charge industrial vehicles as the owning companies will be concerned with efficiency. Regular drivers may also be concerned with efficiency and securing a charger for when they most need one. This is not to forget that, at least, certain categories of commercial, or even industrial vehicles, may be sharing charging points with passenger and other types of lighter vehicles. A detailed EV roadmap can also outline pricing, power rating and plug type to enable all EV drivers to plan their charging schedules, including real-time charging updates, which is currently not available on the MyTransport.SG app. Mr Speaker, in closing, I look forward to the replies for the concerns I have raised.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Saktiandi Supaat.
Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh)3419 words
[+6 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, this Budget 2023 is presented in the backdrop of great economic uncertainty. As the world is working to recover from the COVID-19 slump, the war in Ukraine, global supply chain disruptions and soaring global interest rates are just some unforeseen factors which has caused prices to go up in the past year. The main focus of my speech today is very specific. It is on retirement adequacy for Singaporeans – how do we ensure that our people have enough to sustain their way of life after they stop working or as they grow older. To me, it is a slow boil concern or a clear long-term concern which needs to be raised now. I decided to focus on retirement adequacy because Budget 2023 has brought the following three issues to the fore. First, our fast-ageing population, where one in four Singaporeans will be 65 and above by 2030.[+13 sentences] Second, as the Deputy Prime Minister has explained – while the Government will do its part to help, it is not sustainable to rely entirely on the Government to take care of our retirees. A significant part of the burden of care will fall on families and future generations, if we fail to plan adequately for our own retirement. Third, the recent episodes of global uncertainty and inflation has shown us that unforeseen economic shocks can cause our money to be worth less in real terms. So, delaying in taking action on retirement adequacy has an impact on future Budgets, and that is why I am raising it now. The main feature of Singapore's retirement planning system is the Central Provident fund (CPF), which Singaporeans are well-acquainted with and needs no introduction. There are other schemes and Government programmes aimed at helping retirees, but these are designed around and in addition to the CPF system. I will address our retirement planning system in three parts: first, the accumulation of retirement funds; second, the leakages of retirement funds; and third, retirement payouts – in that order. Mr Speaker, Sir, the accumulation of retirement funds through CPF is a tripartite effort between the worker, the employer and the Government. The worker is made to save up to 20% of his wages. The employer contributes an additional amount of 7.5% to 17% of the worker's wages, which is not subject to personal income tax. Finally, the Government guarantees higher-than-market interest rates on the CPF savings, which essentially, gives the worker a risk-free return on investment. Given the investment environment where stocks and bonds have been underperforming, I would like to take this opportunity to ask what is the net cost to the Government in delivering the higher-than-market interest rates on CPF funds in the past few years? But first, I am heartened by the steps taken by the Government to bring more workers under the CPF umbrella more fully. The Government's decision to align the CPF contribution rates of platform workers with those of regular employees, following the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on platform workers, would go some way to increase the retirement security for our delivery riders, private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers and taxi drivers.[+4 sentences] However, this enforced long-term saving will naturally reduce the take-home pay of these platform workers, and I look forward to hearing the Minister for Manpower's plans to provide the CPF Transition Support to lower-income platform workers, who see an increase in their CPF contribution rates during the Committee of Supply. But, one particular question that I have is whether such additional support will be available to platform workers aged 30 and above, who opt in to the full CPF contribution regime, or is it limited to platform workers below 30, who are mandated to contribute at the full employee contribution rate? In the same vein, are there other groups which we are looking to bring under the CPF umbrella, or to enhance their participation in the CPF contribution regime? For example, self-employed persons (SEPs) are presently only required to contribute a percentage of their net trade income to their MediSave Account, but not to their Special or Retirement Account. How many SEPs voluntarily top up their Ordinary, Special and Retirement Accounts? I note that eight in 10 active CPF members turning 55 in 2027, are expected to have enough savings to receive at least the CPF Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) payout.[+6 sentences] But, has the Government done any studies on the proportion of SEPs who are able to meet the same amount, whether in voluntary CPF savings or their own private savings? This is important as it would mean future Budgets may need to address this. As an advisor to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC)-affiliated Education Services Union, or ESU, one of the first groups of SEPs that I think of, are the freelance adult educators who work across the early childhood, student care, universities, private education institutions and international schools. My understanding is that some of these adult educators work with their education institutions on the basis of longer-term contracts. There is, thus, very little difference between these adult educators and platform workers. Is there scope to also align the CPF contribution rates of these adult educators, such that they will benefit from additional contributions from the education institutions? Second, while I can see the rationale for increasing the CPF contribution rates for older workers between 55 and 70 years of age by 1% to 1.5%, I am concerned whether this would be an added disincentive for businesses and employers to hire older workers.[+6 sentences] The announced CPF Transition Offset will help, but technically, there will still be a higher cost to employ someone who is between 55 and 70 years old. The chilling effect would be a bad thing because active employment allows seniors to stay physically and mentally active, and to be engaged with a community. That is, in fact, part of our strategy of preventive care, as Deputy Prime Minister Wong had explained in his Budget Statement. My view is that we must pair these higher CPF contribution rates for older workers, with other incentives or measures, to encourage the employment of older workers, which I think the Government has done so. But besides general training and reskilling efforts, what are we doing on that front beyond what we have already done? Can the Public Service, for example, take the lead in identifying roles that are suitable for older workers and perhaps "ring-fence" these opportunities for older candidates? Third, the progressive increase in the CPF monthly salary ceiling, from $6,000 to $8,000 over the next four years, has attracted some debate on online forums and earlier just now.[+3 sentences] This appears to target workers earning more than $6,000 monthly. Does the Government consider this group to be at-risk of retirement adequacy as well? One would expect this group to be capable of going out and investing in their own endowment insurance or other instruments for the longer term. Is it, therefore, necessary to mandate that such workers contribute a greater proportion of their wages into CPF, considering the opportunity cost to these workers? I am also mindful that this raising of the salary ceiling is expected to add financial pressures on smaller firms who will need to pay increased employer contributions. Following the Deputy Prime Minister's explanation that the monthly salary ceiling has to go up in tandem with inflation, netizens have also queried why the interest rates on CPF funds have not been increased.[+2 sentences] The aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and other global central banks have led interest rates in the open Singapore market to cross the 4% mark earlier this year, up from an almost 0% interest rate from the large part of 2009 to 2021. This has made the 2.5% interest rate for the CPF Ordinary Account and the 4% interest rate for the Special and Medisave Accounts relatively unattractive compared to the other investment options like fixed deposits. Is there any intention to revise the applicable interest rates on the Ordinary, Special and MediSave Accounts in the upcoming quarterly reviews?[+20 sentences] I would love to hear Deputy Prime Minister’s reply to this. When I raised my Adjournment Motion on "Helping Singaporeans Navigate a High-Interest Rate Environment" in October 2022, I noted that HDB and CPF confirmed that rates will remain unchanged until the end of 2022 but did not receive any more advanced guidance on any potential rate changes over the medium term. Fourth, and in my view most importantly, we must look to bridge the financial literacy gap and ensure that the majority of Singaporeans think about how they are going to grow their funds for retirement. It is important to get Singaporeans to "buy in" to planning for their own retirement adequacy. Not only do individuals know their own needs and circumstances best, it is also critical for our governance and social trust for Singaporeans to appreciate that the CPF is designed for their long-term benefit and not some plan by an overreaching Government to keep people out of their hard-earned money. While I am aware of the CPF’s efforts to raise awareness and literacy of retirement planning, such as through talks, webinars and roadshows, how effective has such outreach efforts been? And what are the metrics that are applied to gauge the effectiveness of these educational efforts? From speaking to residents at my Toa Payoh East Financial Literacy Programme, a grassroots initiative led by volunteers and me, I have also found that some of our fellow Singaporeans are not aware of the various options and avenues that are available for them to plan and grow their retirement nest egg. For example, some residents were not aware of the Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) which complements the CPF by affording Singaporeans the opportunity to make tax-free investments for the purpose of retirement. It is also important to ensure top-ups for non-working women homemakers in our community who may lack enough CPF for their old age. I would like to suggest that we incentivise to help the retirement needs of this segment in our population. It needs to be decided at key turning points like at 55 years old. So, we besides encouraging more members to transfer their CPF savings above what they require for the Basic Retirement Sum to their spouses’ Special or Retirement Accounts, we should do more for this group. This will allow both husband and wife to take full advantage of the extra interest on lower balances and enjoy a higher effective interest rate overall. On that note, perhaps we can mimic the successful LumiHealth app and design an interactive mode for Singaporeans to learn more about the mechanics of CPF and retirement planning. Instead of walking and reading about healthy diets to chalk up milestone points and exchange for supermarket vouchers, Singaporeans can be incentivised to read or watch an informational video or even to practise using certain helpful tools like the CPF Planner for Retirement Income. Mr Speaker, another aspect of any retirement planning system is to study the various ways in which the retirement fund may be depleted prematurely for other purposes, otherwise known as leakages. Unlike other publicly managed pension schemes elsewhere, the CPF does not include social risk pooling and redistributive elements. Accordingly, the main challenge of our CPF policy is to ensure that not too much capital is withdrawn by the CPF member himself or herself during his or her working life and before retirement. One of the largest withdrawals that members make before retirement is for housing. In fact, when CPF was first started in 1955, it operated as a savings scheme for home ownership rather than a scheme for retirement income. It was only around the mid-1990s that the Government rebalanced the CPF system to boost cash savings for retirement, by putting in place the Special, MediSave and Retirement Accounts, limiting the amount of savings that can be withdrawn for housing and implementing the Minimum Sum Scheme.[+2 sentences] So, if the concern today is more of retirement adequacy, is it time to look into adjusting the allocation ratios such that a greater percentage is allocated into the Special Account instead of the Ordinary and MediSave Accounts? One benefit of adjusting only the allocations of contributions rather than requiring more money to be contributed is that it will avoid increasing the financial burden on both employers and employees. In the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2022, Singapore’s retirement income system was ranked ninth out of 44 systems that were studied, and the top in Asia based on the criteria of adequacy, sustainability and integrity.[+13 sentences] Among other suggestions in the report to improve the system further, it was proposed that Singapore should increase the age at which members can access their savings set aside for retirement as life expectancies rise. This is so that retirement funds are not drawn down too early. At this juncture, I am not in support of increasing the drawdown age purely on average life expectancy data. There are a significant number of seniors in my constituency of Toa Payoh East and they have shared with me their real fears that they may pass on any time even as others are living longer lives. Some of them have pre-existing medical conditions which only adds to their anxiety. To the contrary, would the Government consider permitting earlier drawdown of retirement funds for specified purposes, such as defraying medical bills for pre-existing medical conditions or obtaining more comprehensive medical or disability insurance coverage? We obviously do not want Singaporeans to withdraw their retirement funds early only to blow it all at a casino, but the purposes which I have just described are in fact the costs and risks that we want to help our seniors manage. Ultimately, as the CPF system was created specifically to fulfil multiple goals, including housing, healthcare and education, it has built-in leakages from retirement savings. However, we must still ensure that these allowed drawdowns from CPF money do not compromise an individual’s ability to save enough for retirement. May I ask what is the data and the trend for Singaporeans who are unable to meet their Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) or Full Retirement Sum (FRS) at the relevant time? Where the BRS and FRS increases from cohort to cohort due to inflation, will we be expecting a sharp jump for the upcoming cohorts given the dramatic increase in prices and interest rates over the years? If so, do we need to cater special assistance for more people who may not be able to meet their BRS or FRS? Mr Speaker, next, on the payouts received during the actual retirement period, the critical aim is to ensure they are adequate to sustain the retired person with a decent quality of life. This is not an easy task given the many unpredictable variables when we look into the future. I welcome the Budget announcement that there will be an increase in the minimum CPF monthly payout from the Retirement Sum Scheme (RSS) from $250 to $350.[+6 sentences] However, I do have a few questions. This increase is targeted at seniors who are receiving the lowest payouts under the RSS. Based on the CPF Board’s press release, about 112,000 members are expected to benefit from June 2023. But what is that proportion of beneficiaries by percentage of the total number of seniors receiving CPF payouts? And what is the range of monthly payouts that eligible Singaporeans now receive under the RSS or CPF LIFE? With the rising prices today, is $350 per month enough to sustain a decent standard of living? By way of comparison, the Full Retirement Sum of $198,800 in 2023 is calculated based on the Household Expenditure Survey 2017/2018 and aims to provide a monthly payout of $1,510 to $1,620 for life.[+17 sentences] I appreciate that there are other benefit schemes that less well-to-do seniors can turn to in order to supplement their CPF payouts. For example, through the payments under the Silver Support Scheme, ComCare and others. Seniors can even monetise their housing through schemes such as the Lease Buyback Scheme and the Silver Housing Bonus, by reselling any excessively long remaining leases on their HDB flat to the Government or by right-sizing to a smaller flat type in retirement. But do we presently have the ability to collate the data showing the support that each senior is receiving across the various schemes and programmes administered by different Ministries and agencies? That will give us a fuller picture of our seniors’ retirement adequacy and the gaps we should look to plug. Finally, is there any room for dedicated "Retirement Planners" that can advise our lower- to middle-income Singaporeans on how they can plan and optimise their retirement income through the schemes they may be eligible for and improve their standard of living by doing so? I am cognisant that the CPF Board already offers such an exercise when members approach 55 years old, but my suggestion is to go a bit further and provide such advice at earlier milestones or stages in one’s life. This idea is not unlike the Jobs-Skills Integrators that has been announced to optimise training and job placement. Instead of bridging the industry, training providers and employers, the "Retirement Planners" will bridge the gap between our lower to middle-income Singaporeans, financial advisors and the different government agencies administering the schemes that are applicable to them. Before I end, Mr Speaker, I would like to declare that I was a part of the CPF advisory panel which came up with the recommendations for changes in 2015 and 2016. Being on the panel opened my eyes on issues about CPF and the trade-offs to be made. The panel was guided by three key considerations and the need to achieve a reasonable balance between them: (i) adequacy, (ii) flexibility and (iii) simplicity. So, I am mindful that as I talk about adequacy today, there needs to be reasonable balance across many other issues. What I found was that the CPF system is fundamentally sound and has served Singaporeans well. The recommendations then and in the past has helped improve the CPF further by providing greater certainty and assurance to CPF members while providing the flexibility of more payout and withdrawal options in retirement to meet the varied needs of Singaporeans. But we must ensure that the CPF system continues to remain relevant for Singaporeans today and in the years to come given the changes in the economic dynamics globally and domestically. There are a few things I would like to suggest before I end. One, as mentioned above, we need to enhance the efforts to help the segment of non-working women homemakers or caregivers get top ups by their husbands especially at age 55 when the decision needs to be made.[+2 sentences] Second, the panel then had recommended that for providing flexibility for an additional CPF LIFE plan with escalating payouts. It is meant to provide an option for members who prefer CPF payouts that are initially lower but rise with time to help with increases in the cost of living. The additional CPF LIFE plan was to offer payouts that increase at a set percentage every year and the rate of increase of payouts was set at 2% for the escalating CPF LIFE plan.[+1 sentence] Hopefully all members in this Chamber know that there is an existing CPF LIFE plan that you can choose from. My concern is that the long-term inflation rate for Singapore may have risen to slightly above 2%.[+5 sentences] I would like to suggest the Government consider an additional option of a CPF LIFE plan with payouts either at 3% or 4% per annum for those who would prefer to do so or revising the existing percentage for the escalating plan, based on a rigorous assessment of our longer-term inflation rate given the shifts in the global macroeconomic and supply chain as well as rising healthcare and climate-related changes. So, possibly 2.5% to 3%. Mr Speaker, Sir, while fighting our immediate challenges, it is equally important for us to safeguard the long-term security of Singapore and Singaporeans. The ability of Singaporeans to take care of their own retirement will also prevent the buck from being passed to our children and future generations of Singaporeans. It is therefore central to our strategy in our future Budgets to renew ourselves as a country and to stay ahead of the world. On that note, I support Budget 2023 which aims to address our longer-term future while providing transitory near-term support.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Jessica Tan.
Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast)2149 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Speaker, many of my residents have shared that given the ongoing major global uncertainties and risks as well as inflation, the support measures announced in the Budget for inflation, cost-of-living and business costs are welcomed. While providing the much-needed support to cushion the impact of inflation, I am glad that this year’s Budget continues to give emphasis to the importance of growth, attracting high-quality investments and investing in growth sectors where Singapore can continue to differentiate and be competitive. One of my residents said when I met him at a recent house visit, “Regardless of support given by the Government, high costs will continue for some time. We need to also have a longer-term solution centred on growth.” Deputy Prime Minister Wong had said that, “Our best strategy to cope with inflation is to make ourselves more productive and competitive – so that our workers can earn more, and the increase in earnings can more than make up for the higher prices.” Growth does not automatically increase wages and Deputy Prime Minister Wong outlined the other key thrusts of this year’s Budget to equip our workers for good jobs and to strengthen our social compact to enable all Singaporeans regardless of their circumstances to move forward together in this new era. In my speech, I will cover the following areas: one, opportunities and preparing Singaporeans so that they are able to get good jobs and aligning skills training with jobs; two, structure of work and support for workers who have caregiving roles to enable them to stay in the workforce; and three, some of measures in the Budget and their impact on Singaporeans. Let me now talk about the opportunities. While there are opportunities, with the current economic conditions, disruptions as well as uncertainties, business will be required to adapt and to transform to stay relevant and competitive. New skills will be required and jobs will change. This will impact young graduates entering the workforce as well as workers already in the workforce. Deputy Prime Minister Wong announced the Jobs-Skills Integrators, an interesting concept of intermediaries that will work with industry, training and employment facilitation partners to optimise training and job placements.[+17 sentences] Better aligning skills training to jobs will benefit not only our workers but more importantly ensure the right skills and workers for businesses. In our Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC)’s engagement with business leaders, a key challenge they highlighted is the difficulty in finding the right skills for roles, and this is impacting their operations and ability to take on opportunities and grow. I wish to seek clarifications regarding the Jobs-Skills Integrators as the devil is in the details. From what has been shared by Deputy Prime Minister Wong in his speech, the Jobs-Skills Integrators are required to identify skills gaps, scope appropriate training programmes and identify the profile of individuals for training and upskilling to fill the required roles. My questions are, how will the selection or appointment of the Jobs-Skills Integrators be done? Who or which organisations can qualify to take on the role of the Jobs-Skills Integrators? Apart from engaging enterprises and stakeholders to understand the manpower and skills gap in the sector, will there be support given to them? How will those who are seeking to enter the workforce, those who have been displaced or retrenched or those seeking a career transition engage with the Jobs-Skills Integrators? Will the scope of the Job-Skills Integrators include working with businesses to align career planning and training to upskill their employees to stay relevant as the businesses transform? How will the Job-Skills Integrators be funded? I know there are a lot of questions! So, let me now talk a little about senior employability. With longer life expectancy and healthier longevity, a senior can continue to work productively and lead a meaningful life and seniors are a valuable pool of talent for businesses. In November last year, I raised an Adjournment Motion on Senior Employability. I shared the feedback gathered from our PAP Senior Group (PAP.SG)'s efforts to reach out to hear the voices of seniors employed and unemployed, to understand their experience and the challenges they faced in finding employment. Our engagements both online and through focus group discussions, allowed us to examine the matter from the perspectives of seniors and stakeholders, such as employers, HR professionals, younger workers who work with seniors and organisations such as NUHS who work on active ageing initiatives. All stakeholders agreed that it is not just the number of seniors being employed but the quality of the jobs and the work experience of seniors as well as seniors being able to fulfill the requirements of available jobs. With inflation, businesses are facing increasing cost of doing business. I am glad that the Budget will provide additional support to employers to hire senior workers who wish to work with the extension of the Senior Employability Credit till 2025 and the Part-time Re-employment Grant till 2025.[+2 sentences] I would like to ask how many enterprises have taken up the Senior Employability Credit and Part-time Re-employment Grant? What roles are seniors employed for in these organisations? In our engagements with seniors and with employers, a key challenge that the employers and seniors highlighted was training and re-skilling of seniors for suitable jobs. It is heartening to know that the pilot for the Jobs-Skills Integrators will be in sectors that have higher concentration of matured workers. The learnings from the pilot on training and reskilling of seniors to the jobs in the pilot will be helpful in providing insights to improve the structure and delivery of training of seniors and better align the training to jobs for seniors in other sectors in future.[+21 sentences] As job-skills integration is implemented, we should take the insights to help with the understanding of what structural intervention is required to make learning as systemic for workers in the workplace as it is for the young in formal education. There should be multiple routes connecting the roles, opportunities and commitments of individuals throughout their adult lives. We need to understand and support individuals to learn, work and age well throughout their lives, that fit their life stages and their abilities. If we are able to do this, it will grow a strong talent base and capabilities for businesses and provide fulfilling careers for workers. Let me now touch on the structure of work and support for workers who are caregivers. Budget 2023 outlined the importance of the family as the foundation of our society and enabling a Singapore Made for Families. The Budget sets out support for young Singaporeans to meet their housing aspirations and significantly increasing financial support for parents in the child’s early years as well as an increase in paternity leave. These measures are welcome. With an ageing population and people living longer, families are multi-generational and caregiving needs will increase. With smaller families, some families need to care for both the young and seniors. While the Budget provides support for seniors, the enhancement to the care and support options for seniors in the community is still under study as part of the Forward Singapore exercise. The "infrastructure" and services as well as resources and capabilities to support seniors to age well in the community need to be increased especially as our population is ageing rapidly. Without such support, those providing caregiving will find it difficult to manage employment and caregiving responsibilities. Just as working parents seek quality childcare for their children, families with seniors also require centres that provide not only care for our seniors but also keep them meaningfully engaged. We are fortunate that in my constituency that we have service providers and centres that give quality care and have meaningful programmes to engage and help our seniors stay active. But there is need for more. The programmes are well attended and there is a waiting list for a place at the senior care centre. Seniors and their families share with me the value that these programmes provide and the services contribute to the well-being of the seniors as well as their families. A point I wish to highlight and I hope that Deputy Prime Minister Wong would consider is the affordability of eldercare services for families that qualify for only a small amount of subsidies or do not qualify for any subsidies for eldercare services. While we must provide lower-income families with more help, we need to also look at how we support Singaporean families to care for their seniors just as we support all Singaporean families to care for their young children as announced in this Budget without means testing. The cost of eldercare services is not insignificant. Without subsidies, day care services can cost from $940 to $1,430 per month. Dementia care services range from $1,260 to $1,575 per month.[+9 sentences] I took these numbers from the AIC portal. For families that have both young children and seniors to care for, these expenses can put a strain on finances. As we plan for funding and support to increase the capacity and capability for quality senior care and services in the community, I do hope that access and affordability of quality and appropriate care for seniors in the community is not focused only on the lower-income. This is not only for the well-being of seniors but is important support for families and Singapore to enable our seniors to age well in the community. During my dialogue on the Budget last weekend with residents and feedback received when I visited residents, several highlighted the importance of work or organisational culture that understand and supports parenting and caregiving. Having financial support, work arrangements and policies that support parenting and caregiving are important. But this must be complemented with a work culture that empowers and fosters an environment of mutual trust amongst employers and workers, and between workers. Finally, let me touch on two measures of the Budget and the impact these have on some of our residents. CPF wage ceiling increase from $6,000 to $8,000. The rise in CPF monthly income ceiling from $6,000 to $8,000 by 2026 will mean that employees will get more from their employers.[+5 sentences] This will help middle-income earners earning more than $6,000 per month as their employers will now contribute more to your CPF which will increase their retirement savings. However, my resident shared with me that this does affect his monthly take home pay as he will have to contribute to this as well. My residents did share that while the employees benefit in growing their retirement savings, in a time of pressing and increasing inflation, we must recognise that this results in less cash for their monthly spending. I just wanted to share the feedback on the impact in a time of inflation now. The other measure is the Working Mothers Child Relief (WMCR), which I think many have spoken on. The change to a fixed dollar for WMCR will mean that working mothers will claim the same amount of tax relief for a child in the same child order.[+3 sentences] The intent of the change will enable lower- to middle-income working mothers to get more tax relief. The WMCR tax relief is to encourage women to continue working after they are married and have given birth to or adopted children. The feedback I have received is that, and this is not just with the change, but over the years, when this was in place, many working mothers share with me that this tax relief does mean quite a bit to them. Just taking a rough back of the envelope calculation, this would mean that the working mothers who are earning more, around $4,500 a month, or $54,000 per year, will get significantly lower tax relief compared to the current system. If the intent is to encourage and support working mothers to continue working after they have children, the appeal is to allow a hybrid approach of the new fixed WMCR amount for those earning less than $54,000 a year and the working mothers who have children after 1 January 2024 to continue to stay on this current system of using a percentage of earned income as there is already a $80,000 cap on the amount of personal income tax relief an individual can claim.[+5 sentences] In conclusion, Mr Speaker, Budget 2023 outlines the principles of how we will move forward together in this new era. We are setting our ambition to continue to grow and to enable opportunity for all. In our new social compact, we are appealing for all to do their part, and for those who have more to give more, while we ensure that we give support to those who need help. This will enable those who are doing well to continue to do well, and for all to have the opportunity to succeed and do better for themselves and their families. Mr Speaker, I support Budget 2023.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Raj Joshua Thomas.
Mr Raj Joshua Thomas (Nominated Member)2994 words
[+11 sentences]Sir, I declare my interest as the president of a trade association, the Security Association Singapore. I also declare, Sir, my speech today will be heavily informed by my experience as a trade association president. I will be speaking on strengthening tripartism as a pillar of economic resilience in the new era. Sir, in his Budget Statement, the hon Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance outlined not only the Government’s spending priorities for the coming year, but also elaborated on the larger economic and geopolitical environment that we are entering into. As a global city that built our fortune on trade, Singapore is particularly susceptible to global and regional developments. The hon Deputy Prime Minister’s observations include that we have now entered into an era of zero-sum thinking with countries turning inward, looking at national gain and security rather than inter-dependence. Importantly, the hon Deputy Prime Minister observed that this is a system that is less hospitable to small, and may I add outward-oriented, economies like Singapore and that we thus cannot assume that we will continue to be successful by simply doing the things we had in the past. We therefore need to build our national resilience on several fronts. But with regard to positioning our economy and businesses, this process had in fact started much earlier. Industry Transformation Maps had been introduced in 2016 covering 23 industries to look at what these industries needed to do to promote growth, remain competitive and seize future opportunities. Several years have passed since then and the ITMs are now going through a review, and the refreshed ITMs that take into consideration current realities are being launched. For example, the hon Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had launched the refreshed ITM for five advanced manufacturing and trade clusters, that has as its aim uplifting companies and creating at least 13,400 new jobs in October last year.[+17 sentences] In my view, the most important characteristic of the ITMs is something that has underpinned Singapore’s economic success and labour relations for decades. This is our unique tripartism: Government, labour and business at the same table, trashing things out and coming to mutually-satisfactory policies and plans for the good of each industry and its workers. As a trade association president, I have been involved in the process. And the process works but it works best only insofar as parties come to the table understanding that this is an exercise in negotiation. In the words of Mr Lim Swee Say, its objective is to achieve harmony, not just compromise. Sometimes, interests align completely and it is easy to come to a landing point. Most of the time there are protracted negotiations, seeking to reconcile polar positions. But it is precisely because each party has its own way of looking at things and its own considerations – all of course legitimate – that this tripartite process has its value. To me, our tripartism is a pillar of economic resilience and it is a force that will position us well in the new era. How can we strengthen this? I would like to make some observations and suggestions. First, we should strengthen sectoral trade association involvement on tripartite platforms, even as we have the Singapore National Employer’s Federation (SNEF) as the overall key tripartite partner representing businesses. Part of the ITM Refresh has been the move to cluster industries that are part of a broader industry sector and/or that have synergies with each other. There are seven clusters. I think this is an excellent development with regard to the ITMs because it will encourage pollination across industries, that can result in higher productivity and new business opportunities. I would like to share a personal experience that I had as regards tripartite representation. The security industry comes under the Built Environment Cluster. Curiously, when a major committee for this cluster was convened, my association, the Security Association Singapore (SAS), the lead trade association for the security sector, was invited to attend not as a member but merely as an observer.[+4 sentences] A SNEF representative was appointed, instead, to represent our industry, together with a Government official. In other words, our intended role was not to participate, but to merely to spectate. We found this very odd. So, we wrote in a strongly-worded letter to try to understand why the composition of the committee was as such. After some ding-donging, we were granted a seat at the table.[+6 sentences] This, Sir, is not a matter of just being FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out. Okay, maybe it was partly so. But of course, we would not want to miss out on the opportunity to get our industry involved in the larger transformation effort and to represent our industry because we are well-placed to do so. But why did we have to fight for this seat in the first place when we are the lead trade association in our sector? SNEF, Sir, is the key tripartite partner at the national level, representing employers and businesses. But the sectoral trade associations have our ear on the ground and know the unique situations that our businesses face. In this regard, where there are sectoral issues to be discussed under a tripartite framework, SNEF should not replace the sectoral trade association and must not be seen by Government bodies as being able to speak on behalf of individual industries.[+20 sentences] This is especially so when we look at clustering where we now have many industries at the table and some industries may have an adverse position, vis-à-vis other industries. And this is not hypothetical. This is something that that has actually happened. In such circumstance, where will SNEF stand? Can SNEF truly be an advocate for several industries on the same table? I confess that I do not know if SAS' experience is widespread or common or whether we are a unique case. But writ large, our tripartism will be strengthened if we include the sectoral trade associations as real partners with real participation at the table. Separately, given how ubiquitous SNEF is, I think that SNEF has more engagement with the sectoral trade associations in order to be an effective tripartite partner. This is something that I will take up with SNEF directly. On the Government's part, it should expect this of its tripartite partner and should query when SNEF makes representations on behalf of specific industries as to whether it had consulted with the relevant trade associations. Sir, let me just assure everyone that I do not have anything against SNEF. In fact, SAS is a member of SNEF and SNEF plays a very important role. But I do have a question as to whether SBF could also play a great role in the tripartite process. But of course, to sit at the seat, to sit at the table, does not mean that one just becomes happy about it and twiddles their thumbs. So, I am happy to report, Sir, that as regards SAS' involvement, we are very active. And we are working very closely with the hon Senior Minister of State Tan Kiat How and with our sister trade associations in the facility management sector to achieve, amongst other things, the elusive integrated and aggregated facility management. We are developing an online outcome-based tender generator that can be used by all the industries in the sector. We are cognisant that our seat was granted on request, not ex-officio. So, we take it upon ourselves therefore to show why we deserve to sit at the table and we will earn our seat with our effort. Sir, even as I call for the sectoral trade associations to have a seat at the table, the reality is that most trade associations have very limited resources, relying primarily on membership dues as their source of revenue. The Government already has a very excellent Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) Programme that funds projects undertaken by trade associations and chambers (TACs), that have certain objectives. Funding is higher if the project involves more than one TAC, which I think is a very good arrangement because it encourages TACs to work together to enjoy economies of scale and to ensure a larger reach for each project. However, the funding available is typically on a project basis.[+4 sentences] I would like to suggest that the Government consider rolling out more organic support, in particular, for secretariat headcount. A TAC, Sir, is only as good as its secretariat, simply because the executive committee members are all running their own businesses and their involvement in the TAC is essentially a co-curricular activity (CCA). Of course, this support should not be as of right – one way to administer such support would be to ask TACs to submit their plans for the coming year and how these would meet certain objectives and their funding plan, and then, it would be for the administering authority to decide based on these submissions the headcount it would support, if any. Such a scheme could be dovetailed with other workforce priorities, for example, extending the headcount support grant to only mature workers. TACs could also be strengthened by the Government appointing them as programme partners to administer certain schemes or grants.[+30 sentences] One such possible programme could be the Jobs-Skills Integrators initiative announced in this Budget. In fact, Sir, I have instructed my own secretariat to look into how we could possibly play that role regardless of Government funding because I do see much value in this function. This, of course again, should be offered only to trusted TACs that the Government has confidence in, in terms of being able to deliver as programme partner. If we are able to support more secretariat-capability initiatives and funding, then we are more likely to see more TACs that will be able to step up to play this partnership role. This having been said, I am also cognisant that we do not want TACs to be overly dependent on Government funding. Amongst other things, this could call into question their independence as tripartite partners. As such, TACs should also look at how to diversify their sources of revenue so that they are able to independently build their secretariat's capabilities and stand on their own feet. Government funding, if made available, should only be seen as a catalyst and not a crutch. Third, Sir, I would like to suggest allowing TAC involvement in employment dispute resolution processes where appropriate. This is in particular because of the changing nature of the employer-employee relationship and the fact that many businesses are in the process of transforming, and where the manner of transformation is unique to each industry. Businesses are trying their best to deal with a challenging environment, but importantly, many businesses are also trying to transform. This transformation invariably affects their workers: how they employ them, on what terms and how or whether to maintain their employment. A recent case in point was that of a security agency being called out by the NTUC for "egregious behaviour". The agency had sought to increase the working hours of its staff with a concomitant increase in salary. It had prior to this sought to demote some of its officers, based on the Security Officer PWM ranks, which, according to the agency, was in order to right-size its workforce. Sir, it is quite apparent that many businesses are right-sizing to deal with current realities. This is also to be expected as we continue to push for industry transformation, greater productivity and job re-design. Some industries will feel this more acutely, like the tech and manufacturing industries, but also the PWM sectors because wage increases are artificially created by Government policies – artificially but necessarily created by Government policies, let me add. Businesses must be nimble and flexible to be able to deal with these changing externalities. So, when I looked at the incident involving the security agency, my first reaction was: okay, maybe forcing a change in employment terms may not have been the best approach, but at least the agency is trying to retain its workers. This is surely preferable to simply firing all of them in a retrenchment exercise. Further to that, the agency was also taking proactive steps to prepare for a very significant change to the security PWM coming up next year – a change that is precisely designed to allow more flexibility for employers and employees to negotiate working hours. So, my first impression, of course, was that it was the correct intention, the correct objectives, but perhaps not the best execution. But execution, of course, can be adjusted and can be changed to become kosher. On the other hand, it is trite that employment terms should be varied by mutual agreement and should not be forced on employees. In this regard, I can understand NTUC's position – surely if there is an arising possibility of a forced demotion or increase in working hours of a large number of workers, the union must jump, as it did. And the NTUC was actually very kind in that it raised the issue but did not name the company. The company outed itself. However, as quickly as this came out in public, it fizzled out in the news as quickly leaving many in the industry somewhat bedazzled and confused as to what actually happened. Business owners in the sector are now worried that the very industry transformation we had encouraged them to embark on, the very flexibility that we had told them would arise from the changes in the PWM in 2024, which would necessitate new types of employment contracts and new types of employment relationships, could now get them in trouble. The matter has now gone to MOM conciliation. This, in fact, is hot off the press – it is just from, I think, maybe two or so hours ago, an announcement, a statement from the Union of Security Employees and the company involved. It said that conciliation had resulted in a positive outcome and that the union understands it was the intent to right-size its workforce and to recognise the management's efforts to do so fairly.[+9 sentences] This definitely is a good outcome, but we are still left with many questions. Business owners have come to me. I do not have the details either. But the question still continues to be out there as to whether there were forced demotions, or whether there were not. What was the result of the conciliation? Of course, conciliation is confidential. Whether these demotions allowed under the PWM? Whether there were increases in working hours; and again, were these allowed? So, we have to find some ways, Sir, to harmonise the public messaging to businesses so that while they are engaged in the process of transformation, of changing how their business operates, they are not getting mixed messages and they can figure out how they can move forward. My other suggestion, Sir, is, for precisely these types of dispute resolution, whether we could introduce a mechanism in which TAC representatives could be invited, where appropriate, as experts, to explain the situation in the industry or to perhaps provide more context and hue, to what are the considerations of companies in that sector.[+5 sentences] This will ensure that a cookie-cutter approach is not adopted in adjudicating employment disputes in the first instance. These experts are not supposed to advocate on behalf of the company, but to give industry-specific insights to the adjudicator and to the party on the other side. Courts frequently allow for expert evidence and there are many cases in which judges have expressed, in their written grounds, appreciation for the expert's insights into the particular matter. For the avoidance of doubt, my suggestion extends to conciliation, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, and only where deemed appropriate and useful by the adjudicator. My suggestion does not extend to the Employment Claims Tribunal. Another way to deal with such disputes is for the union to get the sectoral trade association involved from the very start, of course informally.[+14 sentences] This would be especially effective if the offending company is a member of that trade association. Where there are errant practices, it is often easier for a peer to point it out and to encourage one to do the right thing. This builds and leverages on the existing tripartite relationship and can help to defuse tensions before parties start taking adversarial positions. Of course, if the offending company still does not take the necessary corrective actions to the union and the employee's satisfaction, then there are procedures and processes that the aggrieved party can avail of. As our industries transform, more of such cases will arise. It is the union's duty and I know that it is one that it takes very seriously, to protect workers and to champion their rights. And of course, this is very important, and upcoming legislation like the fair consideration law will ensure further protection for our workers. But at the same time, we do not want to stifle industry transformation or to give mixed messages that would be counterproductive to the efforts of the ITMs. In conclusion, Sir, the Budget seeks to ensure Singapore's continued economic success by strengthening our businesses and equipping our workers. The Budget Statement has also set out a very realistic assessment of the rapidly changing external environment in the new era and the urgency with which we need to build our resilience to deal with it. Tripartism is a key pillar of our economic and social resilience. I have made some suggestions as to how we can strengthen our tripartism and how we can get trade associations involved in a bigger way. With businesses and unions working together, with the leadership of an actively involved Government and Government agencies, I am confident that we will be able to meet the headwinds coming our way with confidence, and that Singapore will thrive in the new era. Sir, I support he Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Ng Ling Ling.
Ms Ng Ling Ling (Ang Mo Kio)2161 words
[+12 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, I would first like to declare my role in leading environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts in an investment company. Sir, Budget 2023, with its focus on supporting Singapore and Singaporeans to progress with confidence in a more uncertain world, sets the stage for our next phase of growth after battling almost three years of COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, I rose to speak on three areas in my Budget Debate speech to urge stronger efforts by our Government to ensure: one, social mobility amidst COVID-19, economic restructuring and digitalisation; two, managing long-term healthcare needs; and three, fulfilling the housing aspirations of our younger generation. I want to thank all Government officers and stakeholders for the contributions you have made, in making progress on all these fronts in the past year. For this year's Budget, I would like to continue focusing my speech on considerations and support for our working adults, our seniors, our young couples and families. First, supporting our working adults. In my Jalan Kayu constituency, the largest segment of residents is aged between 20 and 60 years. This phase of life covers most of our productive work years, from getting our first job to staying gainfully employed over the decades and hopefully looking forward to retirement with confidence and comfort. Yet, we know that the realities in this age range is far from easy going, especially in a world of high global competition, slowing social mobility and prolonged ageing population. While I was delighted to read the recent Straits Times article on 21 February 2023 that more fresh university graduates in full-time permanent roles – comprising 87.5% of the cohort – have gotten higher pay, I wonder about the 6.3% who are in freelance or part-time or temporary employment and the 3.6% who remained unemployed and are still looking for a job. For these unemployed or under-employed graduates, while the proportion is small, the question is if their progression would inevitably be pushed behind their peers. What about the non-graduates who completed their highest education in polytechnic or ITE? How is the Government monitoring the cohort progression and targeting assistance to provide levelling up opportunities at milestone stages of their early work life? I like that the National Productivity Fund will be topped up substantially by $4 billion with an expanded scope to support investment promotion, besides productivity enhancements and continuing education and training.[+1 sentence] I would like to understand how the Government is monitoring that these funding translates to better and more innovative jobs for our young people? Census 2020 showed that our old-age dependency ratio has increased from 13.5% in 2010 to 23.4% in 2020.[+3 sentences] I do not have to belabour the well-known projection that we will have one in four Singaporeans over 65 years old by 2030. Maximising the potential and progression of every cohort of our young Singaporeans graduating from universities, polytechnics or ITEs from now on, is ever more pressing to help them manage the burden that they will carry as our population continues to age. We must constantly mitigate against the risks of Singapore's economic dynamism and competitiveness with a potentially shrinking pool of working adults. In this aspect, do we have a systematic tracking of the growth of local companies under the $1 billion Singapore Global Enterprises initiative or the additional $150 million SME Co-Investment Fund, especially for the number of SMEs levelling up consistently across the years to be on track to become large local enterprises with annual group company revenue exceeding $100 million and with regional or even global footprints?[+12 sentences] SMEs make up a significant portion of the total number of enterprises in Singapore, at about 99% of all enterprises and supporting 71% of total employment in 2021. May I suggest that the Government consider publishing more systematic reports on medium-sized enterprises and large local enterprises and the percentage of local employment they are providing to inspire more local enterprises to punch above their weight and grow beyond being a small or medium enterprise. As working adults enter their mid-lives in their forties and fifties, I am assured that attention continues to be given to help them keep pace with changes and stay employed. I look forward to the implementation of the new Jobs-Skills Integrators initiative, especially on the data on how the new effort is improving the job and skill matches of mature workers to help them remain employable. The efforts for more vulnerable groups, including low-wage workers, seniors wishing to continue work, ex-offenders and persons with disabilities, are also important to ensure an inclusive workforce. I will speak more about employment for persons with disabilities in my Committee of Supply cuts. Now, let me move to the next group, to another important group of Singaporeans – our seniors. In my Jalan Kayu constituency, they make up about 22% of our residents if we count above 60 years old but a lower 8% if we count above 70 years old. This presents opportunities for us to promote preventive health and chronic disease awareness and management actively in my constituency, to help our residents take charge of their health from their early senior years. Therefore, I keenly look forward to the rollout of the Healthier SG later this year, which I spoke in support of during the White Paper debate and will speak more about during my Committee of Supply cuts. Our grassroots leaders proactively piloted our first Jalan Kayu Community Health Club (JKCHC) in February to begin to connect the ecosystem of regional health partners, family doctors, social and sports agencies as well as community groups to complement the national Healthier SG rollout at our local level. However, even as we step up efforts to manage our own health better as we age, there will always be a segment of more vulnerable seniors who need more help. Many of our seniors who seek assistance at my Meet-the-People Sessions often share their concerns of rising healthcare costs and their working adult children feel the pressure of supporting them while bringing up their own children. I thus look forward to more details on the Government's plan to top up an additional $500 million for ElderCare Fund and $1.5 billion to MediFund to help lower-income seniors with their long-term healthcare needs.[+11 sentences] With the current elevated inflation, we need to continue to assure a common seniors' concern of "money not enough" when they no longer have active recurring employment income. The slew of support under the permanent GST voucher scheme and enhanced Assurance Package is most welcomed. However, there must continue to be considerations for also non-monetary support such as the expansion of Active Ageing Centres, Senior Day Care Centres and Dementia Day Care Centres across Singapore. We must not stop at just estates with higher concentration of lower-income seniors but care for seniors living also in private estates who may be seemingly asset rich but are genuinely cash poor. In the older landed private estates like Seletar Hills in my constituency, I often come across residents in their retirement who have purchased their houses decades ago when the prices were way below the current market prices. Many understandably stay on because of the familiarity of the environment. They too need eldercare support funded by the Government. I will speak more about this during my Committee of Supply cuts. Lastly, supporting our young people, young couples and families. I resonate with the aspirations of our young people, couples and families because I was also young once. I would like to speak about supporting them to help them build an even brighter future in Singapore. We dedicated last year as "The Year of Celebrating SG Families" and there were many discussions on strengthening support for our young couples and families. I am glad that the Government will be doing more by increasing the CPF Housing Grant by $30,000 for eligible first-time families purchasing 4-room or smaller resale flats and by $10,000 more for those purchasing 5-room or larger flats. In helping with the costs of having and raising children, I hope that initiatives such as the increase of Baby Bonus Cash Gift by $3,000 for all eligible Singaporean children and increase in contributions to the Child Development Account to offset preschool and healthcare expenses as well as support for more flexible work arrangements will have some effect in reversing our stubbornly low total fertility rate.[+1 sentence] However, I would like to go more upstream and suggest that the Government enable more resources to enable social interactions among our young people. According to the Marriage and Parenthood Survey 2021, 80% of young single respondents in that survey indicated that they intend to get married but only 50% of them are dating.[+13 sentences] Of the other 50% who are not dating, 38% of those said that they have not dated before. Fifty-eight percent of them expressed having a limited social circle and 57% of them said that they do not have many opportunities to meet potential partners. Although there has been a growing acceptance for online dating methods, most individuals still prefer meeting potential partners through more organic and face-to-face meetings – 80% of them, through that survey. A more local community approach may be a suitable alternative for the Government to consider to encourage more organic social mingling. As this is a Budget that prepares Singaporeans for the future era, I hope that the Government will be open to investing money to help singles to expand their social circle and actively encourage our singles to mingle. Mr Speaker, please allow me to say some words in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Singapore faces a complex and challenging external environment now and in the next few years. Hence, the "Moving forward in a new-era" Budget will help Singaporeans tide over the rising cost of living, look forward to and prepare for future economic opportunities. I support this initiative. The biggest impact on Singaporeans is the rising cost of living and the future outlook. I will focus on how the Budget can help Singaporeans, including senior citizens, families and workers, and provide feedback and suggestions on the Budget. First, for the elderly, they want to spend their golden years with a healthy body and a positive mind. To help seniors stay healthy, the Government has introduced the Healthier SG programme. In Jalan Kayu, our grassroots organisations have responded by setting up a new health club to help residents maintain good health through participating in a series of club activities. Hence, I strongly support the suite of assistance measures for the elderly in the Budget, such as extending the Senior Employment Credit, increasing the minimum monthly payout under the Retirement Sum Scheme as well as additional ElderCare Fund and MediFund to help seniors cope with long-term medical care expenses.[+8 sentences] In addition, as we move into a new era, I hope the Government will also pay attention to palliative care and allow palliative care to go into the community to meet the needs of an ageing population. Second, for families, the assistance proposed in the Budget such as increasing CPF Housing Grant, Baby Support Grant and topping up of Baby Bonus Cash Gift and the Child Development Account will help ease some of the worries that young couples have about starting a family and having children. I also hope that the Government will strengthen the support for singles who wish to end singlehood, and increase their social networking opportunities, so that they can find suitable partners. Third, for employees, job security is their biggest concern. In recent months, several multinational companies (MNCs) that operate in Singapore such as Google and Twitter have begun to retrench workers. Besides attracting MNCs, grooming local companies is important too. Hence, I support the series of initiatives in this year's Budget that focuses on supporting local SMEs to invest in innovative projects and sectors to help them expand their businesses and venture abroad. Through this, they can provide more attractive jobs to Singaporeans. The Government will also step up efforts to help workers upgrade and renew their skills. I hope that in the next few years, the Government will let the Parliament know how effective these schemes are in helping Singaporeans secure good jobs. I think helping promising SMEs expand and allow their employees to be trained continually will help Singaporeans secure better job opportunities.[+5 sentences] Therefore, I support this year's Budget. (In English) Back to English, please. Mr Speaker, Budget 2023 shows the Government's commitment towards long-term economic planning amidst short-term inflationary pressures and weak economic growth projections. As we mark the 100th year of the birth of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, let us remember the values and foresights that our forefathers have in overcoming adversity and challenges to define and unite a nation. May we continue to carry on this strength and resilience as we move forward into a new era, shaping a brighter future for Singapore and Singaporeans together. On this note, Speaker, I support Budget 2023.
Mr Speaker49 words
[+5 sentences]Order. I propose to take a break now. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair at 5.20 pm. Sitting accordingly suspended at 5.00 pm until 5.20 pm. Sitting resumed at 5.20 pm.
Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol)2574 words
[+17 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. In Pasir Ris, we have frequent dialogues and engagements with our residents both formal and informally. During these engagements, issues that weigh heavily on the minds of our residents which they shared are: firstly cost of living; secondly, challenges brought about by our ageing population; thirdly, housing affordability and availability, especially for our young first-time buyers, which we have debated on significantly in the last Sitting; and lastly, jobs, employability and work-life balance. While individuals feel the pressure from these issues, in my conversations with associations and those in the industry, businesses both here and abroad, are worried about the rising costs of doing business in Singapore and if Singapore can continue to have and provide the competitive edge in the global market. I would like to quote Deputy Prime Minister Wong in the forward of the Budget booklet: "As a small country in a globally uncertain environment, the road ahead will not be easy. But we are on this journey together, and we can draw confidence and strength from how we have overcome past challenges." "The road ahead is not easy" – and that is true. Our tight labour market and ageing population will have to contend with high inflationary global environment, the deeply concerning war in Ukraine, Sino-American relations, Protectionist practices and other grim macro-economic challenges. However, we have shown that for the past three years, regardless of how challenging the journey is, we are better off coming together, working together to come up with viable pragmatic solutions able to meet the immediate needs of our society while positioning ourselves favourably for our future. Hence, I am glad that Budget 2023 has elements that attempts to address the challenges and issues that weigh heavily on everyone's minds, while working within the constraints of our limited resource, with tweaks to make our tax system fairer, more progressive and sustainable. If the Budget addresses the right issues, then it becomes a question of whether we have prioritised and apportioned enough within our limited resources to address the challenges that we have been identified both immediate and in the future and is the resource efficiently deployed through policies such that it achieves the collective social goal that we as a nation desires. It is through that lens that I will touch on four key themes: Firstly, the adequacy of the support for the current inflationary and cost of living pressures. Secondly, from a business perspective, in light of all the cost challenges such as increased payroll cost, impending carbon tax, BEPS 2.0 implementation, how do we continue to attract investments and grow our economy? Thirdly, as we grow our economy, how do we ensure our workforce remains competitive to bridge the skills gap to alleviate structural unemployment and channel workers into jobs and industries that are growing and transforming? And lastly, while we remain competitive in the global market, how do we realize our desire to have inclusive growth, in particular, providing meaningful employment for our seniors, part-time workers and persons with disability. Allow me to begin with the adequacy of the support for the current inflationary and cost of living pressures. We have weathered periods of high inflation before. However, unlike those times, the current persistent inflation felt globally is fuelled with a tight labour market within Singapore. Hence, I welcome the enhancements to the permanent GSTV scheme and Assurance package to cushion the impact of our much-needed GST increase so that we can maintain our commitments to fund impending healthcare spending and the one-off support measures to address the immediate cost-of-living challenges.[+2 sentences] I am encouraged to see how support schemes are disbursed such that everyone – not just the less well-off – but everyone, receives something regardless of income, like the CDC vouchers. While those without income and lower to middle-income receive more, like the GST vouchers, cash payouts, S&CC and U-save rebates. This is consistent with our values as a society and reinforces it with action where collectively as a society we support each other and the less well-off should receive more. I am supportive of tiding the current Cost-of-living challenges with one-off schemes such as the Cost-of-living special payment of $200 to $400, Seniors Bonus of $200 to $300, doubling of U-save rebates and CDA top up.[+3 sentences] These one-off support measures are well suited to deal with these exceptional past three years. The pandemic, inflation, tight labour market and geopolitical instability were amongst the many challenges we had to surmount. However, I worry that such levels of support if perceived as the norm in the future, may not be sustainable. The enhancement to the assurance package, both the one-off and the earlier versions will cost $3 billion and hence increases the total amount of the package from $6.6 billion to $9.6 billion which is more than the budget for Ministry of National Development (MND), or Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) or MSE, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) combined! Hence, I believe that while this is necessary in the current environment, this is something we must closely monitor in future budgets and carefully calibrate the amount and qualifying conditions when the situation changes so as to avoid entrenching the sense of reliance on Government support as it is not fiscally sustainable in the long term.[+12 sentences] Given that the inflation levels are here to stay, how do we then beat the inflation without Government support? The rising cost needs to be overcome by generating value and increasing productivity. Which brings me to my second point. The costs of doing business in Singapore is continuously rising. This is partly due to the rising costs of labour attributed to the tight labour market, aspirations of our workforce for annual pay increments and our collective desire to pay our lower-waged workers better. Our strong currency also means Singapore-based businesses are finding it harder to compete through cost in the global market. Furthermore, additional headwinds such as the impending increase in carbon tax and the implementation of Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS 2.0) initiative will add even more costs to doing business in Singapore. While businesses in Singapore face these cost pressures, the US and other countries are rolling out aggressive tax breaks and subsidies to attract investments, such as the CHIPS and Science Act in US, to build up their industries and revitalise their domestic manufacturing, competing with Singapore in attracting more investments. Tax equalisation in BEPS 2.0 also implies we have one less instrument to attract investments into Singapore. In my earlier speech in November on the GST Amendment Bill, I challenged some of the members' perception that BEPS 2.0 alone can make up the "hole left behind by not raising GST". I mentioned that because of the headwinds on cost, we will have to do something and spend on non-tax incentives such as training, subsidies and grants to restore and enhance our business competitiveness to continue to attract foreign investment while we lose preferential tax rates as one of our competitive levers. And this results in the nett income from implementing BEPS 2.0 to remain uncertain but likely it would not be a straight-through revenue as some may have previously assumed. While EDB attracted a record high of $22.5 billion Fixed Asset Investment (FAI) commitments in 2022, which brings about good well-paying jobs into Singapore, with the headwinds and increasing competition, how can we create more non-tax incentives to enhance our business competitiveness to continue to attract foreign investment? Hence, I am encouraged to hear that the National Productivity Fund will be topped up with $4 billion and the scope will be expanded to include investment promotion as a supporting activity.[+16 sentences] What mix of industries will we be focusing on for investment promotion to create the optimal value and leverages on our current infrastructure and workforce that we already have? How do we ensure that funds are effectively used to drive real productivity improvements that will help lower costs of doing business in Singapore? What will be the measure of success for the National Productivity Fund? As we bolster the National Productivity Fund to compete globally for more quality investments, we must also prepare our workforce for the needs of the future economy. Addressing our skills mismatch to alleviate structural unemployment will be one of our key challenges and this is a concern in the industry. While we unanimously agree that upskilling and retraining will be critical to our future success, the challenge is, how do we upskill? In each of the industry, what are the skills and knowledge that is necessary to bridge the gap? Where do workers go to gain these skills and knowledge? The industry transformation map (ITM) provides a high-level overview of what are the skills that are required in the industry. However, when it comes to applying it on the ground, businesses and workers are simply overwhelmed. Workers are overwhelmed by what skills to learn to find better jobs or be better at their jobs. Employers are overwhelmed by the types of training and support packages that are available and the quality of training providers. A Straits Times article mentioned that there are more than 26,000 courses available on the MySkillsFuture portal and this does not include all the other platforms that provide both offline and online skills training, such as Udemy. Finding the right source to train for the right skillset to bridge the skills gap to drive a real improvement to the business is an outright challenge. In my earlier speech in January on the SkillsFuture (Amendment) Bill, I had mentioned that the training landscape is confusing. There is the SSG website, SkillsFuture website, MySkillsFuture portal, SSG-WSG portal, just to name a few. I asked whether this landscape can be consolidated into a worker-centric portal like "Support-Go-Where" which then provides the comprehensive support for the business and worker. Hence, I am glad to hear that we will be piloting the Job-Skills Integrators in a few industries to be intermediaries who can work with industry, training, employment and facilitation partners to optimise training and job placement.[+2 sentences] I do hope these integrators, as its name implies, bring together all the schemes, courses and stakeholders to simplify and execute rather than creating more schemes and programmes to add to the already confusing landscape. This is something that I will touch more in the subsequent Committee of Supply (COS) cuts. Similar to the PWM roll-out too, how long will the pilot in the Precision Engineering, Retail and Wholesale Trade sectors take and what will be the expected pace of roll-out to the other industries once the pilot industries are completed?[+8 sentences] How can we also increase the participation rate of eligible Singaporean utilising SkillsFuture to significantly more than 30%? And as we provide support to transform and upskill our current workers, we need to stay committed towards inclusive growth. We must provide opportunities and unlock potential through meaningful re-employment for our seniors, part-time workers and workers with disability especially in sectors and roles facing labour shortages. Key to this is our societal approach, or adopting a societal approach towards flexible work arrangements which can take the form of flexi-time, flexi-place and flexi-load. What is the progress of the Tripartite Guideline on flexible work arrangements? How can flexible work arrangements, together with job redesign, unlock employment opportunities for seniors, persons with disabilities, part-time workers and caregivers? For example, call centre operators or helpdesk providers can be done remotely via flexible work arrangements and this can create opportunities for such individuals. Or can our seniors be funded to be trained as trainers to impart their knowledge to the industry? With the extension of Senior Employment Credit, Part-Time Employment Grant and introducing uplifting employment credit for ex-offenders, what is the measure of success for these schemes?[+7 sentences] How do we ensure that these fundings translate to actual improvement in employment opportunities for our seniors, part-time workers and persons with disabilities? Mr Deputy Speaker, in Malay, please. (In Malay): Budget 2023 is a sensible budget that provides for current needs, prepares us for the future challenges and strengthens our social compact while maintaining financial prudence. What everyone is concerned about is the high cost of living that is felt not only in Singapore but all over the world. Therefore, I am happy to see how support schemes are channelled so that everyone, not only the less well-off, but all families, will receive help regardless of income, such as the CDC vouchers. Those who are not working or with low-to-moderate income will receive more support, in the form of GST vouchers, cash payments, and S&CC and U-Save rebates. This is in line with our society’s values and reinforces those values through actions where we help each other collectively, with those who are less well-off receiving more help. The Assurance Package support network will be able to help many families, including the "sandwich class" families, where a middle-income family with 2 children and 2 seniors can receive support of up to $8,000 dollars this year The enhancements to the Assurance Package will increase its expenditure by $3 billion, thus increasing the total amount of the Assurance Package from $6.6 billion to $9.6 billion![+4 sentences] These enhancements to the Assurance Package is justified in such a unique situation. However, we should continue to monitor the budget in future and fine-tune it as the situation improves. This is necessary because spending of this magnitude is not sustainable in the long term. With competition for investment and jobs intensifying around the world, I am also pleased to hear about the sustained commitment to helping businesses transform and grow in the global markets. There is also a sustained commitment to improve the skills and productivity of workers so that the workers can see real wage growth while we also focus on inclusive growth so that everyone has employment opportunities. Therefore, I also would like to understand more about "Jobs-Skills Integrators" that will help employees improve their skills and facilitate job placement in growth industries.[+2 sentences] And at the COS Debates later, I would also like to understand more about how we can encourage more companies to take advantage of the Senior and Part-Time Worker Schemes to redesign jobs to provide more employment opportunities for older workers, part-time workers and persons with disabilities. (In English): In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, Budget 2023 is a balanced Budget that addresses the key issues weighing heavily on everyone's minds while preparing us for the future challenges and it does so by working within the constraints of the limited resource that we have. The tweaks that were made on taxes on luxury vehicles ARF and buyer stamp duty for higher property values are in the right direction to make our tax system fairer, more progressive, resilient and sustainable.[+4 sentences] It is important that the overall tax burden does not rest disproportionately on any category of taxpayers and it is equally important that we continue to have a balanced budget. This is consistent with our values as a society and reinforces it with action where collectively, as a society, we support each other and the less well-off should receive more, while we move forward together towards a new era. Notwithstanding the clarifications above, I stand in support of the Budget. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Tin Pei Ling.
Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson)2316 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, this year's Budget is a generous one with measures that recognise and target the immediate challenges Singaporeans face, as well as the needs for Singapore's future. Most immediately, Singaporeans are worried about the high cost of living. Headline inflation, the CPI of all items, is 6.1% in 2022, with increase in transport, housing and utilities and food prices being main contributors.[+7 sentences] This impact is especially salient for middle- and lower income households, financially and psychologically. Hence, the enhancements to the GSTV scheme and Assurance Package are much welcomed. Against a challenging macro environment and competing needs domestically, I am glad to note that the Government will continue to uphold the practice of fiscal prudence and principles underpinning the protection of our reserves. In his Budget speech, Deputy Prime Minister Wong explained that the Singapore economy just recovered from the COVID-9 pandemic and with a tight fiscal position, the Government will not be putting back what we have drawn from the Past Reserves. However, I hope that we do not lose that discipline as years pass. And with external factors, such as continued geopolitical instabilities and higher than normal inflation amidst lower global growth, we may find it even more difficult to do so in future. Should a major crisis hit again and sooner than expected, will we have the same financial muscle and confidence as we did during the COVID-19 pandemic? I understand that it is always a tricky trade-off between spending for today, investing for the future and saving for the unexpected. But, could the Deputy Prime Minister give commitment that the money taken out of our Past Reserves will be put back at the earliest opportunity to do so, and if not at one go, at least in phases?[+13 sentences] I raised this during last year's Budget debate and I would like to raise it again today. In case I get misunderstood, let me state that I believe it is necessary for us to draw on our reserves to help Singapore and Singaporeans get through difficult times and we need to spend enough to help Singaporeans with the immediate cost challenges. But we must keep in mind that we cannot deplete our reserves and that we must guard it judiciously. Our pioneers took more than 50 years to save up this pot of gold because they want to protect their children and future generations. Similarly, we too have a duty to use this pot of gold wisely and make sure that we put back what we took once we can, so that our children and their children can continue to have this asset to fall back on when they face the crisis of their generation. Singapore turns 58 years old this year. As a fairly young nation, we still have much to build. As each new generation emerges and succeeds the preceding one, we can expect adjustments to be made, to match the broader trends around the world, and the changing values and expectations. On the whole, we aspire towards a fairer and more inclusive society, in which we respect diversity, maintain harmony and hopefully, will be kinder to each other. Hence, in strengthening our social compact, these aspirations and values need to be translated into tangible policies for Singaporeans and Singapore. On housing, this House saw a rigorous debate on public housing earlier this month. I am glad that the Government reaffirmed its commitment to keeping public housing affordable and accessible, for this generation and the next. Home ownership is one of the five most fundamental pillars of our social safety net. The ability to secure a home gives our people, especially young couples, the confidence to build their families and in turn, reinforce their shared sense of destiny with Singapore. Therefore, in this Budget, I am glad that the Government will refine the BTO scheme to give first-timer families with kids and young married couples aged 40 and below an additional ballot.[+5 sentences] I have met several young couples who feel highly stressed that they could not secure a flat in the ballots while their biological clocks are ticking away. Hence, it is heartening to note that the Government is responsive to citizens' needs. However, amongst these young couples I met, almost all of them have a strong desire to live near their parents, for mutual familial support. Parents can help care for the couples' kids and the couples can in turn care for their parents as they age further. But when they fail at the ballots or cannot afford a nearby resale flat, one can imagine the anxiety they feel. While I understand the Government needs to make many considerations, such as ensuring a certain level of refreshing of the population in any precinct, could the Government consider increasing the proportion of flats set aside under the Married Child Priority Scheme (MCPS) in BTO projects at mature estates?[+9 sentences] Or give another additional ballot to first-timers repeatedly applying under the MCPS? It is in the mature housing estates where we see more elderly parents, who are less likely to move out as they will have to unplug themselves from a familiar environment and existing social networks; and their adult children understandably want to live nearby for the reasons I articulated earlier. Furthermore, first time buyers and these would include the young couples or families, who favour speed and affordability, would have already chosen non-mature estates. And so, those who continuously choose mature estates must therefore have good reasons to do so. Next, on opportunities for children, I am heartened to note that the Government is spending more to narrow learning gaps for children and is reinforcing the important role of early childhood education in any child's development. Scaling up the KidSTART nationwide is certainly noteworthy. The move to increase 22,000 full-day childcare places and expanding the number of MOE Kindergartens are to be rejoiced as well. As it is, the anchor operator partner childcare centres in MacPherson are already full and parents are anxiously on the waiting list. Hopefully, the announced increase will come to MacPherson's – and soon. Still, I hope the Government will also do more to increase places and train more teachers for children with special needs.[+14 sentences] Children with special needs are already at a disadvantaged starting point and hence, ensuring their access to the right early childhood education is even more important. Allow me to share two residents' plights. In the first, there is a resident by the name KT, who first approached me to appeal for subsidies to enrol her daughter in a private kindergarten. KT's daughter has severe autism. The child has been attending mainstream preschools until the schools found it too difficult to cope with caring for the child. By mainstream, I meant those with subsidies. KT managed to enrol her daughter in early intervention classes at AWWA, for which they are grateful to receive fairly generous subsidies which are helpful to the couple who do not have a fixed income. However, the intervention classes are on part-time basis only and the child would not be able to receive the full learning experience that her peers are receiving. After much heartache, KT managed to find a private preschool that her daughter could finally fit in and responded well to. This preschool is not a high-end one but KT could not receive subsidies if her child is enrolled in it. My understanding was that this centre did not qualify a particular criterion and hence, the KiFAS subsidies could not be given. Consequently, the family soon found it too challenging to continue. As a mother, I feel for KT. She really just wants to try her best to place her child at a centre where her daughter finally feels comfortable in, where the principal and teachers understand her daughter and where her daughter can finally learn and seem to thrive. She felt torn between the ability to afford and settling for a centre that may not be suitable for her daughter. Hence, I wonder if subsidies could be "ported" over for specific individuals in special circumstances like this?[+7 sentences] In another case, another resident XY approached me. Her son was originally enrolled in a local anchor operator childcare centre. One day, her son was found to have special needs and the centre found it too difficult for them to manage. I was told that the principal allegedly insisted that her son be taken out of the centre. We appealed for the son to stay but the centre’s decision remained. Understandably, XY was desperate and sought help again. Thankfully, in this case, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and my grassroots leader managed to find an alternative for XY’s child. But the process was disruptive for the child's learning and caused much heartache for the family. Hence, could there be better training and more resources given to support all anchor operator and partner operator centres so that they can accept more children with special needs?[+20 sentences] Next, on preparing for the silver years. Sir, we know for a long time now that our population is ageing. Hence, preparing our nation to be senior-friendly is ever so important and urgent. We will all grow old one day. So, what we do to care for our seniors today is also caring for our generation tomorrow when we have grown old. Hence, I support the efforts to ensure seniors live as much of their lives in good health as possible and to have ample options to age in the community. I support the approach and measures set out in the Budget. In addition, I would urge that we pay special attention to socialising our seniors in the community to ensure that they are plugged into social networks and have a diverse range of activities to choose from. We must strive to help our seniors avoid a sense of loneliness and avoid social isolation as these can lead to rapid mental and physical deterioration. Even the fittest elderly can also be vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation. Apart from preventive healthcare and Immediate and Long-Term Care (ILTC), community hardware and programmes need to be carefully designed with today and tomorrow's elderly in mind. I believe we have been doing well in providing for seniors of today. But building infrastructure and developing programmes need lead time, and we must hasten our efforts as we project into the future. Just to give an example. Recently, I received email requests from residents of the “young-old” profile who asked for Gym Tonic, which is less intensive than normal gyms but more sophisticated than the usual neighbourhood fitness equipment and programmes. This, to me, is an early signal of a generational shift in "taste" and preference for what constitutes active ageing. In the past, I often heard seniors lament about “waiting to die”, which seemed to reflect a certain grief over losing mental and physical capacities. This is sad and scary. We must work to deliver a different, better future for our seniors. Aging need not be a countdown to life. Entering the silver years can be a new beginning where there is life, people, new dreams and new adventures worth looking forward to every day. Hence, I urge the Government to double up its efforts in pushing for a Healthier SG and ensure that building plans and programme offerings are by design friendly to seniors today and tomorrow.[+6 sentences] Allow me to speak in Mandarin, Sir. (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, looking at the present and the future, the challenges we face cannot be underestimated. How to avoid obstacles and press on requires wise leadership and a united people. Therefore, with the rise of a new generation of Singaporeans, our social compact needs to be adjusted to keep up with times. This year's Budget dealt directly with our future needs and immediate concerns. While it is heartening, I still have some suggestions to the Government. First, to encourage the various generations in the family to take care of each other, can the Government raise the Married Child Priority Scheme (MCPS) quota so that more young first-timers can secure new homes close to their parents?[+3 sentences] Second, increasing the number of preschool places will ensure that children will have a better start and that parents can work worry-free. However, there are still not enough preschool centres for children with special needs. Children with special needs already have learning difficulties. It is only right to give them more support. I hope that the Government will increase the number of teachers in this area and provide more subsidised places.[+1 sentence] Third, growing old is inevitable but this does not mean that we should be counting down to our last days. Instead, this should be the beginning of a new chapter. I hope that the Government will continue to build a vibrant future for the elderly, promote Healthier SG and design activities, programmes or infrastructures with different age groups in mind.[+6 sentences] (In English): Sir, Singapore's social compact have evolved over time. From focusing on survival as a nation in the 1960s to 1980s, to the "Many Helping Hands" approach that encouraged a greater sense of collective responsibility from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, to recognising that Government and the community need to play a bigger role to complement individual and family efforts. Singapore has done well so far. As we look ahead, there are many complex challenges that we have to grapple with. We face macroeconomic uncertainties, geopolitical instability, rapid social change and game-changing technological innovations. These can change the world as we know it. To navigate around these challenges and steer Singapore forward, we will need strong financial muscles, solid willpower and a willingness to give and take. Hence, notwithstanding my earlier points made, I see this Budget as one that builds on past efforts and one that will continue to take Singapore forward.[+1 sentence] I support the Budget.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Seah Kian Peng.
Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade)1615 words
[+13 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, with all this talk about social compact, it may be useful to note that while the concept was born hundreds of years ago in 17th century political philosophy, in this House, it was first used only in 1996 in a debate on the White Paper introduced by the Minister for Transport on "A World Class Land Transport System”. Since then, it has been used in almost every Budget debate in recent years, and certainly the last few speakers. A social compact is essentially an exchange of promises – each of us give up our freedoms to pursue selfish interests in an unfettered way in exchange for a stable, ordered, fair society in which we all have an equal chance to flourish. In the founding days of Singapore, these ideas were front and centre in all that Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his colleagues did. An examination of records around Singapore’s Independence would show that Mr Lee and his colleagues were very clear in their purpose. “My business is the people’s happiness”; this is what Mr Lee Kuan Yew said on 27 May 1965 in the Malaysian Parliament. “My business is the people’s happiness”. And “happiness of the people” appears in the Proclamation of Independence on 9 August 1969. And the word “happiness” is enshrined in our National Pledge. All these formed part of the social compact that he and his team forged with the people of Singapore. Over the years, our social compact was not lost on successive Prime Ministers and their teams, from Mr Goh Chok Tong, Mr Lee Hsien Loong and their teams. So, I am very glad that Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong called this out in his Budget Statement last year and that this year’s Budget had many good measures which will certainly help strengthen our common identity and social compact. The Budget is the most binding version of our social compact because it allocates resources that put these big ideas to work for the future of Singapore and Singaporeans. Budget 2023 is an inspired political statement that spells out duties for the rich, welfare for the poor and opportunities for all.[+9 sentences] In many ways, it is a decisive break from the past. To show how and why, let me contrast this with the political language and financial principles outlined in 1996 by the person who first used the words “social compact” – and this was by Nominated Member of Parliament and economics Prof Lee Tsao Yuan. In her speech that year which argued for increased subsidies for transport, she said, “Education, health and housing have, from the very beginning of the PAP Government, been treated differently. To me, subsidy is not a dirty word. Making basic health, education and housing affordable is and always has been, the social compact between this Government and the people.” She then outlined her own ideas of four financing principles used in the provision of public services by the Government. First, she argues, and I quote her again, “There is no such thing as a free lunch. A price tag is put on almost everything in Singapore by the Government.” In the 1990s where there was a wave of experiments on privatisation, this could be true. Indeed, it is still a principle of good fiscal prudence to understand the price of things. However, Budget 2023 with its high focus on redistribution, especially for those most vulnerable among us, shows that there are free lunches for those who need them.[+5 sentences] The second principle is: "You get what you pay for". Again, I quote her on that. Her example was on hospitals, and she said, “If you want the comfort and privacy of an "A" Class ward, well, you pay hotel prices.” This principle certainly holds for the upper end of the market, but increasingly, not for the lower, especially in this Budget. The Assurance Package, the increases in CPF housing grants and subsidies for the elderly, they all show that we are not slaves to the market and in fact, we are going quite far in the opposite direction. In large sectors of our economic life, in fact in the biggest ticket items, most Singaporeans get far more than what we pay for.[+9 sentences] I shall say more about these two principles in my cuts during the Committee of Supply on Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). The third principle, Prof Lee Tsao Yuan says, applies to the provision of three public goods – health, education and housing – and is that of progressive subsidisation. In this, I would like to say that this Budget shows clearly that the progressive element, both in our tax and subsidy, remains core to our financing philosophy. It is a political, not mere fiscal, commitment – one which goes to the provision of all Government spending, not just social spending. And this is because of political origins of the PAP Government, born of our socialist beginnings, that those who have the most should carry the heaviest tax burdens in order to benefit those who have the least. And in this, I would like to make a point about tax on cars and how we can improve our current COE system to make it even more progressive. There are cars which cost upwards of a $1 million – the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, and the McLarens; and even more exotic ones that could cost up to $6 million. The tax that they attract is certainly higher than those cars which cost say $100,000. But the price of the COE they pay, in the "open category", is the same. Can the Government consider a special category for such "super cars" such that the COE market is competitive within this special class?[+2 sentences] This will have little impact on the majority of Singaporeans, who own only one, and relatively moderately priced, car. In general, however, this year's Budget shows that the socialist heart of policy-making is still beating strong, from housing, to workers' welfare, to specific social groups. The fourth financing principle of the Government outlined by Prof Lee is that all Government revenues go into a consolidated revenue account, which is that the Government does not tie revenue to specific expenditure items. This principle remains, but since 1996, one major change is that the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) today accounts for the majority of our Government funding.[+14 sentences] This is possible only because of the judicious and careful husbandry of public funds and wise investments over the last 57 years. In these years, we have resisted over-spending, maintained a strong sense of self-reliance and continued giving all workers opportunities for training and progress. These were all ingredients of the current strong financial position that we are in today. How do we ensure that, with greater welfare provision, that the self-reliance and ambition of our pioneering years remain strong? First, it is important to keep our debates both vigorous and honest so that we know when and where subsidies are truly needed. Second, to keep opportunities open and plentiful for us all is by growing our Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which collectively provide the most number of jobs to Singaporeans. Yes, SMEs occupy a special place in my heart, which is why in the last Budget Debate, I also spoke about them, and today, I want to say a few things about them. Many of our SMEs are dealing with a myriad of challenges. There is added pressure all round as SMEs face higher operating costs, be it rental, energy, manpower, financing and so on. Vendors may also artificially increase prices, which can in turn negate the costs offsets by existing grants that SMEs have applied for. More specifically, it is the lack of manpower and challenges in hiring local workers that is worrying for many of them. SMEs with labour shortages are occupied with day-to-day operations, and constrained in planning for longer-term business transformation and digitalisation. Hiring local workers with relevant skillsets is made more difficult if the sector is unattractive to locals, for example, retail, F&B, manufacturing. As a result, SMEs in these sectors have called for an increase in foreign worker quotas or to relax the criteria to qualify for foreign worker quotas to ease their labour shortages. NTUC has called out to Government for enhanced support to offset these higher costs, to boost local hiring and productivity for our SMEs. We ask Government to enhance the level of and the range of support to companies to offset high operating costs and manpower challenges, step up productivity and digitalisation initiatives. Can the Government offer loans with lower interest rates and review eligibility criteria for grants, such as removing the 30% local shareholding requirement and to allow more SMEs to qualify for the Productivity Solutions Grant?[+1 sentence] We also ask for the Government to support SMEs in hiring local workers and their training efforts. Can we make upskilling a compulsory component in evaluating companies’ eligibility for tax relief, while providing complementary training grants for companies to send workers for training?[+5 sentences] Can we also increase avenues for companies to obtain local accreditation for specific skillsets and improve funding support? With a vibrant and strong SME sector, we will be able to ensure opportunities for all. We see more fully why this Budget is such a big step forward. These are three big ideas that form the bones of our new social compact, a greater distribution of welfare and duties among all of us who live on this tiny island, so as to ensure new and continued opportunities for us all, that we may achieve happiness, prosperity and progress as a nation. With this, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang)1925 words
[+14 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the Budget Statement made by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. Last year, amidst the challenge of COVID-19 and unprecedented economic conditions, my Budget Debate speech focused on maintaining fiscal discipline so that we can continue to build up our reserves for future generations. This year’s Budget seeks to strengthen our social compact including the needs of our Singaporean families and at the same time, ensure that our businesses and economy have the best springboard to progress, after COVID-19. Mr Speaker, I will make three general observations on the Budget: first, the continual need for fiscal discipline and ensuring there are no wastages; second, the importance of expanding our tax base and building back our reserves; and third, the support for our young families with children, which I will deliver in Malay. First, on fiscal discipline. We have to be prudent in spending. To quote Benjamin Franklin, "Beware of the little expenses. A little leak will sink a great ship". We must ensure that the help given out in Budget 2023 will be used and disbursed and efficiently to those who need help. For instance, I had recently filed a Parliamentary Question (PQ) on the process of appeals for CDC vouchers. As a grassroots advisor, I receive many appeals from Keat Hong residents on their entitlement to CDC vouchers. The reasons for appeal differ – for example, the vouchers had been redeemed by someone who is no longer residing in that household or by a tenant. While we want to help as many people as possible, I hope the Ministry of Finance (MOF) can work with the relevant ministries handling the implementation of the various measures such as the CDC vouchers or other schemes set out in this Budget to ensure the efficient use of our resources. In this regard, I had also previously asked a PQ on the findings of the AGO and the Public Accounts Committee on COVID-19 related procurement and expenditure. These expenses are necessary to our successful navigation through the pandemic. I thus welcome Deputy Prime Minister’s response that over half of the COVID-19 expenditure have been audited, and the remaining audits are ongoing and are expected to be completed by the end of financial year 2024.[+3 sentences] We must continue to steward public funds and guard our resources jealously. Next, on expanding our tax base by exploring alternative tax revenue streams and investments. In this regard, I have three humble suggestions. First, is the Government studying the feasibility of a capital gains tax for properties like HDB that have been sold at a huge profit?[+5 sentences] This is to ensure that the public property market does not spiral out of control. It is not to say that there can never be a profit but if the profit is so excessive and disproportionate to the current fair valuation or initial purchase price, then perhaps a portion of that profit can be considered a windfall. In the future, when more HDB BTOs are built in mature estates including prime or central areas, there is a high likelihood of such windfall profits. Some Keat Hong residents gave me feedback that a lucky applicant should not be enriched solely because of fortuitous BTO balloting. Second, perhaps the Government can also consider and study the feasibility of a windfall tax on companies that have benefited enormously from a particular situation. For instance, the UK introduced the Energy Profits Levy currently at 35% and the EU imposes a 33% levy on fossil fuel firms’ profits and revenues made on rising electricity costs.[+14 sentences] Recently, oil and gas companies in the UK posted record profits due to the energy prices hike fueled by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Shell reported profits of $39 billion in 2022, the highest in its 115-year history. BP made profits of $27 billion in the same year. Nevertheless, I do admit that such windfall tax is not a foolproof solution because companies are nimble and will relocate and restructure their profits and revenue streams accordingly to avoid such tax. For example, BP said that its UK businesses account for less than 10% of its global profits, while Shell makes about 5% of its revenue in the UK. Both firms argue they have also lost a lot of money as a result of stopping investments in Russian oil firms. My third suggestion is to explore alternative investment spaces to build up our reserves again. We cannot continue to tap on our reserves in the long term as this is not sustainable. With increasing spending, we will face bigger deficits in the future. Deputy Prime Minister said that it is unlikely that we will be able to put back what we drew from the reserves in the near future. In this regard, there is a great opportunity and synergy in the Islamic finance sector, in particular the Green Sukuk and ESG space. At this juncture, I declare that I am a legal practitioner in the Islamic finance space. While the global issuance of Sukuk marginally dropped in 2022, ESG Sukuk grew 35% year-on-year. Green and sustainability Sukuk have reached a new high, with demand driven by ESG-centric investors. Regionally we are in the middle of powerhouses in this space, Malaysia is the country leading the world in Sukuk issuance year on year with US$80 billion in 2022 and Indonesia, third globally, with US$22 billion.[+8 sentences] In the Philippines, recently the Department of Justice (DOJ) said the Department of Finance (DOF) is legally empowered to issue Shariah-compliant financing instruments like Sukuk to make the country appealing to Islamic investments. We should seriously look at all opportunities and how Singapore can be positioned in this unique space. Mr Deputy Speaker, the last part of my speech will be on one aspect that resonates with me most – support for young families. In Malay, please. (In Malay): On the issue of housing, I welcome the announcement in this Budget for more support in the form of grants and more balloting chances for young couples for BTO flats. The definition of "first-time" applicants for BTO flats may be broader now and comprises not only young couples who wish to purchase HDB flats, but many other groups. Therefore, we need to further tweak our BTO and HDB flat application process, to give young couples who wish to get married, the best opportunity to meet their housing needs. Based on feedback from Keat Hong residents, many young couples with children welcome the higher balloting chances for BTO flats and enhanced HDB housing grants. However, they feel that they are still competing with many other applicants from the other communities. Thus, I had suggested in an earlier Parliamentary Question to further refine the BTO balloting system based on needs and types of applications.[+8 sentences] For instance, there can be a phased or staged approach similar to Primary One school registration. Each phase can have a fixed quota for different groups, for instance, young couples, elderly and families with children. The final phase can be opened to everyone. This will ensure that there will be a diverse mix of residents in an estate and give young couples a equal and fair opportunity. In this regard, the Minister for National Development’s reply to my previous Parliamentary Question that, following the ForwardSG conversation, respondents mostly agree that we should prioritise first-timers who are looking to purchase their first home, especially for those with more urgent housing needs, such as first-timer couples who already have children but are without their own home, as well as lower-income families, who have fewer options in the open market. In addition, I welcome the pro baby initiatives such as the Enhanced Baby Bonus and the extension of the Baby Support Grant. This will likely help alleviate the costs and expenses related to raising a child. The CDA account promotes co-saving for a child’s future. However, the allowable expenses from the CDA is limited to certain education and healthcare costs. I propose that the Government perhaps can consider allowing CDA to be used for essential items like baby formula milk or diapers; which can be bought from authorised retailers.[+3 sentences] This will help lighten the financial burden of families. The Baby Bonus and BSG, which are given in cash, may not be sustainable for the long run. With the successful rollout of CDC Vouchers in digital format which are easy to use on mobile phones without the need to download an app, there is potential to extend targeted help to families with young children and based on the number of children in the household. In future, perhaps the Government can consider allocating a component of the Baby Bonus and BSG, in the form of a special CDC Voucher for households with young children of a certain age.[+4 sentences] This special voucher should only be used for expenses for their baby or for educational expenses. (In English): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, not everyone will be fully satisfied with the measures proposed and changes announced in this Budget. For example, the change in the Working Mother's Child Relief from a percentage to fixed dollar relief. Those with higher income will thus have a lower claim compared to a lower-income mother who can now claim a higher amount. One analyst said it translates to a lower claim for any working mother with an annual earned income of about $54,000 or more.[+17 sentences] Another change is the increase in tax rates in the form of buyer stamp duties for residential properties in excess of $1.5 million. In this market, many condominiums of a certain size which can accommodate a family of five can fetch higher than $1.5 million and so such buyers and families would be impacted. Personally, I do not think this is a "Robin Hood" Budget. No one is stealing from anyone. It is one in which everyone shares and gives a little for the other. Instead of focusing on what goodies we did not receive from this Budget, we should focus on what we have given instead, what we have given up for the sake of Singaporeans who are more in need in our society. The working mother who earns less should be helped more as this will impact her disposable income to spend on her children. The family who wants to live in a condominium and can afford it should pay a bit more in taxes, which would help subsidise the grants of public housing or rental flats for those who otherwise cannot even afford a roof over their heads. This is our social compact, where everyone pitches in to help raise the other. Our policies and ideals are always a work in progress, fine-tuned to adapt to our changing societal needs and global challenges. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, I welcome Deputy Prime Minister Wong's Budget Statement to help our workers and businesses and strengthen our social fabric through targeted support for our families and the vulnerable ones in our society. Pro-family measures will hopefully spur our young couples to settle down and build their own families. This time last year, I welcomed my fourth child. Parenting is both a joy and privilege. I understand that next year is the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon, which typically records the highest number of births. So, we have to wait for all the appeals for Primary 1 registration. But I hope with these measures, the years ahead will not only be productive for Singapore but also be reproductive for our fellow Singaporeans.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Hany Soh.
Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee)1886 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, I spoke at last November's Adjournment Motion on the topic of Celebrating SG Families, sharing the many views which I have gathered from my Woodgrove residents on how we can better support young parents to embrace parenthood through live, work and play. It is heartening to learn from this year's Budget that one emphasis is on building a Singapore Made for Families. At this juncture, I should first declare that I also fall under the category of a parent with young children. I have broadly categorised this year's Budget support for young couples into three categories: (a) helping young Singaporeans to realise their housing aspirations; (b) ensuring that their journey of raising children remains affordable; and (c) increasing the availability and flexibility of more support for childcare.[+1 sentence] Firstly, on the issue of housing, many young couples whom I have spoken with in Woodgrove appreciate the Government's effort to increase the support for first-timer families to purchase resale flats as these measures will ease their monthly housing loan repayment burdens of their first home. However, many feel that the support does not defray the existing issue, in that many young couples have opted out of resale flats as an option because the Cash Over Valuation (COV) component that is being insisted by many sellers in the open market. In many such situations, these amounts could end up in the region of about $30,000 to $50,000 or even more.[+8 sentences] Such COV amounts, unfortunately, cannot be covered by housing loans or CPF and must be paid for in cash, which young couples with limited savings are unable to afford. In this regard, would HDB be introducing any measures to curb the COV situation or could the relevant regulations be amended to allow housing loans or CPF monies to pay off the COV component? My second point is on the issue of affordability of raising children. In past school reunion gatherings, I often took the opportunity while catching up with my peers to find out why several of them are putting off the idea of having a child or having more than one child. Several whom I have spoken with shared that while they and their spouse aspire to have children, they are worried about the rising costs of raising a child in Singapore and thus have put off having children until they have achieved stability in their careers. The issue of financial safety is therefore constantly on the minds of would-be parents and the recent increases in the cost of living has also done little to ease these worries. Besides increased day-to-day expenses, the policy changes that affect household finances can also influence a family's decision to have children. As an example, the incoming changes to the Working Mother's Child Relief (WMCR) from a percentage-based calculation to a fixed sum has brought mixed feelings on the ground. While the WMCR adjustment comes as good news for working mothers in the lower-income group, for those earning more than $4,500 per month, this change will, in reality, reduce the amount of tax reliefs for them, with these reductions becoming more pronounced as their salary increases progressively.[+1 sentence] I am therefore concerned as to how this change will affect those who are under the sandwiched middle-income group. Under the newly adjusted WMCR, those who earn about $5,000 per month would experience a reduction of $1,000 in tax relief while mothers with a monthly salary of $8,000 will see their tax reliefs drastically cut by about $6,400.[+16 sentences] Considering the purpose of the WMCR, what were the considerations behind this change and to what extent was the impact on mothers from the middle-income brackets being taken into account? Although the increase in the Baby Bonus Cash Gift and the increased Government contribution to the CDA do promise to offer some financial assistance to defray child-raising costs, the impact of the decrease in the WMCR will impact working mothers on an annual recurring basis until either when her income decreases or when she is no longer eligible for such relief. I therefore hope that the Government can consider making a slight tweak to this policy, retaining the percentage and the fixed quantum, whichever is higher shall apply. Such an amendment will create a win-win situation by allowing lower-income working mothers to receive adequate tax deductions and motivate them to continue to remain in the workforce after having children and continue to pursue their future career aspirations. Under the current rules, new working mothers are allowed to share up to four out of 16 weeks of their allocated Maternity Leave with their spouses, which has allowed new families greater flexibility in infant care arrangements, with family bonding time. With the latest Budget announcement, fathers who are currently employed will have their paid Paternity Leave increased from two to four weeks. This is surely a welcome change as fathers are increasingly becoming more involved in the day-to-day upkeep and care of their newborn children. With that being said, are there plans to allow the sharing of Parental Leave to become even more flexible such as allowing couples more freedom to transfer their respective allotted leave days among themselves, be it Maternity or Paternity Leave? As each family situation is different, I believe that allowing this freedom will grant a net positive benefit for those expecting new members in their family. Over the years, Singapore's infrastructure has been consistently upgraded, with consideration towards greater convenience and accessibility requirements. Our public housing is one such example through HDB's various initiatives such as the Home Improvement Programme (HIP). During HIP, apart from improvements such as replacing the clothes drying rack, families with seniors can take the opportunity to opt in for Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) improvements, furnishing these older flats with safety features such as a slip-resistant treatment to floor tiles and grab bars in the bathrooms. On the same purpose that HIP is intended to update older flats with new features that make life easier for its inhabitants, some of these features to be introduced therein should therefore also look into how to benefit families with young children. This is so especially when we are now encouraging young couples to consider purchasing older resale flats in the open market. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that in times of weariness and difficulties, our homes remain as a haven as we work towards overcoming obstacles in life. For parents with young children, this means ensuring that their homes are well equipped to cope with the pressures of parenting along with the usual demands of work and household upkeep. One example is to introduce enhancements that make homes future ready, whether by allowing complimentary access to 5G networks that makes it easier to work from home and installing various child safety features such as window guards and slip-resistant flooring.[+1 sentence] As families begin to spend more time outdoors following the relaxation of COVID-19 protocols, there will be more demand for family-friendly features that allow for a more comfortable bonding experience. In recent years, apart from handicap parking lots, we have also begun to see more family-friendly parking lots in commercial malls. There has also been an increase in the availability of nursing and diaper changing facilities – thanks to BCA's Accessibility Fund grant.[+9 sentences] While I applaud the introduction of these facilities, it should be noted that most of them focus on meeting the minimal requirements, causing them to not meet the satisfaction of the users' overall experience. I spoke to Mr Phua Wee Seng of Rare Disorders Society Singapore on this issue recently. Wee Seng's teenage son suffers from a rare and life-threatening genetic disorder, which requires him to manoeuvre around on a special wheelchair. Wee Seng shared that many of the lifts and handicap toilets in the malls in Singapore are in fact too small and cramped, which has caused tasks such as the changing of diapers for his son to be of a great challenge. Our amenities and infrastructures will therefore need to be designed with the end users in mind. Say, a stay-at-home mother who has to take care of two young children and needs to bring them to the polyclinic for their occasional vaccinations, for example. Are there any family-friendly parking lots within close proximity to the polyclinic for someone like her? When it rains, is the route from the carpark to the polyclinic entirely sheltered and with barrier-free access? Besides providing more family-friendly amenities, we can also look into creating an express lane system for more locations catered towards senior citizens, people with mobility issues and families with young children. ICA has recently showcased its Special Assistance Lanes at various passenger halls in Changi Airport to enable travellers using wheelchairs and family groups of up to four persons to enjoy the convenience of automated immigration clearance.[+3 sentences] This is a good start and we should continue to explore introducing more efficient queue systems to places, including banks, community clubs and polyclinics, just like countries such as Japan have implemented. Workplaces also plays an important role in encouraging a more family-friendly culture. Many companies have since mandated a return to the office to increase productivity back to pre-COVID-19 levels, but this decision may not necessarily be welcomed by many of its employees, especially parents with infants, who have become used to the flexibility of remote working over the past couple of years. For companies to adopt the Tripartite Standard, there may be a need to formulate processes to ensure that Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) are properly adopted by them and that the arrangements are fair for both employers and employees within each company.[+8 sentences] It is important that employers and employees continue to have candid discussions amongst themselves to better understand each other's needs and concerns, with a view towards maximising productivity, while ensuring that the workers have sufficient work-life balance. A Singapore Made for Families will need a concerted effort from the whole-of-society in order to make it a reality, namely those from the 3Ps: People, Private and Public sectors. Only when everyone is aligned towards this common goal, with more empathy and understanding raised in this regard, will we be able to achieve it. A successful transformation to a Singapore Made for Families will be complete when we can answer the following questions in great confidence: When the childcare calls the working parent to inform that the child is sick, would the working parent be able to take urgent leave to pick up the child? Would the employer be understanding to allow the employee to continue to work from home for the next few days in order to take care of the child at the same time? Is the home deemed conducive, equipped with features ensuring that the working parent is able to cope with working from home and caring for the child? And when the parent sends the child, who has been running a high fever in the night, to the hospital's A&E or its Children's Urgent Care Clinic, would the premises have already looked into how to reduce the waiting time, and at the same time, trained their staff to provide adequate interim support to reduce the helpless parents' anxiety on the child's conditions? In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, notwithstanding my requests for clarifications and suggestions, I stand in support of the Budget.
[+8 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the Budget Statement. Over the last decade, we have seen the development of growing anxiety and erosion of trust between people and governments around the world. The combination of factors that lead to this varies across nations, but they can be grouped broadly into three different categories: First, factors that contribute to the middle-class squeeze, for example, wage stagnation, increased costs of goods and services, an over reliance of debt and tax bands that place a heavy weight on the middle-class. Second, disparity of access to resources and opportunities across different groups including overwhelming student debt burdens, hard choices between furthering education and earning to support the family, career opportunities being afforded via a network effect with little consideration for capability. And third, the increasing use of ideological differences in fanning the flames of identity politics, where competing ideologies turn into competing identities, which makes it increasingly difficult to achieve majority consensus for what is good for society. As a young nation which grew up fast, Singapore is not immune to the factors above. We are an open society with immigrant roots, reliant on trade and investment. The Government has historically managed the risk factors in these categories and continues to place an emphasis in tackling most of these issues in Budget 2023. Between 2012 and 2021, according to Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) data, the median gross annual income from work, including employer CPF contributions of full-time employed residents, grew from $41,760 to $56,160. In approximately the same time, data taken from the United States (US) census shows the median gross annual income from work to be at US$32,000 in 2012, compared to US$37,522 in 2021 – in Singapore, an increase of approximately $14,400 compared to $7,398 in the US.[+15 sentences] One of the factors that has helped wage growth continue to rise in Singapore is the Government's focus on upskilling and attracting investment. I applaud the top-up of the National Productivity Fund and expansion to include investment promotion as a supportable activity. And this will include supporting companies in their efforts of building new capabilities, adding greater value to domestic ecosystems and opportunities for better jobs for our workers as long as we remain hungry. Also, social mobility continues to be a cornerstone of society. While education systems are often touted as a great leveller, we must pay careful attention to how we create access, so as to also meet the needs of children from more disadvantaged households. A featured story by the World Bank in November 2021, cites research from India and Indonesia that is shedding new light on low intergenerational educational mobility, highlighting that education systems can entrench inequality, rather than combat it if designed poorly. I am heartened to hear that KidSTART will be expanded nationwide, coupled with efforts like ComLink and Project DIAN@M3, I hope that we can truly make a difference for the next generation. This Budget, the Government has laid out its commitment towards tackling cost of living and affordability issues, which are a part of every maturing economy. And the difficulty of this task is exacerbated by extenuating market conditions: a hawkish federal reserve combating inflation, disrupted supply chains, geopolitical uncertainties – all of which contribute towards price instability on goods and services. A wise friend once told me, we cannot attribute what we know from our unique experience to what we expect people to know. Seeking our people's understanding of the difficult decisions and trade-offs will not change the everyday reality that our morning kopi peng with eggs and kaya toast set has become more expensive, which is why I applaud the Government's efforts in the tangible development of the Assurance Package, and other schemes that seek to help a majority of citizens address these cost-of-living issues. We must continue to communicate these assurances concisely and clearly. Having said the above, even with the assistance provided, uncertain conditions create fertile ground for hopelessness and anxiety to take root. While we attempt to shield Singaporeans from economic headwinds, we must also invest in schemes and programmes that help our citizens achieve better resilience and mental well-being outcomes. Sir, we have to go beyond campaigns and taglines to truly consider the spectrum of needs in mental health support. The WHO reports that half the world's population are currently in work and 15% of working-age adults live with a mental disorder.[+1 sentence] Without effective support, mental disorders and other conditions can affect a person's confidence, identity, capacity to work productively and the ease with which to gain and retain work. Globally, 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety alone.[+32 sentences] Mental health conditions also impact families, carers, colleagues, communities and society at large. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that over the next few days in this House, we will make moves on this topic as well. For example, one possibility is the pilot of a mental well-being credit scheme that could incentivise companies to truly invest in the mental health of their workers. The framework for this credit scheme could be developed in partnership with tripartite partners, healthcare practitioners and the inter-agency task force on mental health and well-being. Such a scheme should focus on scoring a workplace's mental wellness protocols, instead of scoring employees, just to be clear. And this could provide us a base to develop better frameworks to facilitate the acceptance and integration of mental health as a part of our working culture. Investments that focus on emotional well-being, stability and diversity are also critical in tackling the issues that arise from competing ideologies. Achieving consensus in society is a Sisyphean task. Some people like the otters and roosters, others want them removed or do not care. Some are willing to bring their own bags to grocery shopping while others want more plastic bags to dispose of the waste. Some champion low-income workers and would pay more for services and goods, while others want to keep their cups of teh tarik to 90 cents. Some modern ideologies clash with beliefs which are rooted in tradition. Every decision requires careful deliberation, consultation, trade-offs and tough choices. Efforts like Forward Singapore help to bring dialogue to our people, encourage diverse voices to raise their views and allows people to have that tactile experience of conversing with someone who may not see the world the same way that they do. We are moving away from quiet tolerance and building the muscle of discourse. In this process, there will be growing pains. Stewarding a peaceful and fruitful exchange of ideas is a difficult, but necessary task to undertake before we can build bridges, in the spirit of our shared social compact. I look forward to hearing more from our 4G leadership on their takeaways from this exercise in due course. I recently had the chance to participate in a dialogue, in my capacity on the REACH Panel. It was a weekday after work and around 40 youths, between 20 and 32 had shown up to make friends in their neighbourhood, and to discuss what Vision 2050 Singapore might look like. As I listened to their thoughts, topics such as tech layoffs, support for healthcare workers, trading off some order for a little more "rough around the edges", upskilling and housing were all topics which came to the fore. But one of the most common thoughts were that, firstly, we were so very lucky to be where we are today and to have this foundation and we must not take it for granted. Singapore must continue to be that place where people see value in staying and are willing to protect each other and what we have. The Budget lays out and suggests what kind of future we want to see for Singaporeans. I would briefly touch on three groups. I have grown to know and love many elderly in my constituency. There is something about the way they take my hand and tell me to look after my health that never fails to fill my heart right up. During my house visits, I recently met one aunty in her 60s, who looked like she was in her 40s. I asked her to tell me her secret, and she told me: "哈哈大笑。有钱就吃多一点，没钱就吃少一点", or "Laugh and smile. If I have more, I eat more; if I have less, I eat less". We take life as it comes. Many of them continue to hold jobs too. For some, this is a way to keep actively engaged, but for others, it is a painful necessity to afford life. I am glad that the measures in the Budget around the continued employment of seniors, should they choose, are centred around ensuring that companies are incentivised to compensate workers fairly, as well as retirement adequacy. The CPF increase proposed in this Budget affects employer contributions as well and I understand that the Government has planned for an offset to assist companies in meeting this goal, as well as the senior employment credit. However, given that there are time limits to this, what more can be done on a societal level to prevent a drop off in hiring seniors when the credit and offset expires?[+1 sentence] Beyond the economic factors, I also hope we can improve the quality of life for our seniors, strengthening the family nucleus and caregiving. For example, for those who sell their homes and their parents' homes to consolidate into a multi-generational flat, I hope that we can relook the criteria of certain support schemes and caregiving subsidies dependent on flat type, to allow for elderly and their adult children to continue receiving help.[+25 sentences] For those who may not be as close to their children, that we can expand community care apartments and encourage society to step up as eyes and ears on the ground, so that our elderly feel supported, valued and that they matter. On our middle class, we allocate more resources to those who need it more. This principle is generally undisputed. But more and more, on the ground, we hear from people who may be just priced out of housing grants and schemes, but can ill afford a private home; older retirees who may be "asset rich" but cash poor; and those who care for their parents as well as their children amidst rising costs. Sir, I understand and support the Government's approach in stewarding resources towards ensuring that the people who need assistance the most remain the largest beneficiaries. As highlighted in the earlier part of my speech, wage growth continues on an upward trend and that is the best lever. Having said the above, there some young professionals who say half in jest: "Work hard so you have more money to actually buy a flat, but don't work so hard that you earn so much and you might bust the HDB income ceiling." Narratives like these may not apply to the majority of the population, but they can lead to a disheartened and disgruntled sandwiched middle class. I hope that the Government continues to engage this segment of Singaporeans. Third, our youths. Earlier on I spoke about some the youths I met about their vision of Singapore in 2050. One other point resonated consistently throughout the evening – is there more than one version of the Singapore dream? Are we too deep in hustle culture, primary one registration, being the first in the queue, growing reliant on incentives in order to do what is for the broader good, aiming for that elusive Built-to-Order (BTO) ballot number, to slow down? In our garden city State, can farming, working with wildlife, the social sector, heritage and the arts have space in this Singapore? Can a gap year while we figure out things be forgiven? Can there be second chances and a life beyond grades? What are the trade-offs? How can we fight for climate justice? How can this be a part of every child's upbringing, just as important as algebra? How can we live out what it truly takes to reach Net-zero so that there continues to be a green, blue and brown world for our next generation? A few words in Malay before I end. (In Malay): Prior to this Budget, some Cheng San-Seletar residents spoke to me about their concerns on the rising cost of living. They were also concerned whether they will be able to have adequate savings for retirement. With the announcement of Budget 2023 by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, I hope that this will in some way ease their concerns. I am very happy to see the Government's commitment to support the aspirations of young families. With support such as increased paternity leave, enhancement to the Baby Bonus Cash Gift (BBCG) and the Child Development Account (CDA), I hope fathers can also play a more active role in taking care, educating and raising their children. I also welcome the additional grants from the Government for those who want to buy resale flats. However, besides helping Singaporeans have a family and own their dream homes, I hope the Government would also extend its support to help family members working in the gig sector. I was glad to hear the recent announcement to improve the financial security of platform workers. I have met gig workers who prefer cash income that they can receive promptly while they are still young, but upon reaching their 30s, they realised they did not have enough savings and CPF to buy a home.[+5 sentences] Considering that the gig economy will be permanent, I look forward to hearing more details during the Committee of Supply (COS) debate. (In English): In closing Sir, I am looking forward to participating in this year's Committee of Supply debate. As Members of Parliament, we all feel the sentiments on the ground keenly, and know intimately the worries as we emerge from COVID-19 into an uncertain environment. I am glad that Budget 2023 focuses on moving forward together in a new era and appreciate many of the decisive measures we are making with our people. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Dr Wan Rizal.
Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar)1738 words
[+9 sentences]Mr Speaker, I rise in support of the Budget. In my speech last year, I gave an analogy that we were taking a roller coaster ride in the dark. We do not know where and when the twists and turns are, but we stayed united and trusted each another, and now, we are out of the tunnel and can anticipate the turns and the twists. And that is what this Budget is about. It is about knowing there is much global uncertainty, cost of living issues, an ageing population and the need to sustain social mobility. This Budget anticipates these issues and aims to navigate Singapore onwards in solidarity and unity in an ever-dynamic landscape. Sir, I want to thank our public service officers, especially our healthcare workers and educators, for their commitment and professionalism over the past three years. We must continue to support them by providing a better work-life balance. I have some suggestions. First, clear guidelines on work hours and designated times for disconnecting should be established.[+6 sentences] For teachers, a suggestion from the Singapore Teachers' Union (STU) is the introduction of a whitespace for marking, lesson planning, student guidance and counselling. This will allow the teacher some focused time to get some work done rather than doing it after school hours. A second suggestion by STU is the enhancement of effective communication channels between teachers and management. For example, how do we empower teachers and cultivate teacher agency, so that teachers can negotiate deployment such that win-win outcomes are achieved for the teacher and the school? Third, I am also aware of the abuse healthcare workers and teachers may encounter. I ask that we explore and provide practical ways to support and protect them. A zero-tolerance policy with clear protocols for handling such cases must be established.[+10 sentences] We must do more to say that if you harass or abuse our officers, there will be consequences. Sir, two areas in this year's Budget that resonate with me are providing opportunities for everyone to advance in life and strengthening our social compact. I will touch on these two broad areas: education and health. I welcome the announcement that that we will invest more in our children – to scale up the KidSTART programme nationwide to support more children in disadvantaged families. I note, however, that for children aged three to four years old residing in public rental flats, the preschool enrolment rate is lower than the national average. Residents have shared their challenges and I empathise. But I do believe that the mindset of preschool education must change. It is not just play. In early childhood education, children are provided with opportunities for deliberate play and exploration, allowing for social interaction and problem-solving skills beyond what books can offer. This is essential in their development. Perhaps it is time that we mandate compulsory education for preschool.[+3 sentences] This will underline a strong commitment to tackle inequality at the earliest juncture possible and ensure that every child can discover the joy of learning, exploration and play. Sir, in my maiden speech, I mentioned that I envisioned a future where specialised courses are curated in collaboration with industry partners, creating a symbiotic relationship between content and relevance and further supported by a robust apprenticeship approach. Thus, I am heartened that we will continue to invest in our people and the Jobs-Skills Integrator is an excellent initiative. To me, this is a game-changer because not all skills training will translate into good employment outcomes.[+29 sentences] This will plug the gap and ensure that training improves employment and earnings prospects. Additionally, if successful, it could be the building block as to how we address the issue of increasing income wage gap between non-graduates and graduates. I hope the pilot programme will succeed and we can extend this further to other industries. Going upstream, I hope such integrators can be embedded in our Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs). Apart from the main programme where our students may specialise in, flexibility could allow them to take up other modules of interest. These integrator-like modules could stack on top of their specialised course and this increases their employment opportunities and allows them to remain agile in a dynamic job space. Sir, although the Budget this year does not mention mental health directly, it is clear that many of the announcements will positively impact our mental health. For example, the enhancements to the GSTV scheme and Assurance Package will cushion the pressure of the cost of living. It covers not only the lower-income families but also the middle-income families and families that are much larger. This includes those with the elderly and children. For the lower-income individuals and seniors who face difficulties with their medical bills, the MediFund would go a long way in ensuring a safety net for them. But Sir, to me, the greatest positive impact is on families. A family, the bedrock of society, is our source of love, support and strength. I am heartened that in this Budget, the anxieties and concerns held by young families are addressed. First, supporting housing aspirations through the additional ballot for their BTO flat applications and the enhanced CPF housing grant. I know many of the young families welcome this. However, I also know that not all families are identical for various reasons and circumstances. For instance, more could be done to support single-parent households, who often face greater financial strain. I received feedback from a single mother who shared her concerns about raising three school-going children and aspired to own her own flat. She shared that she had no CPF as she was not working previously but currently holds a good job and wants to be self-reliant. Additionally, the Government could consider increasing support for families with children with disabilities or special needs. These families also face additional financial burdens due to the higher care and education costs. Collectively providing additional financial assistance and support services for these families would help ease their financial burden and improve their quality of life. The second concern is the cost of raising children. I know many of my younger married colleagues welcome the many related announcements. This includes the Baby Bonus. But beyond the monetary support, the support for parents to manage their work and family commitment is, in my opinion, the most impactful. Numerous studies have shown that the time spent with children is the best investment. While many factors contribute to a child's development and well-being, spending time with children has shown to have numerous positive outcomes. I spoke previously about the need for employers to be more compassionate to our workers and recognise that individuals' priorities vary at different stages of their lives and that work and life are interdependent but increasingly intertwined. Therefore, I am heartened that the Government will introduce the voluntary Tripartite Standard on Flexi-Work Arrangements and make these arrangements more pervasive.[+4 sentences] At the same time, I urge employers to review their mental wellness programmes and consider providing workers with a time-out where they can unwind, recharge and be free from work emails, texts, or calls. Sir, my final point is about workplace health. Recently, there has been an alarming number of workplace accidents. MOM and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) have made efforts to foster a workplace safety and health culture. However, more must be done to support workers to ensure workplace safety and health. I propose that the Government make it mandatory for every company to have a work-safety committee that includes a qualified union representative.[+10 sentences] These representatives know the ground well and they are familiar with the safety processes. The Government can incentivise companies to form these committees with union representatives through grants to foster work-safety culture and processes. Mr Speaker, in Malay, please. (In Malay): This year's Budget is a thoughtful and inclusive one. I support the Deputy Prime Minister's call to strengthen our social compact. In my English speech earlier, I touched on three issues: Comprehensive support for workers, Education and Health. Allow me to summarise. First, I urged that we provide more comprehensive support for workers, especially for healthcare sector workers and teachers. I called on the Government and employers to review workload and job scope to ensure quality work-life balance. These include setting clear guidelines on working hours and introducing WHITESPACE or time that is set aside specifically for workers to perform additional work or projects. As for education, I welcome the announcement to enhance the KidSTART programme nationwide.[+7 sentences] This move demonstrates a strong commitment to combat inequality as early as possible and ensures that every child is given the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Although this year's Budget did not directly mention mental health, it is clear that this Budget will have a positive impact on mental health. For example, improvements to the GSTV Scheme and Assurance Package will reduce cost of living pressures. It covers not only low-income families but also middle-income families and large households. For low-income individuals and senior citizens facing financial difficulties with their medical bills, MediFund will help and ensure that there is a safety net for them. For me, the biggest positive impact is on families. I am heartened that in this Budget, the concerns of young families can be addressed. First, by supporting housing aspirations through additional ballots for BTO flat applications and by increasing the CPF Housing Grant.[+9 sentences] Second, help for parents towards the cost of raising children, and support to manage work and family commitments. I hope that young families will take advantage of the support and grants provided. I believe that, through this Budget, Singapore will emerge stronger in our effort to move forward in the new era. (In English): Mr Deputy Speaker, in conclusion, the Budget is well-balanced and a well-conceived plan that addresses the country's immediate needs while investing in the future. The focus on enhancing social safety nets, promoting economic growth and investing in the future will benefit Singaporeans from all walks of life. The support for vulnerable groups, particularly in the areas of education, young families and the elderly, is a testament to the Government's commitment in creating a more equitable and caring society. These measures will go a long way in reducing income inequality, improving access to healthcareand providing a more supportive environment for families. Overall, the Budget is a positive step forward in the new era. Mr Deputy Speaker, I support the Budget.
Mr Deputy Speaker11 words
[+1 sentence]Leader of the Opposition, you have a clarification for a Member?
Mr Pritam Singh18 words
[+2 sentences]No, Mr Deputy Speaker. Just a small technical clarification in my speech which I would like to clarify.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Your speech earlier today?
Mr Pritam Singh145 words
[+1 sentence]That is right, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. In my speech, I mentioned at the part on retirement adequacy, that the contribution of a member's Ordinary Account drops to 21% when a member returns 36 years of age and is gradually reduced in five-year intervals to reach only 12% when a member returns 56. I got these figures from the latest CPF Annual Report which was tabled to Parliament on 27 June last year. It has been brought to my attention that in 2022 and 2023, the CPF allocation ratios actually have changed slightly. So, I think it is important that I put that on the record, and that the figures that I quoted were in reference to the Annual Report of the CPF of 2021.[+1 sentence] But it still does not change my fundamental point which was to re-allocate early on in a member's working life.
Mr Deputy Speaker11 words
[+1 sentence]So, it is a clarification in relation to your own speech.
Mr Pritam Singh3 words
[+1 sentence]That is correct.
Mr Deputy Speaker7 words
[+1 sentence]That you want to put on record.
Mr Pritam Singh6 words
[+1 sentence]That is correct, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Louis Ng.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon)2431 words
[+21 sentences]Sir, nurses are there for us in good times and bad times and I have seen first-hand the lifesaving work that nurses do for us. There were there with me when my first child Ella was born, celebrating with us as we welcomed Ella into our lives. There were there with me when I said goodbye to my dad. I remember the nurse crying together with us as they processed the terminal discharge so we could fulfill my dad's wish of passing on at home. Part of me was surprised that the nurse was crying. I thought they would be used to seeing patients come and go. But the nurses truly cared for daddy. He could not have been better cared for and I am very grateful for the nurses at SGH who made his final days more comfortable. And nurses were there with me when we welcomed my twins Katie and Poppy into the world almost exactly six years ago. Actually, tomorrow, it is their birthday. It was both a happy and extremely worrying time as Katie and Poppy were born premature and spent 10 weeks at the Neonatal ICU (NICU) and High Dependency Ward at SGH. Doctors and nurses there saved their lives. As I shared in my Adjournment Motion in 2017, "it was surreal sitting at the NICU, doing kangaroo care with my baby, singing to her while watching the mayhem in NICU. Watching the staff handle a never-ending arrival of pre-term babies and a never-ending chorus of alarm bells as babies stop breathing. The staff members handle each situation so professionally, so meticulously and with so much tender loving care." I do not think we can thank nurses enough for the work they do for all of us. Sir, in this year's Budget Statement, Deputy Prime Minister shared, "through our collective effort, we have found our way through this pandemic." One group of workers who played an outsized role in helping Singapore find its way through the pandemic is our healthcare workers. I sincerely thank all of our healthcare workers – our nurses, doctors, therapists, pharmacists, TCM physicians, allied healthcare professionals and many, many more. Today, I will focus my speech on nurses who form the largest proportion of our healthcare workforce. The reality is that, as most Singaporeans are celebrating the move to DORSCON Green, nurses would not have the chance to celebrate. Their workloads are heavy, their shifts are long and they get little time to rest. So many nurses have shared with me that nurses are resigning en masse. Attrition rates have gone up and I know the Government is aware of this problem. I am glad that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has been reviewing the salaries and allowances of nurses and also announced a 2022 Nurse Special Payment package. These increases in pay are welcomed but do not go far enough.[+38 sentences] Emily, a nurse, told me, "There is not enough trained people to handle the cases. Everyone is exhausted from the lack of staff, resignation rates. I have recently been attached to a few different hospitals and I see the same issue everywhere. Patient's safety is compromised and nurses are just burnt out. We are thankful that the Government has been increasing our pay and giving us special payments. But what I really, really want is more quality time with my family. Better shifts, better working hours." I spoke with nurses across multiple dialogues last year and this year and collected their ideas in a public survey of 173 nurses. Based on these consultations, I will raise three recommendations today: first, protect rest time for nurses between shifts; second, protect rest time for nurses during shifts; and third, provide more ancillary support staff for nurses. My first recommendation is that we ensure that nurses have protected rest time between shifts. The first problem is that nurses often stay on average one to two hours after every shift to ensure that their work is complete. Working overtime is not uncommon. But for nurses on shift work with irregular hours, working overtime means that they lose precious hours of rest between shifts. The second problem is that nurses often do a morning shift (AM) which starts at 8 am immediately after doing an afternoon shift (PM) the day before which ended at about 10 pm. Some do this on consecutive days, so PM, AM, PM, AM and they call this the PAPA shift. They often get home at midnight, sleep for a short while before they wake up to prepare for the AM shift, which again starts at 8 am. Some nurses have shared with me that they work such punishing shifts almost every week or every other week. One nurse shared with me, "As I am typing this message now, I am in the train, on my way back home. Will be doing morning shift tomorrow and that would mean about five hours of rest for me before my day starts again." Constantly working overtime and four, five hours of sleep – how can that be enough sleep? We already know insufficient rest is dangerous. That is why we have regulations in other industries setting basic requirements to manage fatigue. For example, we require flight crew members to get an equivalent amount of rest when they work 10 to 16 hours. If they work any longer, they must get at least 24 hours of rest. Can our nurses get the same level of protection as our air stewardess and stewards? Many studies have been done on the importance of fatigue management in healthcare. A 2019 meta-study on fatigue in healthcare found that it increases error rates, slows reaction times, increases likelihood of accidents and injuries, and reduces motivation. This is not just about nurse well-being but also about patient-safety. Our nurses have to make life and death decisions on every shift. The Government cannot just leave this to the hospitals to manage and decide on their own. Fatigue affects the well-being of nurses and the health outcomes of patients. Will the Government look into regulations to address nurses' fatigue instead of leaving again these matters to hospitals to decide on their own? This will also not be new for the Government. The Government has introduced regulations for the airline industry. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM)'s Workplace Safety and Health Council also has guidelines on fatigue management. My second point is on protected rest time for nurses during their shifts. While they usually have a one-hour rest of rest time, many nurses have shared with me that they simply do not have enough manpower to rest for a full hour. So, they do not enough rest between shifts and even during shifts. One nurse shared with me, "It is not uncommon for nurses to not have enough time to have toilet breaks because of the amount of things that come to us during the shift." Of the nurses I surveyed, 90% shared that it is common for them to have to continue working during their rest break.[+18 sentences] They shared that they have to do so because of patient needs and administrative work. Emily, the nurse, shared with me a day of work for nurses in her ward, "one junior takes care of and showers 16 patients. At the same time, we have to make sure they get their breakfast and lunch, while checking their vital signs twice per shift or according to their doctors' orders. We have to make sure every intake or output – drains, urine, motions – of every single patient is charted and diapers are changed." She continues, "The nurse in charge will have to serve the medication. It is very common for patients to have more than 10 medications, be it IV, oral, pre-meals and post-meals. There are different timings for patients. We have to follow doctors' rounds, carry out orders, and make sure that the physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist and medical social worker have seen our patients. We have to do dressings and help the junior out." At the end she said, "we hope we get to finish our report before the next shift comes so that we get to go home on time." I was exhausted just from reading that. MOH has shared that it is working closely with public healthcare institutions to shore up recruitment, for both local and foreign staff. However, time is needed to recruit and train nurses. Meanwhile, our nurses are on the brink of burn-out. Concurrent with recruitment efforts for nurses, will the Ministry work with hospitals to ensure that the rest time of nurses during their shifts are protected? I understand that current realities of nursing means that there has to be some flexibility around rest times. But we must mandate some level of protection of rest. Sir, I understand that the lack of adequate rest for nurses that I have raised is rooted in a lack of manpower which MOH is already looking into. Of the nurses surveyed, nearly 80% felt that they were not able to focus on clinical care because of administrative duties that were much heavier than necessary.[+2 sentences] MOH is already looking into recruiting healthcare ancillary staff for non-clinical duties. But beyond non-clinical administrative duties, patients and next-of-kin also demand customer service from nurses. Seventy-seven percent of nurses surveyed felt that they cannot focus on clinical work because too much time is spent on providing customer service to patients.[+9 sentences] One nurse commented that patients and families "want us to clean their surroundings for them, want us to heat up their food and water and even collect their food delivery orders." Another nurse said, "Sometimes patients and relatives will tend to request for nurses to do unreasonable things like washing their underwear, buying food for them, fixing their spoiled charger/handphone. Even as simple as changing the channel of the TV, they will ask nurses to do it for them. Sometimes, patients and relatives treat nurses as their personal helper." I understand that patients who are unwell and next-of-kin who are stressed understandably look to nurses for support. But the kind of customer service demanded by some patients and next-of-kin is a misuse of invaluable time and expertise of nurses who are already overworked. Yes, we can do a public education campaign on this, but nurses need us to do much more to help them. Nurses shared with me that they appreciated the 900 Singapore Airlines cabin crew who were redeployed as Care Ambassadors during the height of COVID-19. These Care Ambassadors worked with nurses and doctors on non-clinical nursing tasks. More than 70% of nurses shared that the Care Ambassadors were helpful or very helpful in allowing them to focus on clinical care for patients.[+17 sentences] A nurse said, "The Care Ambassador helped to offload some of the non-nursing work and allowed nurses to be more focused on caring for sick patients who need more attention. The Care Ambassador was able to spend time talking to patients, allay their anxiety and make them feel supported." MOH has recognised that Care Ambassadors' service and communication instincts helped to alleviate the manpower tightness in healthcare institutions during the pandemic, allowing again nurses to focus on more complex clinical and care-related work. Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) has been working with SIA to train KTPH's new Patient Care Officers, a new role inspired by the Care Ambassadors. I hope MOH will consider studying and expanding KTPH's Patient Care Officers programme to other public hospitals. This will relieve the workload of nurses, enable them to deliver better patient care and ultimately reduce the attrition rate. Finally, as we hire more support staff, the current one nurse to four to five patient ratio must be enforced. Many nurses were upset when we shared in this House that "The typical nurse-to-bed ratio for general wards in public acute hospitals is one nurse for every four or five beds." The reality on the ground is far, far from this typical ratio that MOH shared. Nurses stressed to me that we should also ensure that the hiring of more ancillary healthcare workers or even Patient Care Officers should not affect the nurse-to-patient ratios. They need more nurses, not less. Sir, let me conclude. It is good news that MOH has acknowledged the manpower needs in the nursing industry and is working on recruitment. However, concurrent with shoring up recruitment, let us retain those already in the profession. To retain nurses, we of course have to ensure that salaries are competitive. But we must also go beyond the monetary. The need for more rest is the recurring cry for help that I hear from nurses. Can we help our nurses have more rest by mandating protected rest time between shifts, providing strong protections for rest time during shifts, and hiring more support staff, including ancillary care staff and Patient Care Officers?[+5 sentences] Nurses care for us and those who are dear to us. But the burden of that care is now too heavy for them. As one shared, "Our health and our relationship with our families are compromised. We are taking care of people when we can’t even take good care of ourselves and our family." I have been struck by how many nurses I talked to spoke of their love for the profession and their desire to serve, even as they talked about how exhausted they are. Another nurse told me, "We are called back for overtime when staff is down, when we don’t go to work because we are tired, the management counts the number of times and mentions it in our appraisal for not being a team player and marks us down for it.[+2 sentences] These are just sad realities. We end up feeling burnt out and essentially hating the very job that we started loving. People leave because they see no end to this dark tunnel." I hope MOH can provide nurses with some light at the end of this dark tunnel and look into the three recommendations I have raised on their behalf.[+1 sentence] Sir, during the pandemic, we clapped for our nurses as part of the Clap for #SGUnited campaign, to show appreciation for those on the front lines of the fight against the pandemic. As we transition out of the pandemic, the workload of nurses has not eased and they continue to be on the frontline when it comes to our health.[+1 sentence] There are there for us in good times and bad times and we need to be there for them now, to protect them and help them when they need us the most.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Darryl David.
Mr Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio)1718 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the past three years, the cost of living has risen sharply and universally due to COVID-19 and the Russo-Ukraine conflict creating disruptions in production and in the supply chain. Singapore has registered a steady increase in core inflation throughout 2022, hitting almost a 14-year high in September with 5.3%.[+1 sentence] Inflation in food and services have also increased steadily, hitting 7.5% and 3.7% respectively in December 2022. Overall, core inflation for 2022 stood at 4.1% and headline inflation was at 6.1% – a significant increase from 2021 and before.[+2 sentences] This has clearly had an impact on many Singaporeans and their families. Interestingly, during the same period, we saw more super-rich families setting up family offices in Singapore to manage their wealth. At the end of 2022, Singapore had almost 700 family offices.[+19 sentences] This is almost double that of 2020. The number of ultra-high net worth individuals, defined as individuals with at least US$30 million in investible assets, grew 8.6%, reaching 4,206 individuals in 2021, amongst which 28 are billionaires. The number of ultra-high net worth individuals in Singapore is projected to increase to about 6,000 by 2026. Mr Deputy Speaker, I understand the need for these individuals and their funds here in Singapore. But taken together, one cannot help but express concern if our society will eventually become more stratified with the existence of two perceived "Singapores" – a Singapore that caters to the lifestyle and consumption demands of the wealthy and ultra-high net worth individuals; and another "Singapore" for everyone else. Such perceptions are potentially divisive and might fracture the social compact that the Government has painstakingly built with Singaporeans over generations. Much of this perception perhaps comes from the ostentatious display of wealth by these ultra-high net worth individuals. While I believe that one should not hold anyone's wealth against them and each individual should be free to spend their money as they wish, I can also understand why conspicuous displays of wealth would not be well-received by many and could even lead to unhappiness and frustration and resentment amongst others. I believe this is a risk that the present Government is aware of and this year's Budget sends a signal on how the wealthy can, and should, contribute more to our nation building. The increase in consumption-based taxes such as higher Buyer’s Stamp and Additional Conveyance Duties for Buyers of higher-value properties and higher marginal Additional Registration Fee for higher-end luxury cars will potentially increase the tax base from which the Government can affect social transfers from those who can afford it to those who need more help and support. This approach is a balanced and fair one since a consumption-based tax that targets luxury consumption does not significantly alter Singapore's competitive corporate and personal income tax because these taxes kick in only when one purchases high-end luxury properties and cars. Ultimately, the increase in consumption tax of these high-end luxury properties is unlikely to dampen the demands for them since they can be considered as Veblen goods, that is, the increase in tax might actually drive up the demand for such products as they are now regarded to be even more exclusive. This further increases the amount of tax that the Government can draw when the wealthy and ultra-high net worth individuals purchase them. From those who have more to those who need more. I am personally heartened to know that the Singapore Government, has through this Budget, further strengthened its commitment to support the majority of Singaporeans, especially those who need an additional leg up. The Enhanced GST Vouchers and the various support payouts under the Assurance Package will help to cushion some of the impact of the rising cost of living. While we can never fully mitigate the impact of the rising cost of living, especially when many of the factors that drive costs up are external to our shores, what we can do is to minimise or assuage the impact of the increased costs by providing targeted assistance. I hope that the Government will continue to support the more vulnerable communities through direct assistance such as CDC vouchers and GSTVs, and also strengthen short term assistance such as ComCare vouchers and financial assistance through the Social Services Offices. I would now like to speak about enhancing the roles of fathers and men in families. As a father, I am heartened to learn that the Government has recommended an extension of paid paternity leave from the current mandated two weeks to four weeks.[+12 sentences] While the extension is presently still voluntary, this is nonetheless a step in the right direction. At present, pro-family measures are mostly targeted at women, specifically, with tax incentives and support schemes for working mothers. In comparison, there are fewer schemes in place to encourage men and fathers to play a more active role in their families and in parenting. I would thus hope to see if more measures could be rolled out to support and enhance the role that men and fathers could play in their families over the course of their children's lives. I would also like to ask if the Government can consider restructuring the present childcare leave structure so that parents are entitled to tiered childcare leave until their children turn 18. At present, parents are entitled to six days of paid childcare leave until their youngest child turns seven years old. The first three days of leave are paid by employers, with the remaining three days paid by the Government, subjected to a cap of $500 per day including CPF contributions. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the current childcare leave structure hinges on the assumption that children below the age of seven are more likely to require additional attention from their parents. I feel that we need to revisit this assumption. Any parent would tell you that a child above the age of seven requires differentiated, but no less attention, as children below the age of seven. As parents, we want to be there for our children, and with our children when they celebrate major life events and milestones, or simply just to spend time with them as they journey through life. Speaking as a parent of a 15- and 12-year-old, I can tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and you might agree with me, that the journey only gets more challenging and intense after the age of seven. As such, I would like to suggest that the Government consider providing at least three days of paid childcare leave for parents until their children turn 18 years old.[+17 sentences] I have also spoken before about the platforms to support the mental health and well-being of men in one of my previous speeches. Making the same point, I hope that the Government can also better support men in their fatherhood journey and to enhance their roles as caregivers to complement the roles played by mothers. Women are still naturally associated with being maternal and nurturing – terms that are still not naturally associated with men. These perceptions are quite gender stereotypical and frankly, might actually be unfairly burdening women and mothers with more societal responsibilities and expectations. Can we not do more to encourage fathers to play a larger role in nurturing their children, being there for their families? Can MOE and MSF consider partnering NGOs like Dads for Life to conduct more workshops for fathers on parenting? Similarly, can MOM consider how it could work with corporations and companies to support fathers? At present, more support could be given to fathers at work. Many companies have initiatives that celebrate motherhood and have HR schemes such as flexible work scheme or part time work arrangements for working mothers. Can we not do the same for fathers? For instance, can fathers take on part time work arrangements without having to fear that such arrangements would be held against them, thus allowing fathers to play a more effective familial role without sacrificing their careers? In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to touch on a final point on support for public housing. While a significant portion of this Budget is focused on providing near term support, other measures such as parenting and pro-family measures are longer term focused. One of the most crucial lynchpins to promoting parenting and pro-family measures is of course, public housing. Public housing matters have been hotly debated in this House at the recent parliamentary sessions, mostly debating on the affordability of HDB flats for young Singaporeans who wish to own their first flat. Let us not also forget that there is another group of Singaporeans who also deserve housing support – mid-age Singaporeans with children. I hope that the Government does not forget this group and would like the Government to consider enhancing housing support for them, especially if they would like to purchase a resale flat in a mature estate to live close to their parents so they can form that extended, larger, familial support network. In this regard, it is not just about getting support from their elderly parents to help with their own young children, but rather also to facilitating and supporting, helping their own elderly parents while managing their own young children. I hope that the Government will consider granting families with children a percentage-based grant based on the price of a resale flat if they wish to purchase a flat in a matured estate as opposed to an absolute grant as presently structured. A percentage-based grant will make resale housing more relatively affordable in mature estates and care more accessible for such families. It also would be a more equitable distribution of grants that are needs-based rather than one that is a standard amount.[+3 sentences] Of course, caveats must be put in place to ensure that this system is not abused by those who choose mature estates for their own personal preferences albeit no familial ties in the estates. However, we must recognise that there also those whose elderly parents are living in mature estates where the prices of resale flats are high – what can we do to better support these buyers of resale flats in their desire to build and develop an extended family nucleus? Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, my clarifications and suggestions notwithstanding, I conclude my speech in firm support of the Budget.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Joan Pereira.
Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar)947 words
[+29 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the last three years had been tough for our people but we are finally riding out this storm. The full force of the crisis had been mitigated by decades of careful savings and implementation of sound measures. Thus, we all have to do our best to save where we can. This is necessary to prepare for potential future crises, whether they are triggered by geopolitical tensions, extreme weather conditions or any other causes. Most importantly, we must stay united as a people. It is our unity which has enabled us to overcome the crisis together. On the ground, many individuals and groups had come together to help those most badly hit by the pandemic. One of the first COVID-19 clusters was in my constituency in Henderson-Dawson. More specifically, it was at Bukit Merah View. Quite a few residents had to be quarantined, leaving young children and the elderly at home. My community centre coordinated home care, delivery of food and necessities to these households. I was heartened by organisations, volunteers, residents and grassroots leaders who stepped forward to help. There were also residents who donated money to their favourite hawkers whose livelihoods were hit hard by the COVID-19 restrictions. Youth and children pitched in, drawing cards to comfort those in hospitals who could not receive visitors. How can we keep these relationships and networks warm so that we can tap on them should another crisis strike? Or rather, without the sensational nature of a crisis, how can we encourage more of us in the community to offer just that little bit of additional help and support to each other and lessen the burden together? As expected, during a Budget debate, there will be many ideas put forth on how we can provide more support to Singaporeans and inevitably, that would mean we have to spend more. However, as fellow Singaporeans, we can all play our part to make this country a better place – and every little bit of effort counts. If everyone can chip in just a bit more in their own way, be it to look out for each other or to lend a helping hand and with some creativity, I am very sure we can bring about a better Singapore for all. In addition to asking each other how much you are getting from this year's Budget, can we also ask ourselves how we can do more to look after our families, our friends, our neighbours and our fellow Singaporeans? The COVID-19 cluster incident in my constituency proves that indeed, we have many willing helping hands in our community. What is needed is for all the stakeholders in an estate, in a community to be familiar with what to do in emergencies. How can we set up and maintain crisis activation centres and keep the relationships among stakeholders, including residents, grassroots leaders, community organisations, places of worship and more, warm through regular bonding and training programmes? We need more than Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for emergencies like fires, floods, power failures and such. When the representatives on the ground know one another, can put a face to a name, the effectiveness of crisis management will be higher, and in some emergencies, every minute counts. In countries like Japan, where they are constantly threatened by earthquakes, regular drills with high participation rates are the norm. Beyond emergency preparedness exercises, our residents should know what to do when there is a fire, power or communications failure, flooding or more dramatic scenarios such as bomb threats or someone with a weapon on the loose. We must co-create solutions in preparation for such threats. The Government cannot do this alone. Thus, I was heartened to learn about the pilot Total Defence Community Table-top exercises where residents presented their suggestions on how to prepare for future crises. I support the decision to scale up this exercise so that more communities can participate as part of the SGSecure programme. Indeed, during times of peace, we need to practise and ensure that we are familiar with the essentials of coping in emergencies and life-saving skills. I urge the Government to enhance the funding, support and resource allocation for crisis preparation among its agencies and on the ground. It is time for SGSecure to go beyond the threat of terrorism and to mean more than "Run, Hide, Tell" to our people. I hope that we can gather at least half of all Singaporeans to step forward to be trained in first aid, CPR, basic firefighting and other critical life-saving skills and to start training our younger generation in all these skills as well.[+4 sentences] Sir, in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): I urge the Government to enhance the funding, support and resource allocation for crisis preparation amongst its agencies and on the ground. It is time for SGSecure to go beyond the threat of terrorism, and to mean more than "Run, Hide, Tell" to our people. I hope that we can gather at least half of all Singaporeans to step forward to be trained in things like First Aid, CPR, basic firefighting and other critical life-saving skills, and to start training our younger generation in all these skills as well. (In English): As a multiracial, multi-religious society, we need to be extra vigilant to guard against attempts to strike at the fault lines in our society and to destabilise our community.[+2 sentences] It takes time and effort to understand and nurture bonds among people with different backgrounds, gradually building mutual trust and solidarity. Unity is only possible with these bonds and a willingness to place the interests of community above self, with the stronger helping the weaker.
[+10 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of this year's Budget. It is assuring that quite a few pressing issues have been addressed by this Budget. Today, I would like to speak on two topics. The first, is how to provide greater support for our small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the second, is on assistance for special needs Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students from disadvantaged families. Our SMEs contribute to almost half of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employ at least two-thirds of our Singaporean workforce, playing a crucial role in our economy. They need supportive measures to ensure their growth and sustainability in an increasingly competitive business environment. Presently, businesses face logistics problems as supply chains remain disrupted amidst increasing geopolitical tensions. They also must deal with rising wage bills as there is a shortage of skilled manpower. The rising cost of business operations puts an enormous strain on their cashflows. I am grateful for the various policies and schemes which the Government has implemented to assist them. The new Enterprise Innovation Scheme, the top-up of $150 million for the SME Co-Investment Fund, $4 billion for the National Productivity Fund and $1 billion for the Singapore Global Enterprises initiative, amongst others, are greatly welcomed.[+1 sentence] The Government is also investing in the creation of innovation hubs, such as the Jurong Innovation District, to promote collaboration among companies, technology and education providers as well as research centres. What are the aims or KPIs of the new Enterprise Innovation Scheme?[+27 sentences] Is it to produce a certain number of unicorns by a certain timeline? How soon do these SMEs receive the grants or reimbursement from the time they submit their applications? I would like to appeal for more assistance for SMEs applying for Government assistance, subsidies or grants because some struggle to understand suitable solutions for their business needs and complicated application procedures. Sometimes, the application process takes too long and they may not receive the subsidies in time to meet their operation cashflows. Some commerce and trade associations assist SMEs with their applications for Government schemes and support measures too. The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) may consider boosting financial support for chambers of commerce and business associations to better assist SMEs in this respect. I understand that business consultants promote these Government schemes to their SMEs and their earnings are predicated on the loan amount approved or the amount of grant received. Therefore, if the application cycle is too long for a particular scheme, it is less likely that a business consultant would promote this scheme to his or her clients. I also urge our Government agencies and Government-linked companies to support our SMEs by providing more business to them so as to benefit almost 70% of the Singaporean workforce indirectly. For example, the Government can divide big projects into smaller contracts, allowing SMEs to compete with one another to undertake such projects. The winners will be able to establish reliable business channels and prove their performance abilities and competence to Government agencies, going on to achieve growth, expand their scale and develop to a size big enough to compete with foreign companies and compete for larger Government projects. Mr Speaker, Sir, in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): In terms of funding and resource support, the Government may wish to consider providing more support to SMEs that are already established and connected to our local networks, before considering whether it should support their overseas ventures. Our local companies should develop an ecosystem comprising SMEs and local large companies (LLCs) to market their products and services as a team to multinational companies or when expanding to overseas markets. Within this local network, our companies can share information on customers, other companies, industries and the economy, as well as services such as legal and translation services. It is more cost effective. There is also room for further collaboration between our businesses and our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and research centres. This type of team strategy had been used effectively by companies from countries such as Japan and Israel. We can start from the 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs). (In English): As for the problem with manpower constraints, would the Government consider reviewing the foreign worker work permit quota? Some SMEs argue that the quota is too low and does not reflect their actual labour needs. As a result, they are unable to hire enough workers to meet their operation needs and are struggling to remain competitive. All these quotas are being taken up despite the high price of foreign workers levies. Does that mean that the quota system is not working as desired? One of the major expenses for businesses is the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) for vehicles. The cost of obtaining a COE can be significant, especially for larger vehicles like vans that are used for commercial purposes. In addition, businesses must also pay for vehicle registration fees, road taxes and maintenance costs. The COE of a van is $87,000 currently. Can we have a separate category for commercial vans and provide grants to these companies so that end consumers can pay lesser?[+4 sentences] How about establishing an Alliance-for-Action involving Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Enterprise Singapore (ESG), Land Transport Authority (LTA) and companies like supermarket chains so as to explore the possibility of operating a fleet of commercial vehicles like vans and trucks 24 hours a day? This is to minimise lull time and mitigate the shortage of heavy vehicles carpark. Can MOM issue more work passes to businesses like confectionaries, supermarket chain, essential services providers whose operations can function overnight? By doing so, our businesses can employ more foreign workers to overcome manpower shortages for roles which Singaporeans will not take up and as a result, the businesses' productivity will improve. Generally, electric commercial vehicles may have a higher upfront cost compared to their conventional counterparts, but they offer lower operating costs, reduced maintenance expenses and environmental benefits.[+4 sentences] I spoke with a few SMEs owners who own diesel-fuelled buses and trucks. Besides the high upfront cost, they also need to upgrade their substation which requires another sum of capital expenditure. Can the Government look into this aspect? Next, I would like to advocate for special needs students from disadvantaged families while studying in ITEs. I declare that I am the advisor of the Union of ITE Training Staff. I hope the Ministry of Education (MOE) can give more resources to the ITEs so that it can start to recruit teaching assistants like what the other public schools are already doing currently.[+5 sentences] With more teaching staff, the lecturers will be able to provide more individual attention to students and customise their teaching to the specific needs of each student. Significant progress in providing support and services for students with special education needs (SEN) has been made. I applaud that. However, may I suggest the following for further improvement? Would the Government consider targeted public education campaigns, community outreach and increase the visibility of special needs students in mainstream settings to raise public awareness and understanding of special education needs to reduce stigma and gain acceptance? Like Healthier SG, can MOE tap on private sector psychiatrists and psychologists so that deserving students can receive diagnosis quickly?[+4 sentences] I was informed that the current waiting time to be seen by Institute of Mental Health (IMH) or other restructured hospital can be long. Proper assistance can only be rendered towards the special education needs students who have been diagnosed formally. There is also a need to expand support services, such as therapy, counselling and mental health services to meet the diverse needs of these students. This could include increasing funding for services, expanding the pool of qualified professionals and increasing the availability of assistive technologies. More funding is required to develop more specialised programmes for students with different disabilities, including autism, visual and hearing impairments, and learning difficulties.[+9 sentences] These programmes can be tailored to meet the individual needs of students and provide them with the necessary skills to join the workforce. I would like to request for more training for teachers to better support students with special education needs. This could include providing ongoing professional development opportunities and creating specialised training programmes. More inclusive classroom environments, providing more support services within mainstream schools and increasing the number of specialised schools and programmes would be a big step forward. Parents of children with special education needs need more support and information on available support services, parent support groups and how they can be involved in decision-making processes related to their child's education. ITEs can support and improve accessibility for students with disabilities by making its facilities and campus more accessible. This includes providing ramps, elevators and other assistive technology. Last but not least, may I request support for ITEs to collaborate with community organisations and businesses and create internship and work opportunities for these students? Internships will help students to gain practical experience and improve their chances of finding employment after graduation.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Edward Chia.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah)2317 words
[+14 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, I welcome the 2023 National Budget announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong. The crux of this Budget focuses on keeping our economy competitive and innovative, equipping our workers and providing a fuller range of opportunities for everyone to reach their potential. Mr Speaker, Sir, as a Member of Parliament serving in Zhenghua, having done walkabouts at our coffee shops and hawker centers, visited homes of our constituents, and from my interactions at Meet-the-People sessions, there are some concerns raised by my residents. Like all parents, they hope to secure the children's future. They want to ensure that their parents can have an adequate and dignified retirement. They are concerned on whether they can keep up with the cost of living. These are on-going concerns of Zhenghua families which forms the central motivation of my speech. As a nation, we need to ensure that we have the fiscal capabilities and revenue to sustain our social and healthcare needs. To ensure continued real income growth for Singaporeans and adequate retirement savings, we must support local employers to compete and stay relevant on higher value products and services. How do we achieve this? First, by remaining competitive and relevant in an increasingly hostile world. And second, by continuing to build a resilient nation. I will first touch on remaining competitive and relevant in the global market. As Singapore's workforce ages and the cost of doing business increases, we run the risks of pricing ourselves out of the region and becoming irrelevant. While doing a regional comparison scan, Singapore has the highest median age of any population in Southeast Asia in 2022. We stand at 42.1 years old, compared to Indonesia at 29.4 years, Malaysia at 30.4 years, Cambodia at 25.6 years and Vietnam at 31.9 years old.[+1 sentence] It is clear we are dealing with an ageing population and a higher average age of our workforce. Our monthly average operating costs to do business is approximately 64% to 76% higher than other countries in the ASEAN region. Despite the high costs, Singapore is still the top choice for companies with higher value-added manufacturing with complex processes and automation requirements.[+38 sentences] However, other countries with a larger, younger and increasingly educated labour force are catching up. The external environment is also becoming more hostile due to geopolitical tensions and rivalries. This has led to greater onshoring of key manufacturing processes which threatens our livelihoods. To safeguard our livelihoods and provide real wage growth for Singaporeans, we need to stay relevant in this new environment. I would lay out three key areas of focus in my speech. First, we need to support employers to compete and stay relevant by providing higher value products and better service experience. Second, we need to ensure employers can compete for, grow and retain talent. Third, we need to support employers to compete on environmental sustainability credentials as more multinational enterprises (MNEs) and regional economic blocs are actualising emission cut targets and factoring this in their purchasing evaluations. First, our nation needs to stay relevant on providing the best customer experience value. We are no longer competing based on costs, but rather on perceived value. To ensure continued real income growth for Singaporeans, we must support local employers to compete and stay relevant on higher value products and services. The importance of building strong relationships between organisations and their customers has taken on added significance. As economies around the world develop in sophistication, consumers are offered greater choice and form higher expectations. Higher expectations specifically on the overall customer experience. Singapore can do more to improve our service culture. The honesty in accepting that service levels can be improved marks the first step towards building a strong service culture. With it, comes the commitment to improve and it is believed that it is not an impossible task. Soft skills such as tone, general demeanour and body language need to be further developed. Indeed, these "soft skills" are important horizontal skill sets that apply across industries and engender greater self-awareness. This is attainable for us. Our national airlines, Singapore Airlines, is a stellar example of what excellent customer experience is around the world. How can we achieve this in other sectors? These soft skills are a part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)'s Critical Core Skills and that it is a good start. Under the "Interacting with Others" cluster, identifying internal and external needs of customers to deliver an effective customer experience is mentioned as a key competency. How can we encourage more employers to send their employees for training in these areas, to support businesses and workers' growth? Importantly, how do we evaluate the effectiveness of this training? One way to evaluate is to scale up national benchmarks yearly when measuring service delivery and customer service standards. We currently have the Institute of Service Excellence at Singapore Management University (SMU) doing a robust yearly review of the Customer Satisfaction Index in Singapore. It measures a gamut of customer satisfaction including customer expectations, the perceived overall quality of the product and service as well as its value. Can this review be expanded to do a horizon-scanning against other comparable and emerging economies? Our enterprises will also need to compete for, grow and retain talent. To do so, our enterprises will need to benchmark human capital standards vis-à-vis industry and regional peers. At present, the Institute of Human Resource Professionals has a free Human Capital Diagnostic Tool (HCDT). The self-diagnostic HCDT Navigator covers 11 areas of human capital measurements and provides a diagnostic report within 30 minutes. A more comprehensive diagnostic is led by a qualified assessor, the result is an organisation report detailing the calculated human capital maturity level for processes and practices. Employers will then be able to assess key areas to improve and benchmark against industry peers. This is a good tool that needs greater awareness amongst employers and be scaled up as every organisation's basic tool kit. Through more tools like this, we can encourage higher adoption of human capital diagnostic and benchmarking. In my Adjournment Motion on strengthening mental wellness at the workplace, I proposed that Enterprise SG grants, such as the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) and the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) include a survey on employees' well-being before and after the implementation of the project to measure potential improvements on employees' wellness, in addition to employee's value add gains.[+27 sentences] I would like to reiterate the call and make a further recommendation to include the HCDT diagnostic tool as a key requirement for all Enterprise SG grants. Any form of transformation needs to begin with human capital improvements. Human capital practices form a foundation for any ability to attract and retain talent. This foundation would also maximise the value of the new Job-Skills Integrator scheme announced in this Budget. Conversely, if an employer has a weak human capital quotient, the resource to integrate jobs and skills would be wasted, as there will be eventual churn than integration. Certainly, we need to support employers to execute more progressive HR policies and I will share more recommendations during MOM's Committee of Supply debates. Sir, we need to constantly benchmark our industries domestically and regionally. Two key areas of benchmarking, customer experience and human capital quotient, these provides a constant health check for employers on competitiveness based on perceived value to customers and manpower talents. To stay competitive in the global markets, aspects such as the cost issue may be difficult to compete on. But we can be a strong contender in the realms of service culture, overall value and experience underpinned by strong human capital management. Sir, before I proceed to my next point, I would like to declare that I am a business owner of a food waste valorisation company, which assists clients to reduce carbon footprint attributed to food waste disposal. We need to support employers to compete on environment sustainability credentials as more MNEs and regional economic blocs are actualising emission cuts' targets and factoring this in their purchasing evaluations. Therefore, there is an increasing emphasis on carbon accounting in global supply chains. Carbon accounting is a way of measuring how much greenhouse gas an organisation emits. Like financial accounting, carbon accounting quantifies the impact of an organisation's business activities. There is now a focus on "Scope 3" of accounting, referring to indirect emissions that occur in the value chain of a company and are not already included in Scope 1 and 2. Tackling Scope 3 presents an additional layer of complexities, including opaque carbon accounting and tracking practices, the need to work collaboratively with customers, supply networks and industry groups; and the difficulty of keeping stakeholders engaged in a complex change effort. As such, Scope 3 measurements and management can be daunting for many companies in Singapore because the data coverage is comprehensive while the data sources fall out of the companies' direct control. Collecting this data requires collaboration with companies' value chain partners and is an important effort. I would like to call on the Government to first assist local enterprises to adopt a nationally recognised standard of carbon accounting; and second, to rapidly support enterprises to build internal capabilities and tools to account for carbon. This will be seen as an effort to future-proof our industries and dovetails with the Singapore Green Plan. I have heard of cases where MNEs prefer one hotel over another to conduct their yearly corporate conferences and Dinner and Dance (D&D) because it is more sustainable. Therefore, by equipping our local enterprises with the abilities and tools to account for carbon, we future-proof their relevance in a world increasingly being traded by green measurements. We can build this new capability on our competitive advantage, on our reputation as a trusted, transparent financial hub. I will now move on to the importance of building a resilient nation. A very important aspect of "resilience" is climate resilience and adaptation, something which cannot be ignored. Singapore is not insulated from the impact of climate change. From 1980 to 2020, the annual mean temperature has increased from 26.9°C to 28.0°C. The mean sea level in the Straits of Singapore has also increased at the rate of 1.2 millimetres to 1.7 millimetres per year.[+8 sentences] Last year, I spoke on climate resilience and adaptation. I am heartened that this year, it is mentioned in the Deputy Prime Minister's Budget. No matter what we do to advance the green economy and reduce the rate of temperature increases, we are already experiencing the effects of climate change. We need to safeguard our island. Climate adaptation should not just be seen as a defensive mechanism. We should regard this as an offensive strategy by turning this into a new exportable technology and service to societies around the world. As Singapore is not endowed with renewable energy resources such as land for solar energy production or large river dams for hydropower production, our ability to create value in this area is limited. However, Singapore has built up deep expertise in engineering and design over the past few decades. Climate change adaptation is a tremendous economic opportunity for Singaporeans.[+5 sentences] Sir, bringing back the issue to a pertinent concern: the average age of our Singaporean workforce in comparison to the region. Indeed, there are manpower constraints as businesses continue to face issues. If businesses do not have the available manpower, they will be hard pressed to deliver the best service experience in a timely manner. With our ageing workforce and low birth rates, in comparison to the younger workforce in the region, in the longer run, other concerns emerge. Are the existing foreign worker policies sustainable? There are fiscal implications, we continue to need tax revenue from an aging tax base. Also, it is important to note that foreigners do not just compliment Singaporeans in the workforce but also contribute to taxes and do not receive much of the social benefits.[+3 sentences] Hence, I call on the Government to continue to ensure Singaporeans have access to the best jobs. But growing jobs for Singaporeans is a non-zero-sum game. Employers need complimentary manpower to stay competitive and relevant. Sectors still recovering from the pandemic need help to transform while those that are ready should be enabled to seize emerging opportunities. I, hence, call on the Government to continue to review more targeted manpower measures vis-à-vis key growth areas that bolster our economy with better jobs, higher wages and support our transition to a greener economy.[+5 sentences] Mr Speaker, Sir, there are growing sentiments amongst SMEs and certain business segments that the Government appears to be shifting from a pro-growth, pro-business approach to one that is more pro-redistribution. While I do not believe that this is the case as supporting society and businesses goes hand-in-hand, I hope that the Deputy Prime Minister can allay such concerns. We need SMEs to feel that they are being supported in their growth journey, so that we have more large local enterprises (LLEs). LLEs and SMEs are rooted to Singapore and can provide longer-term jobs for Singaporeans. Mr Speaker, Sir, for Singapore to continue to provide good jobs and for our seniors to have sufficient retirement adequacy, for our young to achieve their dreams in Singapore and not have to leave Singapore for greener pastures, we need to ensure two things that I have touched on in my speech. First, that we remain competitive and relevant by constantly benchmarking on two key areas, customer experience and human capital management, and equipping our enterprises with the ability to account for carbon as more MNEs and regional economic blocks are factoring supply chain carbon footprint in their purchasing evaluations. And second, that we continue to build a climate resilient nation and turning this into a new exportable economic value.[+2 sentences] Overall, this Budget will continue to strengthen our common resilience agenda and reinforce Singapore's strong social compact. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Hazel Poa.
Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member)1454 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Speaker, it was announced that the grant for resale Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats will be increased in order to make resale flats more affordable for first-timers. This is exactly the price spiral I spoke about during the debate on public housing two weeks ago. The resale grant will push up demand for resale flats and therefore, increase resale prices, which would later necessitate a further increase in resale grants feeding into a continuous price spiral.[+41 sentences] More tax revenue would also be needed to fund the additional grants. As land costs is determined based on resale transactions, the increase in resale prices would result in higher land cost. The amount that HDB pays to Singapore Land Authority (SLA) for land would increase, thereby, increasing the cost of new flats. This would mean that either new flat buyers have to pay more, or subsidies and grants for new flats must be increased to make the new flats affordable. More tax revenue would be needed to fund any increase in subsidies and grants. Such a cycle of more and more tax revenue being needed to be paid into reserves in the form of land price is unsustainable and places an unnecessary tax burden on taxpayers. Let me explain why I say it is unnecessary. The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister has said that we continue to be in a financially tight situation and the reserves drawn out to fund the COVID-19 packages were unlikely to be paid back. An occasional paper from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on medium-term fiscal projections has also warned of the need to raise further taxes to fund the expected increase in expenditures. Under such an environment, any increase in subsidies and grants for housing would necessitate an increase in taxes. This situation is caused by the way we treat land sales proceeds. Under current practice, the proceeds from the sale of land are put into reserves. The Government argues that to do otherwise would reduce the value of the reserves. Progress Singapore Party (PSP) begs to defer. Back in the days when land was sold on a freehold basis, this practice made financial sense and was the prudent thing to do. PSP agrees with this approach. However, when land is sold on a freehold basis, this practice should have been reviewed. Since land reverts to the state at the end of the leasehold period, there is no reduction in the value of the reserves at that point. On what basis do we claim that our future generations have been deprived? The same piece of land the Government now owns will still belong to the Government 99 years later, or 20 years later or at the end of any other lease period. The land sale proceeds is payment for the use of the land over the lease period. This is similar to rental payments which is also payment for the use of land over a fixed period, albeit a shorter one. Whether the use of the land is given on a three-year basis, 20-year basis or 99-year basis, the same principle applies. At the previous Budget, I have argued that land sales proceeds should be treated as revenue divided over the period of the lease. I have also illustrated via a table how this can grow into a significant revenue stream in a steady state. MOF's response to my proposal then was that this is a different concept. They do not deny the soundness and financial prudence of the proposal. Today, I venture further to point out that the situation we are facing with home affordability issues highlights how the current practice of putting land sales proceeds into reserves is not sustainable and places unnecessary tax burden on taxpayers. The increasing land cost that necessitated higher subsidies and grants in order to keep houses affordable makes higher taxes necessary. However, if the land sale proceeds were taken as revenue, higher land costs mean higher revenue which can fund the higher subsidies and grants without needing higher taxes. There is inherent stability in this approach and the concept is sound. Against the backdrop of the tight fiscal position shown in MOF's paper, if we continue with the current accounting practice, the tax burden of HDB subsidies and grants will get increasingly painful in the years ahead. Proceeds on the sale of leasehold land is income generated from land reserves, similar to the investment returns from our Sovereign Wealth Funds. Treating the proceeds from sale of leasehold land as revenue is thus similar to Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC). Whereas in the case of financial assets, we may need to retain part of the investment returns to ensure the value of the assets keep up with inflation, the value of the land that reverts to the state at the end of the lease period is inflation-proof. PSP therefore urges the Government again to review its accounting treatment of land sales proceeds. Coming after the announcement of the 2% GST hike, MOF's paper warning of tax increases raises worries of further tax burdens on the people who are already straining under the rapid increase in cost of living. The additional taxes in this year's Budget have fallen primarily on individuals rather than companies. For example, higher GST, higher taxes on tobacco and higher-end properties and vehicles. Companies, on the other hand, have either new tax incentives or existing ones extended. PSP is of the view that the more profitable companies should pay more taxes. Based on MOF's reply to my Parliamentary Question (PQ) on corporate taxes paid by companies of different profit levels, it is seen that for YA2018 to YA2021, companies earning profits before tax of between $200,000 and $10 million paid on average 8% to 9% of their profits as taxes.[+1 sentence] Those with higher profits paid a lower percentage. Companies earning between $10 million and $100 million in profits paid on average 5.1% of their profits as tax. For companies earning between $100 million and $1 billion in profits, 2.8%.[+2 sentences] For companies with profits beyond $1billion, 0.9%. Companies with the highest profits actually pay the lowest percentage of their profits as tax! To illustrate, a company making $2 million in profits pays 9% of its profits as taxes. This is 10 times the rate of a company that makes $2 billion in profits, that is, 1,000 times the profit.[+7 sentences] This is highly inequitable. In their reply, MOF stated that effective tax rate should be calculated based on percentage of chargeable income, not profits before tax. I disagree. Profits before tax is calculated based on internationally accepted accounting standards but chargeable income is affected by things like which expenses are tax deductible and which are not, what income is taxable and what is not, which capital expenditure can be expensed over one year and which over longer and so on. In other words, chargeable income has already incorporated part of our tax policies and treatments. Therefore, to see the full effect of our tax policies on companies in a holistic manner, not just of the corporate tax rate but also tax incentives, exemptions and other treatments, we should be comparing the amount of tax paid with profits before tax. We should review the tax incentives and treatments given to companies earning profits beyond $10 million so that they pay more taxes. For example, if companies earning above $1 billion in profits pay just 3% of their profits as taxes instead of the current 0.9%, the additional revenue raised would be about $5 billion per year![+5 sentences] It is time for companies to pay a fairer share of their profits as taxes. Even in the absence of any global agreement, this is something we should do, not because we are forced to and it need not be tied to any global timetable. We have traditionally used low corporate tax as a means to attract investments. When the global minimum corporate tax is implemented, this strategy will lose effectiveness. With the loss of this tool, it has become even more urgent for us to find ways to address the high cost in Singapore. With higher corporate tax revenue, we can use that to lower business cost and cost of living to offset the higher effective tax rate thereby making Singapore still an attractive investment destination and provide relief to Singaporeans.[+2 sentences] PSP therefore urges a thorough review of our policies on property and transport to bring down costs. In conclusion, we urge that land sales proceeds be taken as revenue divided over the lease period to ease the tax burden on taxpayers and for more profitable companies to pay more taxes and to use that additional corporate tax revenue to lower cost in Singapore.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Desmond Tan.
The Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office (Mr Desmond Tan)2700 words
[+6 sentences]The Labour Movement welcomes Government's support for workers in this year's Budget Statement to grow our economy, improve training and job placement, enhance employment support for those who may need more help and to tackle the rising cost of living. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that trust between people, institutions, businesses and Government is critical. When businesses in some sectors were badly hit and jobs were uncertain, it is this trust that enables National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and our tripartite partners to work closely to save jobs, support our businesses and workers. We cannot assume that the trust we have built with our workers will continue to be strong over time. We have to engage with each generation of workers to listen to their needs, anxieties, their aspirations and to provide assurance that we will walk the journey with them. With these in mind, NTUC launched the #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations or EWMC in short, last year. The #EWMC aims to reach out to at least 20,000 workers through dialogues, focus group discussions and surveys to hear their views around work and to refresh NTUC's compact with workers.[+28 sentences] Since its launch, NTUC has been listening to a wide range of workers from youths to mature workers, Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs), the self-employed, essential service workers, caregivers and to ex-offenders. We are excited to share our recommendations when they are ready, sometime later this year. But what are all these for? Let me quote our NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng, "Through #EWMC, NTUC will ensure that our workers' voices are heard. We aim to put forth valuable feedback and useful recommendations that can shape policies with our workers' interests at its core. After all, workers are at the heart of our nation's progress." Through the #EWMC engagements, key themes and preliminary ideas are emerging and taking shape, which my fellow Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) will cover in their respective speeches. This includes retirement adequacy, un-employment support, supporting younger workers and workers in the lower-wage sectors, workplace health and safety, caregiving, training, among others. And in the next part on my speech, I will provide an update on NTUC initiatives to support training and upskilling of our workers. I believe that to empower our workers with opportunities and abilities, we need to build a culture of lifelong learning. In Randstad's recent 2022 Workmonitor study, 91% of employees surveyed in Singapore have indicated an interest in career learning and development opportunities. Despite this, only 22% said that they have received training and upskilling opportunities from their employers in the past 12 months. That said, since 2015, around 30% of eligible Singaporeans have utilised their SkillsFuture credit. A steady increase over the past years. I would like to take this opportunity to share three possible reasons observed from the #EWMC and research conducted by NTUC on why workers do not attend or complete their training. The first reason is a practical one regarding time, money and manpower. At the focus group discussions, participants shared that manpower-lean firms may not allow workers to go for training and might call workers back even if they were scheduled for training due to operational needs. Many find training course fees rather high despite subsidies from SkillsFuture Credit and other funds. Companies also do not provide protected time and employees often have to take time outside of work to upgrade themselves. And this often has to be balanced with other priorities like caregiving. The second reason is the lack of confidence in the returns on training. Employees had expressed their doubts if training could bring about any real positive impact for their careers, in terms of job or wage growth. Employees also questioned how useful or relevant training could be, if there are no real opportunities for application within the company. Similarly, employers expressed concerns that employees might change jobs or change companies after receiving training. The third reason is the lack of awareness towards training needs and opportunities. Workers may not have sufficient knowledge to diagnose their own skills gap and the skillsets required for their next intended career move. Similarly, employers find it challenging to identify the required skill sets or knowledge that employees might need for certain job roles. These findings do suggest that employees are more prepared to go for training if they were initiated by the employers, when training is for purpose of meeting specific job demands within the company and with better assurance of time support and wage outcomes. And that is why in 2019, NTUC introduced the concept of Company Training Committees (CTCs) between our unions and employers to support business transformation that can lead to company-initiated training and skills upgrading for workers. We are thankful for Government's support with the $70 million CTC Grant which commenced in August last year. To date, I am happy to update that we had formed around 1,200 CTCs, approved 17 companies' CTC Grant projects, with many more applications being processed, as we speak.[+5 sentences] One example of a CTC company is the Royal Plaza on Scotts (RPS). The company formed a CTC and had two rounds of Operations Technology Roadmap to transform its business and to redesign its jobs. One direct beneficiary of CTC is Mr Hamid bin Selamat, who was an engineering supervisor. Positive and open-minded towards upgrading, he took up security modules and became a certified Security Officer at the age of 65. Now, he can perform two roles in the company – engineering and security – with benefits such as better wages and better work prospects. Having experienced the positive outcomes from CTC for both business and workers, RPS has applied for the CTC Grant with a commitment to give wage increment for the impacted local workers.[+2 sentences] We hope more companies will follow suit and will work with NTUC in forming CTCs, because we are committed to support you in the journey of enterprise and workforce transformation. Last year, brother Chee Hong Tat spoke about the challenge of jobs-skills mismatch, where employers, on the one hand, are short-handed and could not find enough workers to fill vacancies, and workers, on the other hand, find the skills they acquired are not a good fit to what employers are looking for. The Labour Movement is therefore pleased to hear Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announce the Jobs-Skills Integrators pilot initiative, which will commence with three sectors.[+4 sentences] With the involvement of industry, training and employment facilitation partners, we envisage that the Jobs-Skills Integrators will help to bridge the information gap for workers and employers, who may find it difficult to identify high-quality training which industries will find relevant. NTUC will fully support this pilot. Our Government has always been supportive of continuous learning and skills upgrading. Many initiatives have been introduced to support workers’ upskilling, whether at work or during job transition. The SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP) implemented in April 2022 is a good example. I am glad that the Government has decided to make this a long-term programme in replacement of the SGUnited Skills Programme (SGUS) and the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme which were implemented during the pandemic.[+21 sentences] I hope SkillsFuture Singapore will progressively expand the SCTP to more sectors so that more workers can benefit from this scheme. I also call on the Government to consider protected training leave for employees and review training fund and allowances, to support our workers in alleviating their concern for the lack of time and finances and for opportunity cost when they had to attend training. For example, the Government can consider introducing training allowances that are tied to the trainees under the SCTP. Mr Speaker, Sir, Singapore is experiencing persistently high inflation and uncertain economic outlook, just like the rest of the world. Supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted our economic and labour landscape significantly. In many countries, this heightens the risk of conflict and instability. As risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft’s chief analyst said, and I quote, “We are talking about numerous powder kegs around the world simply waiting for that spark to be ignited. We just don’t know where that spark will come first”. Recently, we have seen these “sparks” flying through bitter strikes in countries such as the UK, France and South Korea, which threaten the delivery of essential service in healthcare as well as in public transportation. In the UK, strike actions were carried out by workers such as nurses, rail workers, postal workers, ambulance workers and airport staff. Workers there demand for higher wages due to higher inflation. Because of the strike by ambulance workers, residents with serious but non-life-threatening conditions might not be immediately attended to by an ambulance. Closer to home in Asia, the truckers in South Korea initiated strike actions against their government. They were calling their government to make permanent a policy on minimum freight rates for container and cement truck drivers. To end the strike, the government had to issue “back-to-work” orders, by which the strikes had already lasted for two weeks and cost US$2.7 billion to the economy, according to their government’s estimates. These strike actions had caused disruption to public lives, demoralised workers, discouraged investments and destabilised the economy. In Singapore, we have managed to avoid such stand-offs through tripartite arrangement and with each tripartite partner doing its part and working hand in hand. One example is the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). PWM was first implemented in 2014 for the cleaning sector. Since then, we have progressively rolled out PWM in seven sectors and two occupations. With PWM, workers can be assured that they will not only receive a minimum wage corresponding to their sector and occupation, but also defined career pathways that would ensure that their wages increase as their skills and responsibilities increase as well. For example, the landscape workers have moved up by 3.5% per annum from $1,300 in 2016 to $1,650 in 2022, more than twice the median wage increase of 1.4%. These wages will continue increasing, till about $2,385 in 2028.[+9 sentences] This is not all. Together with the expanded Local Qualifying Salary (LQS), this would benefit more than 90%, in fact, 94% of lower-wage workers. At this juncture, I would like to make a comment on the proposal by Mr Leong Mun Wai on "Living Wage", which is a guaranteed take-home of $1,800 for all Singaporean workers. It is noteworthy that Mr Leong agrees with the PWM, as he also said that the PWM can remain to help workers achieve a higher level of wage than the "Living Wage". The PWM mandates fair and sustainable wages according to skill level. It is tailored to each sector and agreed upon by the tripartite partners – the Government, the employers and unions. As mentioned, we have steadily expanded the PWM into seven sectors and two occupations, and together with the LQS which is set at $1,400, our low-wage workers can also receive a Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) of up to $350 per month. PWM and LQS combined already cover a wide base of 94% of all low-wage workers within this year. The remaining 6% are small family-owned businesses which would usually not be covered by minimum wage in other countries as well. As for the level of minimum wage or "Living Wage" that has been proposed, we note that there have been different proposals: $1,300 by Workers' Party; $1,800 by PSP this year, which is $300 more than the $1,500 that they proposed in 2021.[+1 sentence] We need a sustainable and systematic mechanism to set and review the floor. The LQS is a stable methodology and until COVID-19, the LQS has been increased $100 each year from 2017.[+6 sentences] My colleague Fahmi Aliman will suggest a way to review our LQS in his speech later. I recognise that we all want wages to be high. In NTUC it is our raison d'être to have better wages, welfare and work prospects. But we must also do this sustainably, without causing unintended consequences like disemployment. We want higher wages but we also want higher employment rates and there had been studies that showed clear downsides on minimum wage, including disemployment and the perverse outcome that the minimum wage becomes the maximum wage. And this is of concern especially in a small economy in Singapore where SMEs form the bulk of our workers. PWM has a proven track record of raising wages without the risk of job losses.[+7 sentences] So, in NTUC, we support a PWM that is customised to sector or occupation, ensure productivity improvements with clear career pathways. In this way, we can move confidently with our tripartite partners and our workers get their assurance of a basic wage and a ladder for increase over the years as their skills upgrade. Mr Speaker, please allow me to speak in Mandarin before I conclude in English. (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, the challenges posed by the pandemic over the past three years have highlighted the need for Singapore to build a more flexible and adaptable workforce to respond to the rapidly changing labour market and industry needs. NTUC must also constantly transform to better serve workers in all sectors regardless of job position, industry, full-time or part-time, platform worker or self-employed. NTUC is committed to safeguarding your interest and providing you with better wages, welfare and work prospects. In this respect, tripartism is crucial. NTUC is pleased to receive a $70 million grant from the Government for us to continue to develop the training and placement support ecosystem for local workers and provide more employment assistance and support for them.[+22 sentences] For employers, we hope that they will continue to drive business transformation. Although this year is the Year of the Rabbit, we should not adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Instead, we should be as nimble as a rabbit and use the keen sense of business acumen to drive business transformation and bring about business growth by leaps and bounds. (In English): Charting our paths forward, the NTUC affirms the importance of tripartism. Since the NTUC Modernisation Seminar in 1969, generations of Government, businesses and union leaders have worked hard to build and sustain Singapore’s brand of tripartism. I quote Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s speech during NTUC National Delegates Conference in 2011. He said this about tripartism, and I quote, “We have to preserve this ability, this trust at all costs. It’s an intangible national treasure; we built it up through our young history. It’s one of the most valuable things we can pass on to our future generations.” Tripartism is Singapore’s national treasure. And we must never be complacent or take it for granted because one misstep can break this trust. I thank Member Raj Joshua Thomas for agreeing that tripartism is our key pillar for our economic and social resilience. It works when all parties represent our constituents' interests well. Regarding the case he mentioned of how NTUC raised an issue with the security agency, I want to assure him and his industry colleagues that in NTUC, our unions believe that companies must be given the flexibility to transform and right-size. But the company must also do so fairly and adhere to the established principles and guidances, such as in this case the Tripartite Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices both in substance and in spirit. The Labour Movement will continue to work with our tripartite partners to resolve any differences that may arise every now and then amicably and through established processes. Ultimately, we want our companies to do well and to create good jobs for our workers. Through the #EWMC, the NTUC will renew our social compact with our workers and bring to the table of tripartite partners the collective sentiments of our workers. And in so doing, strengthening tripartism, preserving industrial peace and building a more resilient nation as we move into the new era together. To every worker in Singapore, on behalf of the Labour Movement, we want to thank you for your hard work and sacrifices throughout the pandemic. The NTUC will continue to champion for your interest to achieve better wages, welfare and work prospects because every worker matters. Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Patrick Tay.
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer)2045 words
[+9 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of Budget 2023. It is a thoughtful and forward-looking Budget which supports the diverse needs of society while ensuring judicious spending as we build our resilience to embrace future challenges and opportunities. The nature of our economy as we know, is shifting and changing due to digital disruption and the green transition. We cannot shy away from these, and in fact, we must be at the forefront to ensure that Singapore remains a competitive and attractive investment location. In the longer term, this will lead to better jobs, better wages and better opportunities for our local workforce. However, because of this rapid restructuring, the nature of work is transforming and the half-life of skills is shortening. Understandably, this has caused greater uncertainty and anxiety for our local workforce. This is further exacerbated by demand softening in various parts of the world, resulting in cyclical headwinds in sectors such as manufacturing in the electronics and semi-conductor space. On top of this, there is also the challenge of soaring energy prices which is eroding profits of companies. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong mentioned the extension of the Energy Efficiency Grant which would be welcome by eligible businesses.[+7 sentences] I do hope the Government will also consider helping other critical sectors to cope, such as through energy rebates for export-focused electronics firms, to keep these high-value industries afloat and ensure workers’ livelihoods. In my past speeches, I have highlighted a segment of our workforce which has been impacted immensely. They are the Professionals, Managers and Executives – PMEs for short – especially those 40 to 60 years of age. They are in a particularly precarious position when they lose their jobs as they generally have more dependents. They also take a longer time to find a new job in view of their age and may lack relevant skills to take on the new and growing areas and jobs. Upon re-entry to employment, there is also an increasing propensity for them to suffer from a drop in wages. As we move forward, we need to keep a look out for every worker and bring everyone along together on this journey of progress because every worker matters. To do so, we need a threefold approach, what I call the "three Fs": first, financial support for displaced workers to cushion them and their families in the short term as they actively search for new employment; second, facilitated employment and training to upgrade workers and help them seize opportunities in the new economy; third, fair access to PME roles to allow our local PMEs to compete with foreign PMEs, regardless of age, on a level playing field and boost local PMEs' employment outcomes and strengthen the Singaporean Core.[+11 sentences] Some of these, such as the short-term financial support, are part of the recommendations presented by the joint NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce which I co-chaired with the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF). I also spoke about them in my last Budget speech. I am heartened that the Government has taken these recommendations to help our local PMEs into serious consideration, but there is also still more that we can do to support our workers facing anxieties about unemployment. Allow me to elaborate. First, short-term financial support for displaced workers. Today, PMEs are generally less likely to receive support from the Government in view of their earlier higher income. However, as I shared earlier, PMEs are an increasingly vulnerable group because of rapid economic changes and cycles. When complemented with active labour market interventions, unemployment support – or using another term, re-employment support – can help displaced PMEs in their job search journey. The support provides displaced workers the space to upgrade their skills and look out for suitable employment, with the knowledge that they would be able to continue supporting their family’s basic needs during this difficult period. This increases the likelihood of PMEs looking for jobs that are a good match to their skillsets or which offer progression opportunities. With a better job match, their employment duration at their next job could be longer and any under-employment mitigated. There are understandably concerns that with unemployment support, workers will remain unemployed for longer periods, making it harder for them to re-enter employment and causing a strain on Government resources. However, in an online survey with 500 respondents conducted in April 2021 as part of the PME Taskforce's work, almost 80% supported the introduction of unemployment support, with most citing that it would help workers cover their basic needs during their job search.[+3 sentences] This finding echoed the calls I made consistently since 2014 when I first started lobbying for some form of unemployment support for our PMEs and workers. We still hear the same today, as we carry out our #EveryWorkerMatters Conversation. Indeed, we have seen how unemployment support can serve as a lifeline while facilitating workers to upgrade their skills and actively search for jobs. At the height of the pandemic, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) introduced the COVID-19 Recovery Grant (CRG) to provide temporary financial support to workers who experienced involuntary job loss, no-pay leave or income loss.[+2 sentences] To be eligible, unemployed workers must prove that they have actively participated in job search or training or attempted to improve their business revenue, if self-employed. NTUC’s e2i will contact individuals who are receiving their third tranche of CRG to refer them to resources that can support their job search efforts. In the same vein, we introduced the Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) to help freelancers and the self-employed to tide through the first year of the pandemic for up to $1,000 per month and up to nine months.[+8 sentences] I am grateful that the CRG has been extended till the end of 2023, as many workers are still recovering from the pandemic’s economic impact. However, I would like to reiterate the call for the Government to go a step further and introduce a permanent scheme that would provide short-term unemployment support for all workers who are involuntarily displaced, including PMEs. Beneficiaries could similarly be required to prove that they are actively trying to re-enter the job market. In this way, it provides targeted support, coupled with upskilling and job matching which NTUC is well-placed to support, to help workers rebound and re-enter employment. I acknowledge that a scheme of such scale will be challenging to introduce, but I implore the Government to seriously consider this proposal. This scheme would reassure our workers that we will work hand-in-hand with them to navigate through the exacting changes and challenges in the global economy. The second important element is facilitated employment and training. Job-seeking can be a very daunting experience, especially when the individual is forced to seek new employment involuntarily. In another online survey with 1,000 respondents conducted in April 2021 as part of the PME Taskforce work, only 58% of mature PMEs were confident in getting a job with their current skills and capabilities.[+12 sentences] Our employment facilitation landscape must optimise the job-seeker experience by funnelling them seamlessly to the support they need at various stages. This could be in the form of customised career counselling and advisory or training that would equip them to take on jobs in growth areas or redesigned job roles. Thereafter, we need to enable a good career match via schemes such as the Career Conversion Programmes, which allow workers to be placed in new roles, and then undergo structured on-the-job training to transit into the new role. Finally, we must continuously monitor outcomes for participants so we can come in and support them in a timely manner. NTUC’s e2i is committed to working closely with the Government to support jobseekers, particularly the more vulnerable, mature tech mid-careerists as well as those most likely to be affected by the green transition, such as workers in the oil and gas industries. e2i’s Lift-and-Place model can be leveraged to facilitate the movement of workers from sectors that are declining to adjacent sectors that require similar skills, or sectors that need to quickly ramp up operations. Our unions and union leaders will also work together to improve career matching and transition assistance to workers at the grassroots. While we embark on these efforts, I hope employers will also do their part by recognising vocational certifications of mid-careerists who have upskilled or reskilled themselves and want to enter different sectors, such as the tech sector. In the long run, this will help the local talent pipeline and strengthen our Singaporean Core. Beyond supporting displaced workers, we must also facilitate upskilling and reskilling amongst those who are still in employment. I urge the Government to consider incentivising more employers to send their employees for training, by providing higher funding support for Absentee Payroll and providing maximum funding for courses relevant to sectors where there is a shortage of local PMEs and workers. This enhanced funding of both training and absentee payroll can also be extended to sectors and companies facing difficult cyclical challenges such as in the electronics sector, even as most of our industries recover post pandemic. We should also facilitate access to career coaching to empower workers to chart their career paths. Beyond larger establishments like NTUC’s e2i and Workforce Singapore, there are numerous private sector career coaches that individuals can tap on. I therefore ask for SkillsFuture Singapore to consider extending the usage of SkillsFuture Credits to engage personal career counselling and advisory as well as coaching services as these are currently limited to selected segments of the workforce.[+9 sentences] The last element, or should I say the last "F" is fair access to PME roles for our locals. We must ensure a level playing field for our local PMEs and the foreign talent that we bring in to complement our local workforce. NTUC as the Labour Movement have been lobbying for and watching this space, whether it is discrimination with respect to age, gender, nationality, or even disability, whether physical or mental, as well as all other forms of discriminatory practices. We now have the tripartite guidelines for fair employment practices, as well as the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). Employers should establish and implement policies and practices to foster a fair and inclusive workplace and provide a safe environment for workers to report concerns. To do so effectively, it is crucial for companies to have certified Human Resource (HR) professionals, either by the Institute of Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) or other internationally recognised organisations. SMEs with lean manpower should also be equipped with such HR professionals, perhaps through the introduction of shared HR services. I would like to call for the Government and tripartite partners to generate more awareness on the importance of improving HR standards, possibly through the IHRP certification, and to further collaborate to improve existing policies and practices. Where retrenchments are inevitable, the Government must ensure fair and responsible retrenchment practices are adopted. For the small proportion of egregious companies with discriminatory practices, there should be a penalty framework in place to bring them to task. I hope that the upcoming Workplace Fairness legislation will strike a good balance between protecting our local workforce and managing business needs.[+3 sentences] Mr Speaker, Sir, to conclude, we cannot escape from disruptions and rapid structural changes in our economy. Our local workers, especially mature PMEs, will continue to face volatility and uncertainty. What matters is that we remain resilient, seek out opportunities amidst these disruptions and adapt to ride the waves of change. To support our workers as they navigate these uncertainties, we need a threefold approach with the "three Fs" of financial support to cushion displaced workers in the short-term, facilitated employment and training, as well as fair access to PME roles. We at NTUC will continue to champion these for all workers, so that every worker can secure better wages, welfare and work prospects because every worker matters.[+1 sentence] I believe we have the means, the resources, the capabilities and the right people to make this happen in Singapore. The strong tripartite bond between Government, employers and the labour movement has been our secret weapon for many years and will continue to do so as we transition into a new and prosperous future.[+1 sentence] Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang)2949 words
[+5 sentences]Mr Speaker, while the Workers’ Party retains its opposition to the GST hike – believing that there are indeed alternative revenue sources available – and we recognise that this Budget embeds the self said hike, we also acknowledge that the Budget is a forward-looking one, aimed at both stimulating medium-term growth as well as improving progressivity. For those reasons, it has my support. Nevertheless, I believe it falls short in a number of areas. My speech will begin by offering some direct responses to the Budget before moving on to offer suggestions on how we may inspire growth via three of its key drivers: labour, capital and productivity. My first observation is that the fiscal policy stance will be contractionary. To be clear, the fiscal balance, using the Government’s accounting conventions, will result in a deficit of -0.3% of income in the fiscal year just past and there is projected deficit of -0.1% for the year to come.[+8 sentences] But Members will undoubtedly be aware that this fiscally conservative approach tends to reduce the amount of available revenue, which in turn is more likely to throw up a deficit. I will not quibble over whether this methodology is justified. It has been litigated and relitigated already in this House. But I simply point out the fact, evident to all economists, that the Budget is, by conventional international standards, in surplus. We may argue that this position is well justified; after all, we are not currently in a recession and we do need to build up a fiscal buffer should one visit us next year, and the Government is also constitutionally bound to run a balanced Budget during its full term. But let us just recognise that just two years after the worst recession in our country since Independence and notwithstanding the many giveaways in this year’s Budget, our fiscal impulse has decisively turned negative. In my speech on the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill last year, I had suggested that one option available to the Government for rebating some of the unexpectedly higher revenue receipts to the people was to beef up of the GST Voucher (GSTV) scheme. In particular, I had suggested that the Government’s claim that GSTV would offset 20 years of GST payable had been eroded by inflation, by between one month and a year, depending on one’s flat size. The Budget’s announcement that the permanent voucher scheme would be increased restores the Government’s original promise of offset years, and in fact, if anything, exceeds it with an additional $3 billion boost to the Assurance Package.[+8 sentences] It therefore offers much-needed support for coping with higher costs of living. Of course, the increase in cash quanta of between $100 and $150 has been somewhat diluted by higher sticker prices. Still, even taking inflation into account, the Budget still offers real increases of between $94 and $104measured in last year’s dollars, or $90 and $135 in 2021 dollars. This is welcomed. In my speech on last year’s Budget Statement, I had also outlined a number of alternative revenue levers that the Workers’ Party believes are viable ways to raise revenue. These included an externalities lever, which would increase sin taxes as well as a wealth tax lever, which requires greater contributions from those who can afford to pay more. As I explained then, it would be even possible to mix and match between the levers to derive a revenue mix that we can all accept. I note that this Budget, by introducing additional taxes on high-end properties, luxury cars and tobacco, pulls some of the levers that we had previously suggested. While they do not go as far as we would like, they do add a cumulative $600 million to revenue.[+1 sentence] To paraphrase Groucho Marx – a few hundred million here, a few hundred million there, and soon, you are talking about real money. The Budget also raises the CPF ceiling from $6,000 to $8,000.[+20 sentences] Minister Wong explained that this was about "keeping pace with inflation". I understand that this will not affect lower-income earners who earn below the ceiling and that, while it will reduce take-home pay for those earning more than $8,000 by about $400, the increased employer contributions mean that certain workers would enjoy a modest pay bump of around $340 as their employers' contributions rise. Pay increases to cope with inflation are certainly a good thing as is making sure that our savings are adequate for retirement. However, for the typical middle-class family in Sengkang, the smaller take-home will stretch already tight budgets. The $400 could mean cutting back on tuition fees or that extra visit to the dentist for the family. Is there an alternative way? One wonders why the Government did not choose the route of returning the employer contribution to the full 20% instead. After all, this was the status quo in the 1990s until the Asian Financial Crisis. The employer share has since been cut and raised a number of times since but the equal share that was the case in the past has never been restored. While I understand the need to provide employers with relief in the wage bill during a recession, we are not in one now. While restoring the employer contribution alone will not fully make up for the additional CPF savings that would result from an increased ceiling, one is still left to wonder why this approach was not part of the consideration for addressing the effects of inflation on CPF. Mr Speaker, I mentioned that one important thrust of this year's Budget was to sustain long-term growth. I now move on to discuss three ways I think we can do even more. During 2021's Committee of Supply debate, I sketched out the case for heightened total R&D expenditures, noting that its share – of a little shy of 2% of GDP – fell behind not only the global average of 2.3% but also those of leading knowledge-oriented nations such as the United States, Japan, Korea and Israel. Two years hence, this remains the case. But if anything, the gap has widened. The latest data reveal that spending by these other nations have all ticked up, as has world R&D spending, which is now up 0.3 percentage-points to 2.6% of GDP. In contrast, our national R&D rose only to 2.2% as a result of a collapse in output that year. As a share of GDP in the prior year, it remained mostly stagnant at 2%. At the time, the Government stressed that our public expenditures do not significantly lag that of a number of advanced economies. It cited the spending of 0.7% relative to Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, all of which spend around 1%. This Budget, to be clear, will inject the Productivity Fund with another $4 billion, which should bring our public share closer to that of our comparators.[+6 sentences] But where is the discrepancy between the public and the private? It starts with an acknowledgement, which I believe that the Government will agree with, that public R&D cannot be expected to carry the load on its own. Rather, it needs to be a catalyst for our otherwise woeful private-sector spending on R&D. Recognising this is key since there is evidence that the two are indeed complements and raising public R&D directly will contribute to greater business R&D. Moreover, such spillovers may be even greater for open economies such as our own. But what is necessary to elevate our lagging national productivity is both of these working in tandem. Here is where a combination of increased spending in public R&D, coupled with strong tax incentives to foster private R&D would come in. This Budget introduces an Enterprise Innovation Scheme meant to enhance tax deductions for innovation-related activities in Singapore.[+11 sentences] This will take advantage of exemptions for R&D credit in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) framework. Specifically, countries are indeed allowed to continue awarding R&D contracts to reduce the tax bills of multinational corporations (MNCs). The strategy is straightforward. Generous tax credits create incentives for firms to locate their R&D activities in a subsidiary in Singapore, which in turn books R&D fees off revenue from the firm's entities in other jurisdictions. Singapore is a signatory to the agreement and so adhering to the stipulations to BEPS eventually will be a given. R&D credits offer an opportunity for us to stimulate our domestic research activity in a perfectly legitimate fashion. But aspiration aside, up till now, the absolute number of firms assisted remains small – to the tune of about 520 companies. The question is how the Government plans to scale up this assistance, especially among SMEs. This echoes a point made by my hon friend, Leon Perera, in a speech that highlighted our missing mid-sized firms, way back in 2016. What has been the main inhibitor to more enthusiastic take-up? Could these constraints be relaxed especially if we were to ease up on the need for recipients to demonstrate short-term results? Minister Wong also announced that the SME Co-Investment Fund would enjoy an additional injection of $150 million.[+13 sentences] This is welcome, especially if it is directed towards investment and innovation. Our public expenditure on R&D remains inadequate, especially, in my view, in the "D" part of R&D. In 2020, applied research expenditures actually declined by 4.3% even as spending in a number of other classes rose. This is especially worrisome since it is translational research of this form – basically, adapting basic research into commercially viable products, which often experiences a higher failure rate – where the Government can play a critical role in risk sharing, with a potentially high payoff for the economy. Such vehicles already exist, such as A*STAR, EDBI or EDB New Ventures. But in my conversations with those in the sector, the need for officers in such agencies to meet short-term key performance indicators (KPIs) has been cited as a constraint. Adopting the "venture" mindset requires tolerance of higher loss ratios. Would the Government consider setting up specific funding buckets that will allow the funding of moonshots with more flexible targets and fill more of the gap between seed and Series A funding? Another approach is to undertake the exercise hand-in-hand via a more involved public-private partnership (PPP) model. There is evidence that public credits directed towards PPPs can spur private sector innovation as can a better matching of universities with startups. Such an approach would be especially fruitful in areas such as biotech and pharmaceuticals where we have world-class upstream research produced by our universities along with excellent specialised downstream production capacity but, up till now, insufficient midstream capabilities. Speaking of BEPS, it is worthwhile thinking carefully about the practical rollout of the treaty. The terms require that the global minimum corporate tax rate be set at 15%. Minister Wong shared that to comply, a domestic top-up tax would likely be implemented here in 2025.[+28 sentences] My hon friend, Louis Chua, had previously made the point that the effective tax rate faced by MNCs and SMEs differ. According to the Government, the effective corporate tax rate averages between 8% and 10% for MNCs and around 3% for SMEs. Notwithstanding the ongoing uncertainty about the implementation of BEPS, the Workers' Party continues to urge the Government to maintain this differential treatment of MNCs and SMEs, insofar as the effective corporate tax rate is concerned and to treat all MNCs regardless of size equally. By our calculations, even with a reasonable loss of corporate and personal income taxes arising from the agreement, this approach to BEPS will still be a net positive for Government revenue. Placing the burden of higher corporate taxation on the shoulders of MNCs that are more able to afford it – a point that the hon Member Hazel Poa has mentioned earlier on – and who are the primary targets of the agreement in any case will provide a better business climate for our SMEs to eventually grow and become international companies in their own right and help rebalance our economy away from our historical reliance on multinationals. Sir, in the 2021 Committee of Supply, I had spoken about how reskilling via schemes such as SkillsFuture could be better paired with a re-employment promise. At the time, I had also suggested a natural end-to-end complementarity between redundancy insurance at the point of separation, to re-training, to eventual reintegration into the workforce. In his speech, Minister Wong spoke about introducing Jobs-Skills Integrators as a means of better empowering our workers. He also spoke about strengthening our safety nets but glaringly misses out how our net still provides inadequate support at the point of unemployment. The Stanford economist, Paul Romer, once quipped that "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste". It is a pithy way to emphasise how competing interests may be willing to question their long-held assumptions and come together to confront a common problem. COVID-19 was our crisis du jour and the generous support we offered then to displaced workers offered us a tantalising glimpse of how valuable redundancy insurance can actually be. This Government likes to reiterate that "a job is the best welfare." But what happens when our workers lose their jobs for reasons little related to their performance or ability? It seems to me that as a society, we need to help these workers get back on their feet. In other words, we need a backup support system for redundant workers to access their first-best welfare system – which is a job. One of the common reasons cited for not deploying an unemployment insurance scheme is the potential corrosive effects that having such insurance could have on workers' incentives to search for a job, at least until the payout period ends. In the worst-case scenario, detractors fear that having unemployment insurance will encourage quits because workers are confident that they will have a fallback source of income. This is the crux of the objection by the then-Second Minister for Manpower, Mrs Josephine Teo, in her response to then-Workers' Party Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Daniel Goh's speech on redundancy insurance. Notwithstanding how our proposal is for involuntary redundancy and not all forms of unemployment, these so-called "moral hazard" concerns are well recognised. However, the theoretical fear does not find much support in the empirical data. Studies of advanced economies that have rolled out such insurance schemes tend to find little adverse effects for employment outcomes. Moreover, we should not simply focus on the negatives and conclude that the scheme is a bad one. The flip side of a greater willingness to quit is the reduction of insecurity and worry associated with a lost job or an end to the helplessness and frustration felt when stuck in a job that is making one unhappy. The converse of a possible free rider who is soaking up welfare payouts and therefore voluntarily remaining unemployed is a parent who does not need to worry about being able to afford sending their child for tuition or to the doctor just because they lost their job. Indeed, economists understand full well this trade-off and suggest that the optimal design of unemployment insurance schemes is to properly calibrate the tenure requirement – that is, how long an unemployed worker can benefit from the scheme – with a monetary requirement, which determines how much payout a worker can receive. Interestingly, optimal schemes tend to pair a larger monetary requirement with a low tenure requirement. Other tweaks may entail a diminution of benefits over the course of one's unemployment spell or to deploy a wage tax after re-employment that increases the longer an individual has remained unemployed. The Workers' Party longstanding proposal, raised at least since our 2015 manifesto, on redundancy insurance is broadly consistent with these principles. Our suggested coverage duration of about six months is lower than the one year or more common to schemes in other countries, albeit still in line with our nation's lower than average unemployment spells of about two months. The proposed payout of 40% of the last-drawn salary is about average but still on the low side for advanced economies. We were deliberately conservative here to ensure financial sustainability.[+8 sentences] However, we leave open the door for increases based on consultation and social consensus. We also stress the importance of flexibility. Workers made redundant may choose to front-load their benefits if they have urgent bills to pay but may opt to rely on savings initially and only receive payouts later in the event that their unemployment turns out to be longer than anticipated. In the spirit of encouraging risk-taking and entrepreneurship, we can also consider including the self-employed in the scheme, perhaps with different contribution shares, as we did during COVID-19. Another major thrust of Mrs Teo’s critique of our proposal at the time was that it was better for the Government to bear the burden of unemployment support, rather than to layer another cost onto our businesses. But is this a fair characterisation? As this House is aware, the incidence of a tax differs from those who are asked to pay it. In our view, part of the contributions toward redundancy insurance will be passed on to the workers. This part amounts to workers taking care of other workers. But to ensure that the tripartite nature of the social contract remains intact, the Government should also step in and contribute regularly to this pool in the form of a special-purpose development fund.[+1 sentence] Mr Speaker, there are many things in this Budget that I like, but as I have explained, I think it remains incomplete in a number of areas that I believe can inspire long-run growth, for our people and our country.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Abdul Samad.
Mr Abdul Samad (Nominated Member)2214 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, on behalf of my fellow union leaders, members and working people, I would like to express our appreciation for the various support measures – from mitigating rising costs through the Assurance Package, supporting Singaporean housing aspirations and my personal favourite item – piloting the Jobs-Skills Integrators. This would certainly make training more meaningful for both workers and employers. The enhancements to the existing schemes reflect the Government's continuous commitment to support Singaporeans. For example, the $300 CDC vouchers can now be used at participating supermarkets in addition to heartland merchants and hawkers.[+35 sentences] This is over and above what we have received recently. As the sole breadwinner of my family with three children over the age of 20, I have always been receiving various forms of support, ranging from subsidised school fees for my children, U-Save rebates and many more. Nonetheless, the Budget is not a "one-size-fits-all" and there will always be voices of unhappiness and complaints that the amount of support is not enough. Regardless, I have picked up this catchy phrase from my fellow technical officer – "life goes on!" Sir, the focus areas in my last two Budget debates were about strengthening our Singaporean workforce and providing support for the middle-income group. Today, I will reiterate on the former with a focus on desired outcomes for workers. But before that, I would like to give special mention to a group of fellow Singaporeans who sacrifice their personal time and commitments to be the heart of the Labour Movement by serving working people at workplaces. I will share more about their selfless contributions shortly. Sir, prior to who I am today, I admit that I belonged to the group of Singaporeans that always complained that the Government was not providing sufficient support for our citizens, especially the middle-income group. As cliché as it sounds, all changed in 2004 when I had an exchange with my colleague on income tax matters. I was unaware that I could offset my income tax payment with the Parenthood Tax rebates. After writing to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) to seek clarification and further advice, I was shocked and beyond overjoyed to see that previous payments for my income tax were credited back to my bank account within a month. Since then, I started to acknowledge and appreciate more, as the Government does support fellow Singaporeans in a fair and responsible manner. Curiosity got the better of me and the rest is history as I stepped into the shoes of a union leader, to be an advocate and voice for all workers, representing their interests in the areas of wages, welfare and work prospects. Since then, it has been an enriching and fulfilling journey, and I have not looked back. The group of people that I would like to give special mention to is none other than my fellow unionists. Many take this group for granted and often overlook their contributions. Unions are one part of what we call tripartism. This model is unique only to Singapore due to the strong collaboration between all three parties – unions, Government and employers – to achieve a common outcome of harmonious labour management relations resulting in better wages, welfare and work prospects for Singaporeans. I have had the privilege to get to know and work alongside many senior leaders in my short span of 16 years as a unionist to ensure that our members in the represented group of companies are rewarded fairly and well taken care of. Like myself, this group of people are not chosen by the management. Rather, we made the conscious choice to volunteer, or are volunteered by fellow workers, to be their voices at the workplace. Unionists are ever ready to represent their members in any instances of workplace grievances or issues relating to unfair practices. Cases are primarily settled amicably with management partners at the earliest possible moment. However, when the situation warrants, cases will then be escalated to either MOM or the Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC). With the presence of union leaders, I can attest and assure that such cases are few and far between. At this juncture, I would like to call on MPs who are advisors to our unions to consistently engage with them so as to hear, understand and feel first-hand the challenges faced by my fellow union leaders, especially when dealing with unsupportive and stubborn management partners. I strongly believe that you can value-add to the respective unions. I say this with the benefit of hindsight when I presented the case to our advisor and he exerted his influence over the management partners, hence ensuring that our workers were treated with dignity. This particular MP has since retired, but I will never forget his commitment to be by the side of the union leaders when we needed him most. This is just one of the few incidents that I have personally experienced. I also believe many other union leaders have had similar experiences like me. I call upon on workers to reach out to your union leaders, join the union, be part of this family of the Labour Movement as we will always be alongside you because for us, "Members First, Workers Always". Sir, our recent battle against COVID-19 is not just purely about saving lives. It is also about ensuring that the livelihoods and dignity of our fellow Singaporeans are protected and being ready to step forward quickly to help workers when they face any issues or unfair practices at the workplace. One such example that I would like to highlight is the unfair retrenchment exercise carried out by Eagle Services Asia in July 2020. Our union leaders from the aerospace and aviation industry conducted a secret ballot to sanction legal industrial action against the company. Another example is concerning our security officers who were often subjected to verbal and physical abuse.[+5 sentences] Our leaders from the Union of Security Employees (USE) played a very active role to step in whenever they hear of such cases and ensure the perpetrators are dealt with by the respective authorities. Many of us remember recent cases such as the one where a luxury car driver had injured a security officer stationed at a primary school, or another, where a security officer was assaulted in a lift at a condominium located in Bukit Batok. For these two cases, USE made their presence felt and extended support for the affected officers even by helping to lodge Police reports. We are grateful that the perpetrators for these cases have since been charged in Court. This are just few examples of our unions in action. Besides standing up for the rights of our workers, how many of us can recall when NTUC volunteered to administer the Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) for self-employed personnel (SEP), where eligible individuals received a total of $9,000 from the Government?[+11 sentences] Many of the NTUC-Affiliated Unions and Associations (NTUC-ARU) staff and industrial relations officers were activated and mobilised to man the centres at Devan Nair Institute, One Marina Boulevard and Downtown East to assist our SEP in their claim submissions while in need. Also, let us not forget our social enterprise NTUC Club which supported our nation through the COVID-19 crisis practically and housed our affected COVID-19 patients. Sir, we must not take the peace and harmony in the employment front for granted. It took years of painful lessons to achieve what we have today. On this note, I want to record my appreciation for all my fellow union leaders for all your hard work at the workplace. Concurrently, I encourage all management partners to increase your appreciation for our union leaders in your company and industry. The peaceful and harmonious industrial relations that we experience today did not happen by chance, but only through the efforts, and sacrifices of our union leaders. Not forgetting also, I would like to thank the NTUC staff for their tireless support and efforts in going the extra mile to support the administration for the SIRS scheme and other schemes that NTUC rolls out for members and workers. While there is no doubt that NTUC and our unions have been the voice of workers, we will not and never rest on our laurels. We recognise the need for continuous training and upskilling of our workers, so that they will be skilled, efficient and productive contributors to Singapore. Sir, training is fundamental for every worker to learn, unlearn and relearn skills that add value to them as individual and for their employers. Under the guidance of our Secretary-General, brother Ng Chee Meng, we envision the model, Worker 4.0.[+2 sentences] This model targets the training needs of every worker based on three broad areas, namely, adaptability, technology and training. With our workers attending the relevant training lessons and applying their new skillsets, we hope to achieve the wins for our workers; and also strive for better wages, welfare and work prospects. To achieve this mission, NTUC embarks on what we called the Company Training Committees (CTCs).[+1 sentence] This training is not just business as usual, but new skills to transform the workforce to meet the new business demands. The recently announced Jobs-Skills Integrators model is one that I really welcome and wholeheartedly support.[+26 sentences] It requires an intermediary body like NTUC to ensure that training benefits both workers and employers. After our workers attend the training, we hope and strive that workers will progressively achieve the "three Ws", while employers get better skilled workers. This would also make training more meaningful and not just clocking the hours and collecting allowances. Hence, I remind myself and call on fellow workers to learn, unlearn and relearn the skills to broaden your knowledge that will increase your value at current workplace. Do not miss out to seize any opportunities for growth and self-improvement that come with better pay and work prospects. Allow me to speak in Malay. (In Malay): This year's Budget signifies the Government's promise to help Singaporeans cope with the cost of living, raise families, empower Singaporean workers, and most importantly, to take all Singaporeans towards a new direction. This year's support is rather unique because the Government is focusing on efforts to expand the available support by increasing its amount appropriately. In fact, the Government also promised to continue monitoring both the economy and our people and is willing to render more support if the situation requires it. This can be seen last year when additional assistance was given to the people in their Assurance Package. But we must acknowledge the challenges faced by Singaporeans working in the platform industry who need to make CPF contributions. This is a responsible measure to ensure that such workers possess enough savings to own a home and secure their retirement later. Let us not see this step as an obstruction to one’s livelihood. Instead, it displays responsibility on the part of the Government. Many within our community, I believe, have the qualifications and capabilities that enable them to secure permanent employment. If it this is not the case, we should redouble our efforts in upskilling to secure permanent employment opportunities that are available. There are many Government support schemes that enable you to undergo training and acquire the necessary skills so that you can seize the available job opportunities. For Singaporeans who are newly married and intend to start a family, there are many support schemes available and the amount has been increased in this latest Budget. I would like to remind everyone that there is adequate support to raise a family and you should not worry. On a personal note, I have friends who work as postmen and technical officers but manage to start a family with six to 12 children, still with the same one wife and residing in an HDB flat. This is because there is adequate Government support to ensure that every child gets the necessary assistance from childhood until they finish school at the tertiary level. Have faith that every child is a blessing. Do not just stop at two children. If possible, have at least three children. The more the merrier, and Singapore will not have to go through the trouble of finding outside talent in the future. (In English): Sir, before I conclude my speech, I would like to put forward four requests based on the conversations I had with a group of young union leaders. Will the support for those living in bigger HDB houses be reviewed based on income and number of dependants instead of just annual value of the house? While there are measures to support people with physical disabilities, will the Government also support families who have children with hidden disabilities like Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as these are equally challenging scenarios? Will the extended childcare leave of two days per year be extended to parents who have children above 12 years of age, perhaps till the child completes secondary school? Will there be additional support for families with more than two children and with their parents staying with them?[+2 sentences] In conclusion, the Labour Movement will continue to support our fellow members and workers because Every Worker Matters. Speaker Sir, I am thankful and support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Yeo Wan Ling.
Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol)2509 words
[+23 sentences]Mr Speaker, I would like to second Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's commitment to strengthening the social compact. Indeed, the three long years of COVID-19 winter has brought about significant shifts in our community and workforce. As we adjust and settle into new equilibrium, we need to pay particular attention to social, economic and livelihood inequalities that may have bubbled to the surface during the pandemic. Two tectonic shifts have impacted our workforce norms and they are: one, the rise of the gig and self-employed workers and the need for level playing fields; two, the prolific adoption of flexible work arrangements, its impact on women returning to work and balancing caregiving with work responsibilities. Mr Speaker, the rise of the gig economy has been ongoing for quite some time, even before the COVID-19 pandemic added tailwinds to the growth of the industry with higher demands for home delivery services. And I would argue that the self-employed gig workforce will continue to grow as more Singaporeans embrace the flexibility freelancing work allows for. However, this flexibility does come with its trade-offs and these trade-offs are numerous. Unlike the self-employed of yesteryears, where our self-employed persons (SEPs) have total control over their terms of work – when they work, where they work, how much they charge – many self-employed of today no longer have full control over their terms of service as they: one, depend on platform partners to hook them up for gigs; two, are less skilled or have no core technical skills; and three, are price takers impacted by controls from the platforms, doubled down by the lack of control on mitigating the changes in the greater geo-economic environment. Thus, as the fortunes of our gig workers ebb and flow with the gig platforms and with the general flow of life, many of our self-employed workers find themselves caught in a bind where they hope to transit out of a vulnerable situation. They are unable to do so easily as upskilling and training can be costly. But it comes at a greater cost as it impacts the gig workers' daily takings and hence, their livelihoods. Indeed, our self-employed workers, like Alexander the Great, face a Gordian knot when it comes to their financial future. And as the legend goes, a headless knot cannot be undone, unless one takes extreme measures to cut it apart. I believe as a society we need to support and arm our vulnerable, self-employed workers better when they decide to face their Gordian knots. A headless Gordian knot to a typical freelance driver looks like this: Gabriel is one of our leaders at the National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA) and he is about to turn 50. He is a provider to his very young family. He has had several recent conversations with me on his plans for retirement and is making serious decisions on his CPF contributions. However, he is worried. To improve his income, he hopes to upskill, but to upskill, he must take time off for training. Yet, training will take time up and eat into his daily income, coupled with fluctuating fuel prices in an unstable geopolitical landscape, inconsistent trip prices with his platform and daily rentals he needs to make, Gabriel literally has miles to go before his dream of a comfortable retirement can come true. We must assist our SEPs and improving their productivity through upskilling and providing level playing fields to mitigating their business costs. I would like to bring up some of the ways we can do so. In the area of upskilling. First, expand the training allowance for self-sponsored trainees to include SEPs so that they can afford a few days off to upskill.[+2 sentences] Secondly, consider deeper support for SEPs upskilling in critical skills such as digitalisation and digitisation. This is especially so for SEPs working in sectors where there have been technological disruptions, such as the media and transport industries. Thirdly, develop skills frameworks for SEPs and crafts and trades-based professions, such as for photographers, videographers, plumbers, mechanics, and incorporating apprenticeship programmes into such training frameworks with Government support In the area of levelling business costs due to the small size of the businesses, most SEPs are unlikely to grow to a scale where they can become GST-registered, but they face the full impact of GST increments on their business cost and may not enjoy the Government support given to businesses as they are freelancers. Consider providing GST rebates for SEPs who are not GST registered to buffer the increase in cost. For taxi and private hire drivers specifically, we should consider the co-sharing of GSTs by SEPs with their operators and platforms.[+10 sentences] Secondly, we call on the Government to review the 60% fixed expense deduction ratio to better reflect the thinning margins experienced by drivers, especially with global inflationary pressures and in the same vein, to consider increasing the relief limit for business expenses and allow insurance, such as prolonged medical leave, to be categorised under business expense. Thirdly, for Government procurement to take the lead in recognising SEPs who trained under the abovementioned craft and trade skills frameworks when awarding Government contracts. The COVID-19 situation has allowed us to celebrate the contributions of our freelance community. At the height of the pandemic, our drivers ferried COVID-19 patients to isolation facilities while we stayed in the safety of our homes. Our riders brought warm food to our tables while we settled in our comfortable work from home pattern. While we celebrate and thank our gig workers for making the pandemic safer and more comfortable for everyone, the last three years has also allowed Singaporeans a glimpse into the lives of our SEP workers and a deeper appreciation of the challenges they face. The SEPs in Singapore are capable of generating incredible value for our economy and society if only we would hand them the tools they need to loosen their Gordian knots. By supporting them to upskill, providing skill frameworks for their professions and alleviating their cost of businesses, I have confidence that the investment they receive will leverage disproportionate returns for our economy. Mr Speaker, Sir, even as we move forward into a new post-COVID-19 era, we have not wavered in our core priorities, especially the imperative highlighted by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to equip and empower our workers, while building a Singapore Made for Families. The call echoes the Labour Movement's own advocacy of enhancing support for workers with caregiving responsibilities, of which women constitute a large proportion of those who managed to double shift in the workplace and at home. MOM has noted that there are 260,000 women of employment age currently remaining outside of the labour force and their immense potential to power our economy and industries cannot be underestimated. It was interesting to note that according to MOM's annual labour for statistics, the two most cited reasons why women are not in the workforce are: one, home caregiving duties; and two, housework.[+5 sentences] And yes, I can completely relate to this. During COVID-19, many women came up to me wanting to look for work. Some wanted to supplement their diminished household incomes, others wanted to do their part to bolster the Singapore economy during our times of need. However, even as we match jobs to them through job fairs and job mentorship programmes, the same caregiving concerns that keep our women out of the workforce are still barriers that do not go away. The seniors are still seniors, the young are still young and unfortunately, the infirm are still infirm. To allow our women back into the workplace, the workplace will need to evolve and the prolific adoption of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and the consequent need to job redesign was a silver lining that happened in the dark cloudy days of the pandemic.[+15 sentences] It is with this in mind that I underscore the urgency of enhancing the inclusivity of our jobs and reimagining the way we work by adopting family-friendly FWAs. Let me elaborate. First, encourage employers to implement flexible work hours and allow employees more autonomy in calibrating their schedules. Flexi-time arrangements help workers better meet their personal responsibilities such as those tasked with taking care of young children and their loved elderly family members. Secondly, through the introduction of the compressed work week, this will allow workers the option of re-allocating the same number of work hours to fewer days, giving them longer blocks of personal time. Third, implement telecommuting arrangements so that employees can carry out their work in a location away from the conventional office. Flexible work options facilitate work-life balance and can accommodate workers with diverse and varied responsibilities and needs. Fourth, while embracing these changes, it is imperative that companies fairly assess their employees on FWA for their work performance and opportunities for promotion. A worker who works on FWA must never be unfairly compared to a worker who works full-time in the office. I believe that this would be key to the long-term norming of FWA in workplaces. Fifth, while the dust settles on FWA norms, we must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect them from workplace discrimination and to the extreme, harassment. Owing to the power of symmetries that workers faced, a fear of repercussions such as losing one's job while being marginalised at work and the lack of anonymity may discourage our employees from reporting incidents of discrimination. Employers therefore need to be engaged and educated on strategies to manage these cases while creating safe independent avenues for workers to seek recourse without fear of backlash. Silver linings and silver bullets notwithstanding, it is paramount for us to recognise that some companies and industry face greater hurdles in adopting FWAs in a sustainable way due to the current nature of work and the sector they are in. These includes SMEs and sectors with front-facing, customer-facing workers and those which include workers using specialised equipment. Some of these sectors where hurdles are more acutely felt include the retail, food services, healthcare, manufacturing, wellness, security, cleaning and landscaping sectors.[+17 sentences] It is also of note that these are also the very same industries and sectors that face manpower shortages. And while the task of job redesigning can seem to be daunting or impossible, I believe that with some innovation, some thinking out of the box and support from the Government, the impossible can be made possible. I have seen this being done in several sectors to very good outcomes. The health and wellness sector is often one where FWA seem to be out of the question, given the high touch nature of frontline job roles. However, innovative companies such as the Singapore Spa Institute have started to pilot out a ninja workforce. This is a float of part-timers or gig workers, who would take up short stints when the regular full-timers are on FWAs. Job redesigning can also be a clear and transparent part of HR practices. When we introduced the Progressive Wage Mark at Uniqlo, I was very impressed by how transparent the company was in terms of what employees need to achieve in order to be promoted to the next level. This includes clear indications of internal exams that needed to be taken, scores to be achieved, daily tasks to be completed and these were all available for all employees to see on their staff notice boards. And one of the most innovative job redesigns that I saw was also one of the simplest. I am sure we all love the fluffy and light dough fritters for breakfast, what we call "you char kway", but the process of making these dough fritters sure is not light. Flour sacks can weigh up to 50 kilogrammes, and the boss of Xi De Li, a 100-year-old you char kway company here in Singapore, was finding it hard to get employees. In a eureka moment, she asked the supplier to repackage the flour sacks to 25 kilogrammes and below. And then, she started to get more females and seniors to join her company. These are wonderful and effective examples of how thinking out-of-the-box can allow companies to job redesign. And I believe that with more targeted support from the Government and focused action from businesses, more SMEs can reap the benefits of FWAs, while allowing caregivers to stay or return to the workforce. During the job redesign process, companies may face manpower crunches and need help through redesign consultancy or facilitation. For this, the Labour Movement can work with the Government on a combination of grant support, road maps and specialised consultancies through a job redesign support package.[+6 sentences] While FWAs and job redesign processes bode well for our back-to-work women, it is worth noting that facilitating the transition back to work is equally as important. The NTUC's Women and Family unit has, over the past 24 months, introduced a Women Supporting Women Mentorship Programme, and this has been introduced in over 10 locations all over the island. This growing programme is targeted at supporting women returning to the workplace and addresses the issues that women face when they are looking for a smooth transition back. Together with the larger NTUC family of social enterprises and our partners in the Labour Movement, we have put into place: (a) A mentorship network, consisting of community leaders and unionists to support women returners who report challenges in adjusting to the culture and pace of the workplace, and thereby, a lack of confidence in their new job roles. (b) A suite of training programmes conducted by NTUC Learning Hub to uplift skillsets which are outdated or irrelevant, especially if our women returners have been out of the workplace for a longer period of time. (c) A network of connections to career opportunities and job vacancies through NTUC's e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) and our trade association partners. To this end, crafts and trade programmes promoted include tailoring and dressmaking with TaF.tc; confinement and infant nanny care with NannyPro; plumbing with the Singapore Plumbing Society (SPS) and logistics with the Singapore Logistics Association. We have seen some good progress on this front, for instance, we saw a doubling of women returners joining the tailoring programme from 2021 to 2022. And for the same time period, a doubling of women joined us in the SPS networks. In this light, we call for the Government to continue the support of our women returner programmes, in particular, for the popular trades and crafts person programmes, and for employers to join hands with NTUC in designing and adopting positive returnship programmes.[+3 sentences] Mr Speaker, this is an especially important Budget, as this is our nation's first post-COVID-19 Budget, and we have an opportunity to co-create together, as one Singapore, the new norms that will impact our lives and our livelihoods. It is exciting times ahead for Singapore, and with a keen focus on balancing inequalities, opening up new livelihood opportunities and building safety nets for our vulnerable, I look forward to creating a new social compact. I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Desmond Choo.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines)1715 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for allowing me to join the Debate. The world is opened for business after COVID-19 has eased globally, but it is a world marked by geopolitical tensions and high inflation. The Government's Cost of Living support packages will help Singaporeans to cope better with inflation. Critical to coping with inflation is to ensure wages keep pace with rising prices. Inflation is likely to stay for quite some time. The measures announced in this Budget to improve productivity structurally, are especially important. Many of these improvements will require many years of effort, and central to long-term productivity gains resides with our younger people and our younger workers. I will first speak on helping our in-school younger Singaporeans. Second, on younger Singaporeans already in the workforce, who are currently in their first and second careers. Our younger Singaporeans in the Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs) who are soon to join the workforce face a daunting challenge. The starting salary gap between university and non-university graduates continues to widen. From 2016 to 2021, the gap between university and polytechnic graduates increased by $200; and $300 between university and ITE graduates.[+4 sentences] The wage premium given to degree holders is understandable. The degree holder has spent more years preparing for the workforce compared to the Nitec or diploma holder. An ITE graduate enters the workforce in three years, while a university graduate takes another three to four years. However, in the longer term, the same phenomenon occurs. For example, the median salary for Singaporeans in their 20s and 30s with a university or post-graduate degree is $4,200. This is more than double of that earned by those with only secondary or lower education and ITE qualifications.[+27 sentences] Studies have also shown that a large proportion of non-university degree holders took up roles as associate professionals and technicians (APTs). In comparison, university degree holders largely took up roles in professional occupations. The value APTs bring to our economy might not be valued fairly by the market currently. Without APTs, those in professional occupations possibly cannot complete their work with quality, or at all. We need to move towards a better balance in valuing both technical and academic routes of career advancement. First, we need to strengthen vocational training and apprenticeship programmes for ITE students, or even graduates. Recently, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) engaged ITE students who took up the ITE Work-Study Diploma to understand how their experiences have helped them in their careers. One participant, upon completing his higher Nitec, took up a Work-Study Diploma in Automation Engineering. Through his diploma, he was given the opportunity to undertake full-time employment in the host company he was attached to during his studies. The company has set out a good career pathway for him. There are structured avenues for deepening industry knowledge and skillsets. This includes a company-sponsored overseas study programme with a bond to work in the company's overseas branch for at least three years, which he is considering taking up. While early days yet, the future for him is bright. The issue for us is: can we scale this up further? We can incentivise more companies to develop structured work-study diplomas, and even overseas training stints. This improves not only productivity but also Singapore's pool of talent. Next, we need to have better quality internships to strengthen the nexus between school and work. This can reduce the number of younger Singaporeans not going into jobs that they are trained for. Through the NTUC Youth Taskforce surveys and engagements, we found that internships rank highly in easing the transition from school to the workforce. Our engagement findings also suggest that students who had internships gained valuable work experience, better understanding of the industry and career prospects within their sectors. They were also able to appreciate prospective job roles better. The reticence of employers to offer internships is not unfounded. Resources must be dedicated to guide interns; this can be difficult when manpower is tight. But, at the same time, this is what our social compact is about; companies in Singapore offering younger Singaporeans opportunities to build a stronger Singapore. It requires thinking beyond just a company's immediate needs. Therefore, unions and schools can work with companies to put in place good internship programmes. Clear standards of internships should be established. Government can provide more resources, perhaps in the form of tax incentives, to companies keen to support such a social compact.[+17 sentences] Next, on mentorship. Structured mentorship programmes can be a vital tool in easing career navigation and improving studies to work nexus. We often associate mentorships for older working people, but there is equal value to extending this to ITEs and polytechnics. By connecting students with mentors from their interested industries, their ideas on potential careers and aspirations are potentially broadened. They receive targeted career advice and counselling particular to their field. An example is the SIT-Young NTUC's Industry Mentorship Programme (IMP), which is in its sixth iteration this year. Young NTUC plays a bridging role in IMP, providing linkages to career mentors for SIT students and also hosts various networking opportunities. This is also another way for us to strengthen our social compact. Our compact is strengthened when more successful Singaporeans provide career mentorship to those who might not have easy access. There is scope for the tripartite partners to extend and scale structured mentorship programmes across the different Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs), especially, in part, ITEs and polytechnics. The labour movement is committed to build such a compact and would share more information soon on its mentorship centre. Next, on our youths who are in the workforce in their first or second careers. These younger Singaporeans, as I shared in Budget 2022, comprise of Generation COVID-19. Generation COVID-19 is now coming out of the previously uncertain job market. As our economy recovers, we are also faced with structural labour issues. Certain job pathways are still undervalued and the demands of employers are rapidly evolving alongside job opportunities, in sunset and sunrise industries. This affects not only non-degree holders, but our degree holders too. The 2022 Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey found that, compared to 2021, more graduates remained jobless six months after leaving school, though wages are higher if they land a job.[+7 sentences] To help Generation COVID-19 emerge stronger from the battle, I would like to focus on two areas. First, enabling Generation COVID-19 to tap on overseas work opportunities; second, allowing for smoother career conversions. First, on overseas work opportunities. Singapore's strong performance during COVID-19 has buttressed its reputation as a regional hotspot for business opportunities. The question then becomes: how can we enable our people to capitalise on this, and go out in the world to explore and build greater networks to bring opportunities to other Singaporeans? Supporting our young people, including Generation COVID-19, would be a good way to start. Earlier this year in January, Young NTUC conducted a focus group discussion with 38 working younger Singaporeans. Sixty-six percent indicated their interest in working overseas.[+4 sentences] They believed that this would be beneficial to their longer-term career prospects, gaining essential transferable skillsets and building professional networks. Support measures cited include remuneration support, relocation incentives and of course, mentorship with others who have been in their position. We could consider changing the current IHL overseas exchange programme for our students into something a more work-based or company-centric. This can give our students an early taste of working overseas while sharpening the studies to work nexus. The Government can look into providing targeted support such as co-funding remuneration and relocation incentives where the placements are done in strategic industries, where Singapore is short on talent.[+16 sentences] Next, on smoothening career conversion. As I mentioned in Budget 2022, the pandemic has hastened the emergence and decline of multiple industries, professions and skillsets. It is not inconceivable for youths to now find themselves on the opposite end of the growth trajectory, unable to seize opportunities in bright-spot industries due to skills mismatch. Even if our younger Singaporeans choose to specialise in a bright-spot industry now, no one is to say how bright the said industry would be in a few years' time. I believe this has partly contributed to anxieties amongst our younger people. They do stress over having to choose the "right" first degree. This could partly be due to the fact that only the first degree is being subsidised by the Government, or too much emphasis is on getting it right the first time. An anecdotal example of this is one of our ex-colleagues with over 10 years of experience. Recently, at age 35, she decided to switch from the public sector to merchandising and commercial space, which was her lifelong interest. Her biggest challenge in making the switch was the lack of experience or training for the new role. Although she possessed transferable skills, her employers were looking for the latest skills and experience, even for an entry-level position. Thus, she took up an entry-level position, took a pay cut and juggled working full-time and night classes. This anecdotal experience shows that the pains of career conversion can similarly affect those who are relatively younger. The current support for career conversion is weighted towards older workers. This is rightly so, as older workers do find it even more difficult to switch careers. However, the ever more dynamic economy will require Singaporeans to make more career switches even earlier in life. A failure to switch decisively earlier can result in downstream difficulties to seize growth opportunities or even going down the wrong career trajectory. I encourage the Government to consider offering graduated subsidies and loans for second diplomas and degrees to younger Singaporeans.[+5 sentences] This can help in making career pivots easier and earlier. Mr Speaker, Sir, as Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong mentioned, this Budget is centred on forging ahead together as a nation amidst the uncertain global environment. The Labour Movement will work closely with the Government and employers to do right by our workers and ensure that no worker gets left behind. We need to ensure that the successes enjoyed by Singapore today will continue to be shared with future generations by enabling our young workers to be well-equipped and form our new future-proof workforce. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Ang Wei Neng.
Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast)1277 words
[+16 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, as our DORSCON status was just lowered from Yellow to Green, it sends a clear signal that Singapore has truly exited the pandemic. But it is not all back to normal as we face many challenges on the global and national front. The Budget unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Mr Lawrence Wong is one which acknowledges that Singaporeans are going through hard times. The financial help and various relief schemes announced are much welcomed and recognised as a means to help Singaporeans cushion what might be a hard landing to come. I believe that resilient families are the pillar of our society. I would like to focus on what the Budget means for families and give some suggestions on what can be done for Singaporean families. Many people in Singapore feel that property prices are high. Back in 2011, I recall relating this to our former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. I told him that young people were very concerned that property prices are very high in Singapore. His reply was very sharp. Mr Lee said that if Singapore continued to be successful, property prices will remain high or continue to rise. If we think deeply about it, land has no value unless there is a future for it. The more successful Singapore is, the more expensive the property prices will be given the limited land supply. I share this anecdote also to remember Mr Lee, for whom we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth later this year. If we followed the paths of many successful cities like Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, New York, it is likely that many young Singaporeans will never be able to own their own homes in their lifetime. It is thus important that HDB flats are made accessible to young Singaporeans. Budget 2023 has provided additional support to this specific group of Singaporeans and the support ranges from an additional Build-To-Order (BTO) flat ballot for families with children and young married couples aged 40 and below who are buying a flat for the first time, as well as an increase in the CPF Housing Grant for first-timer families purchasing resale flats.[+3 sentences] Apart from pricing, there is also timing. In May last year, National Development Minister Mr Desmond Lee said that median waiting times for new BTO projects should come down slightly to four to 4.5 years, compared to the previous waiting time of four to five years. In 2017, HDB also introduced a scheme where construction on selected BTO projects in Sembawang, Sengkang and Yishun started about one year ahead of their launches and buyers can expect to get their flats in less than three years from the time they selected their flats. Minister Desmond Lee also announced in early this month that HDB would resume building 2,000 to 3,000 such Shorter Waiting Time (SWT) flats per year by 2025.[+7 sentences] I hope HDB will not stop there. I urge HDB to continue to increase the supply of SWT flats to comprise up to 50% of all BTO flats and possibly shorten the waiting time to below two years. This is important especially since home-buying has accelerated in the wake of the pandemic and many young Singaporeans who are working from home more than ever want to create their own work-from-home (WFH) havens. The significant increase in SWT flats would still be relatively safe in terms of the Government's commitment and capital expenditure. Having 50% of the SWT flats would most likely not lead to many empty and unwanted flats as demand for HDB flats is unlikely to drop by 50% overnight. Having 50% SWT flats would still allow HDB sufficient leeway to adjust its pace of building BTO flats according to changing demands and this would go a long way to help young families to get their flats earlier. The perennial issue of how to raise Singapore’s birth rate is a challenging one. But for those who do choose to have children, easing the financial burden always helps. I am glad that couples will be given an extra $3,000 as part of the enhanced baby bonus for eligible Singaporean children and now raising from $8,000 to $11,000.[+16 sentences] I am also happy that it would start immediately which is very important as this relates to my personal experience. When the Baby Bonus scheme was first introduced by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong during his National Day Rally speech in August 2000, it was a big thing. It was a sharp reversal of the two-child policy. At about that time, my wife was also pregnant with twins and that was the third pregnancy. We thought we would be able to receive the baby bonus. However, the bonus was only meant for babies born after 1 April 2001. While my wife was due to deliver in mid-April 2001, our twins were born earlier in March. We did not get our baby bonus, which is why I am delighted that the Government today is dispensing the enhanced baby bonus with immediate effect after Deputy Prime Minister Wong’s announcement on Valentine’s Day. I also applaud the decision to double the paternity leave to four weeks from 1 January 2024. This is a welcomed move. However, what I have heard from the ground is that more childcare leave is required. Currently, an employee is entitled to a maximum of two days of childcare leave per year if the youngest child is between seven and 12 years old, regardless the number of children they have. One teacher related to me recently that parents were reluctant to fetch their children home even when they were sick in school. The parents often request the school to hold their children at the sick bay until the parents finish work. Childcare is a marathon, not a one-off effort after birth. Hence, I hope Deputy Prime Minister Wong could consider increasing the childcare leave to two days per child when the child is in primary school, up to a cap of say four days a year. In Singapore, Mr Speaker, Sir, the percentage of seniors over the age of 65 living alone or with other seniors increased from 29% in 2010 to 41% in 2020.[+1 sentence] This represents a 41% increase over just 10 years and the proportion is growing. Apart from the concerns arising from the elderly living alone, it is clear that if this trend continues, the elderly will require smaller living spaces which are easier to maintain. I suggest that the Silver Housing Bonus scheme, which enables the elderly to supplement their retirement income if they downsize to a three-room or smaller flat, could be made more attractive to improve the take-up rate. The cash bonus, which is currently up to $30,000 for seniors 55 years and above, could be doubled. At the same time, the resale levy, if any, could be halved. For the elderly who move to a smaller flat and want to stay within close proximity to their families to promote family bonding even while maintaining a separate household, HDB could provide additional subsidies.[+3 sentences] The above suggestions to improve the Silver Housing Bonus scheme would not only provide elderly Singaporeans with more options to increase their retirement nest but would also increase the pool of resale flats to better meet the housing needs of families with young children. Mr Speaker, Sir, it is time that we signal to all Singaporeans and employers that we are serious about encouraging more Singaporeans to have babies and that we are ready to help ease the burden of bringing up their children by making it easier for the parents to stay near to them. I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Derrick Goh.
Mr Derrick Goh (Nee Soon)1629 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, we ended 2022 and emerged stronger from COVID-19, demonstrating resilience and trust between our people and the Government. However, Singapore and the world entered 2023 facing a confluence of continued geopolitical tensions and slower economic growth alongside persistent inflation and higher interest rates. We therefore cannot take our past successes for granted. Notably, Budget 2023’s expenditure is 2.6% lower than last year, although higher than prior Budgets before the pandemic.[+6 sentences] To me, this signals the balance of fiscal prudence along with continued support to Singaporeans to overcome near-term challenges and secure long-term prospects. Last year, during the GST debate, I expressed my concerns from my Yishun residents about the impact of a GST increase to the cost of living, so I am heartened by Budget 2023, given the improvements to the Assurance Package and further enhancements to the Permanent GST Voucher scheme. Evidently, the Government has followed through on its commitment to make a regressive GST increase even more progressive, when taken as a whole. The pandemic has changed the way we live significantly. As such, it is critical for the Budget to continue focusing on how we can move Singapore forward to increase our standard of living and strengthen our social fabric. There are three areas I would like to highlight: one, strengthening our economy and workers by better supporting and transforming our SMEs; two, enhancing the safety and security of Singapore by boosting efforts to tackle worrying crime trends, particularly scams and youth crimes; thirdly, fostering greater social harmony by improving the way we manage community disputes. The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) forecasted our economic growth to be between 0.5% and 2.5%, down from 3.6% last year.[+6 sentences] Our SMEs continue to navigate a challenging environment with many forces beyond their control. Higher business costs are being driven by higher energy prices, wages and a tight labour market where vacancies are hard to fill. The interest cost businesses will shoulder will easily be twice given that rates are expected to be higher for longer, while revenue growth are less certain despite some bright spots, like China’s early reopening. Given the above, some local businesses have given feedback that Budget 2023 seems to be pro-distribution and seemingly a shift away from pro-business growth. They wonder if this means that they should fend more for themselves and expect less help going forward. If indeed Budget 2023 is being rated by many as an A-grade for families and individuals, I suppose SMEs would score this Budget as a B or even a C! Nonetheless, while much has been said about more support being provided to families, individuals and vulnerable households, I do note that Budget 2023 has also factored some help for our SMEs. I welcome the extension of the Enterprise Financing Scheme and the Energy Efficiency Grant and am also glad to see the Government attempt a new initiative to address the jobs and skills mismatch through the Jobs-Skills Integrators.[+10 sentences] While I look forward to more details, I hope this can benefit SMEs, particularly smaller ones lacking a full HR function, through more relevant training with a targeted outcome to improve productivity. Crucially, better training and job-matching will give residents who are unemployed opportunities to learn by doing and gain confidence to re-enter the workforce. Hopefully, more incentives can be considered for SMEs to take a chance to hire them to fill the vacancies and help improve the mismatch between labour supply and demand. I also hope that the administrative journey for grants and support schemes can be made more seamless. This will improve accessibility for more SMEs to benefit swiftly and minimise the need for intermediaries and documentation. This view is echoed by the industry such as the Association of Trade and Commerce, from which I had earlier received feedback. Beyond the tactical aspects of the above schemes and from a strategic perspective, I wonder if these business initiatives, including the innovation grants, are enough to help our local businesses and SMEs capture new opportunities in the longer term. Globally, the green movement is gathering momentum. For Singapore, we progressed with our Singapore Green Plan 2030 and committed to net-zero by 2050 alongside many countries. Our SMEs must hence: one, boost efforts to reduce carbon footprint and two, be ready to capture new business opportunities. Little has been said in this Budget specifically about SMEs strengthening capabilities in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). I am glad that Budget 2023 retains existing measures such as the Resource Efficiency Grant for Energy as well as the Enterprise Sustainability Programme by Enterprise Singapore.[+17 sentences] However, I am uncertain if these are enough to help push our SMEs to step up their game sufficiently and in time as changes in the ESG space are rapid and exponential. Notably, MNEs are focusing on ESG to meet demands from regulators, investors, lenders and consumers. They in turn expect their SME suppliers to be ESG-compliant. Our SMEs must therefore adopt greener practices in their delivery of services and products. They too must apply the mind-boggling methods to measure, track and report their own carbon footprint. Otherwise, they could risk being disregarded as a preferred supplier or worse, being entirely left out of tomorrow's greener supply chain. Beyond internal transformation, SMEs who are more advanced in their green transition should venture out and capitalise on regional prospects such as helping businesses in the region to accelerate their sustainability efforts. Businesses should also be encouraged to co-create and contribute to the establishment of a sound classification and regulatory framework for voluntary carbon credits in Singapore to develop a transparent, liquid and scalable market. These efforts will help establish Singapore as a growing and leading green hub, leveraging on and furthering our status as a trusted international centre for finance, consulting and legal services. In a nascent and growing market, it is not size but trust, credibility and speed that are fundamental, which we should capitalise as our competitive advantage. Like ESG, not much was discussed specific to digitalisation in the 85-page Budget speech, so I hope that the Government can re-emphasise the continued measures to encourage SMEs on their digitalisation journey, which is difficult but also very rewarding. To SMEs who may give Budget 2023 a B or C grade, I would encourage them to adopt a holistic view and factor the generous support measures provided by the Government over the last few years. Nonetheless, I hope the Deputy Prime Minister can clarify the Government's commitment to local businesses in this Budget debate so that we can achieve a vibrant and growing SME and startup landscape, which can offer good jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans. Sir, of equal importance to economic progress is the continued assurance of the safety and security of our people as well as the strengthening of social bonds. I welcome Budget 2023's estimates for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)'s expenditure to increase by 4% compared to a 1.8% increase last year, which I previously said seemed low. I hope this represents the re-doubling of efforts to tackle some worrying trends such as scams as well as youth crimes. Despite commendable efforts by MHA and its partners, scams remain unabated and continue to evolve. Year 2022 saw both record cases and losses of $660 million. So far, close to $1.3 billion has been lost to scams in the past two years. A further $146 million would have been lost last year had our Anti-Scam Command not partnered banks and telecommunications companies or telcos for a swift intervention.[+12 sentences] I look forward to hearing more details of MHA's plans in terms of resources and capabilities to fight scams with a concerted all-hands-on-deck strategy, through deeper partnerships with entities in the digital value chain. Singapore has often been lauded as one of the safest cities in the world and we should extend this standing into the digital sphere. Our youths, our perpetuating crimes are also under the spotlight. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) reported that the majority of those arrested for e-commerce scams were youths and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) also highlighted a worrying trend of more youths abusing cannabis. Some abusers were even as young as 14 years old. Our youths are the future of Singapore. I hope that MHA can continue to engage with all in the ecosystem – schools, parents, youth groups, media and so on – for swifter intervention so that their lives will not be marred by crime. Finally, overcoming the crisis of our generation has taught us that our most formidable reserves lie not in our financial strength but in the unity and resilience of our people. We therefore need to keep investing and working on improving our social harmony as attitudes and norms evolve. One significant way our lifestyles have changed is with hybrid working. Many continue to work and learn from home, which inadvertently results in more friction in our high-density heartlands, particularly regarding noise. I raised this point at last year's debate and want to again highlight the need for a better framework to manage and resolve community disputes. In my recent engagement with Dr William Wan, Chairperson of the Community Advisory Panel on Neighbourhood Noise, he too echoed the need for more legal teeth to make attending mediation and to strengthen the enforcement of agreements between quarrelling neighbours.[+4 sentences] Residents have also provided feedback that the current framework remains cumbersome and hence ineffective. I look forward to the Government's consideration of the Panel's proposals as well as other measures for more proactive engagement by agencies, for quicker and more effective dispute resolution. Sir, in conclusion, I would describe this Budget as big-hearted and forward-looking. I support the Budget and am confident that it can move Singapore and Singaporeans forward in a new era.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Melvin Yong.
Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas)1591 words
[+9 sentences]Mr Speaker, I stand in support of the Budget, which seeks to chart Singapore's path towards a new era. My speech will touch on how we need to strengthen our social compact for a post-COVID-19 world, specifically, how consumers will need to adapt to a new era of higher for longer inflation to better protect themselves and the need to urgently refresh our social compact to engender a safer workplace for every worker. Sir, let me first declare my interest as President of the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE). Budget 2023 comes on the back of significant global inflationary pressures and at a time where central banks globally have significantly hiked up interest rates to tamper inflation. I am therefore heartened that the Government has recognised inflation concerns and will provide significant cash assistance under the Assurance Package to provide comprehensive help to the majority of Singaporean households. During my house visits over the weekend, many residents told me that they appreciated the various help packages, in particular, the CDC vouchers, which come in very handy as they purchase their daily necessities in the neighbourhood. At CASE, we believe more can be done to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions. That is why we launched the Price Kaki mobile application – to allow consumers to compare prices of household essentials, groceries and cooked food and help to stretch their dollar. I am glad that Price Kaki has been well received by consumers. Since its launch, the application has been downloaded more than 130,000 times.[+5 sentences] With our sizeable community of price transparency advocates, CASE will expand Price Kaki this year by introducing community and gamification features to benefit more consumers. Through these features, we hope to encourage our advocates to share deals with other like-minded users and help them compare prices across a wider range of products and promotions. We will also integrate Fuel Kaki, a fuel price comparison website, into Price Kaki. This is but a first step in Price Kaki's evolution into a one-stop platform for all consumers. To combat and mitigate the issue of shrinkflation, I announced last year that CASE would display unit price for items listed on Price Kaki. Today, we have unit pricing displayed on over 1,200 items, including groceries and beauty products.[+7 sentences] Consumers have told us that this is an effective way to compare prices and found this feature useful. I am happy to announce that CASE will expand unit pricing to more than 6,000 items on Price Kaki by the third quarter this year. But the efforts of CASE alone cannot stop shrinkflation. I call on the Government to mandate the display of unit pricing. With digital price tag displays, I do not see a reason why companies, particularly our supermarkets, cannot do this. In my Budget debate speech last year, I called on major supermarket chains to do their part to cushion the impact of rising prices and support everyday consumers. I am heartened that these major supermarket chains have leaned in to do just that. Last year, NTUC FairPrice provided customers with more than $11.5 million in savings through various discount schemes.[+14 sentences] FairPrice will extend these schemes for 2023, which is expected to cost the social enterprise an additional $10 million more. FairPrice is also absorbing the additional 1% increase in GST for 500 essential items for the first half of 2023. Elsewhere, Sheng Siong provided a 4% discount for senior citizens while Giant is absorbing the GST increase for 700 essential items. Beyond supermarkets, DBS has also launched an initiative to subsidise five million hawker meals for Singaporeans and residents for a year. Sir, I applaud the actions of these big Queen Bee companies and I am certain that there are numerous more. I encourage all companies with economies of scale to do the same in the coming months. Lastly, we need to pay special attention to vulnerable consumers who might be struggling to adapt to a new era of high interest rates. Our sandwiched class, in particular, often face a financial squeeze due to the need to care for their elderly parents and younger children. According to a report on the auctions market by real estate consultancy Knight Frank, more homes in Singapore could be put up for auction this year as the number of bankruptcy petitions rise. I would like to ask how the Government intends to support the sandwiched class, many of whom had bought their homes in a "dream scenario" of low interest rates but will now be required to refinance in a high interest rate "nightmare"? We also need to address the vulnerabilities of consumers in markets where high prepayment sums are involved but the sector does not provide any prepayment protection. I will speak more about mandatory prepayment protection during the Ministry of Trade and Industry's (MTI) Committee of Supply (COS) debate. Mr Speaker, in addition to refreshing our social compact to adjust to a higher for longer inflationary environment, we urgently need to review and strengthen our compact on what a safe workplace means. Sir, I am dismayed at the current poor workplace safety and health (WSH) outcomes despite the many interventions in the past two years. Last year, a total of 46 workers did not make it home after work.[+11 sentences] This is a significant increase from 37 workplace fatalities recorded in 2021. Even more appalling was the news that many of the lives lost were due to a fundamental lack or inadequate workplace safety arrangements that could have and should have been in place. In September 2022, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) introduced the Heightened Safety Period (HSP). In the initial three months of its implementation, we saw a promising decrease in the number of workplace fatalities. The Labour Movement had hoped that the HSP would prove decisive in preventing workplace accidents, injuries and fatalities. Unfortunately, this has proven to be a false dawn, with the number of cases rising once again in the later months. We are barely two months into 2023 and we have already recorded five fatalities at the workplace. This is simply unacceptable. Could it be that companies had become complacent with the HSP’s end within sight? While I am heartened that the HSP has been extended for another three months, I would like to urge the Government to seriously consider making permanent some of the HSP requirements, such as higher penalties for WSH breaches, so that we send a strong message that every worker deserves to return home safely at the end of each workday. Sir, the NTUC and our affiliated unions have been stepping up efforts to enhance safety standards at the workplace. We have trained more than 1,000 union leaders as safety ambassadors. We have also worked with our unionised companies, through the Company Training Committees (CTCs), to redesign jobs and to redesign the work environment to improve workplace safety.[+1 sentence] One example is the sectoral tripartite committee on rail safety comprising the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and our two rail operators. If we compare the data from January to June 2022 versus the same period in 2021, the number of workplace injuries for rail operations fell by almost 30%.[+4 sentences] Sir, the majority of our workplace accidents involved SMEs and more than four in five workplace fatalities recorded in 2022 involved non-unionised companies. I would like to call on all companies, regardless of size, to work with NTUC and our unions to improve safety standards at your workplace. I would also like to reiterate my call on the Government to provide greater support to our SMEs to adopt new safety technologies at the workplace. I will speak more about this at MOM’s Committee of Supply debate. Beyond the dangers at the workplace, I have also raised numerous times, in and outside of this House, on the importance of ensuring the safety of our workers’ transportation. I strongly urge the Government to end the practice of allowing workers to co-mingle with goods and heavy equipment at the rear deck of lorries.[+5 sentences] Man and machine simply do not mix and should not be placed together, especially at the rear deck of lorries. I will further elaborate this point during the Ministry of Transport (MOT)’s Committee of Supply debate. Sir, physical safety is but one measure of a worker’s total workplace safety and health. A more comprehensive social compact on providing a safe workplace needs to also incorporate mental health. I first spoke about the need to give employees a right to disconnect from work in July 2020. MOM, together with NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), subsequently published the Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being at the Workplace in November 2020 which included recommendations on after-hours work communication.[+7 sentences] Almost a year later, in September 2021, the Alliance for Action on Work-life Harmony issued a policy template to help companies set clearer boundaries for after-hours work communication. But how many companies have actually adopted these recommendations? Are company leaders simply paying lip service to disconnecting after work, but continue to expect their employees to respond anytime and anywhere? I will speak more about this during MOM’s Committee of Supply debate. Sir, Budget 2023 helps Singapore chart the way forward in the post-COVID-19 era. As the Government does its utmost best to help Singapore and Singaporeans navigate an increasingly complex global environment, I hope that more emphasis can be placed on strengthening our social compact to better protect consumers and workers, because every consumer matters and every worker matters. Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Henry Kwek.
Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry (Kebun Baru)1253 words
[+15 sentences]Mr Speaker Sir, I stand in support of the Budget. Deputy Prime Minister Wong mentioned that as part of the Forward Singapore exercise, we would rethink about how we want to augment the range of care and support options within the communities. This will, of course, enable our seniors to age in place. And therefore, I would like to contribute to this discussion today. Many seniors wish to stay in their familiar surroundings, near family, friends, neighbours or even their beloved pets. As they age, however, their lives become more restricted and they require more assistance near or within their homes. More resources are needed to care for them. Caring for seniors is not an easy task for any society; yet, Singapore faces unique challenges as one of the fastest ageing societies in the world. There will be fewer young Singaporeans to support each senior, as many of our youth are needed for our economy and our society. We must not over depend on foreign manpower to care for our seniors because even our neighbouring countries are ageing fast. Furthermore, as a small city-state, our seniors cannot just move to rural areas with cheaper cost of living and there is not enough land for purpose-built retirement villages for everybody. Therefore, we must retrofit our existing towns and estates to meet their needs. To achieve this ageing-in-place vision, we need bold and creative ideas. I would like to share four of them today. First, we need to ramp up care and supporting services in the estates. In his Budget speech, Deputy Prime Minister Wong proposed reviewing the operating model of Active Ageing Centres (AACs). Last year, during the Healthier SG debate, I shared with the House how Kebun Baru provides assisted living services through a piloting a communal centre at Block 115 in Kebun Baru. I feel that we must increase the number of AACs substantively and ensure they are thriving communities for seniors, offering loving care, connecting them to doctors, nurses, social workers and assisted living providers, while encouraging our seniors to stay positive and healthy. Additionally, we should consider providing overnight respite and palliative care for seniors living nearby.[+34 sentences] AACs can be largely staffed by part-time and full-time seniors and be homely rather than clinical. Residents can work with the community to make it feel more like a group home and conversions can therefore be done relatively cheaply. Furthermore, in both HDB and private estates, we need assisted living service centres staffed by a combination of foreign and local part-time workers. Not all seniors can afford a live-in domestic helper so we need such centres to provide affordable and basic services to a number of our seniors. Secondly, I hope the Government can review transportation options within HDB estates and private neighbourhoods so as to support seniors and healthcare professionals. HDB can consider allowing AACs and service providers to potentially use golf carts and other small service vehicles to transport frail travellers. This is already done in airports today. It is done in Sentosa Cove. Town Councils today have small service vehicles where we shuttle things around. It is conceivable that we can introduce a small number of these in the estate to support our seniors, as long as we start with proper trials and enforce speed limits. For private estates, I feel that autonomous vehicles can provide that last-mile connection to MRT stations, bus stops, healthcare facilities, and AACs. This will help seniors who no longer drive or cannot afford private hire cars. These autonomous vehicles can contribute to congestion. Therefore, we should focus their use to seniors, the disabled, and parents travelling with infants. Kebun Baru's Teachers Estate, with many seniors, could perhaps host a pilot programme if the Government is interested. Third. I hope that the Government can adopt IT aggressively to take care of our seniors. We must get as many of our doctors, nurses, and therapists to adopt tele-consulting for suitable seniors. We should allow as many services as possible for seniors to be coordinated digitally and deploy AI-powered services to interact with and care for our seniors. Over the last few months, AI developments have skyrocketed. I am now far more optimistic about leveraging AI to support senior care. ChatGPT, for example, can understand, communicate, break down tasks and complete them. In the future, imagine, seniors could use AI-powered services over the phone or use home-speakers to ask the AI to coordinate appointments, seek general help and even get basic counselling. Although it seems impossible now, the technology already exists. Just last week, I tried an AI service that played the role of a psychologist. I am not saying that it replaced one, but it is just supplementing whatever care that our service providers are providing. AI will also radically reduce the cost and time to develop software. Today, AI can already write low-level code automatically if you can articulate clearly what needs to be done. Therefore, seasoned programmers can achieve much more with less. It will also significantly lower the barrier for non-IT professionals, including our healthcare professionals to learn computing. With some training, they can quickly come up with good proof-of-concepts and pass them on to IT professionals to scale up. In short, AI will help turbocharge IT, which can be used to improve the lives of our seniors. My final point is, we should empower our seniors to tap into their own assets to pay for services related to ageing-in-place. HDB owners today already can do Lease Buybacks, but more solutions are needed, including for those in private estates. Recently, DBS and CPF started a collaboration where DBS would offer a loan using houses as a pledge at an affordable interest rate. Seniors do not have to pay back the loan until the house is sold many years down the road. This loan is used to then top up their CPF account, allowing them to earn higher interest rates and enjoy higher monthly payouts from CPF. I hope that MAS can perhaps consider mandating more banks to join this programme and also increase the loan quantum, which would benefit more residents from private housing estates. We should also think about changing our insurance regulations, permitting seniors to withdraw a portion of their life insurance for aged care. This reduces the amount due to their estate and it lowers returns, but this is a fair trade-off to allow our seniors to fund these services using their insurance. Also, we can consider introducing a default Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for seniors who have lost mental capacity and do not have an LPA in place.[+8 sentences] This will allow the next-of-kin or the Government to use maybe just a portion of their wealth, depending on the net worth, to provide the necessary care. To conclude, Singapore has taken many steps in the past decade to prepare for ageing. We have increased healthcare capacity, fine-tuned financing frameworks and enhanced befriending services. Through Healthier SG, we can also help our seniors stay happy and healthier for longer. Even as we prioritise the roll-out of Healthier SG, we must also act swiftly to create the infrastructure and the care services and a whole ecosystem to allow our seniors to age-in-place with dignity. To do so, we must pilot and scale ideas, while also supporting, but not supplanting, caregivers. Finally, we must find a way to embed genuine care and concern in our system, even as we roll out more and more complex solutions. So, let us get to work!
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman.
Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman (Marine Parade)1705 words
[+18 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, I am encouraged by the central theme of this year's Budget, “Moving Forward in a New Era”. As we continue to find ways to deal with the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic, we must also set our eyes on how we can prepare Singaporeans for a post-pandemic future riddled with uncertainty. My esteemed colleagues and I in the Labour Movement strongly support and welcome the slew of measures introduced to strengthen our social compact, thereby helping Singaporeans cope with the rising cost of living amidst global uncertainties. Strengthening our social compact means uplifting marginal groups as we progress in society. During the Budget Statement this year, I was heartened to learn that the Government will be allocating more resources to help all Singaporeans, especially our brothers and sisters in the vulnerable facets of society. As we chart our way forward, we ought to remain sensitive to the challenges and concerns of our vulnerable workers, especially our lower-wage and middle-income workers. The best way to address our workers' concerns over inflation and cost of living is through better wages and better jobs. There is more we can do for vulnerable groups in society. The reality is that rising prices would continue to exert pressure on all income groups, especially our middle-income workers. Our middle-income workers are vulnerable to inflation because as prices for goods and services rise, their purchasing power decreases and it becomes more difficult for them to afford their daily necessities. Overall, based on public data published by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Department of Statistics, we note that when adjusted for inflation, median wage growth between 2014 and 2019, which was pre-COVID-19, stands at 21.5%. However, the median wage growth of certain worker groups lags behind the overall median wage growth. This is particularly so for our Associate Professionals and Technicians (APTs) and Professionals who have experienced real median wage growth of between 5% and 8% during this same period. As Deputy Prime Minister Wong also shared in his Budget speech, Singapore's headline inflation is likely to remain high, at least for the first half of this year. As such, some of our middle-income workers will continue to feel its effects. As such, inflation affects different income groups differently, and middle-income workers are often hit the hardest as they are unable to receive Government subsidies and support as their salaries tend to be higher than the qualifying threshold. Those who need to take care of dependents may also feel the pinch more. As a result, inflation can have a significant impact on their standard of living and ability to save for the future. Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) enhancements took effect from January 2023, including a rise in qualifying monthly income cap from $2,300 to $2,500.[+2 sentences] My fellow labour MPs as well as myself have lobbied for such reviews to WIS over the years, and this is heartening to note and is certainly a step in the right direction to assist the sandwiched class amidst rising costs. There is room to better address the needs of our middle-income workers. In this regard, I would like to take the opportunity to call on the Government to expand the eligibility criteria and increase payouts for those with dependants to cover more middle-income workers. To improve liquidity further, we recommend the Government phase out benefits more gradually by changing cash or CPF ratio and index pay-outs to cost of living.[+14 sentences] That way, more middle-income would be covered, providing them with more support to cope with rising prices. In Malay, Mr Speaker, Sir, please. (In Malay): Our lower-wage workers play a critical role in maintaining essential services and keeping the nation running during times of crisis or disruption. This includes workers in sectors such as cleaning, security and waste management. In my Budget speech last year, I spoke about the ongoing efforts to support lower-wage workers as we transitioned to a post-pandemic future. In recent years, the collective support from various stakeholder groups to uplift the incomes of our lower-wage workers have been encouraging. NTUC, alongside our partners, will remain committed to help workers improve their income security, give them confidence to progress in their careers and help improve their quality of life overall. As mentioned in my Budget speech last year, NTUC and our tripartite partners have worked hard to enhance and expand the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). With the PWM, workers can be assured that they will not only receive a minimum wage corresponding to their sector and occupation, but also defined career pathways that would ensure that their wages increase as their skills and responsibilities increase as well. The four ladders of the PWM – skills, wages, productivity and career – work hand in hand to ensure that our lower-wage workers can seize the opportunity not just to earn an honest day’s work, but with the dignity they place in their jobs, to progress upwards and better secure the future for themselves and their loved ones. NTUC first mooted the PWM in 2012. Subsequently, the PWM was implemented in 2014 for the cleaning sector, followed by the security and landscape sectors in 2016 and the lift and escalator sector in 2019. Since 2014, we have progressively rolled out PWMs every two to three years. As we strive to narrow the wage gap between P20 and P50, PWMs have also been recently introduced in Retail, Food Services, Waste Management, and just recently, this week, for the occupations of Administrators and Drivers. Combined, the PWMs will cover around 135,000 full-time lower-wage workers, which represent almost half of the total number of lower-wage workers. Together with Progressive Wages measures recommended by the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers such as the expanded Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) and the Progressive Wage Mark (PW Mark) accreditation, this would benefit up to 94% of lower-wage workers.[+2 sentences] An important facet of the PWM is how wages are linked to skills upgrading and productivity gains – workers are equipped with the required skills to be better and more efficient in their jobs and empowering them to scale up the career ladder, like in the case of Senior Escalator Specialist Jeremy Yap. He has worked in the industry for over 20 years, and he harbours hopes of advancing to become a foreman and has recently taken one step closer to achieving his goal by taking a course to become a lift and escalator inspector. Under the Lift and Escalator PWM, his salary is expected to increase from $2,600 to $3,820 by 2028.[+11 sentences] As he continues his path towards becoming a foreman, his wages may also be even higher. Jeremy’s aspirations show how our workers can benefit from the clear progression pathways set out via the various PWMs, with some like Jeremy, setting their sights to achieve even more. (In English): The Progressive Wage Model (PWM) has proven and will continue to benefit our lower-wage workers and assure them of wages and work prospects on a sustainable basis – and this is especially crucial in an era of rising cost of living. The success of PWM so far lies in our not-so-secret ingredient of tripartism, where unions, employers and Government come together to reach win-win-win outcomes for all parties. This is why PWM is a sustainable model to uplift wages, welfare and work prospects for our workers. This secret ingredient of tripartism is not new – and it is built upon another important ingredient that unions and management have worked hard to establish and strengthen – harmonious labour-management relations (LMR). We do not take either LMR or tripartism for granted. NTUC will continue to work with our tripartite partners to further bolster efforts to uplift our lower-wage workers, and where necessary, resolve any differences through established processes. Another area that I would like to talk about is the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS). LQS refers to the minimum salary that employers must pay to local employees to qualify for various work pass types, for example, E Pass, S Pass and Work Permit. Previously, employers hiring foreigners were only required to pay the LQS to local workers whom they need to count towards their foreign worker quota. From September 2022 onwards, firms hiring foreign workers needed to pay all local employees at least the LQS, which is currently at $1,400 for one Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), or relevant Progressive Wages, which are higher.[+4 sentences] This expanded requirement has had an impact of uplifting more than 100,000 full-time resident employees, who were previously earning below $1,400. While the implementation of LQS is necessary to protect local workers and prevent the displacement of low-wage jobs by foreign workers, it can also potentially be problematic for lower-wage workers, because the current amount of $1,400 is much lower than the P20 wage levels of about $2,800 in 2022. Further, most of the Progressive Wages are also pegged at higher amounts, ranging from $1,500 for a data entry clerk to $3,330 for a principal lift and escalator specialist. PWMs are also designed such that their wages are increased at an agreed-upon rate annually. At NTUC, we are cognizant that efforts to help lower-wage workers is a long-term strategy. Therefore, I would like to call on the Government to annually review the LQS to ensure that wages keep pace with wage convergence targets for our lower-wage workers.[+8 sentences] This can be done through a mechanism like the National Wages Council, which already provides annual guidance on the range of progressive wage growth for lower-wage workers. In conclusion, as we move forward in a new era, looming uncertainties will continue to put pressure on vulnerable groups in society and test our resilience as a nation. Despite the challenges, many Singaporeans have stepped up to support our vulnerable groups. The truth of the matter is that uncertainties will continue to persist in the year ahead. However, I am confident that we will overcome any challenges that come our way. As we tread uncertain waters, the Government and NTUC are committed to helping workers in every step of the way, help them achieve better wages, welfare and work prospects. Rest assured – NTUC will continue to champion all workers because every worker matters. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker7 words
[+1 sentence]Senior Minister of State Heng Chee How.
The Senior Minister of State for Defence (Mr Heng Chee How)2044 words
[+9 sentences]Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to join the debate. I speak as a Labour MP and my focus will be on advancing the interests of senior workers. Sir, from my engagements with residents, workers and union leaders, the rising cost of living is the one of the top concerns amongst Singaporeans. The top concerns of our senior workers, aside from the cost of living, will be that of retirement adequacy and healthcare cost. At the same time, NTUC has embarked on a series of dialogues with workers from different segments under the banner of Every Worker Matters Conversations, what we call EWMCs. This is part of our efforts to refresh our Compact with Workers. The ones that engaged senior workers received the same feedback. We have highlighted this clear feedback to our Government partner as part of our Social Partnership and are keen to work with Government and tripartite partners to proactively and systematically strengthen existing arrangements to make further progress – to reassure senior workers as they prepare for retirement. The feedback from senior workers validates the strong emphasis that Government, NTUC and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) have put on improving senior employment and employability. In July 2022, the Government raised the Statutory Retirement Age and the Re-employment Age ceiling by a year each, to 63 and 68 respectively. In January 2023, the Government adjusted upwards the CPF contribution rates for senior workers above the age of 55 according to a tiered structure.[+11 sentences] Deputy Prime Minister Wong announced in this year's Budget of increments in CPF contributions for senior workers in January 2024, again according to a tiered structure, with provisions of transition offsets to help employers. These moves are the fruit of tripartite negotiations and agreements struck under the auspices of the Tripartite Workgroup on Strengthening Support for Older Workers. These are concrete steps taken in the national interest and that reflect correct understanding of the realities that Singapore faces. I am happy to see our work in the Tripartite Workgroup being executed, bringing concrete benefit to our senior workers and the companies they serve. I thank the Government for enabling this through policy and legislation. At the same time, I want Singaporeans to know and to appreciate that our ability to do this, the whole of Singapore's ability to do this – to come together, to negotiate strongly from each side and then to reach a fair and feasible balance of interests and to then implement it effectively and in good faith in a timely manner – reflects the deep trust and value that tripartism has yielded for Singapore and Singaporeans over many years. In many other countries, they try to do similar things but they meet with protests and they meet with paralysis because of the lack of trust. The recent protests in European countries such as France serve as a good example. When that happens, actually nothing happens. You just get gridlock and everybody, all parties suffer – degradation. So, the fact that we are actually able to make progress for a segment of our workforce, namely our senior workers to be able to provide better for them, better assurance for them in terms of their employment, giving them a chance and a choice, to prolong it where they can and when they want and, at the same time, in the course of that to provide better for their retirement adequacy – this is no small achievement, and we must never take this competitive and social advantage for granted as we go on and tackle more and, indeed, endless challenges. The goals set out under the Tripartite Committee for the older workers set 2030 as the year where we would aim to achieve the outcomes.[+1 sentence] And we have eight more years. We aim to reach the statutory retirement age of 65 by then and the re-employment age ceiling of 70 by then and for equalising the CPF contribution rates for those aged 55 to 60 with those of younger cohorts while strengthening the rates for who those who are older in a tiered manner.[+7 sentences] I started the speech by sharing that cost of living, retirement adequacy and healthcare cost are top concerns for senior workers. Enabling senior workers to earn more, save more and earn for longer are, therefore, clearly among the best ways to help generate resources and engender confidence in these areas. Hence, Mr Speaker, Sir, as we complete the implementation of the agreed first tranche of moves, namely, the increase in the statutory retirement age and re-employment age ceiling by one year, we should consider a suitable juncture to commence tripartite deliberation to formulate the second tranche of moves to progress the Workgroup’s recommendations. This process will take time because there is a need to consider economic and business realities and the experience of the first tranche implementation and what would constitute a viable balance and pace. Hence, while we need not rush, should not rush, we should make sure that there is sufficient traction along this journey and that such tripartite discussions be convened in due course, in good time. I thank the Government for extending the Senior Employment Credit (SEC), which was to end in 2023, by two years, to 2025. SEC improves the wage competitiveness of senior workers and strengthens their employment and re-employment prospects. The Employment Rate for senior workers aged 55 and above has reached new highs in the course of this pandemic period. So, for example, for those who are aged 55 to 64, it went up by three points, from 67.6% in 2019 to 70.6% in 2022; and for those aged 65 to 69, it went up to 47.5%, which is an increase of 2.9% from the year 2019.[+3 sentences] These are the figures as reported by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). These we achieved despite the challenges of COVID-19. We must make every effort to anchor these gains as the Singapore economy emerges from COVID-19 to meet new challenges. In the 2019 Budget debate, I had argued that enabling proper part-time work options is an important way to unlock a latent workforce among Singaporeans so that more middle-aged or older Singaporeans who may have had to leave work can instead stay in work or return to work, and companies in turn will be able to retain more good workers and have a bigger local workforce to meet their varied needs. I therefore also welcome and support the Government’s extension of the Part-time Re-employment Grant to 2025.[+6 sentences] The past three years of COVID-19 have demonstrated many more possibilities of flexible work arrangements (FWA) that can be leveraged for win-win outcomes, when used wisely and not mechanically. I certainly agree with the elegant elaboration earlier by my parliamentary colleague Ms Yeo Wan Ling on this aspect and I shall not belabour the point. It has proven to be something that we have all learned – companies, workers – that under given circumstances, it can really be win-win and we should leverage that the best we can. I urge Government to strengthen its support for companies to acquire the practical know-how on the smart use of FWA to strengthen their manpower models and sources. Next, onto the raising of the CPF contribution ceiling from $6,000 to $8,000. There is every reason to encourage saving more and earlier to strengthen retirement adequacy. The raising of the CPF contribution ceiling from $6,000 to $8,000 does that and I fully support it.[+6 sentences] Raising the ceiling has the advantages of upkeeping the real value of CPF savings and enables workers to also benefit from longer periods of compound interest. This move benefits both current cohorts of Senior Workers as well as future cohorts of Senior Workers. Because then you can already begin to earn and save more into your CPF at the wage range of between $6,000 and $8,000 as the rates are raised. I had called for such a review in last year’s Budget debate and I am, indeed, happy to see the Government had taken this move this year. I urge that such reviews be carried out periodically for the reasons that I have discussed. Next, Government's pledge for basic retirement adequacy. Deputy Prime Minister Wong was frank in noting that different age cohorts of workers will likely face different prospects and challenges in saving for an adequate retirement. I am heartened by his pledge that Government will formulate different ways to help Singaporeans achieve basic retirement adequacy and is actively studying ways to do so, beyond the steps that have already been taken such as those in this Budget.[+9 sentences] A volatile economic environment heightens the risks of intermittent unemployment. Rapidly changing business models and technology force an equally rapid need to reskill and raise the risks of premature exit from the workforce. Market failures result in sticky lower-end wages. These are just some of the challenges that can complicate and undermine retirement adequacy. The future may yet bring even more and even harder tests. This is also why retirement adequacy features as a significant concern among the senior workers as revealed in NTUC’s survey. I therefore agree that this is a critical area to pay attention to because it concerns a basic sense of security and confidence of Singaporeans. The NTUC wants to work closely with Government in this area to see what additional innovations can be arrived at that can yield practical and sustainable improvements, and then to help Government and to help all of society rally our workers’ support for those. Sir, I move on to fair treatment for Senior Workers. MOM recently released the interim report of the Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness.[+13 sentences] I look forward to the final report of the Tripartite Committee and the implementation of its recommendations to further strengthen workplace fairness for all. Beyond individual cases and claims of age discrimination, I hope that the tripartite partners can work closely to leverage on in-company mechanisms to proactively ensure that senior workers are given due consideration and opportunity for training and skills-building. Relevance of skills is a factor that all parties agree will materially impact the employability of a worker. Hence, all efforts aimed at boosting employment and earnings of senior workers will be seriously hampered if they are rendered skills-obsolete through not being given fair consideration and opportunity compared to younger workers. The NTUC-initiated Company Training Committee (CTC) is an in-company mechanism that can serve this purpose of ensuring fair and productive conduct of training for all workers, including senior workers. I thank the Government for the strong support in Budget 2022 via the $100 million grant to spur the scaling up of CTCs to accelerate purposeful training and skills-building in workplaces to meet rapidly changing needs of businesses and workers. I hope that we can fully leverage on such relevant mechanisms and regulations to accelerate fair and productive outcomes for companies and workers. Finally, Mr Speaker, Sir, people I have spoken with who are aware of the contents of this year’s Budget have all said that they felt that the Government understood Singaporeans' concern over inflation and cost of living, and that the Budget measures – ranging from CDC vouchers to Assurance Package payouts to enhanced GST(V) vouchers, conservancy rebates and more – all these go to show the Government’s sincerity and responsiveness to help citizens cope better in this challenging environment. It is appreciated by Singaporeans. Sir, what the past few years have clearly taught us is that big unknown surprises can catch us unaware and set us back even as we must grapple with known big structural challenges in our economy and society. At the same time, we also learnt in tackling and overcoming these that unity, rationality, ability to build and mobilise trust and always wanting to build a better future Singapore are priceless traits that will set us apart as a country and as a people. So, we, today’s generation and the generations to come, must learn this and must always remember this and come back to this basic tenet which is that we will be stronger together. Sir, I fully support this Budget because it allows us to realise the future and the dreams for Singapore and Singaporeans and, for workers, it makes every worker matter.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms He Ting Ru.
Ms He Ting Ru (Sengkang)2767 words
[+19 sentences]Mr Speaker, after last year’s Budget of "Charting Our New Way Forward Together", it is fitting that this year, we are "Moving Forward in A New Era", with the focus being about looking to a new era – even if it is one that is uncertain and unpredictable. I agree that the sense of post-COVID-19 normality is more than welcomed, but we must slow down and give pause. We must ask ourselves about the important lessons from the last three years and ask if we as a society have really "returned to business as usual". Recovery from COVID-19 has not been equal for all of us. Some have lost loved ones. Some close to us may still be suffering the debilitating effects of long COVID. I would be surprised if anyone in this House can say that they do not have residents still seeking assistance because of lingering economic or other adverse effects of the pandemic. "Resilience" has been a key word used to describe the ambition of this Budget – and the ambition that we as a nation need to trek down to ensure we are ready to navigate future challenges that might come our way. Yet we can take lessons from psychology on what "resilience" really looks like and apply that to how we build resiliency as a nation. In psychology, resilience is not just about harnessing our own individual inner strength. It is also about strengthening our ability to deal with challenges. This is done through building a connected network, learning from our experiences and taking care of our own mental and holistic well-being. Applied to the context of a country, this means that we must not find resilience by simply looking inward or becoming more insular, but by continuing to stay connected within the communities around us in Singapore and also with the world at large. We must be open to constructive criticism and be enlightened enough to translate mistakes into lessons learned. We need to walk together, bringing every corner of Singapore along equally on the journey forward. We cannot do it alone. That is why it is critical that we have policies that holistically ensure the well-being of our economy, our society and our planet. Focusing on our economy, we know that our most vulnerable may find themselves between Scylla and Charybdis, moving from the pressure that movement controls had on incomes, to the inflation that accompanies the loosening of restrictions and economic recovery. In particular, there is concern that poorer segments of the population are facing greater food insecurity in the wake of the pandemic, something exacerbated by recent increases in food and hawker prices. Various NGO-commissioned studies have recently found that up to one in 10 Singapore households are food insecure. I note from a reply to a Parliamentary Question (PQ) I posed last year that the Ministry for Social and Family Development (MSF) does not specifically track the food insecurity experienced by our vulnerable households, although there are various workgroups and initiatives to provide support. I believe that there is room for our Ministries and agencies to specifically track this issue to measure the effectiveness of our support schemes.[+15 sentences] We should strive to understand shifts in nutritional consumption that occur in response to fluctuating macroeconomic circumstances. It is imperative that we ensure that lower-income households do not end up drastically cutting back on nutrition given ever-increasing costs. In this, I am reminded of a retiree who came to my Meet-the-People Session who told me that he was sometimes reduced to filling his stomach with white bread because anything else was a luxury. The impact of this falls disproportionately on children and the elderly, with many adverse health effects taking root from poor nutrition. If left untackled, it has the potential to further entrench generational poverty. Poor nutrition also has an effect on outcomes for various chronic illnesses like diabetes and cancer. In the wake of Healthier SG's launch and the pivot to preventative healthcare, we must pay more attention to this. Aside from the support packages announced this year, there may be many initiatives and support schemes available to help these residents, but a lack of awareness and the scarcity effect means that vulnerable residents do not always get the help that they need when it is most needed. Next, I move on to the well-being of our society and people. This year's Budget emphasises the family and its well-being. Enhancements to the tax and financial incentives for young couples to have children, along with the introduction of tripartite guidelines to allow parents to request for flexible working arrangements are undoubtedly welcome. However, economic incentives and tinkering around with the way our workforce is structured are only part of the greater picture when it comes to building a Singapore for families not only to survive, but also to thrive. Additionally, headline announcements in Budget 2023 appear to leave out groups of our population, namely, those of us who are unmarried or childless. They are Singaporeans too and are and will continue to be part of our families. This is concerning in an age where we trumpet greater inclusivity and claim to celebrate diversity, especially as the number of single Singaporeans has increased across all age groups, according to the 2020 census. In particular, single unmarried mothers are left out of the enhanced baby bonus tweaks and our singles are generally more adversely affected by increasing rental prices. It therefore behoves us as a society to ask that our enhanced baby bonus and parenthood policies are extended equally to all parents.[+4 sentences] Children of unmarried mothers do not have a choice. Most single, unmarried mothers, given a choice, would also hope to be part of a stable, fulfilled marriage. Yet, in our haste to ward off the hex of "encouraging single parenthood", we appear to either be punishing innocent children born to unmarried mothers or encouraging hasty, possibly unsuitable marriages. This may lead to further difficulties down the line, ending in strife within the home or even divorce. Moreover, children born to single unmarried mothers only form under 1,000 of live births each year, according to 2021 statistics and thus the fiscal impact each year of the equalising of financial support to children of single unwed parents would not be significant. Changing demographics that lead to more singles across all age groups is also why we believe that singles should be allowed to purchase new flats from the age of 28, rather than the current 35.[+6 sentences] My Sengkang colleague, Mr Louis Chua, spoke about the limited impact of the housing shortage on married couples seeking homes since statistics show that singles tend to apply for smaller flats. COVID-19 and its aftermath seems to have left behind epidemics of loneliness and mental health struggles. These are threats to the progress that we hope to make in strengthening our country's resilience. Recent studies indicate that larger numbers of Singaporeans are feeling isolated in a post-COVID world – from working adults speaking through Zoom, to students missing out on the crucial years of social life that tertiary education usually brings to the 30% to 40% of senior citizens who still feel isolated even while living with family. A recent Duke-NUS Medical School study also quantified what psychologists have known for a while; that loneliness has real, measurable consequences on physical health, negatively affecting life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. While loneliness is something we may associate with retirees, studies found that younger people were in fact more likely to report loneliness across cultures, genders and geographies. I hope that we look into this phenomenon urgently here in Singapore, as I believe more must be done to understand the scale of the problem, its effects on the well-being – physical and mental – of our people. I was also alarmed to read that the initial report from the Singapore Youth Epidemiology and Resilience Study found that one in three youths in Singapore report internalising mental health symptoms like sadness, anxiety and loneliness, and that one in six externalise symptoms such as hyper-activity and aggression.[+1 sentence] This is compared against the one in seven estimated to suffer from a mental health condition in the general population. An estimated up to 75% of these people never seek professional help or treatment.[+28 sentences] These are sobering facts, and while our Ministries and various agencies are aware of the magnitude and severity of the issue and are working on it, it is no secret that even if individuals or their families are willing and can afford to seek help now, wait lists for professional help are long. Untreated mental health issues in children and adolescents can leave lasting damage into adulthood. These also correlate strongly with poverty, reduced life expectancy and reduced potential and achievements in all aspects of life. Compared with adolescents, mental health struggles may be even harder to spot in children under 11. Young children can struggle to describe their emotions and often the only way they can express themselves is to "act out". These signs can be so subtle and easily characterised as "bad behaviour", which means that adults often try to punish or discipline these children to make them "behave". These children consequently miss out on getting the support and treatment needed. In fact, the problem may be exacerbated by well-meaning but ultimately erroneous interventions to treat the behaviour rather than the cause. Indeed, many educators and mental health professionals that I speak to have shared anecdotal observations that our youngest members of society do seem to be struggling recently and are unable to communicate to us how bewildering they have found the last few years. We owe a debt to those who work with children as psychologists, counsellors and therapists in our schools, our medical institutions and private practices. They often go over and beyond in trying to secure the well-being of our children. Yet many of them speak of concerns stemming from a lack of central regulation and of burning out due to a lack of resources and manpower. More awareness and sensitivity, both at the individual and systemic levels, is required to spot issues early and to get our children and people the help they need. Compounding the problem are knock-on effects that having a family member struggling with mental health has on the rest of the household. As the saying goes, a parent is only as happy as their unhappiest child. It is so easy to forget that in order to care for kids – especially kids that are struggling, whether because they are differently-abled, or living with mental health conditions – we also need to care for our parents. Yet, there is often little discussion on and even less support for this aspect of the parenting journey. Parents and carers can themselves be overloaded and overlooked as they strive to do everything, sometimes inhumanly possible to support their struggling child. This is despite research showing the important role that the home environment plays in helping children learn to regulate themselves. And we know that a dysregulated family often causes challenging situations to spiral. Even as we continue to ensure that our existing networks and services provide the necessary support for our parents to lean on, an overwhelmed parent is going to find it challenging to navigate the myriad schemes and agencies that provide the help needed. We need to help our parents along, to offer them support, compassion and non-judgement. We need to let our parents know that it is alright to struggle along with our children. We need to let our parents know that sometimes it is okay to not enjoy being a parent – especially when the going gets tough – and that non-judgmental help and a listening ear is available to offer suggestions and strategies to make the tough hours and days a little easier. I fear that sometimes in our haste to encourage more young Singaporeans to have children, we focus so much on how fulfilling the journey is and neglect to address and normalise how we as parents do not have all the answers and can find it really difficult too. This may have an inadvertent consequence of adding to the stress that parents feel, especially when faced with glossy social media feeds of how everyone else seems to "have it together" when reality leaves them feeling exhausted and terrified. Psychological and medical research indicate that stress and clinical burnout can be equally damaging to physical health. Stress is not just in the mind, but can affect people physiologically too, especially chronic stress, which leads to high levels of cortisol, which in turn affect the body's ability to regulate blood sugar, reduce inflammation, regulate metabolism and formulate memories. Just on the work front, Mercer's 2022 Global Talent Trends Survey found that Singapore workers were highly stressed, with 85% feeling at risk of burn-out, and one in five are feeling de-energised at work, double that of the Asia average.[+4 sentences] For parents, there appear to be fewer studies on the severity of this phenomenon in Singapore. While platforms such as Parentwise have highlighted the real presence of and danger posed by parental burnout, more accessible and effective measures must be in place, particularly as COVID-19 changes from pandemic to endemic. Among lower-income groups, research in the last decade shows links between stress, deprivation and how this can sometimes lead to bad choices, including counterproductive economic behaviours. One of the forms of chronic stress facing Singaporeans is the lack of sleep. Singapore often ranks high amongst the echelons of sleep-deprived cities, coming in third out of 43 in one of these latest surveys.[+2 sentences] Sleep deprivation, like chronic stress, has adverse effects on an individual's ability to function. And sleep deprivation also extends to our children. Duke-NUH recently found that teenagers are only sleeping an average of 6.5 hours a night rather than the recommended eight hours for optimal development and functioning.[+3 sentences] Many of us have children who cry when woken up before the crack of dawn for school, because they are just not getting the required sleep that their growing bodies and minds need. We must pay more attention to this issue and mitigate some of these ill effects while recognising that they are not a panacea. One possibility is to implement later school start times to align with the natural body clocks of our children and adolescents. My colleague, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, previously put forward this proposal and I hope we seriously move to implement later school start times, particularly when less of the workforce is now required to be at the workplace at 9 am.[+13 sentences] Our policies and systems need to be flexible and compassionate enough to keep up with the rapidly changing and challenging environment that our children, parents and families find themselves in. While we have policies with good intentions, our systems have to be mindful of the amount of mental effort and resources needed from individuals to battle challenging situations. Our systems also need to work together with the people whom they serve to reduce the stress that our people and families are facing in this uncertain world. It is only when we and our systems are optimised to extend help and support without judgement that we can lay that crucial feeling of security that is essential for us to build resilience. Moving to the macro, the topic of climate resilience was briefly mentioned in the Budget. Yet, climate resilience goes beyond energy security and adapting to rising sea levels. It encompasses building the resilience of our people and businesses to navigate the climate crisis and ensuring a smoother transition to a more equitable and sustainable future. Blue-collar workers, migrant workers and gig workers will bear the brunt of rising temperatures more than others. With Singapore's temperatures rising twice as fast as the rest of the world, more measures will be needed to enable them to adapt to the effects of extreme heat. Extreme heat and weather events also affect our families. Households in rental flats report that the temperatures in their homes during the day can be quite unbearable, particularly during the dry and hot seasons. More needs to be done to sustainably cool down our buildings, and we need investment in better cooling infrastructure when building flats. So, it is that even as we support this year's Budget, I hope that we will make true and meaningful progress that our people will feel supports them to better navigate the challenges facing us as individuals, as families, as a society and as citizens of the blue planet that we call home.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Gan Thiam Poh.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio)1149 words
[+6 sentences]Speaker, Sir, the outlook for the global economy is uncertain. Achieving economic growth in the current environment will be challenging, due to the decoupling of the US and China, the Ukraine war, supply chain disruptions and rising interest rates, among other reasons. With the slowing global economy, one after another, tech companies are retrenching worldwide. And there may be ramifications across other sectors. We need to stay prudent and exercise great care in how we manage our expenditures. I would first like to speak on the property market. We need to keep our property prices in check. I agree with the Government's cooling measures to curb the demand while striving to pump up the supply which was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.[+4 sentences] Despite the dark horizons around us, Singapore remains attractive as a hub for many investors. The demand for housing is very strong. Robust demand from investors who have the confidence to invest in Singapore also helps to drive the demand for rental private properties. Would the Government review and consider boosting the supply of public and private housing even more? Will HDB be able to increase the supply of HDB flats from the current 25,000 to even more, such as 50,000 per year for the next two years? Would HDB consider doubling the number of new Executive Condominiums (ECs) supply?[+27 sentences] Similarly, will the Ministry of National Development (MND) consider implementing measures to support and facilitate the development of more private housing, especially on some lower density land plots in the central region? Some are occupied by ageing, even decrepit or neglected buildings, which require high maintenance and repairs. Many are in good locations with excellent amenities. Redeveloping these plots and intensifying the use of these mature centrally located estates will make better planning and financial sense. There is a need to check on the HDB resale market too. The increase in grants to first-timers for the purchase of resale flats is certainly welcome. However, the sudden and rapid increase in the prices of resale flats without the support of economic fundamentals would affect some more, such as non-first-timers, including divorcees and hard-pressed families with unfortunate circumstances who can only buy resale flats. This also has a serious impact on those whose incomes are unable to progress to match the rapid increase in resale prices. There are suggestions to apply the same income ceiling for Build-To-Order (BTO) applicants to the buyers of resale flats and to disqualify those who can afford to pay exceptionally high Cash Over Valuation (COV) from buying resale flats. On the other hand, there are others who want the income ceiling caps to be removed to help the sandwiched classes who can neither afford private housing nor are eligible to buy public housing. I urge the Government to review these feedback and suggestions and consider a balanced solution. The limited supply, rise in EC prices as well as the rise in prices in private property in areas other than the central core area are other contributing factors to be dealt with. I am in full support of ensuring stable public housing prices, which is important for providing a social safety net for Singaporeans. The people trust the Government to safeguard Singaporeans' interests and be the buyer of last resort for public housing. On the one hand, this may have led to the perception that property prices will only go north, not south, thus driving up their demand and prices. HDB flats are perceived to be risk-free and underwritten. On the other hand, this has consequently led investors into thinking that the same would apply to private property. I would like to suggest that the marginal buyer's stamp duty (BSD) be better reviewed to have different set of rates for HDB resale flats, private residential and non-residential properties and to be progressively tiered based on per square foot instead of purchase value. It can be applied to both buyers and sellers. This may help cool down the market, especially the HDB resale prices and tax more equitably high cash over valuation (COV) above the average and the norm. For young families, in addition to the extra chance for balloting as first-timers with a child, the Government may consider another extra chance for those with two children and so on. May I suggest that such applicants be prioritised ahead of other applicants? Likewise, those who have registered at the Registry of Marriages (ROM) should also be prioritised ahead of those who have not. Next, I would like to appeal for the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) to be extended to skilled tradesmen. I am heartened that the PWM covers workers in the cleaning, security, landscape, lift and escalator, retail, food services and waste management sectors. The PWM will ensure sustainable wage increases for these workers that commensurate with their skills, productivity and career progression. Together with the Occupational Progressive Wage and Progressive Wage Mark, these are concrete measures to show that we value their work and compensate them adequately. These changes are steps towards strengthening our social compact to be a more inclusive society that values both cognitive and technical skills. I echo the appeals of NTUC's Secretary-General for skilled essential tradesmen like plumbers, electricians and air-conditioning technicians to be included in the PWM too.[+4 sentences] Many of our local skilled tradesmen are graduates from our Institutes of Technical Education (ITE) or polytechnics. We should recognise and value their expertise and experience and ensure a sustainable supply of locals into these trades to meet our national needs. Finally, about building a Singapore Core in the maritime sector. The seafaring career has always been tough but it presents many opportunities to Singaporeans when they achieve a certain level of competency as their skillsets are highly sought after in Singapore's vibrant and diverse maritime industry. The Sail Milestone Achievement Programme (SailMAP) is an excellent initiative to encourage Singaporeans to take up a sea-going career. Tripartite partners contribute up to $50,000 to each local seafarer through this programme when he achieves key milestones in his career.[+3 sentences] I would like to seek the Minister's support to extend the SailMAP to our Special Limit seafarers who move ships such as bunker tankers and passenger ships up to 30 nautical miles off Singapore waters. They are essential to our country as we aim to develop Singapore into a premier global hub port. We need locals to provide high service levels for maritime-related activities in port. As an international maritime hub, it is important to have a core group of Singaporeans to keep the supply chain going in these vital sectors. We should also be looking at uplifting their wages to retain more of these seafarers as they form the backbone of the team navigating our local waters and we should provide a holistic career for them.[+2 sentences] This will also decrease our dependency on foreign labour in this sector. With that, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Dr Shahira Abdullah.
Dr Shahira Abdullah (Nominated Member)1164 words
[+10 sentences]Mr Speaker, Budget 2023 beckons us to move forward into a new era. We have transitioned to DORSCON green after three years of battling COVID-19 and it seems that we are finally returning to normalcy. However, there are still many worries that Singaporeans are grappling with. Geopolitical tensions from the year-long Russian-Ukrainian war and US-China rivalries still remain. There have been massive tech layoffs from big tech companies like Gojek, Amazon and Google throughout the last few months. Resale housing prices rose for the 11th straight quarter. The cost of living is rising. It becomes almost imperative for the Budget to protect and support Singaporeans, particularly those who are more vulnerable. A Budget reflects the priorities of the Government. Therefore, I am heartened that this year's Budget reflects a kinder approach – one that is listening to its people amidst many uncertainties. The enhanced permanent GST Voucher Scheme and Assurance Package ensure that more help is directed to the low- and middle-income to overcome the effects of high inflation and GST. Seniors will be receiving higher CPF payouts and eldercare subsidies.[+1 sentence] Platform workers will have increased CPF contributions. Employers hiring senior workers, ex-offenders and persons with disabilities will be given wage subsidies.[+22 sentences] These are good measures with positive socioeconomic objectives and I am very happy that we have this in the Budget. I recognise that there is already a strong focus on the people. Nevertheless, I wish to speak about a certain vulnerable group that I believe we can do more for. I am speaking of the unwed single mothers – the mothers who are trying to make a living while raising their kids, who are doing their best to provide for their kid so that he is not left behind. It is already hard raising a child alone. It is even harder when our policies become inadvertent structural roadblocks that result in unequal access. I recognise this Government's pro-family policies and myself agree that parenthood within marriage increases the likelihood of a stable family. However, we should consider the knock-on effects of certain policies on the children of these single mothers, namely the Working Mother's Child Relief, Parenthood Tax Rebates as well as certain housing policies. It is imperative to remember that measures that penalise single mothers or leave them out of society-wide benefits ultimately do not just penalise these women but also penalises their children. It affects how these children live and grow and their experiences during this time. It affects the possibility of social mobility and it affects their future. Let us not forget that in the end, these children will form the next generation of Singaporeans. The Parenthood Tax Rebates and Working Mother's Child Relief require the single unwed mother to marry the biological father of their child. An ancillary consequence of some of these measures is that a single mother may feel they are penalised so drastically as a single parent in the Singapore system that it is impossible to walk away from a bad or abusive relationship to avail themselves to the Budget incentives. If that does happen, the likelihood that the family unit breaks down is higher. The child will suffer. From unwed single mothers, I would like to now speak about working mothers. The Working Mother's Child Relief was converted from a percentage-based calculation to a fixed sum. I appreciate its intent to redirect more support to lower- and middle-income working mothers. Nevertheless, I question if doing so may also unwittingly deter, especially the higher-end middle-income mothers from having more children. Notably, Singapore is trying to raise the total fertility rate (TFR) and having this change might discourage higher-end middle-income mothers from having more children. May I ask then ask what percentage of working mothers currently will have less tax relief after this change? Can I suggest instead that we keep the fixed sum as the minimum amount of tax relief a mother should get while retaining the percentage-based calculation to a maximum of $80,000?[+20 sentences] In this way, it will strengthen the Government's position to encourage families to have more children as well as encourage mothers to return to the workforce after having their children. Thirdly, I applaud the increase in paternity leave from two weeks to four weeks. Having had my first child last year, I realised how I really needed my husband for support those first two weeks and wished that he could have returned to work later. Postpartum recovery is difficult and the additional two weeks of support is invaluable. As such, could I request that this increase in paternity leave start a bit earlier to benefit more couples? I understand that companies may need time to adjust to this change in manpower, so can I suggest increasing in tranches, starting with three weeks in the second half of the year and to the full four weeks in January next year? Finally, while this big-hearted Budget aims to promote and support the creation of families, I hope employers and workplaces also take it upon themselves to be kind as well. The increase in paternity leave as well as unpaid infant care leave is a welcome move but one that may be taxing on the workplace. Even with these positive changes, I find that a supportive workplace and colleagues are just as important. One common example is when children fall sick and children fall sick a lot. You cannot predict when it will happen. Working parents may need to take urgent leave. I have heard many stories of workplaces giving parents a hard time when this happens. It may be mandated by the Government but it may be frowned upon by the company – unofficially, I must add. Therefore, I would like to implore to employers to instil a strong pro-family work culture where flexible work arrangements are the new norm and where work-life balance is respected. As a working individual as well, be kind enough and willing to pick up the slack during these moments when a parent has to take some leave as it will ease the parent's mind greatly. I hope this kindness extends to other working individuals with other needs as well, like adult children who are caregivers to their elderly parents or the new mother who just returned from maternity leave and needs time and a place to express her milk. Let us not wait for incentives and legislation from the Government. We can all do our part. Only then can we move the needle for supporting families in Singapore. Budget 2023 ensures that help is directed to those that need it the most. It does not forget the vulnerable groups and redistributes the wealth so that those who have more will give more.[+2 sentences] But change can be difficult. Not all will be happy. However, I still believe that this Budget is leading Singapore in the correct direction and I fervently hope that future Budgets will carry the same spirit and intent.[+1 sentence] Mr Speaker Sir, I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Miss Cheng Li Hui.
Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines)1720 words
[+15 sentences]Mr Speaker Sir, the 2023 Budget covered a breath-taking set of initiatives ranging from growing our economy and supporting businesses to safeguarding our climate resilience. Along with the many other policies introduced in preceding Budgets, we have a comprehensive coverage for Singaporeans and Singapore that is the envy of many. Today, I wish to dive a little deeper into the topic of strengthening our social compact and building a Singapore Made for Families. Whilst the Budget provides generous support in the form of Baby Support Grant, Paternity Leave, Baby Bonus Cash Gift and Child Development Account (CDA) to name just a few, I believe that there are many reasons why young couples still find it challenging to want and have children. In speaking with many young residents and many others who reach out to me, I often ask about these reasons and I will share some of them today. The Government has provided much housing support for young couples to stay near their parents so that childcaring duties can be shared. However, this may not be a suitable arrangement for some. There seems to be an increasing number of young parents who want to raise their children themselves, they want to be very much more hands-on and involved. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the children may sometimes bond more with their grandparents or domestic helpers. Grandparents also tend to dote on grandchildren and even "spoil" them, inadvertently undermining the relationship between the child and his or her parents. The parents would also need to step in to impose discipline and dial back on the indulgence. In order to support parents who want to be present and active in raising their children, it is essential that we provide them with sufficient infant care and childcare facilities near their home or workplace. I visit my new BTO estate Green Verge mainly on weekends. Why? This is the result of the lack of ready infant care and childcare facilities when they moved in. For new BTO estates, the tender for childcare and other amenities only go out after residents start moving in, resulting in a demand and supply problem.[+8 sentences] Therefore, some young couples continue to live with their parents on weekdays when they cannot get childcare places in their new estates and stay over in their new homes only on weekends. For example, Green Verge residents had to register for childcare in Green Meadows, Green Ridges and Sunshine estate’s childcare around them. As their children assimilate to the childcare centres, they usually would not move their kids back to Green Verge's new childcare centres that are now up and running. As a result, we end up with a tight situation in terms of childcare spaces in Green Meadows, Ridges and Sunshine, and the parents there have to in turn register their children in Green Verge’s new estate. The savvier ones in the upcoming estate, Green Court, have also put their children on the wait list there. So, at dismissal time, you will see parents, grandparents and helpers crossing roads to each other’s estate to pick up the children. Near, but not so near. This messy arrangement creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety on everyone. Infant care and childcare facilities are critical in new estates and should be ready as residents move in.[+2 sentences] A recurrent observation, and no surprises here, is that the cost of raising children is prohibitive. Many are appreciative of the generous support provided by the Government and this year’s measures are most welcome, it is still however only a small part of the total investment in a child over the course of their first 18 years. Many people I spoke to shared that if the cost of raising a child could be managed on a single income and/or with flexi-work arrangements, it would then be a much more appealing prospect.[+5 sentences] Modern couples want quality time, more hands-on parenting. If our society can evolve to allow both parents to take turns to be around, it will motivate more couples to have children and it will serve our next generation well too. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government encouraged the work-from-home model. Many that I have spoken to said it was a good thing for the family and enabled parents to spend more meaningful time at home. Perhaps this is a hint at what we can do to encourage more young couples to build and expand their families. Incidentally, it is about 14 months since work-from-home is no longer made default on 1 January 2022.[+31 sentences] I wonder if there has been an uptick in babies birthed nine months after the periods of work-from-home. Mr Speaker, I have often advocated for more assistance for couples undergoing Assisted Reproduction Techniques (ART). This is a very important group of people that will help improve our total fertility rate (TFR) because they are determined to have children. However, they face challenges conceiving. And no, I am not asking for more money in co-funding – yet. I believe there are practical things that we can do to help them. Many couples told me that they give up because of the process. It was not just about the physical strain but it is incredibly, emotionally draining. They are often in a confused state as doctors rush them through the consultation as the queues are long in public hospitals. In one hospital, they had to keep repeating their responses to the same questions at every appointment, since each time, it is a different doctor. They feel bad holding up the queue and wondered why the records were not updated. Different hospitals offer different experiences. What I know is the National University Hospital (NUH) used the same doctor from consultation to stimulation and birth, which some feedback that it felt more personable. Last week, I did a support group Zoom session with a small group of ladies who underwent ART in different public hospitals. It was to understand their experiences in the respective hospitals. After the session, a few ladies texted me to say the session was quite informative. It will help to prepare couples to prepare for what to expect in reality as they listen to the different experiences. They said that they want to listen to more such sessions in case they want to try again in future. One added that she had not thought of asking the doctor those questions and the support group had prepared her better. I realised that each and every hospital had their unique way of managing their client. Hence, I am going to make some suggestions on possible areas of improvement. Hospitals should hold more online dialogues to prepare couples better. Doctors and couples sharing would help them to have more insights and help allay their concerns as they embark on this journey. Provide couples with counselling. Some commented that they leave the doctors’ consultation feeling confused and discouraged and if they are lucky, an experienced nurse might notice and help them with their queries. It is cost effective and also efficient to have experienced nurses counsel couples. A few joked about how they went into the counselling room and were shocked that it was about financial counselling and felt that it was so transactional at a time when they were struggling with their emotions. We need more specialists. Some centres are too swamped and felt chaotic and rushed in consultations. Another joked that it was so crowded that they stood around waiting for appointment and it was like musical chairs, because when someone stood up, another would quickly take the seat. The good thing, of course, is the medical chit was always issued at the beginning of the appointment as the consultation and scan would usually take half a day. My final point is, can we consider opening a new fertility centre in the eastern region to serve our BTO estates in Tampines, Sengkang and Punggol?[+12 sentences] I would like to share the journey of Mrs Neo. She said her experience in Hospital B was not as good as in Hospital A. They are both public hospitals. She presented her set of known problems to Hospital B’s doctor, but the doctor did not really follow up on her medication unlike the doctor in Hospital A. But the doctor in Hospital A had gone into private practice and due to co-funding being only for use in public hospitals, she did not follow. She added that she did not get to see the doctor in Hospital B throughout the stimulation process or scans, and the nurses would just relay the messages. While the waiting time was shorter, she felt that the experience was less personable and felt like a wasted cycle. She is now on her fourth try, this time in a private clinic. An embryologist was there to explain things she felt she should have learnt in her first cycle such as the grading of embryos of 5AB, 4BB, 3BCs. And this is why online talks might be useful. She has decided this would be her last cycle as the psychological pain was too trying. She wanted to discard her last frozen embryo and the embryologist spoke to her for nearly half an hour and persuaded her to keep it first. Can we look at portable co-funding like portable subsidy in Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) for chronic kidney and nursing homes? Could we have private-public collaboration to help sub-fertile couples after they have had two failed in vitro fertilisation (IVF) attempts in public hospitals? Can we use co-funding or reduce the cost of pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) so that couples who have suffered miscarriages can have a better chance if they wish to choose a better grade embryo for transfer?[+6 sentences] The Ministry of Health (MOH) together with NUH had the pilot project on PGS some years ago. What is the outcome of that? Do we have more information to improve the couples’ chances with PGS? Mr Speaker, Sir, the Budget for 2023 is generous in supporting young families and society and I wholeheartedly support it. I also ask for attention on some of the more nuanced aspects of addressing our TFR, including facility support for families in new estates and work-from-home support. For the women undergoing ART, we need more community support and information and simpler, easier and supported response from the hospitals.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Yip Hon Weng.
Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang)1585 words
[+15 sentences]Mr Speaker, Sir, this Budget is a roadmap towards a better future. Even though we are recovering well from COVID-19, there are still many geopolitical headwinds to contend with. The ongoing war in Europe and the tensions between the US and China have caused much uncertainty on a global scale. A small country like Singapore is certainly not spared. In this Budget, I am pleased that we are taking a bolder approach to increasing revenue. This is by getting those who can afford it to contribute more, thus lessening the burden on the less privileged. In my Budget response, I will focus on seniors. This topic is close to my heart for several reasons. Firstly, we are a super ageing society. Next, we should view the silver sector as an opportunity, not as a burden. Finally, my constituency is home to many senior residents and it is my purpose and duty to represent their voices. Foremost, I will share my perspective on the need for a holistic review and consolidation of senior-related initiatives. I will then share my thoughts on areas where we can do more for seniors, which were not touched on in this Budget. To start, we should systematically review all the senior-related initiatives and consolidate them as far as possible. This is with the goal of making them more easily understandable and accessible for our seniors. Many new or enhanced schemes to provide for seniors were announced during this Budget. They ranged from financial incentives such as the Cost-of-Living Seniors’ Bonus, to promoting senior employability and retirement adequacy through the Senior Employment Credit extension and increment of CPF contribution rates, to top-ups for the ElderCare Fund and the Community Silver Trust.[+33 sentences] There are also existing schemes for seniors today. This includes the Pioneer and Merdeka Generation packages. While all these initiatives are appreciated, it is important to consider whether there is a holistic view of all these schemes. The many disparate initiatives cause confusion. And seniors do find it difficult to navigate through all the help that is available to them. We should consolidate and communicate these schemes to seniors better. Such schemes have to be translated into tangible support. I often hear from seniors during my house visits or at the market that they do not fully comprehend or know how to access many of the schemes. Our grassroots team is always glad to do our best to address these queries. But the fact remains that many of them are unable to understand the schemes without external help. Some do not even know that they are beneficiaries of these schemes. This is concerning. Effective schemes should be implemented and communicated in ways that make them readily accessible to beneficiaries. Beneficiaries should not have to go through multiple agencies or move mountains to get the support they need. That can be discouraging, considering that our older generations have always had a fiercely independent spirit that helped build the Singapore we have today. I will now move on to speak on areas where we can do more for seniors. First, we need a greater push to help seniors benefit from the digitalisation of services. Digitalisation is the way forward for our Public Service. It enhances service delivery and productivity. It is worth noting that during the pandemic, we have seen seniors embrace digital technologies. I have seen seniors using Zoom to connect with their loved ones overseas, when borders were closed. Seniors also use WhatsApp video calls to communicate with us during our Meet-the-People Sessions. When physical activities were stopped, many went online and took part in Zoom cooking classes and other activities. But we certainly can do more. I will cover this topic in greater detail in my Committee of Supply cut for the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). One area where we can go big on is in telehealth. Seniors will be the biggest beneficiaries of this technology. I have met many seniors who found it a hassle to go to the clinics and hospitals for their follow-ups because of mobility issues and the long wait times. Telehealth can be a game changer in this regard. By adopting telehealth, we can provide seniors with access to medical care and support from the comfort of their own homes, or at convenient nodes in the community. Next, we can also do more for the sandwiched families. When we think of seniors who need help, seniors who live alone or with their spouse comes to mind, but this is not always the case. Seniors exist within the context of families, and many families are struggling to balance caring for both their children and their parents. Unfortunately, I do not see many incentives in this Budget that are specifically targeted towards helping sandwiched families.[+8 sentences] Although financial relief is always appreciated, there are other ways that we can support these families. For instance, we could provide resources and materials to help them navigate the complexities of caring for aged parents. We can also provide more assistance for end-of-life care, which can be an especially difficult time for families. I will touch on these issues in greater detail in my upcoming Ministry of Health (MOH) cut. Third, we need more support for caregivers. We must recognise the importance of caregivers and the critical role they play in our families and communities. Caregivers are often the unsung heroes, quietly providing for their loved ones, without much recognition or backing. We need greater social health integration on this front. Our population is trending towards smaller families and smaller old age support ratios. This means greater awareness and more aid for this shrinking group of eventual caregivers is needed.[+4 sentences] We must not neglect emotional and psychological assistance for caregivers. Navigating a fragmented landscape of caregiver assistance and services can be frustrating and intimidating for an average Singaporean, let alone one who is already acutely stressed from custodial duties or limited in their English language proficiency. Much as the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) currently helps in this area, we also do not want to go to the extreme of providing case management for every single case. This will be resource intensive for a care sector already dealing with a manpower crunch. Can AIC or the Regional Health Systems (RHS) be more targeted and consider training a team of coordinators who can journey with our caregivers, especially those from the lower-income families, from start to end?[+4 sentences] Having a dedicated care coordinator for a family makes sense for a few reasons. They can guide caregivers to assess practical help. They can also help to look out for caregivers' psychological well-being. A coordinator can spot early signs of caregiver mental stress and provide timely intervention. If we believe family should be the first pillar of support, we must keep innovating better forms of assistance for the very people who are trying their utmost to live out that value, especially those who are less financially privileged.[+9 sentences] In conclusion, Mr Speaker, Sir, sometimes I ask myself: what do I want to do when I am of older age? If I can work, I would certainly like to continue contributing to the workforce. If I am retired, I would like to rediscover myself through new passion projects or pick up interests where, previously, I did not have time for. Former US President George Bush Senior used to mark every fifth birthday after his retirement in a very special way – by putting on a parachute and jumping from a plane. His last skydive took place on his 90th birthday in 2014, despite him being confined to a wheelchair. I do not think I am as adventurous as President Bush, but I would certainly like to pick up a musical instrument, enhance my skills in photography, travel around the world, and take in the new experiences and sights. And if I have the blessings of having grandchildren, I would love to spend time and share my life experiences with them. How would you like to spend your silver years? How can we, as a society, enable our seniors to pursue their passions, stay energised and continue to be enthusiastic about life? For one, we must shift our mental model of our society from viewing seniors as a burden.[+1 sentence] We must view them beyond just a group that we support with schemes and social assistance. Instead, we should value our seniors' contributions and reframe their silver years as a different phase of life.[+12 sentences] This is a phase where they get to live a fulfilling life at a more relaxed pace. We should empower them to stay independent and confident. This includes, as I have said above, empowering them to leverage technology in their daily life. It also includes enhancing their understanding on how to make the best use of Government schemes that are available to them. This is so that they can have access to a good quality of life and live out their aspirations. So, how would you like to spend your silver years? Let us work together as a society to create a Singapore that values our seniors and enables them to live out their aspirations. Let us support their caregivers and the sandwiched families. This is so that they may continue to find pride and value in giving their loved ones the best kind of care possible. Only then, can we truly establish a Singapore Made for Families. Only then, can we make Singapore a great place to live and age in. I support the Budget.
Mr Speaker50 words
[+4 sentences]Order. I propose to take a break now. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair at 4.40 pm. Sitting accordingly suspended at 4.21 pm until 4.40 pm. Sitting resumed at 4.40 pm.
Mdm Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Gerald Giam.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied)1361 words
[+2 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, as we step out of the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore continues to face numerous challenges as we navigate the uncertainties before us. In my response to the Budget Statement, I would like to discuss challenges faced by three stakeholders in our society – businesses, workers and families. The Singapore Business Federation's latest national business survey highlighted that the key challenges faced by businesses in Singapore were an increased and overall business costs, the availability and retention of manpower and the main cost pressures include raw material cost, energy cost, manpower cost and rental cost.[+7 sentences] Singapore is generally a price taker on raw materials and energy. Higher manpower cost, while challenging to businesses, can improve the welfare of our workers by increasing their income. As long as the wage increases do not set off a sustained wage price spiral. High rental costs, however, benefit a smaller segment of society, namely landlords and property owners, and come at the expense of tenants, especially SMEs who may struggle to afford the rent. They can also affect the competitiveness of these businesses which have to allocate more resources to rental expenses and less to other productive aspects of their operations. The Government needs to look for ways to moderate industrial and commercial rental costs for SMEs. This will benefit a broader base of businesses which plays a critical part in growing our economy and providing good jobs for our people. To achieve this, JTC could expand its market share for industrial space and offer more low-rent options to SMEs and the Housing Development Board (HDB) could also offer lower rent commercial spaces allocated by ballot to stimulate micro-businesses and entrepreneurship in the heartlands.[+10 sentences] Next, I would like to discuss the challenges faced by workers in Singapore, particularly those in industries that rely heavily on foreign workers. In recent years, the Government has implemented various work pass restrictions to manage the inflow of foreign workers and professionals. Additionally, the Government has allocated funding to help local companies become more productive and manpower lean. However, there needs to be more emphasis on attracting Singaporeans to work in industries that are currently overdependent on foreign workers, such as the marine, manufacturing and construction industries. The Government has introduced several programmes such as career conversion and professional conversion schemes to equip those who have decided to switch to these industries. However, there has been less success in urging our local workers to switch to these industries in the first place. While the Government has been working to raise awareness of the job opportunities and career prospects in these sectors, more needs to be done to address the perception that these industries are less prestigious than other sectors like finance, technology and law. It is commonly believed that Singaporeans are not interested in these industries due to the long hours, shift work, low pay and difficult working conditions. However, the popularity of platform food delivery jobs indicates that many Singaporeans are willing to work in physically demanding jobs. Food delivery riders work long hours, with many cycling around town for over 12 hours a day. The job can be dangerous, with one-third of riders having been in accidents that require medical attention, and the median income is less than $2,000, according to a paper by researchers at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).[+12 sentences] The IPS paper also found that our platform delivery workers who intended to leave the food delivery industry for other industries were looking for higher salaries, longer-term career pathways and opportunities to learn new skills in their next jobs. A significant number was seeking flexible work hours, although less than a third were looking for jobs in air-conditioned offices. If the industries that are currently lacking in local workers can provide these benefits, they will be able to attract more locals to join them. Some progress has been made in attracting more locals to work as nurses and early childhood educators. The same effort could be undertaken to upgrade other industries which are facing local worker shortages. However, even if these human resource matters are resolved, these industries may still face difficulties attracting job applicants from Singaporeans due to a lack of awareness of jobs in these industries. To address this, there is a need to increase awareness of these industries amongst students early on their school life. Schools can work with industry representatives to introduce these career opportunities to students even as early as lower secondary school. By doing so, students and their parents will be more aware of the career prospects in these industries and be better equipped to select suitable subject combinations in Secondary 3 and eventually make informed career choices when they are graduating from school. Our success in reducing dependence on foreign workers and professionals relies heavily on being able to raise local talent in these occupations by providing better pay, training and career pathways and better work-life balance. By increasing awareness of these industries among young people, we can attract more locals to work in these industries and reduce our dependence on foreign workers. Finally, I would like to discuss the increased CPF Housing Grant and its effect on home buyers. The Government has announced that it will raise the CPF Housing Grant for first-time home buyer families purchasing resale HDB flats by $30,000 for those 2-, 3- and 4-room flats and by $10,000 for those buying 5-room or larger resale flats. First-time singles will get half the increase given to married couples. This increase in the CPF Housing Grant will be welcomed by many first-time home buyers, especially those who are looking to get a flat in a mature estate near their parents' home but have been unsuccessful in balloting for a BTO flat in a mature estate. However, some property analysts have cautioned that the increased grant amount may also raise demand and prices of resale flats.[+2 sentences] The hon Member Hazel Poa also raised this concern in her speech earlier. This could potentially offset any progress made towards enhancing the affordability of resale flats. As such, it is important to understand the Government's projections on how this increase in the CPF Housing Grant would elevate HDB flat prices over the next two years.[+3 sentences] Has the Government projected any resale flat price increases as a result of the CPF Housing Grant increase by modelling the huge amount of housing transaction data available to HDB? Additionally, since only first-timers will benefit from the increase in the CPF Housing Grant, non-first-timers may end up having to pay even more for their resale flats. I hope the Government can provide more information on its projections to help Members assess the net effect of the CPF Housing Grant increase. More fundamentally, is increasing housing grants going to continue to be the Government's main approach to making resale flats affordable?[+8 sentences] Has the Government considered the alternative proposals which I shared during the debate on the housing Motions earlier this month to moderate resale flat prices? This include: one, providing more help to empty nesters who are prepared to sell their larger flats to obtain 2-room Flexi flats and community care apartments; two, requiring future buyers of private properties to sell their HDB flats; and three, incentivising those who currently own both a private property and a HDB flat to sell their flat by rebating the additional buyer's stamp duty they paid on their private property. These proposals may provide longer-term solutions to moderating the prices of HDB resale flats. Mdm Deputy Speaker, as we contemplate the future, it is natural that Singaporeans are apprehensive, especially for their children. The soaring property prices have made it increasingly challenging for families to purchase a new home. The Deputy Prime Minister has cautioned that we may continue to confront a period of high inflation, which is highly to persist throughout the first half of this year. In these trying times, it is imperative for us to keep our minds open to workable solutions, regardless of where they may emerge from, so that we can help our fellow Singaporeans in need and progress and prosper together as a nation. Madam, I support the Budget.
Mdm Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Mariam Jaafar.
Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang)2656 words
[+2 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, we are living in a time fraught with uncertainty. Global disruptions and macroeconomic headwinds show little signs of slowing. For the first time in a long, long time, global trade, a key driver of Singapore's GDP, is projected to grow slower than global GDP over the medium term.[+6 sentences] It all makes for unprecedented complexity and uncertainty in the economic and competitive environment for companies and for countries. Given our size, lack of natural resources and reliance on trade, it is an environment that makes us more vulnerable than many. But it is an environment that Singapore is prepared to handle – if we leverage on our solid financial foundations to buffer ourselves against disruptions and seek out opportunities amidst uncertainly, if we can build resiliency. Before I elaborate on building resiliency, I would like to thank the Ministry of Finance (MOF) for its work on the Occasional Paper on Medium-Term Financial Projections. In debating fiscal policy, it is always helpful to take a medium-term view and understand the drivers of Government finances. The Occasional Paper outlines the external and internal challenges that will shrink our fiscal space. Without the Budget moves of 2022, we would have been at risk of not having enough revenue to cover projected public expenditure, which has grown fast in recent years and will continue to grow rapidly on the back of higher healthcare, social and infrastructure spending, let alone to deal with unexpected contingencies.[+21 sentences] Resilience. The term "resilience" was introduced into the English language in the early 17th century from the Latin verb "resilire", meaning "to rebound". In recent years, as we moved from one crisis to another, the word has become more commonly used and taken on a broader meaning. Resilience is not only about bouncing back but about being prepared for bigger shocks and about seizing opportunities that arise out of uncertainty. It is not only about grit and determination in the face of adversity but about being able to anticipate adversity, cushion its impact, adapt and even shape the future. I would like to make two observations on resilience. First, resilience operates at multiple levels. There is personal resilience, organisational resilience and national resilience. Personal resilience and organisational resilience are mutually reinforcing. Resilient individuals can contribute their skills to making their organisations more resilient and resilient organisations can develop and invest in their staff to build their resilience. Similarly, for Singapore to be resilient, Singaporeans and Singapore businesses must be resilient – with one important caveat – that care must be taken to ensure that resilience is built in an inclusive way so that we do not end up with widening inequalities where some people and some businesses are better able to bounce back and exploit uncertainty than others. Our social compact must recognise this. Second, building resilience means different things to different people and organisations. How best to build resiliency depends on one's starting position. For example, a company with a strong financial position operating in a volatile market might best act by diversifying its business model, expanding its supply chain and looking to get a leg-up on its competition. A company with a weak financial position in a more stable market has to focus first on changing its business model in ways that will shore up its financial position and consolidate its supply chain. Similarly, while a rich man could build financial buffers with insurance, a poor man may turn more to belt tightening and community support. There is no one-size-fits-all. Budget 2023 contains several initiatives and programmes designed to help companies build resilience, such as the extension of productivity grants, energy efficiency grants, support for nurturing and sustaining innovation and developing local enterprises, including the Singapore Global Enterprises. I will discuss some of these in my Committee of Supply cuts but I will focus today on helping individual Singaporeans to be more resilient. Mdm Deputy Speaker, the Government has made big investments in strengthening our social safety nets over many years. Social spending almost doubled between 2010 and 2019.[+3 sentences] Beyond financial support, the Government has made huge investments in lifelong learning, from early childhood education to new education pathways, to upskilling and reskilling. The Government has also encouraged Singaporeans to seize new opportunities and embrace change, risk-taking, failure and learning, though admittedly, this shift is a work in progress. Budget 2023 goes further in this direction and I welcome the move to strengthen the link between training and job placement with Jobs-Skills Integrators to enhance employment support and to strengthen retirement adequacy despite the pain that some will feel in the short term. But while I recognise the efficiency and effectiveness of these broad-based measures, I also think we need to recognise that there are Singaporeans who are being pushed to their limits of adversity more than others and to be truly inclusive, we need to face up to this and push ourselves to consider whether it warrants more specific support for them to build resiliency. I will highlight three groups of residents today for whom I believe we might need a stronger trampoline: first, Singaporeans, in particular, middle-income Singaporeans, who lose their jobs; two, ex-offenders; and three, Singaporeans in debt.[+13 sentences] First, Singaporeans who lose their jobs. The Government has built up many schemes to help Singaporeans who lose their jobs, from short-term relief through ComCare to extensive subsidies on skilling programmes like Career Support Programmes, Professional Conversion Programmes and so on. During the pandemic, the Government turbocharged this with the COVID-19 support grant and SGUnited training programmes and helped many Singaporeans, including middle-income Singaporeans. But these moves are sometimes not enough for middle-income Singaporeans who have larger financial commitments – commitments that payouts from ComCare cannot support. Like one of my residents, Mr I. He had a high paying job in an MNC but was retrenched in his 40s after a merger. He struggled for more than two years to find suitable employment. He tried his hand at his own business but it did not work out and cost him a chunk of his savings and put him in debt. He could not pay off his renovation loan and his business loans, ended up under a debt repayment scheme (DRS) and becoming a platform worker. One day, he shared with me a picture of his bank balance. It was in double digits. I asked him what he spent his income on: his DRS payments, household expenses, car, the money he gives to his parents and health and life insurance. I could not with a clear conscience tell him to let his health and life insurance policies lapse. MPs from both sides of the House, including various Members of the Workers' Party and Mr Patrick Tay from the People's Action Party (PAP), have raised the possibility that with the increasingly volatile environment and whispers of more retrenchments, the time may have come for Singapore to implement some form of redundancy or unemployment insurance.[+7 sentences] The Government has cited concerns on the moral hazards and the cost of such insurance. We also know that people have other formal and informal forms of insurance such as retrenchment benefits, savings, the ability to cut discretionary spending and, for dual income couples, the income of their spouse. While we cannot be certain what the takeup would be, in a straw poll that I conducted of middle-income earners, very few said they were likely to take up a voluntary scheme and even fewer would support a mandatory scheme, say, one that deducts premiums from CPF. So, how would we create the market needed for the premiums to be super affordable? Mdm Deputy Speaker, I believe an effective monetary and fiscal policy that keeps unemployment low and stable is likely to eliminate much of the need for the unemployment insurance scheme. Arguably, this is where we are in Singapore – with very low unemployment. But perhaps existing schemes could be tweaked to make it easier for people who have lost their jobs to bounce back. For example, we could tweak the ComCare scheme to tier the assistance level based on pre-job loss income – time-limited and subject to efforts to look for new jobs or attend suitable reskilling programmes.[+4 sentences] I know there may be concerns over equity of having higher tiers of assistance for some. But on balance, I believe there is merit in considering ways to moderate the impact of a job loss on middle-income Singaporeans, helping them to meet their commitments and focus on recovery and growth. Second, ex-offenders. We know how challenging it can be for ex-offenders to integrate back into society and pick their lives back up. The efforts of organisations like Yellow Ribbon Singapore and the support of employers and the community in the form of counselling, resilience training, job flexibility and other forms of support have been instrumental in supporting ex-offenders on the ground. I am very glad to hear of the new Uplifting Employment Credit in Budget 2023 to help ex-offenders to find jobs.[+18 sentences] But I think we can be more holistic in our support. One area that ex-offenders I see could use more help in is housing. Mdm Deputy Speaker, as we know, the home environment has a big role in shaping a person's determination, confidence and support. In disadvantaged surroundings, social problems are reinforced. Many ex-offenders are fortunate to go back to living with their families, who become their pillars of support in the difficult journey of integration. But many also go from prison to less than ideal home environments or are disowned by their families who want nothing more to do with them. This was the case for a resident who came to me to appeal for a rental flat. He had been sleeping rough for a few weeks. He claimed that he had approached the Family Service Centre (FSC) for shelter but had been told the shelter was full. He came every week with the same appeal for four weeks in a row, looking worse each time. And then he stopped coming. Upon investigation, I learned that he was in the intensive care unit (ICU) after being attacked. After his discharge, he stayed with his niece for a short while and then stopped coming back home and was no longer contactable. I could not help but wonder if he would have been better off if he had stayed in prison. Another ex-offender wrote to me for help with an appeal to be eligible for the Enhanced Housing Grant. He has four children, the oldest in polytechnic and the youngest is one year old. His family lives in a rental flat. While in prison, he resolved to turn his life around and provide a better living environment for his family. He and his wife applied for a flat of their own. They were overjoyed to be successful in their application, only to learn that they were not eligible for the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant, because he had not worked for 12 months prior to the date of application for the flat.[+12 sentences] But how could he? He was in prison. But at the time of the appeal, a month before his scheduled key collection, he had worked very hard for 12 months to support his family to be ready to buy the house. Cancelling the application would also cost him his $1,000 deposit, not a small sum for him. Early intervention programmes on housing, even prior to release and more flexibility on eligibility requirements can go a long way to giving our ex-offenders a better shot at re-integrating and turning their lives around. The third group of Singaporeans I wish to highlight are Singaporeans who are struggling with debt. Sometimes it is a business loan or loans taken on to finance necessary expenditure like healthcare or education, but more often than not, the struggle is due to unsecured loans, credit card debt, renovation loans and yes, gambling debt, that have been allowed to balloon. "I made a mistake," they say. And they find it very hard to dig themselves out of the hole. Debt is not just a financial problem. It can quickly go down a downward spiral, breaking up relationships and families. Mr Speaker, I have asked a few times in this House whether debt repayments can be considered as living expenses in determining a person's eligibility for and the quantum of social support to be granted. The Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) view has been that it is not appropriate to fund debt payment out of public resources given they arise out of personal decisions.[+8 sentences] I see the logic. Perhaps more can be done in raising awareness of various debt management and repayment schemes, and provide more counselling and support to these individuals. But I think the true answer lies in going upstream, investing further on financial capability building. I stress financial capability, not just financial literacy. It is not enough to increase knowledge of financial concepts. Ultimately, Singaporeans must change their behaviours in positive ways. MoneySense is Singapore's national financial education programme. There are also initiatives such as the Financial Education Network and financial literacy programmes in schools, workplaces and the community. While we have made progress in the 2021 MoneySense Financial Capability Survey, four in 10 respondents still did not understand financial concepts such as "simple and compound interest" and "risk diversification". More than half of the respondents had not developed a plan for retirement savings.[+1 sentence] A lack of financial resilience also often leads to high risk-taking that one is ill prepared to manage and the proliferation of scams. As financial resilience is a critical part of building personal resilience, I urge the Government to further strengthen the national financial capability programme such as by targeting specific segments with lower financial capabilities and in tandem with a stronger consumer protection framework.[+18 sentences] Mr Speaker, I have focused my speech on the challenges faced by three segments of Singaporeans for whom building resilience is particularly difficult and what the Government could do to help. But beyond the "what", allow me to say a word about the "how" as we try to help Singaporeans build resilience. Mr Speaker, as our colleague Mr Sitoh Yih Pin put it yesterday, pain is not always bad. Building resiliency does not mean removing adversity or pain altogether. Adversity helps to develop new skills, capabilities you may not know you had. But too much adversity can overstrain a person, such that it delays recovery and growth. I echo Mr Sitoh's call for greater empathy. But let us do it by setting goals for someone who is being assisted, that gets progressively higher and harder as he or she gains in capabilities and confidence. And let us remove unproductive stress and frustration that is created through excessive complexity and bureaucracy. So, can we spend less time on a multitude of forms, CPF statements and bank statements, and more time on real conversations to push people to grow? Mr Speaker, when we began this term of Parliament, we were in the throes of COVID-19, and then-Minister of Finance Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had the unenviable task to deliver four Budgets in a single fiscal year. We said then that we were facing the crisis of our generation. We drew on our reserves to keep Singapore and Singaporeans afloat throughout the pandemic while continuing efforts to keep our economy competitive. Today, we have emerged from COVID-19, DORSCON Green and our economy is in relatively good shape. Yet, new storm clouds have gathered and we are in a new era of increased complexity, uncertainty and competition, even while we tackle domestic challenges of ageing and slowing social mobility. We need a Budget that can move us forward in a new era. Our response in Budget 2023 is clear – to build resiliency. Notwithstanding my suggestions to improve some existing schemes to help some segments of our population to bounce back, I support the Budget.
Mdm Deputy Speaker6 words
[+1 sentence]Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Eric Chua.
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua)1837 words
[+57 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, in his Budget speech, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong rightly said that "families form the bedrock of our society and are the emotional, social and financial support for all of us." While I am certain various moves such as bumping up the Baby Bonus Cash Gifts and enhancing the Working Mother's Child Relief are very much welcomed, I hope Members in the Chamber can be clear-eyed about one thing: beyond dollars and cents, we need to address the many other invisible forces chipping away at our families' ability to function as an individual's emotional and social safe harbour. Some of these invisible forces are unique to Singapore. Many others mirror broad global trends. Mdm Deputy Speaker, today, I am neither making a push for specific legislative amendment, nor am I making a case for any number of policy shifts. As a father of a young two-and-a-half-year-old son, all I am asking for is for us to pause and have a think. Ask ourselves: how are our family units faring, in terms of being that nurturing fortress and safe space where love is unconditional, and where no topics are too taboo or too awkward to be talked about? If we could give a score to how Singapore families are doing in this respect, what might our score be? Mdm Deputy Speaker, I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. I loved Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and subsequently, Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS)'s Channel 8 drama serials: 雾锁南洋 (The Awakening), 青春123 (Happy Trio) and 咖啡乌 (The Coffee Shop). These drama serials served two important functions for me. One, I reinforced what I learnt during English classes by diligently reading onscreen subtitles. Two, I love music. Learning to sing and play the theme songs on my recorder were good supplementary music lessons. My parents were blue-collared workers. Mum always told me quite plainly: study hard, be somebody useful someday. Those were simpler days. Fast forward to 2020. That year, I became a father for the first time. I was over the moon, but also afraid of heights. I fret incessantly over the little one's eating habits, sleeping patterns, developmental milestones. Quite clearly, I am the worrywart between me and my better half. Compared to my parents, my wife and I have a very different parenting approach. To me, one of education's key mission is to pique the young mind's curiosity for the world and to ignite the child's passion to uncover and learn about the many wonderful things around him. My wife and I often talk about future planning for the little one late in the evenings. One area we sometimes talk about – tuition and enrichment classes, outside of school curriculum. "Should we sign him up, simply because other parents will be doing so for their children? What if we miss discovering some talents that he has but we miss it because we do not sign him up for the classes? If other parents are doing it, and if we do not, will he lose out?" We often end such conversations thoroughly exhausting ourselves, agree on one fact, that is, the need to respect his choices too, and then heave a sigh of relief that we have a few years more to go before we come head-to-head with some of these decisions. As a worried and overwhelmed parent, I cannot help but feel at times that the feel-good vibe of "keeping up with the Joneses" that I experienced as a kid growing up in the 1980s and 1990s have today taken on a somewhat fiercely competitive tone. In my interactions with young people today, some anecdotes ring alarm bells. I remember being told not once but several times over, that competition in academic settings today is so rife. Some students, as I was told, deliberately share wrong answers with other students just so they get to pull ahead of the pack. A fine line divides a relentless pursuit of excellence from an unscrupulous clamour to the top. There is absolutely nothing wrong with striving to be the best versions of ourselves, but at what cost? What values do we really treasure in society today? Are we keeping up with the Joneses, chasing our white picket fence pipedream, or are we more intent on one-upping the Joneses, whatever it takes? I also worry for my son because of how we perceive and define success today. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I declare that I am a big fan of our Institutes of Technical Education (ITE) students. Yes, a big fan. Many of them are talented, creative, and not to mention, lovely to hang out with. These students may not be as academically inclined as their peers and oftentimes, their strengths are glossed over simply because they carry the "ITE label". When can we start seeing ITE students for who they really are? If my son turns out to be not quite the "academic type", would this society still embrace him for his non-academic strengths and talents? Beyond school, would he still be able to realise his full potential in life, even if he is not equipped with a university degree? Would he be respected and appropriately remunerated if he so chooses to pursue a trade or profession and become a carpenter, mason or artisan? Mdm Deputy Speaker, my young son will be growing up in a world that is nothing like the world I knew when I was a child. We often hear complaints that our youth belong to a generation of lab-bred strawberries: pretty on the outside, soft on the inside and very easily bruised. To this view, I respectfully beg to differ. Youth today are dealt an entirely different deck of cards and challenges. The recent retreat from globalisation aside, Singapore today is more connected to the world than ever before. Our youth must deal with a barrage of adulting challenges us digital migrants could only begin to wrap our heads around. Truncating attention span, information overload, the constant thirst for social validation, the fear of missing out (FOMO), the inevitable exposure to negative influences online like pornography, cyberbullying, online predators are unfortunately here to stay. Just how well equipped are our families to serve as "social and emotional safe harbours" for our young ones? For that matter, how well do we really know our young ones and the challenges they face? And I look up to the viewing gallery of these Chamber right now. In a dialogue I had with youth in their early to mid-20s some months ago, I asked the crowd I was in front of, "Growing up, how many of you had a conversation on the birds and the bees with your parents?" Of over 50 participants, a few raised their hands. I followed up by asking whether any of them had a conversation with their parents about dealing with online pornography, all of them stared blankly at each other. Internet penetration in Singapore first crossed the 50% mark in the year 2003.[+1 sentence] That is some 20 years ago. And today, it stands at more than 90%. The Internet – along with its many boons and banes – is here to stay. In an unprecedented fashion, our young ones spend much of their time and effort curating and manicuring their social media presence and in some cases, disproportionately and quite recklessly, I would say, vesting their self-worth in their online personas. Incessantly scrolling their way to poorer well-being, our youth are fighting an invisible but ongoing guerrilla war.[+16 sentences] Their enemies? Addictions to social networking sites, pornography, cyberbullying, fraud, radicalisation, hate speech, to name a few. How prepared am I as a father in helping my son navigate life as we now know it? Like many parents, perhaps in the Chamber, perhaps who are viewing this session today, I am frankly quite clueless. Growing up, I did not have a social media account and what free time I had were either spent roaming the HDB void decks or faithfully tuning in to my next episode of 早安老师 (Good Morning, Sir!), not endlessly scrolling or doing up short form videos to share with the world how I am getting on in life. Fellow parents, whether we know it, whether we like it or not, we need help. Parents naturally want the best for their children but not all necessarily know how. Just because we live in the same household does not mean we naturally know our young ones well. It also does not naturally follow that they will continue to look up to us as they did when they were little. An episode narrated to me recently was instructive. A psychologist at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) recounted to me her experience at an engagement session. When asked who their children would likely consult on matters concerning mental health, one mother replied confidently that her child would approach her. The child's reply caught this mother by surprise. The child said, "Well, I would try not to approach my mom because I am not sure if she would understand, and I also do not want to burden her." In that instant, the mother broke down in tears. In Mandarin, please. (In Mandarin): Mdm Deputy Speaker, Budget 2023 offers a boost for Singaporean families.[+12 sentences] However, the future is not all bright. As we shape a more family-friendly society through legislation and policy-making, let us all remember to make time for our loved ones. Pause, take a deep breath and experience all the beautiful things in this world together. Have more heart-to-heart talks with our family members and treasure each memory that the family creates together. (In English): Mdm Deputy Speaker, this Budget holds plenty of promise for Singapore families to prosper and flourish, but the horizon is not without dark clouds. As we shape a more family-friendly Singapore through legislation and policymaking, let us all remember to make time for our loved ones in our lives. Pause, breathe, watch the world go by together. Have heart-to-heart talks with those that matter, on things that matter. Treasure every moment that the family creates together. As a people, whether we spend time trying our best to outdo one another or we thoughtfully and purposefully make sure that as many amongst us as possible, flourish and thrive in our own ways, dump needless labels, connect to one another, starting within each family, person-to-person, soul-to-soul, the choice is ours to make. And these are things that legislation and policy can do so little to fix, and these are choices that we must make, one family at a time. Mdm Deputy Speaker, while I wholeheartedly support Budget 2023, it is both my lofty dream as well as sincere hope that some of what I had highlighted could make its way into our collective conversations and over time, nudge some much needed change in the tone and complexion of societal norms and mental models, so that Singapore, one day, can truly be Made for Families.
Mdm Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Poh Li San.
Ms Poh Li San (Sembawang)1765 words
[+28 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic was a crisis of a generation, but it will not be the last. Other potential crises will emerge, and we must try to be prepared. The rising costs of living and economic slowdown are concerns that we devote resources to addressing. In addition, there may be other grey rhinos that may affect our future as a nation and I would like to highlight four of them. It is well-known that we are heavily dependent on foreign manpower. This may perhaps be a global problem but the labour shortage problem exists across many of our industries, including aviation, cleaning services, construction, F&B, retail businesses and, crucially, healthcare. Our healthcare system and staff held up well throughout the pandemic. However, should another pandemic come around, we may not be as fortunate. Finding workers to work in the cleaning services is a real challenge and it is getting harder to get help in the F&B and retail sectors. Similarly, our construction will soon grind to a halt if we do not automate more. We have discussed various approaches to reduce manpower reliance by increasing productivity via automation, work process redesign, upskill workers, raise salaries and provide better benefits to workers. We hope to achieve this via the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) and Progressive Wage Credit Scheme (PWCS), National Productivity Fund (NPF), Enterprise Innovation Scheme (EIS) and SME Co-Investment Fund and Singapore Global Enterprises (SGEs) initiative. Our local construction companies are aware that they need to leverage technology to automate, innovate and redesign their work processes. However, regardless of manpower savings downstream, automation can be an expensive investment and small companies will not be able to finance the upfront investment. Perhaps, the Government can consider an interest-free loan scheme with a reasonable loan period under NPF to encourage our small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to invest in automation in order to reduce reliance on foreign labour. Automation may assist certain sectors but there will always be a requirement for people interaction in multi-tasking micro roles that entail wide variability or high touch. For cleaners and security guards, the PWM wage increase for cleaning started five years ago and the increases for security and landscaping wages have been active for almost three and two years respectively. Currently, the proportion of local staff in these three essential services sectors seem to be still faced with the same challenges. And most importantly, we must find a way to attract Singaporeans to join the healthcare industry. This leads me into the next grey rhino, the Silver Tsunami. We are trailing very closely behind Japan, at 83.7 years old, in terms of the countries with the longest average life expectancy. Our population is greying rapidly. With medical science advancements, Singaporeans will likely be able to live longer but there will be questions on the quality of life and health when the Silver Tsunami hits our shores over the next decades. During the debate on Healthier SG last year, many Members in this House have spoken about the pressure on aged care facilities that is required. In my Adjournment Motion on dementia, I mentioned that family members may need to consider compromising their careers to care for their loved ones and medical spending for seniors will also be a major concern. During the pandemic, there was a shortage of hospital beds and staff. Will our infrastructure be able to handle our greying Singaporeans when the Silver Tsunami hits us and do we have a clear plan to manage these challenges? The third grey rhino is energy, a concern that may cause massive disruption. As a nation, we consumed more than 53 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2021. Currently, our electricity production is 95% dependent on natural gas, with two-thirds from Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and one-third from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).[+8 sentences] Hence, to maintain energy security, we will need to diversify sources. Natural gas is cleaner than coal but it is still responsible for 40% of Singapore's carbon emissions. We will need to transit to cleaner fuel. Unfortunately, Singapore does not have any alternative energy sources other than some solar energy. Before hydrogen-powered electricity becomes a reality, we would have to import clean energy from regional power grids such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Laos. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is severely affecting many European countries. This is a stark reminder for us because many of these European countries are dependent on Russian natural gas. Do we have a fall-back plan, should our electricity supply be disrupted for a prolonged period? Singapore's first hydrogen-ready power plant that hopes to supply 600 megawatts of energy will be built on Jurong Island. In October 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Wong launched the National Hydrogen Strategy to accelerate transition to net zero emissions and to strengthen energy security.[+8 sentences] While we are coming up with steps to accelerate the next chapter of our green energy transition, do we have the scientists and engineers, like they do in Australia, Germany and Spain, where the expertise in this area exists? And should we not be investing more to attract experts to Singapore and to develop local talents, to focus on the solutions required in our energy sector? To add, it is uncertain when and if green hydrogen-powered electricity is economically viable and how do we ensure the import supply will be extended infinitely while the cost of imported electricity can be kept affordable. The fourth grey rhino has reared its head during the pandemic, but it may charge at us more aggressively in the future. Singapore is a tiny island with only 720 square kilometres of land and is one of the lowest-lying countries in the world, with about 30% of our land that is less than five metres above sea levels. Extreme weather may cause sea levels to rise by as much as four to five metres, taking into account coastal surges, extreme high tides and land subsidence. If heavy rainfall coincides with high tide, there will be flash floods that are worse than what we are experiencing now. If we do not have effective mitigation solutions, many homes, beaches and public infrastructure, like Gardens by the Bay and Merlion Park, will be affected. During the National Day Rally in 2019, Prime Minister Lee committed $100 billion or more, to protect Singapore against rising sea levels. And in his recent Budget speech, Deputy Prime Minister Wong shared that $5 billion will be injected into the Coastal and Flood Protection Fund to support the construction of coastal and drainage infrastructure.[+18 sentences] In view of the latest global temperature rise estimates and reports by sea level scientists, I have four questions: one, will we be able to bring forward the construction of coastal protection infrastructure? Two, can we accelerate our technology and construction research, and implement pilots more aggressively? Three, how do we ensure 100% protection against sea levels rising beyond one metre? And four, how do we test the effectiveness of the solutions or steps taken? I look forward to the answers. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I would like to say a few words in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): During my recent Chinese New Year house visits, I met five seniors in their nineties, who are all still in the pink of health. One senior in her 80s is still working in McDonald's just to stay active, even though she does not need the income. I asked them about their secret of youth. All of them shared that they eat moderately, exercise regularly, stay engaged and do not fret over the small things. For the rest of us who are barely half their age, we still have a good chance to live both a long and happy life if we can follow their advice. The Healthier SG programme will help us better monitor our health status, but really, the ball is in our own court. Staying engaged is extremely important for one's physical, mental and emotional health. Hence, to better prepare for the silver tsunami, our seniors should stay employed or be involved in volunteering work for as long as they can, even past the statutory retirement age. One of my colleagues in Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA), affectionately known as Auntie Amy, is 76 but she looks like 56. She could have retired but chose to continue working to keep herself active and engaged with younger people around her. She is an inspiration to us. (In English): Mdm Deputy Speaker, I would like to say a few words now in Malay. (In Malay): Budget 2023 encourages active aging through employment. I strongly support the extension of the Senior Employment Credit and the Part-time Re-employment Grant until 2025 to support employers who offer part-time re-employment to eligible senior workers.[+2 sentences] Employers and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) are key partners to help our seniors age better. I hope they will continue to allow seniors to contribute even if they are past 67 years old. They must be prepared to adjust their job scopes, lighten their responsibilities and shorten work hours. I also urge the insurance industry to support this initiative by providing employment insurance beyond statutory employment age limits.[+12 sentences] (In English): I look forward to the Minister for Manpower sharing more details about the schemes at the Committee of Supply debates. Hopefully, with the interventions through Healthier SG programmes and with more seniors staying employed, our next generation of seniors will age gracefully and healthily into the next decades ahead. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the importance of planning ahead. There will certainly be more grey rhinos. If we are not prepared, then Singapore's future can be severely impaired. With a vibrant economy and a resilient and fair taxation system, we will be able to continue building our national reserves. We must deploy both local and foreign top talents to create new solutions to tackle the difficult and complex problems. These solutions must be deliberate, long-term and must not be left to market forces. Mdm Deputy Speaker, as a country without any natural resources, it was our founding leaders' foresight to develop a sizeable national reserve. It was their strategy to develop capabilities in the public sector and it was their achievements for Singapore that developed the trust the Government required from Singaporeans. I have faith that our 4G team will continue to develop Singapore into a happier, more prosperous and progressive nation. Notwithstanding my queries and suggestions, I am heartened that many low-income families and young families will benefit from Budget 2023 and I am happy to positively endorse the Budget.
Mdm Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Dr Lim Wee Kiak.
Dr Lim Wee Kiak1865 words
[+2 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, I rise in support of the Budget. I would like to thank Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong for setting out Budget 2023 which addresses so many facets of our economy as well as the additional support for young couples. The baby bonus as well as incentives are just further enhanced and paternal leave is increased by 100%.[+15 sentences] I hope with these incentives, coupled with the power of the zodiac dragon year next year in 2024, Singapore will see a record number of babies born next year. Hot-button issues like inflation and public housing are also being addressed. This is a budget that recognises the impact of high inflation on our cost of living and how we should embrace ourselves to face challenges ahead as we restructure and seek to re-energise our economy beyond the COVID-19 pandemic era. Madam, I would like to focus my speech about resilience in three areas, now the three "E"s – energy, economic and environment. For energy resilience. This month marks the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war. The war has resulted in severe disruption of gas and oil supply causing huge increases and fluctuations in the prices of energy and fuelled global inflation as well. It exposed our vulnerability due to our over-reliance on natural gas and oil for our energy needs. I suggest we need to urgently explore more ways to expand and ramp up our adoption of solar energy. Every time I look out at our buildings – residential, commercial and industrial – from a high vantage point, I noticed there are many, many roof tops that we could have used to install solar panels and increase our national solar energy production. We should do more to expedite and increase our solar energy production. For example, we could offer grants to private home owners for the installation of solar panels or provide grants to companies to use the rooftops of their industrial and commercial buildings for solar power generation. Additionally, I would like to boldly suggest that the Building Control Authority (BCA) can consider revising its building code to make the installation of solar panels mandatory as part of its Minimum Environmental Sustainability Standard for all new building projects. Next, what about the use of nuclear energy for Singapore? Monday, 5 December 2022, was an important day in science. On 5 December last year, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility in California generated more energy from a nuclear fusion reaction than they put in.[+10 sentences] The experimental result is a massive nuclear energy breakthrough in a century-long quest to unlock the power of the sun on Earth. With more research and financial investment, researchers now believe we are just a few decades away from producing 100% clean and limitless energy. The possibility of using nuclear energy in Singapore has been under discussion for many years. It is also time for us to make a bold decision, whether this is one of our best options to ensure our energy resilience. Naturally, we should consider factors such as cost, technology and safety, particularly since we lack the significant open space. But we have never shied away from challenges due to Singapore's limited size constraints. We can explore building a nuclear power plant on an offshore island or on a man-made rig in the sea. We can also consider building it deep underground, or even on the seabed. Currently, France is the forerunner in the development of underwater nuclear reactor technology with DCNS prototyping a 100-meters cylindrical small nuclear power reactor called the Flexblue. This is one of the possibilities we can explore. The Energy 2050 Committee has identified three pathways that Singapore could take to achieve net-zero by 2050, one of which includes the use of nuclear energy.[+6 sentences] I understand the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has been closely monitoring developments in nuclear energy, studying building capabilities to better understand and assess their safety, security and environmental implications. It normally takes about 10 to 15 years to build a nuclear power plant. Singapore should be prepared if nuclear energy becomes an inevitable option. Therefore, I would like to ask is there a timeline in pursuing this option? It is crucial for us to set a clear target date as we evaluate the feasibility of using nuclear energy for Singapore. At present, we are planning to import renewable energy from our Southeast Asian neighbours, which is a positive development, but it does not enhance our energy resilience significantly as we are still very vulnerable as such supply can be interrupted by the export country anytime. Currently, we are relying on imported natural gas to generate around 95% of our electricity.[+16 sentences] What is the risk of our natural gas source being interrupted? What is the current capacity of our liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and how long can this storage sustain us in the unlikely event of a natural gas disruption? In addition, just as we prioritise food security, we must focus on supply diversification to reduce our reliance on piped natural gas. How are we progressing in making Singapore a key LNG hub by empowering private players to build, own and operate offshore LNG terminals? Next, on economic resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for many businesses and company owners who have been operating under Singapore's very stable economic and political environment without worrying about the possibility of a black swan event. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 took only months to be reined in and for normalcy to return. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was unlike that of SARS. It was more prolonged, severe and had a greater transmission rate, with the virus easily spreading from human to human. It ravaged the global economy and forced countries to close their borders. Factories were closed due to sick workers as well as quarantine measures. Travel, both air, land and sea, came to a standstill as a result of lockdowns and supply chains disrupted, with goods and produce stacked up in warehouses, unable to move. If not for our Government's timely intervention, spending billions from our reserves to assist Singapore companies to tide through the difficult period, our economy could have suffered a deeper and more severe decline. Companies were kept afloat by various forms of reliefs such as grants, cash flow assistance, business loan schemes, tax rebates, rental rebates and job-support schemes. The Government also rolled out innovative schemes to give Singaporeans vouchers to support our heartland retailers, hotels and local tourist attractions. Despite all these efforts, there were still casualties. In 2022, last year, 205 companies were wound up, a higher number than in 2021 and 2020 when 119 and 201 companies respectively were shut for good.[+3 sentences] Hence, we must not let this pandemic pass without learning its lessons. As we learn to live with the COVID-19 virus, international trade and travel are gradually re-opening. We are now beginning to breathe a little bit easier, but the business environment has also changed. Today, companies are confronted with a lot of new challenges, from workers preferring to work from home and interactions with colleagues and clients through e-meeting platforms, to the rise of e-commerce and e-banking. They are faced with huge rising costs in doing business, such as higher interest rates on their loans, higher rentals, a very tight labour market, higher wages due to our Progressive Wage Model (PWM) as well, a higher CPF ceiling coming up and more leaves for their workers because of childcare and paternity leave. Companies, particularly our small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that account for more than half of our local employment, can only continue to thrive if they can innovate, increase productivity through continual digital transformation and reduce their reliance on intensive manpower.[+23 sentences] Just as our country undergoes a transformation in the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to go back to the drawing board as well. We need to identify the weaknesses of our local companies when confronting black swan events and help them better prepare them for the future. There has been a significant shift in the business environment. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I hope our Government can double its efforts to support our SMEs and explore areas where they need to innovate and transform how they conduct their businesses. Even for today, many are still struggling to get both feet on firm ground. Economic resilience is key and critical to Singapore's future. If Singapore’s economic engine loses power, how long can we survive relying on our precious reserves? The last topic is on climate change – on environmental resilience. Today, we are seeing more extreme weather events happening globally. Europe experienced an unprecedented cold winter, while nearer to home, Australia was hit by severe flooding caused by heavy rainfall. New Zealand declared a national emergency after being battered by Cyclone Gabrielle. There has been widespread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells that forced evacuations. Last year, in the US, it was the third wildest year in terms of extreme weather events and it cost over US$1 billion in overall damages. Here, we are not spared as we are seeing heavier downpours with water ponding occurring more frequently. It rained almost continuously in the last two weeks of January and into February, with a surge of strong winds and more days with temperatures falling to low 20°C. Certainly, we need to pay more attention to the changing weather conditions and speed up our efforts to build infrastructure to protect our low-lying areas. What can we do to cope with the extremes in weather conditions? What can we do to become a climate-resilient society? Are our people and our businesses prepared to cope with sudden severe weather conditions? Do we need to review, tighten and enhance surveillance checks on our buildings to ensure that everything is stable? Are claddings on high-rise office buildings and shopping malls checked for stability to withstand increased incessant rain and heavy wind surges? Our underground gas pipes, power cables – are they able to withstand any undue soil movement underground? Do we have the necessary resources on standby? During the 2019 National Day Rally, Prime Minister revealed an ambitious $100 billion or more project to build ponders and sea walls not only to protect our low-lying areas from rising sea levels but also to create new land with exciting possibilities.[+7 sentences] Prime Minister Lee said working on climate change defences should be done steadily over the years and will be over several generations. But do we have the luxury of time as the climate change clock is ticking away and seems faster? Can we accelerate the construction of the ponder and help our local enterprise who are in this field to develop their capabilities in this new growth area? Bring forward the timeline for climate change defences projects will also create new land for Singapore and other new developments to enhance our attractiveness as a city to attract talent? In conclusion, Mdm Deputy Speaker, I agree that this Budget is centred around building resilience. I have outlined in my speech three areas on resilience building, that is, energy, economic as well as environment. I support the Budget.
Mdm Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Vikram Nair.
Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang)935 words
[+4 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, the last few years have brought some unprecedented challenges for us. The withering effects of COVID-19 continue to be felt. In the budget debates we had the two years before, we were discussing public health issues, taking measures to minimise the loss of life and prevent people suffering the serious effects of COVID-19. The travel, tourism, retail and F&B industries were hard hit as people cut down on travel and going out. Today, the lingering tail continues to be felt with the delays and slowdowns in construction culminating in long queues for Build-To-Order (BTO) flats and a frothy HDB resale market as people compete for the more limited supply of available flats.[+6 sentences] The war in Ukraine has been another body blow to the world economy. Ukraine was the largest wheat producer in the world and also a large producer of corn, barley and sunflower oil. Russia was one of the largest producers of oil and gas. Now that these supplies have been disrupted from the world market, energy prices have spiked, as have food prices because wheat and the other materials produced are not just food for us but also food for livestock. This coupled with the supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 have caused inflation and rising costs on the global scale. To deal with inflation, central banks in many places have started raising interest rates. In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) does not raise interest rates, but the banks generally take the lead from international benchmarks when setting their own lending rates. So, this has meant that interest rates in Singapore have also spiked, causing higher loan payments for borrowers, which include the many mortgages as well as companies for their trade loans.[+4 sentences] There is not much that Singapore can do to change these global forces. Against this backdrop, I support the Budget measures which provide much needed support and relief to individuals and businesses faced with cost crunch and disruptions. There is a wide range of assistance to both individuals and businesses to deal with these challenges. For the housing issue, a comprehensive proposal has been put forward which I am sure will be elaborated on in Ministry of National Development (MND)'s Committee of Supply debates. Young couples will now have more chances to get a BTO flat, there will be more financial assistance to tap into the resale market and there is a wide range of financial and social assistance being given out, including GST Vouchers, Cost of Living support payments, U-Save rebates and support for parents with children, all the way from babies to tertiary education and for lower-income groups, many of these measures would more than offset the rise in cost of living.[+13 sentences] Now these are commendable and, I think, these are measures that we can take because we have the luxury of strong reserves as well as prudent financial planning and these measures will alleviate some of the immediate cost of living pressures for many people. However, high prices and high inflation is likely to be here to stay and the only real long-term solution would be to ensure that Singapore continues to grow and remain an attractive place to invest and do business and this in turn will create attractive jobs for Singaporeans. This Budget provides significant support for multinational corporations (MNCs) that choose to locate here, people who do R&D, for local enterprises to build up as well as for local enterprises to go global. Singapore is one of the few places where the Government provides such significant and wide-ranging support to the private business community to help them to grow and develop. One suggestion I have though is that when the Government gives out generous grants to businesses or tax breaks, the Government should also put into place requirements for them to share the benefits and profits from such investments – at the very least with employees at all levels, and at best, with the broader community. I think it is fair to put conditions and expectations on private enterprises that benefit from the public purse. This will also ensure a more equitable distribution of the profits if those ventures do well. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I will continue in Tamil. (In Tamil): The previous year has been a challenging one. Although the COVID-19 restrictions have eased, the war in Ukraine has caused global commodity prices to spike and this in turn has caused inflation all the way down the value chain. To deal with this inflation, central banks have raised interest rates and this has added to cost of business for companies and cost of living for ordinary people. This Budget has a wide range of measures to help alleviate the immediate cost of living issues we will face – GST Vouchers, CDC Vouchers, Cost of Living, U-Save Vouchers. There is a special bonus for seniors, which is fair since many of them will no longer be able to continue working. Young families have also given feedback that difficulty getting flats and the rising cost of living have been deterring them from starting families. This Budget has comprehensive assistance for such young families – assistance in getting BTOs with a second ballot, higher grants to assist them to buy resale flats as an alternative and, importantly, assistance for children's expenses all the way from birth (Baby Bonus); preschool (CDA account top-up); school (Edusave top-up) and tertiary (PSEA top-up).[+1 sentence] I support this Budget that provides important support to assist with the cost of living and which allows for people to face the upcoming year with optimism.
Mdm Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)3254 words
[+8 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, my speech will be an attempt to answer one question: what kind of meritocracy do we want in Singapore? In it, I will also address some of the measures in Budget 2023 that deal with wage levelling, early intervention for children in poor families and raising productivity. Madam, a few months ago, I posted on social media about a book I read entitled "The Tyranny of Merit" by Harvard political philosopher Prof Michael Sandel. While I do not necessarily agree with all the arguments Sandel makes in this book, I would heartily recommend it to all Members here. In essence, Sandel says that meritocracy in the US today has become a tool to justify inequality and condescension towards those without university degrees. It is also an unfair game because from the pursuit of these academic credentials that are often said to define merits, some have advantages of genetic endowments, social capital, parental guidance and resources that others lack. He calls for a re-focusing of attention on vocational and trades jobs which, in the past, would yield more stability and respect to balance up the advantages now conferred by a university degree. Madam, to be sure, no one would argue for devaluing degrees or that professionals can do without professional training and credentials. At the same time, I am sure we all recognise that more can be done to promote equality of opportunity and social mobility but beyond that, I want to put across another idea here today – that ensuring a more level playing field alone does not justify vast and ever-increasing gaps in income, economic security and social respect between those who do well in the academic and job arenas and those who do not.[+11 sentences] There is a strong case for raising floor levels of living standards and dignity for those who have skills that are less marketable but doing so in ways that are economically sustainable, like retraining and so on. We should reject the notion of a natural aristocracy of merit – that the more successful behave like aristocrats did in feudal societies. I received some interesting comments on my social media posts on meritocracy but let me quote an excerpt from one of those comments that I found gut-wrenching, and I am paraphrasing here a little bit and I quote, "I am not an academically driven person. I used to study in ITE but I dropped out. I don't wish to be discriminated against as a lowly-educated person, thus I pursued my diploma after NS. The point here is that there is a perception that those who went through university at NTU, NUS, etc., these are the best people, not only at school but at work. Going to job interviews, employers will outright tell me that my grades are bad, why should they consider my application? The discrimination for those who didn't go through good schools with good grades is real, not to mention usually in workplaces, those with university degrees were often be pushed up the career ladder faster than those who don't have. Life for me is tough. I seriously don't know why people have to shame those who are not well-educated like myself." I am sure we can all feel the pain of this person that comes not only from the sense of the economic game stacked against him but also the pain of feeling disrespected in society. Interestingly, a survey by OPPI showed that whilst Singaporeans overwhelmingly believe in meritocracy, Singaporeans in the younger age group, 18 to 25 especially, have a lower belief that Singapore society is equal and fair compared to older age groups.[+10 sentences] Anecdotally, in my conversations with younger Singaporeans, many expressed that the intense competitiveness in Singapore at work and academia coupled with a high cost of living and housing is taking a toll on their ability to live holistically meaningful and purposeful life with enough time for family, hobbies and passions. To be sure, meritocracy has its merits. Jobs should go to people with the best abilities. Ours should not be a society where we punish those who can invent, lead, create, take responsible risks, inspire others even as we strive to uplift the least advantaged. We need a high productivity, innovative economy to grow the pie. If we fail in this, the poor will be the hardest hit. But to get that economy, do gaps in income and economic security need to be so large? Some countries seem to generate entrepreneurism and economic dynamism with smaller gaps. Sweden and Denmark come to mind as examples. Taking this idea seriously is important and not only because we want to be fair to those who have been less successful in conventional academic economic terms, though that alone would be enough. After all, in reply to my Parliamentary Question in 2021, it was revealed that there was a gap in life expectancy in Singapore of almost six years between those with post-secondary education and those without.[+4 sentences] No, but this is also important because as scholars like Richard Wilkinson have argued, high inequality weakens everyone in society. His work suggests that more unequal societies generally have poorer physical and mental health, trust levels, child well-being and so on. So, Madam, I return to the question I began with: what kind of meritocracy do we want? I think our answer to that question has to be not an unbridled winner-take-all meritocracy. Rather what we should seek is a meritocracy that strives for equality of opportunity and social mobility but going beyond that, one that ensures sustainability, a decent standard of living and societal respect, a levelling up for those who are less successful in conventional terms.[+13 sentences] The remainder of my speech, Madam, will provide specific suggestions on just how to do that. Firstly, I would like to speak about vocational or trades jobs. I have spoken at length in this House on this subject in the past. We need a concerted policy effort to improve wages, skills, productivity, working conditions, societal respect in trades jobs, for example, carpentry, plumbing, air-condition repair, forklift and crane operators and so on. We need this so that the Singapore core can be attracted back to these jobs since, anecdotally, it would appear that there are a few younger Singaporeans entering such trades, a theme I will come back to later. I would also add to this list skilled artisanal or craft jobs like jewellery designers and historical architecture conservationists. Madam, right now, about 250,000 Singaporeans work in gig jobs. Some of these jobs, such as delivery or transcribing, for example, will gradually become obsolete due to technologies like drones, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence (AI). We need to nudge Singaporeans in these jobs to consider a career switch to other jobs, including revamped trades jobs. This would entail expanding the range or capacity for Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) where capacities are now limited in terms of their share of the workforce. More importantly, this would need a change of mindsets and that in turn would need to be catalysed through education and communication efforts. Interestingly, even now, some of these jobs like prime mover drivers, for example, which require much skill and experience, offer fairly decent pay, though that can be increased further, as I will explain. But these blue-collar jobs seem to be attracting few young Singaporeans. According to a recent Channel NewsAsia (CNA) article on this topic, some in the haulage industry, for example, estimate the average age of prime mover drivers to be 55, with younger drivers accounting for 5% to 10% of the workforce or less.[+13 sentences] Pay could be part of the reason but other reasons may include negative perceptions, working hours or conditions. I believe what is needed is to develop job redesign and career laddering plans for these trades jobs in conjunction with industry chambers and stakeholders. We should nudge or move towards more training and productivity for such jobs, which would enable better pay and conditions. This would need to be accompanied by educational campaigns to change mindsets and remove the social stigma some associate with such jobs. Such trades jobs are skilled and should command respect in society. Lastly and most importantly of all, our national strategy towards these trades jobs should include two more elements. Firstly, we should fast track some foreign Work Pass holders who are very skilled and experienced in these trades jobs to become Singaporean Citizens to enhance the Singapore Core in those jobs. Secondly, once it is clear that we have attracted a critical mass of Singaporeans into these jobs, we should slowly reduce the supply of foreign Work Passes in those professions but at a calibrated pace that businesses can adapt to. Nothing nudges employers to take better care of workers than the prospect that that worker may leave and be hard to replace. Next, I would suggest that our economic development agencies like the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Enterprise Singapore try to nudge foreign investors and local firms towards hiring some Singaporeans with lesser educational credentials so as to retrain them in skills that are adjacent to the skillsets that they have but are more future-proof and enable them to operate at a higher level of productivity that can command better pay. Perhaps this can be one consideration – not the only one, of course – in the award of economic incentives. Next, I would like to move to the subject of productivity. Raising productivity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for improving the lot of those in trades jobs. In Budget 2023, the Government is making a $4 billion top-up to the National Productivity Fund (NPF).[+8 sentences] Sir, I note that the NPF was set up in 2010. I tried searching for information on the NPF and the Productivity Fund Administration Board, and I found it difficult to identify its activities and investments every single year. All that was readily available from an admittedly basic online search were reports on activities from 2010 and 2017. I would like to ask that the goals, strategies, KPIs and investment activities of the NPF be made easily available online for transparency. Most importantly, I would like to ask what would be the KPIs for how the funds are used? Also, does the NPF funding give sufficient focus to non-tradeable domestic sectors where there are productivity problems, perhaps, are the worst, as I will explain later. I ask this because it is important for such funding to be very results driven. A case in point – was there evidence that the old Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) Scheme actually had a causal effect in raising productivity – a question I have raised in this House previously. A KPMG report from 2015 stated, "While take-up rates have gone up, the scheme's impact on productivity has been muted." Sir, our value-added per worker fell in the latest quarter, which underlines the challenge we are facing with productivity.[+4 sentences] However, there are some sectors in Singapore that are fairly productive by global standards, for example, manufacturing and financial services. The main problem seems to be non-tradeable domestic sectors such as F&B, retail, personal services, construction and so on – sectors which provide services that are not exported but consumed in Singapore. Has the Government studied if and why our productivity is lower than other developed countries in these sectors? I would suggest that we work with trade associations and chambers (TACs) to benchmark more productive countries in these sectors and then use schemes such as NPF funding to nudge our small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular to implement more productive business processes and technologies. At this point, I declare my interest as the chairman of a research consultancy that undertakes economic and business consulting. Also, will the Government take seriously our abysmal performance on total factor productivity (TFP) – a subject I have raised in the House previously?[+10 sentences] In an extended analysis of Singapore's productivity performance in 2020, economists Manu Bhaskaran and Nigel Chiang provided data to show that our "TFP growth—is poor relative to our peer group as well as the OECD group of developed nations and has been worsening substantially over the years. After a surge in 2003 to 2004, TFP growth began to decelerate before declining outright after 2005." Could managerial skills play a role here? This should be studied and addressed. On this note, I filed a Parliamentary Question (PQ) on the latest findings of the World Management Survey, which suggests poor results for Singapore. Next, I will move to another topic relevant to our meritocracy – ensuring fair minimum floors for those who are less successful in life and doing more to bring about equality of opportunity for poor children. I acknowledge the expansion of KidSTART and ComLink as referred to in Budget 2023. These are moves in the right direction but I have a few suggestions here. Firstly, preschool plays a key role in setting the stage for success in school and work later in life. The earlier we intervene to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds, the less of a disadvantage they will face when they enter primary school and the less likely they would be to drop out. My suggestion is that the Government makes preschool education compulsory and completely free for those of lower incomes. A UNESCO study conducted in 2020 found that 63 countries have adopted legal provisions for free pre-primary education and 51 countries have adopted pre-primary education as a compulsory level in national legal frameworks. I know from a reply to my PQ last year that 90% of children in Singapore aged three to four are enrolled in preschool, but this proposal would make a difference to the 10%.[+3 sentences] Secondly, I would urge the Government again to consider lowering form class sizes and to publish randomised control trials on the benefits of smaller classes on learning outcomes in general and for those less advantaged students in particular, where some research has shown that smaller classes bring benefits. I set out the detailed arguments for this and why it is different from ad hoc smaller banded classes in an Adjournment Motion in this House in 2017. My colleague, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, has also spoken about this. Thirdly, would the Government consider a proposal for a SkillsFuture education loan to help fund Continuing Education and Training (CET) for adults who cannot competitively secure places among scholarships and places in retraining programmes like Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs), a supply of which is still limited?[+28 sentences] The Workers' Party made this proposal in its 2020 manifesto, which is for SkillsFuture to disburse a zero-interest loan for adult CET. This thrust could support the upgrading and future-proofing of trades and blue-collar jobs that I spoke about earlier. Access to such loans could be made more readily available than the supply of special SkillsFuture grants, but weighted towards those with lower incomes and towards CET programmes that support retraining to a sunrise industry like high-tech farming, for example. Fifth, would Government agencies work with industry bodies to nudge companies to offer more internships and attachments to students from less popular secondary schools? Such students would benefit from understanding the culture and work norms in companies. Right now, some companies do engage with the universities and polytechnics to secure interns but it is less easy or common for them to engage with secondary schools and junior colleges to the same end, particularly, the less popular ones. Lastly, our social service agencies should provide more generous levels of aid to poor families but in such a way as to encourage positive behaviours that will help them improve economically and break the poverty cycle for their children – healthier eating and cooking habits, regular health screening, financial literacy training and so on. I recently had the privilege of working with a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in one of the rental blocks in the Serangoon ward of Aljunied GRC. They held sessions at the block to help families take better care of their mental health and physical confidence and to support the children in terms of confidence building, decision-making and goal-setting skills. Such interventions can be deeply meaningful. I will speak more about this at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) Committee of Supply. I come to the final part of my speech, Madam. How do we address the issue of prejudice against those lacking degrees, high levels of education and great career success? How do we make sure that Singapore does not become the "two Singapores" that the Leader of the Opposition alluded to, that we do not become a society where such people are looked down upon and face either quiet or overt condescension? How do we ensure, in Michael Sanders' words, "that credentialism does not become the last acceptable prejudice"? I would like to finish this last part of my speech in our national language. (In Malay): There are different approaches the Government can take here. But upon deep reflection, I think the onus here is not only or primarily on the Government but on all of us. It is very difficult to successfully choreograph events and policy practices that set out to foster mingling and respect across socioeconomic lines unless culturally, Singaporeans bring to such engagements the right mindsets and values. So we should always guard against prejudice when deciding on awarding a contract or promotion or choosing a service provider between someone with credentials and someone with less; rather, we need to focus on their ability to do the job. We should always guard against the lionisation of book-smarts and the undervaluing of street smarts. We should be vigilant to not privilege conventional pathways to success at the expense of those who are successful in other fields that are more craft-intensive. And to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr, we should always, as the cornerstone of Singapore culture, judge and value each person not on their credentials and net financial worth, but on the content of their character. The one does not beget the other. (In English): In conclusion, Madam, we should reject a meritocracy that creates a natural aristocracy. The term "meritocracy" comes from the British author, Michael Young. He coined it in 1958 as a satire to parody the concept of an unbridled meritocracy as a dystopia. In his satirical work, he envisioned a popular revolt against meritocracy in the year 2033. An unbridled and heartless meritocracy inevitably leads to a backlash on those who feel disadvantaged and discriminated against because society undervalues and underpays for their skills, aptitudes and potential. It would be a backlash not only around distributive justice – the distribution of economic fruits – but also contributive justice – the right of citizens to contribute equally to society and to obtain dignity and recognition in making that contribution. In the US, voting patterns have come to diverge between those with and without college degrees, with many non-college graduates turning to the kind of anti-systemic politics seen in the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021. As the writer Oren Cass said when speaking of the dangers of irresponsible populism, "The question is not whether the open agenda and a very laissez-faire unbridled meritocracy, will lose, but to what?" An extreme form of meritocracy and laissez-faire policies that elevate it, to some extent, unfairly, define as having merit too high and too harshly above all other people, cannot be sustained, as is the case with all tyrannies in the end.
Mdm Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Carrie Tan.
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon)16 words
[+1 sentence]Mdm Deputy Speaker, I am not sure whether I am still the last speaker for today.
Mdm Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]No, you are not.
Ms Carrie Tan2844 words
[+8 sentences]Okay. I would like to thank all my colleagues for all the policies and for working so hard to tackle very immediate and near-term challenges that we are facing as a nation. It gives me great trust and also gives me the liberty to set my sights further into the future. I ask this House for its indulgence to listen with an open heart, an open mind, an open will as well as an open imagination for what I would like to share in my speech today. I am very thankful and glad for the Budget provisions that Deputy Prime Minister Wong has made for Singaporeans, especially the measures to increase paternity and parental leave as well as the legislation to advance flexible work arrangements as a norm. All these go a long way to enhance the well-being of our people and it has been long due. I am very inspired by the theme of this year's Budget, "Moving Forward into a New Era". It is time, I feel, for us to think boldly in order to meet the new realities we are facing as a nation as well as globally. On our shores, our workforce is burnt out – 57% of our workforce said burnout was the leading factor affecting their mental health during the pandemic.[+32 sentences] Abroad, quiet quitting, a phenomenon that emerged last year, is a silent protest within the workforce across the developed world against a state of work that is demanding too much of people. The cost of living is going up drastically. Our core inflation was just 1% in 2019. Last year, it was 4%. It is no longer just the bottom 10% or 15% of Singaporeans who feel anxious about their ability to put food on the table. Our middle-class Singaporeans are also feeling anxious. Singaporeans are working harder than ever before and our standard of living has improved. In my parents’ younger days, for most families, a rare treat was going to the movies and buying a 10-cent kacang putih wrapped in newspaper. Today, having a $4 cup of bubble tea or coconut shake might be an equivalent, and for certain more well-off segments of our population, it might be enjoyed too frequently to be considered an indulgence. Many more of us can afford more things in life, many more non-essential things to adorn our lives but we do not seem to be happier. Our sense of insecurity about meeting basic needs appears to be getting worse. Of course, these anxieties are real and pressing, given that there is inflation and various global uncertainties presenting multiple pressures. At the same time, we are also one of the wealthiest countries in the world and we have emerged out of COVID-19 triumphant. So, what else might be perpetuating and driving this pervasive sense of insecurity? Is it perhaps time to rethink and review our national narrative and model of progress that we are just a small red dot with no resources, constantly fighting for our survival? With this narrative, we have pushed our people harder and harder, through various iterations of workforce development initiatives and industry transformation maps, relentlessly chasing for ever higher productivity. Is this survivalist narrative presenting a disconnect with the fact and reality of our progress? Could it be entrenching more anxiety in our people than is really necessary? My hon colleague Mr Sitoh Yih Pin’s comment in his speech yesterday resonated with me. Is it really true that our glass is always half empty and are our prospects as a nation only getting bleaker? Is the best already behind us or is our best yet to be? Other than within the geopolitical context, is it really still true that Singapore is vulnerable with no resources to rely on? I challenge that notion. From our humble beginnings in the 1960s to 2023, we have become a nation that is abundant in many aspects. We have a world class education system, we have built robust financial system and governance structures with a stellar reputation for trade and business, we have greatly admired urban planning blueprints and methodologies that many countries are keen to learn from. We continuously innovate and we have a population of people who are honest, hardworking and seen as a reliable and trustworthy pool of talent internationally. Since our Independence, our main priority has been economic growth because it had to be thus far. Economic progress was the way to survival for a nation scarce in natural resources. It helped us Singaporeans make great leaps in our quality of life that many countries today are envious of. Hence, it is only natural that economic growth seems to be the only way we understand quality of life. It has served us so well that it may seem mad to anyone to talk about deliberately slowing down economic growth. But is it not equally mad to continue this drive for ever higher economic growth when our only resource – human resource – is coming under great threat? In the Singapore Youth Epidemiology and Resilience Study last year involving over 3,000 young people aged 11 to 18, it was found that one in three youths in Singapore has reported internalising mental health symptoms.[+2 sentences] How will this impact our workforce and the quality of our talent pool, and how may our current way of life be contributing to this phenomenon? If the premise for our nation’s progress is that human resources are our biggest national resource, then protecting it and allowing it to thrive should be the key agenda. Economic growth and the ever-growing demand for increased productivity despite a rapidly ageing workforce and potentially zero growth in our labour force is taking a toll on a whole generation of people. I urge this House and Singaporeans to seriously consider a different model of progress.[+4 sentences] After all, what is growth for, if not for our people’s well-being? As hon Member Mr Seah Kian Peng also reminded us during his speech, that our founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew made it his business to ensure our people’s happiness. How can a people be happy, if we are constantly anxious or under stress? In the background of many anxieties lies the real existential threat and crisis of the global fossil fuel and climate change crisis. The stark reality: according to the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the biosphere at Stanford University, the world will be out of coal by 2090.[+4 sentences] By the world, it means the human race. It means us. As Ms Poh Li San and Mr Lim Wee Kiak has reminded us, our electricity is 95% reliant on natural gas. What happens when we are out of natural gas by 2060? In the Statistical Review of World Energy through British Petroleum as well as many other sources, it tells us that at our current rate of consumption, we will be out of oil in 47 years’ time.[+3 sentences] When that happens, I will be hopefully still alive at 87 years old, my nieces and many of my young residents will be in their 50s or 60s. The children born today will be only 47 years old. I am not alone in feeling anxious about climate change. In a survey of 10,000 youths, including Singaporean youth, close to 60% have felt “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change, with 45% reporting that this anxiety negatively affects their daily lives.[+32 sentences] Climate anxiety is a logical reaction to an existential threat. This is the single most important threat we face as Singaporeans. It is a huge obstacle that stands in the way of our progress as a nation. Economic growth has resulted in increased energy consumption, which then leads to greater greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide – all these emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming, climate change and extreme weather conditions. Our current economic model does not account for our people and our planet's well-being as a measure of growth. We need a more sustainable, tenable model of progress that does not leave our planet and our people's well-being out of the equation, but instead sees progress and wellness as one and the same that respects the Earth’s limits. I want to make sure that what we do today ensures that we pass on a thriving Earth, not a depleting one to our next generation. Governments around the world are investing in green technology and alternative energy research in a bid to slow down this global energy depletion and mitigate this threat. While such efforts are absolutely necessary, it is not enough. We urgently need to look beyond. Solar, hydro and nuclear, while they present good options as alternative energy sources, are still highly complex and highly extractive in nature. What do I mean by extractive? It means they still require vast amounts of steel, metal and materials to build the necessary infrastructure and equipment to harness secondary sources of energy. What happens when we run out of the materials to run these plants that power our lights, our transport and our computers? Our primary source of energy, fossil fuels, which took millions of years to form, is now running out. The only way to avoid the crisis is to consume and produce in ways that are transformatively different from before. If we do not start regenerating our Earth, we are consuming it to death and putting humanity on the trajectory to an era of war and destructive competition, which is already beginning to set in. Once we understand these key truths of the 21st century, as political leaders, we must have the gumption to lead our people to a different future. One of the world’s most important living economists, Kate Raworth, designed a new economic model to guide countries’ transition from having an extractive relationship with the Earth to a more harmonious one. It is called Doughnut Economics. It sounds delicious too. It provides a map for how to establish a better relationship between the economy, the planet and people. It illustrates an outer ring which is the limit that Earth can support and an inner ring which is the base that we need to build to allow humans to thrive. Our actions and our policies will have to reside between those two rings. Go beyond the outer ring or fall within the inner ring, and we will be in trouble. This model values well-being and a solid social foundation that helps people to rely on one another and nature harmoniously to meet our needs. In order for us and our world to survive, we must slow down the rate of economic growth or our future generations will suffer its consequences. This requires us to reshape our national narrative and understanding of progress. Ms Nadia Samdin asked a really important and worthy question – can there be a different version of the Singaporean dream? Progress in the next era of growth for Singapore must be measured less in terms of economic numbers and account for our human limits and planet limits. I offer a motto that not only gives us hope, but also gives practical steps in guiding us towards a future beyond fossil fuels. The motto is "Share More, Use Less, Waste Not".[+12 sentences] I propose two key imperatives we must start doing. One, cultivate sharing communities by redesigning work and housing to optimise resources and extend the "reduce" pillar to the ways we live and work. Making work-from-home the norm for professions that allow it can drastically reduce daily transport fuel consumption, reduce vehicles on the roads and reduce the need to keep building more roads or expressways. It would also improve work-life balance. The Government can set an example by making work-from-home the norm across the civil service and associated statutory boards. On the housing front, creating more community living formats such as the ones we are piloting in Queenstown to aid in eldercare. Community Care Apartments (CCAs) can be built also for single parent families, families with special needs members and co-living precincts for young adults and singles can be designed and built in neighbouring precincts to these CCAs, so that they can conveniently volunteer for these families who need more help. For all we know, co-living communities for singles could help us to improve our marriage and birth rates! I will elaborate more on these in my Commitee of Supply cuts. In our daily lives, we currently have an increasing norm of online shopping where we can buy something for as cheap as $1 or $3 and have it shipped to your door in layers of boxing and packaging. Such rates of consumption as a norm for a society creates tremendous waste of energy and resources. Instead, we can make swapping and sharing the default way of life to reduce wasteful consumption. Creating a sharing culture has already begun in Nee Soon South, where we piloted a “Shwap” initiative for people to “shop” for pre-loved clothing that others would like to give away. I intend to extend this effort beyond clothing to other daily use items, so that within our neighbourhoods, people can swap items they no longer need for items that others want to give away.[+16 sentences] I hope that every neighbourhood can have a sharing movement to make this the new norm for Singaporeans. Two, invest in permaculture and other regenerative nature-based solutions and research. Localised permaculture reduces the carbon footprint of growing and transporting food. It helps to capture carbon from the environment. It will also help us reduce our dependence on foreign industrial agricultural techniques that have worsened the climate crisis. I will elaborate more on this during the Committee of Supply cuts on how permaculture holds multiple benefits, including increasing our food security. In the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, Americian President Roosevelt implemented a “New Deal”, which greatly invested in environmental conservation. It was a huge risk at the time and went against conventional wisdom. But it paid off. I believe it was Winston Churchill who said towards the end of World War Two, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. In fact, many of our own Ministers have said similar things in Parliament, especially in the last two years of the pandemic – that we can turn crisis into opportunity. Getting a miracle out of a crisis is not new to Singapore. We created a miracle when we became independent in 1965 and became a first-world nation by the 1990s. Similarly, I believe we have what it takes to turn the global energy crisis into another miracle with our unique Singaporean way. Investing in and rebuilding our relationship with the planet has the potential to open up new industries for Singapore to be leaders in and improve the economic opportunities for our people. I am very glad that the Green Economy initiative under the SG Green Plan has already started to invest in nature-based technologies and research. This needs to start as early in life as possible, so that our current children can be “Nature Natives” and not just “Digital Natives” in the new global reality. I urge that we make it a top priority and extend nature-based pedagogy to our early childhood and primary education.[+11 sentences] Again, I will elaborate more in my Ministry of Education (MOE) Committee of Supply cut. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong mentioned during his Budget speech that we need to increase Singapore’s resilience in response to climate realities. He mentioned efforts in coastal protection and so on, to prepare us for rising sea levels. These measures are critical. But we need to go beyond and take an even more proactive approach to pioneer a new way of life that the world can look to. We have the opportunity to be a global change-maker by engineering and actualising a new model of progress. If we put our hearts and minds together, we can achieve this, referencing the Doughnut Economic Model, applied to our specific Singaporean context. Given how small we are as a country, we may not significantly impact the actual amount of energy saved globally. But we still can make a really substantial impact by showing and leading the way to a different progress model. In doing so, we can inspire other urban cities and countries to chart their own path to a more regenerative economy that meets the needs of all. Our strong social fabric, highly collaborative, cooperative population and high trust between Singaporeans and our Government are the assets that we have to rely on to do this well. Forward Singapore should be an exercise ambitious and daring enough to rally our citizenry towards the big picture – a future where Social and Ecological well-being is valued equally with economic well-being.[+3 sentences] What I look forward to, as do many Singaporeans of my generation and younger, is a regenerative city state and a system that ensures the well-being of our People and Planet. We must start to intentionally REdesign our way of life, work and play. To do this, Ministries including National Development —
Mdm Deputy Speaker9 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Tan, you have a minute to round up.
Ms Carrie Tan168 words
To do this, Ministries including National Development, Sustainability and Environment, Health, Manpower, Trade and Industry must work together and adopt a lens of ensuring the wellness of our people and planet is adopted across all efforts. I urge the Government to set up a Coordinating Ministry for Wellness help implement this, to land a sustainability land across all Ministries.[+1 sentence] A truly progressive nation is one in which its people are well. Imagine a society that consumes less, with people who work less but connects more and are happier and healthier for it.[+4 sentences] I was very moved by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua's speech earlier. Perhaps it is time for us to collectively take a pause, a slowdown, to smell the roses and perhaps that is what it truly takes for our nation to be able to be truly wealthy in our minds, bodies and spirit. I am thankful for this year's Budget. I would like to say, we have what it takes, let us go further and beyond!
Mdm Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Prof Koh Lian Pin.
Prof Koh Lian Pin (Nominated Member)1641 words
[+2 sentences]Mdm Deputy Speaker, in his Budget speech, Deputy Prime Minister Wong provided a stock-take of the socioeconomic challenges that Singapore had experienced in 2022, as well as the various policies and actions to help us overcome these challenges. He also presented the outlook for 2023, including the uncertainties and downside risks linked to the global economy, as well as new opportunities to add vibrancy to our own economy and create more jobs for Singaporeans. Deputy Prime Minister Wong also introduced several support measures, including the Enterprise Financing Scheme, the Energy Efficiency Grant, the permanent GST Voucher scheme and the Assurance Package to support our businesses, our workers and our families.[+25 sentences] In other words, Budget 2023 recognises and addresses many of the bread-and-butter issues that Singaporeans are understandably concerned about. Another issue of concern this Budget also touches on is climate change. Given the tight fiscal position that Singapore is in and the socioeconomic challenges we face, why should we continue to invest in climate resilience and sustainability? Some of us may think that we are saving the planet. But the planet has been around for billions of years before us and will continue to be around for billions of years after us. It had recovered from at least five mass extinction events over the last 500 million years. By comparison, we modern humans have been around for only the last 200,000 years or so. The reason why we need to cut emissions, stop deforestation, protect biodiversity, reduce pollution and reverse ocean acidification is because we need to live within the finite and safe operating space of our planet for which humans can survive and continue to thrive. In other words, we need to take climate change and sustainability seriously, not to save the planet but to save ourselves, to ensure a liveable Singapore for this and future generations to come. This may require us to constantly reflect on our assumptions, our priorities and our way of life. Our way of life in Singapore reflects our social compact, which is underpinned by our shared purpose and values. I believe we want to be a fairer and more inclusive society, a kinder and more gracious community. And as we refresh and strengthen our social compact, we must also take seriously the desire of fellow Singaporeans, especially the youths, for stronger climate actions and a just transition to a sustainable future. We must ensure that climate change and sustainability are always among the bread-and-butter issues we focus on. And as we address the impacts of climate change, we must ensure that the most vulnerable among us are well supported and the able are doing their part by contributing appropriately. At the same time, our climate and sustainability efforts must be considered in light of other societal priorities and their trade-offs, particularly when different priorities require common and limited resources, such as our land. We have to consider the value of our land not only for its climate and biodiversity benefits, but also for its contribution to meeting our housing, education, healthcare, transportation, economic, defence and other societal needs. In other words, we must recognise that no single interest should be considered absent of the others. In fact, the greatest challenge we face as a small island state arguably is the reconciliation of all our priorities. As I had mentioned in this House before, this tension between priorities can be painful. But it can also be helpful to remind us that as we transition to a climate resilient, more sustainable and more equitable society, no one succeeds until everyone succeeds. Singapore's climate mitigation measures include progressively raising the carbon tax, improving our energy efficiency, greening our buildings, electrifying our transportation as well as transitioning to solar and other cleaner sources energy. Our adaptation measures include increasing our vegetation cover, building a polder at Pulau Tekong and establishing a Coastal and Flood Protection Fund, to support the construction of coastal and drainage infrastructure. Singapore should aspire to do more. We can create positive climate impacts beyond our shores by supporting regional and global efforts as a strategic partner in R&D, capacity building, green growth and policymaking. For example, our revised carbon tax policy will soon allow carbon-tax liable companies to use high-quality carbon credits to offset up to 5% of their taxable carbon emissions.[+1 sentence] This measure can help grow a new carbon services industry in Singapore as well as support impactful climate actions internationally, including nature-based solutions such as forest conservation and restoration projects. The global voluntary carbon credit market was worth about US$2 billion dollars in 2021 and is expected to grow in value to between US$10 billion and US$40 billion in 2030.[+5 sentences] Unsurprisingly, there is a wide disparity in the quality of carbon projects and products in the market today. There is also a disparity in the credibility of carbon accounting standards. Indeed, these underlying issues of quality and credibility have created confusion and anxiety, leading to recent controversies around the use of forest carbon credits. The fact is, nature-based solutions are integral to every mitigation pathway to achieve the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement, as recognised by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. In other words, meeting the Paris goal requires us to implement nature-based solutions in addition to our decarbonisation efforts. Carbon credits and carbon markets in general, are ways of shifting capital across sectors and across borders to help us implement these nature-based solutions at scale. However, to ensure genuine climate and societal benefits, it is vital to invest in the R&D of credible carbon accounting and monitoring methodologies.[+4 sentences] There is no perfect methodology and we should never let perfect be the enemy of the good. But the good must get better. Here is where Singapore has another important role to play. We can help to improve the credibility of carbon accounting standards and our ability to discern the quality of carbon credits. For example, with support from the National Research Foundation, the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently launched a new research programme called Carbon Integrity SG.[+1 sentence] I declare that I am the principal investigator of this programme. Carbon Integrity SG will enable Singapore researchers to work with regional universities, Government agencies, businesses and civil society to develop more robust and more accurate carbon accounting methodologies for Southeast Asia's ecosystems, to ensure the supply of high-quality forest carbon credits to meet our needs and market demands.[+5 sentences] In his speech to the UN Climate Ambition Summit in December 2020, Prime Minister Lee emphasised that climate change is an existential threat for the global community and especially for a small island state like Singapore. By thinking and acting beyond our geographic constraints as a small island state, Singapore has the opportunity to create climate impacts beyond our borders. Our businesses can support climate actions beyond their value chains. We can become a world-embracing global city for sustainability. Ultimately, the highest quality carbon credit is the one we will never need. Avoiding or reducing carbon emissions sits at the top rung of our climate mitigation hierarchy. In other words, decarbonisation must remain our top priority as Singapore transitions towards a low-carbon society.[+23 sentences] Sometimes, I like to imagine how Singapore would look like in 2050. I would like to think that we would have achieved our net zero target by then and many years ahead of schedule too. In 2050, every building in Singapore would be solar-panelled. Every vehicle would be electric. These electric vehicles would be silently plying our streets. Our streets would be lined by a few million more trees, creating a dense network of Nature Ways. These Nature Ways would be home to a rich diversity of native birds, mammals and other animals – a testament to the foresight of NPark's Rewilding Plan. Our waterways and coastlines would be a showcase of technology-based and nature-based solutions, offering optimal protection against storm surges and sea level rise, while also providing recreational and other benefits to society. Singapore would be an international hub of climate and sustainability solutions, providing services and products to the rest of the world. Our investments in Research, Innovation and Enterprise through the decades, would have ensured not only our climate resilience but also our long-term prosperity in a green economy. Our new economy would be supported by a robust green talent pipeline, creating a workforce with sustainability competencies as well as opportunities for a lifetime of upskilling and meaningful contributions. I hope to be still alive then, in 2050, as a 74-year-old grey-haired professor, perhaps sipping tea from the balcony of my Community Care Apartment with a pair of binoculars, peering out into the forest canopy below, taking comfort in having been a part of this journey. I believe for this to be more than my personal daydream, we will require a whole-of-society paradigm shift now. Everyone must recognise that climate change and sustainability are not fringe issues. They are not just green issues. They are bread-and-butter issues, top-of-mind planning issues, quality-of-life issues, existential issues. As we move forward together in a new era, climate resilience and sustainability must be the zeitgeist of our times. Everyone from every sector has important contributions to make. We need local Singaporeans, overseas Singaporeans, returning Singaporeans, foreign talents, from Government, businesses, civil society and Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) to be able to visualise, articulate and work towards the common climate resilient and sustainable future that we all want for ourselves and our future generations. We must intuitively know that while we address the very real and immediate challenges of the day, we cannot afford to ease up on our efforts to achieve climate resilience, meet our sustainability goals and become a low carbon society, a City in Nature. These are the things worth fighting for. This is a future worth fighting for. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the Budget.
[+2 sentences][(proc text) presented by the Minister of State for Home Affairs (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) on behalf of the Minister for Home Affairs read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available Sitting on or after 20 March 2023 and to be printed. (proc text)]
Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill›Bills Introduced2 turns · 82w
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bill-intro-525
Speaker not recorded69 words
[+2 sentences][(proc text) recommendation of President signified; presented by the Minister of State for Home Affairs (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) on behalf of the Minister for Home Affairs read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available Sitting on or after 20 March 2023 and to be printed. (proc text)]
Mr Deputy Speaker13 words
[+2 sentences]Order. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the Day.
[+6 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, may I first thank Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and his team for setting up a thoughtful Budget 2023, with a focus on honouring both people and sustainable outcomes for Singapore. I am glad to share that many residents affirm the measures, especially those that support young families in making housing more accessible for them. Budget 2023 also address enhanced employment support for the seniors, the lower-income, persons with disabilities and ex-offenders, which many of us welcome. In line with that, may I respond to the Budget statement by highlighting a need for a specific group of people that we should not miss: employment support for caregivers of people with severe disabilities. In my brief time serving in the Purple Parade, a movement that supports inclusion and celebrates the abilities of persons with disabilities (PwDs), I have had the joy to meet some of the most inspiring PwDs and their caregivers. One of these outstanding groups are the people at the Rare Disorders Society (Singapore), also known as RDSS. About 2,500 people are estimated to have a rare disease in Singapore. When we include their immediate family members, we are looking at approximately 7,500 people directly impacted by rare disorders.[+4 sentences] These members are not large, in light of the many competing needs in Singapore, and yet, for the same reason, it is easy for their real and valid needs to be overlooked. Many caregivers of people of severe disabilities want to seek employment due to the high and ongoing expenses from their children's or ward's treatment, especially if they stem from rare disorders. The severity of disability means that their wards are not work-capable and need to be cared for consistently. Due to the rarity of their illness, the cost of treatment can be extremely high. As Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung stated last November, medicines for rare disease patients can exceed $200,000 per patient annually.[+8 sentences] In the United States, the average annual cost of treatment per patient in 2019 was $42,000, with treatments ranging from $8,000 to $670,000 per year. While there are various Government schemes and charities that provide generous grants and subsidies that may alleviate some of these costs, the financial burden remains great on the caregivers, especially if one parent has to stop work to become the main caregiver to their child. For these group of Singaporeans, finding work and work presents itself with great challenges. First, limited reliable caregiving options. Respite care for people with severe disabilities is hard to come by due to the unique medical conditions they have. While there are various daycare centres for PwDs, very few are for people with severe multiple disabilities, such as those of the members of the rare disorders' community. As such, short of having an available grandparent or a helper to care for their child, it will not be possible for both parents to stay at work. I take heart that the Ministry for Social and Family Development's (MSF) Enabling Masterplan 2030 includes the establishment of Enabling Services Hub, to provide respite care and engage PwDs in the community. On behalf of the caregivers of people with disabilities, I would like to sincerely appeal to the team looking into the service offerings of the hubs, to consider the needs of people with severe disabilities who are not work-capable, and so, expand the provision of respite care that is much needed for the caregivers of this group.[+20 sentences] Second, limited flexible work options. Some of these caregivers may require daily visits to hospital for treatments for their ward, while others need to be responsive to sudden accidents and emergencies. As such, jobs with flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are the only viable options for them. These refer to jobs that allow for work-from-home (WFH), provide flexible timing or shift work that allows caregivers to work at night. At the same time, because of their need for FWAs, caregivers tend to be streamlined to certain job roles that are generally more administrative and many times, as a consequence, jobs that pay less per hour. While many of the caregivers are educated and competent individuals with a range of skills to offer, in order to supplement the family's finances, they accept jobs that under-employ them and pay them significantly less because of the flexibility the jobs afford them. Even with these lowered job expectations, it is still hard to find work because of the bias that some employees may have of them as being less productive. Amongst the caregivers in RDSS, those who found work that afforded them flexibility needed, opportunities often come through personal networks, rather than the traditional routes of finding employment, even after undergoing skills upgrading. We cannot assume that every caregiver will have access to such personal networks, given the amount of time consumed by caregiving. Third, limited childcare leave options. For caregiving parents who are in the workforce, childcare leave halts when a child is above 12 years old, because it is assumed that the child should be sufficiently independent by then. This is not true for the parents of children with severe disabilities. The level of care needed does not reduce with age and may, in fact, increase depending on the progression of the disease. In fact, some caregivers have had to approach employers to ask if they can use their personal medical certificates (MCs), in lieu of childcare leave, for their child who is above 12 years old, given their commitment to stay healthy to care for their children. Each day is a physical, mental and emotional balancing act of spending as much time as they can with their child, not knowing which day would be their child's last. This, while trying to address the increasing cost of long-term medical care, on top of finding ways to secure retirement adequacy for themselves and their wards. These caregivers are simply looking for a fair opportunity to participate in the workforce, bring value with their competencies to earn a sustainable living and at the same time, show love to their parents while they can. Mr Deputy Speaker, we have here an under tapped pool of Singaporean workforce embodying the grit and "can-do" fighting spirit that we so often have lauded. I have no doubt that employers that hire these Singaporeans will find for themselves some of the most diligent and resilient individuals, with valuable perspectives because of their unique life journeys. The question remains: how might we be more intentional and progressive in finding ways to support and integrate caregivers who are fully capable, highly motivated and willing to be employed? Just as we have schemes to encourage companies to hire seniors and PwDs, may we consider putting in place schemes to make our workplaces more inclusive towards caregivers of persons with these severe disabilities? Can we look at how to encourage more companies to consider redesigning their work across job roles, allowing for greater flexibility for those that require it, not as a lifestyle preference, but out of necessity and livelihood? We can, and must do more for this group of Singaporeans, to strengthen our social compact to build a Singapore Made for Families as Budget 2023 articulates, in all its diversity. Let us remember and support these caregivers and family members of people with severe disabilities, with their employment efforts for sustainable living.[+1 sentence] With this, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am thankful and I am in full support for Budget 2023.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Alex Yam.
Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee)1416 words
[+15 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, as the last speaker of this debate before the round-up, I had to redraft this speech a number of times, having heard many good ideas and suggestions from Members on both sides of the House, none of which, unfortunately, I can claim as my own now. But I will raise three issues today. The first, on motherhood and parenthood. I think we can all agree that motherhood is one of the noblest vocations. We often speak of it in glowing terms: nurturing, caring and sacrificing. In reality, it is much more complex and complicated. Ask any mother and words sometimes like mess, stress, distress and tiredness will come up, but it does not take away the intangible joys and rewards of parenthood. But neither can we gloss over the pressures that the role brings. Motherhood, therefore, to my mind, is the greatest and, yet, most neglected roles in society. We expect mothering to come naturally with motherhood. Unfortunately, it does not; no manual prepares you for it. Even having more than one child is not a trial run. Jocelyn and I have four children, we know it does not prepare you for the next child when it comes along. However, there is an impression, unintended perhaps, that even as we support parenthood and motherhood in our society, that there are different categories of mothers. Some people have mentioned that there seems to be an emphasis on the economic value of mothers. Over many speeches during this debate, Members have raised concerns over the Working Mother's Child Relief, which has been adjusted.[+8 sentences] But it says much in the title: Working Mother's Child Relief, the operative word being "Working". The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) website explicitly states the intent of this particular measure to encourage women in Singapore to remain in the workforce after childbirth. Under Early Childhood and Development Agency (ECDA) guidelines for additional childcare subsidy, the emphasis is also on working applicants, even for those seeking special approval, the first priority is those that are looking for a job. I would like to suggest that, perhaps, we should support our mothers for who they already are, offer subsidies or grants, regardless of employment or economic value, and not just the basic grants. Consider them for the role, an important role that they play in society today, especially a country where our total fertility rate (TFR) is so low. We are doing a lot already, but we should continue to do more because mothers are mothers, and not because of the economic potential, as I have mentioned. With our low TFR, I would, therefore, like us to consider the merits of adopting the following. These are existing examples that other countries have introduced. The UK has a 52-week maternity leave system, perhaps to be introduced with Swedish flexibility, to take up the leave up to the age of eight for the child. French maternity health coverage from prenatal to post delivery, German hospital coverage for up to 12 days after birth, Finland's "baby box" system upon childbirth and aspire towards Iceland's 90% take-up rate for paternity leave.[+19 sentences] Norway has generous subsidies for childcare and daycare. And also, the French have a universal preschool system. Of course, all these are not without challenges, as each example in each country would throw up different varieties of issues. But, there is more that we can do. And if the Minister for Finance would indulge me as well, even if we do adopt all of these, we should continue with Singapore's very generous Baby Bonus system. The second issue I would like to raise today has to do with death and taxes. Two Finance Ministers ago, I characterised the Budget 2015, which was announced by then-Senior Minister Tharman at the time, with Beyoncé's lyrics, "to the left, to the left". Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not about to sing another song, but this Budget has been described by some analysts as, perhaps, the most distributive in recent years. A number of good things have been said about it by residents and friends that I have met since its delivery on 14 February 2023, but there are murmurings of disquiet in some areas, two of which I would raise today. The first is the tobacco tax. The one announcement that raises the most heckles in our "kopi tiams" is the increased tobacco tax. Based on latest available statistics, smoking prevalence is now around 10%, down from a higher 16% earlier this decade. While increase may help encourage some already intent on quitting to accelerate the move, the impact may be muted. Many of those who are affected by this increase are older, blue-collar workers. The 2018 price hike, based on surveys, saw no discernable drop in sales. People eventually get used to the price increase. Thus, the increase may drive more towards: one, illicit products such as vaping, less "healthier" choice, I am using inverted commas, like unfiltered rolled cigarettes. And these will have the opposite health outcomes of what we are trying to achieve. Please do not get me wrong, I would prefer to eradicate tobacco. But I see less sense in increasing taxes for a product with inelastic demand and users that are less likely to change their behaviour. Therefore, we should take a bolder move to undertake a generational break and ban sales to the next cohort of youths, such as adopted by New Zealand.[+6 sentences] While the current increase will still raise much needed, not-that-high revenue, I do not believe that the current tax increase will change smoker behaviour. The second issue has to do with property tax increase. While not part of this year's announcement, the impact is being felt this year. Retirees in owner-occupied properties are experiencing increases, with rising house values and increasing rentals prices, many properties purchased decades ago are now seeing much higher Annual Value (AV). Those we broadly refer to as "asset rich, cash poor" are affected. Some have said they feel it unfair, they worked hard to buy their own home decades ago but have to pick up a higher tab because of economic progress. True, we could encourage them to sell and monetise, but often, these decisions are not just economic ones, they are emotive ones as well: they have raised a family here, they have grown up here, they have lived here all their lives. So, what can we do to help those who are truly affected by the increase? Will there be a review of this in the future?[+20 sentences] Last of all, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to turn to the singular focus of why we do what we do in this august Chamber. Our Singapore. We have had a remarkable journey for close to six decades, one that we hope will continue onwards and upwards. As one people, we have traversed through challenges and much difficulties. Difficulties that could have easily overwhelmed us in our nascent days. From nothingness, our unexpected nation has made tremendous progress from third world to first. Because we have walked as one people, one Singapore, COVID-19, our most recent challenge, has seen us at our best. People coming together to help each other through a crisis like no other. Was it a perfect journey? Certainly not. This is not utopia, after all. But, we have done well. Our common struggle and heart for each other proves that this is a nation worth fighting for. Challenges will continue to come our way. There is no doubt about that. How we perform will depend on whether we act as one nation, or as a people divided unto ourselves. We have succeeded and will continue to succeed because we act as one – people and Government together, people and people together. There is no binary Singapore – one versus another. Regardless of our backgrounds or stations in life, the Singaporean way has been one where we all play our part in co-creating a home that we call our own. This is not a tale of two cities. We must not underestimate Singaporeans and our ability to stand united as one, especially in the face of crisis and challenges.[+1 sentence] This Government stands with Singaporeans, all Singaporeans. This year's Budget themed as "Charting Our New Way Forward Together" re-emphasises that.[+3 sentences] The indomitable spirit of Singaporeans has stood the test of time. That same spirit of endeavour, hard work, unity and common aspiration will carry us onwards. That is the Singapore Way.
Mr Deputy Speaker5 words
[+1 sentence]Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (Mr Lawrence Wong)12263 words
[+10 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank all Members who have spoken and supported the Budget. Many suggestions have been raised. I would not be able to respond to all of them in this round-up speech. Some specific issues, for example, on education, energy, healthcare and workplace safety, will be discussed later in the Committee of Supply debates. But I assure you that we have heard every feedback and will study your suggestions carefully. Sir, putting together this Budget has been a delicate balancing act of finding that sweet spot. We want to get back to a more sustainable fiscal position. But we cannot taper down support too quickly because the economic outlook remains uncertain. We want to help Singaporeans tackle cost-of-living pressures. But we must be careful not to inadvertently generate more demand and worsen inflation. At the macro level, the 2023 Budget is expansionary, not contractionary – contrary to what Assoc Prof Jamus Lim said yesterday.[+13 sentences] It is less expansionary than last year's Budget because we are coming off from the high levels of spending and that explains the negative fiscal impulse which he cited. But the Budget does provide some support for what is likely to be a weaker economy this year, although we are careful not to overdo the spending in order to avoid fuelling inflation; which is something Ms Foo Mee Har also cautioned. At the same time, it is not possible for the Budget Statement to cover everything. In the end, we have to be clear about our priorities. And in this Budget Statement, we have focused on securing economic competitiveness, supporting families and vulnerable groups and strengthening our resilience. The questions raised by Members during the debate broadly revolve around three buckets of issues. First, are we taking too much and giving back too little? Second, are we doing enough to stay competitive and help our businesses and workers? Third, are we doing enough to help Singaporeans and households in need? I will address each in turn and explain how we are updating our strategies for this changed world. First, is the Government taking too much and giving back too little? Do we have any fiscal slack? The short answer is "no". Mr Leong Mun Wai claimed that we have "excess fiscal resources". The Government had spent $72 billion to fight COVID-19, of which $40 billion came from Past Reserves.[+25 sentences] So, he inferred that we had $32 billion of spare resources lying around. But that is mistaken. Let me explain. During the pandemic, our society and economy were in an entirely different state. Projects were deferred and many planned and budgeted activities could not be carried out. So, the Government re-allocated these resources towards the more urgent task of fighting COVID-19. Now that we are in DORSCON Green, these funds have to be channelled back to what they were originally meant for. So, there is no slack here. Mr Leong also claimed that the $24 billion injected into Funds in FY2022 and FY2023 were "excess resources", as the actual expenditure from these Funds would only occur in the future. Again, this is not accurate. All spending in the Budget, be it direct expenses or top-ups to Funds, are resources we set aside to meet real needs – be it to strengthen safety nets, improve productivity, or build critical infrastructure. We set up Funds to meet specific funding commitments that are needed today and are stretched out over multiple years. For example, the GST Voucher Fund and Progressive Wage Credit Scheme Fund require top-ups when we enhance the parameters of the underlying schemes, as we have done last year and in this Budget. The monies in these Funds are already being drawn down today and not just in the future. There are a few Funds where the disbursements are lumpy and not so predictable. For example, the outlays from the Changi Airport Development Fund for the development of Terminal 5 and other aviation facilities will be made in accordance with the progress of the infrastructure projects. For such large and lumpy expenditure items, the responsible thing to do is to set aside some resources whenever we have the means, so that we smoothen out the spending and we do not end up in a crunch when the monies are needed. From time to time, we do get some revenue upsides. This is what happened in FY2021 and FY2022. Our fiscal position turned out better than initially projected only because we were able to get through the pandemic in much better shape than we had earlier feared. We have put these additional resources to good use, channelling them to support Singaporean households and businesses. This is why, as Ms Foo Mee Har has noted, our expenditure in FY2022, including special transfers, was revised upwards. More importantly, as Mr Liang Eng Hwa highlighted, the right way to assess our fiscal position is to consider, not the year-to-year changes, but the broader medium-term trend. We have always been upfront and transparent about these fiscal projections and continually review and enhance the information we put out. As part of these efforts, MOF released an Occasional Paper earlier this month, and I am glad many Members referred to it and found it useful. On the expenditure side, we expect Government spending that is now at 18% of GDP to reach 20% by 2030.[+1 sentence] In fact, even prior to the publication to the Occasional Paper, I had already highlighted this information. But here, I should emphasise that it is important to look at these fiscal projections as a percentage of GDP and not in nominal dollar terms, which Mr Leong had done. And he had suggested that we had somehow been imprudent in our spending, because our spending now exceeds $100 billion compared to pre-COVID-19 levels of about $85 billion. "What a large increase", he says.[+1 sentence] But surely he must understand that nominal spending will increase with inflation and with a growing economy. In fact, between FY2019 and now, our spending remains at about the same proportion of GDP, which is around 18%. But looking ahead, with an ageing population and rising healthcare costs, we expect this to rise to around 20% of GDP by FY2030.[+12 sentences] On the revenue side, without the GST increase and other tax moves we have made in last year's and this year's Budgets, the projections clearly indicate that we would not have sufficient revenues to cover the increases in spending. And so, you can see the gap in this chart. The revenue situation improves with the GST increase and the other tax changes made in last year's Budget. We have also updated the chart, from what was in the Occasional Paper, to take into consideration the tax changes in this year's Budget. Combined, the revenue moves will help to close the funding gap. But this assumes that we are able to keep our spending at 20% of GDP by the end of this decade. In fact, over the past decade, Government spending had risen by about three percentage points of GDP, and you can see it clearly from the chart – from around 15% to 18% today. So, to keep it at 20% of GDP by the end of this decade would already demand some moderation in spending increase, compared to past trends, which we all know is not easy to do. Furthermore, these projections have not yet taken into account additional spending that may arise from new policy initiatives. There may well be very good reasons for more Government intervention, some of which we are contemplating under the Forward Singapore exercise. And many Members in this House have also suggested good ideas, but all of that means additional spending and the additional spending will then need to be anchored by a fiscal plan that is sound, sustainable and fair. MOF will continue to monitor these revenue and expenditure trends closely. But the bottom line is that our tight fiscal position is very much a reality over the medium term. That is why we have to proceed with the second step of the increase in GST in 2024 as planned. Deferring this will only store up more problems for the future and will leave us with less resources to take care of our growing number of seniors.[+5 sentences] And even as we increase the GST rates, we are also implementing and updating the GSTV, GST vouchers and Assurance package to cushion the impact of the increase. Incidentally, Assoc Prof Lim said that the increase in the GSTV restores the Government's original promise to offset the GST increase. I find this a rather disingenuous phrase. Because it suggests that somehow, the promise had been broken in the first place, which is factually incorrect. We have been very clear in the Government – consistently saying some Budgets ago when we talked about the GST increase, that the GST comes with the GSTV and the AP. The AP is intended to delay the impact of the GST by five years for the majority of Singaporean households and by 10 years for the lower-income households.[+57 sentences] The GSTV is a permanent scheme and is targeted at lower-income households and the elderly and it is meant to keep our overall system of taxes and transfers fair and progressive. All that was stated publicly and I have also consistently said that we will update the parameters of both schemes to make sure that they remain relevant as economic conditions change. So, this is not about restoring promises. This is about delivering on a promise that the Government had made. And this is what the PAP Government has consistently done and will continue to do. What about other revenue options? We had discussed this extensively in this House. But let me, again, address the various suggestions raised, both in the run-up to the Budget and in the debate. First, wealth taxes. As many Members noted, we already tax wealth in Singapore through property tax, stamp duty and motor vehicle-related taxes. And the taxes were raised in this and the last Budget. The net wealth tax, which the Workers' Party had previously suggested, is a specific form of wealth tax that taxes the net wealth of individuals. On paper, it sounds attractive, but in practice, it is very hard to implement effectively. Many jurisdictions have tried, but no one has done it well. This is why many countries have done away with net wealth taxes over the years. Even in Switzerland, which is often cited as a model, the reality is that the net wealth tax does not only target the very wealthy, who are able to avoid the tax through tax planning. And in the end, it is the middle-income and upper-middle-income groups who end up paying the net wealth tax. The Swiss collect about 2% of GDP in revenues through wealth taxes. This is comparable to what we collect in wealth taxes from property tax and stamp duties. Second, corporate income tax, which several Members spoke about, including the impact of BEPS. Pillar One of BEPS re-allocates profits from where economic activities are conducted to where consumers are located. So, given our small market size, Singapore will lose revenue under Pillar One of BEPS. I have mentioned this before. That is something to bear in mind. BEPS has two pillars. We will lose revenue under Pillar One. Pillar Two effectively sets a global minimum effective tax rate. The intent of Pillar Two is for large MNEs to pay more taxes wherever they operate. So, when Pillar Two comes into play and Singapore implements the Domestic Top-Up Tax (DTT), we will get additional revenue, assuming the affected MNEs here do not leave. But that is a big assumption. Because the reality is, despite the professed intent of BEPS to tax MNEs more, countries are now rolling out vast subsidies to strengthen their competitive advantage over other countries and to re-shore and onshore activities. The US passed the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act last year and the EU is now responding with its own scheme – the Green Deal Industrial Plan. So, competition for global investments will only get tougher. We may not be able to outbid the major powers in spending, but we certainly cannot afford to stand still. Contrary to what Mr Louis Chua thinks, the MNEs based here are not stuck with us permanently. They are mobile and they have options, and they will certainly have more options when they decide where to locate their next investment project. Within the region, there are many other places where land and electricity are cheaper and wages are lower. Sir, this is not a hypothetical worry. The MNEs are already making clear to us in our consultation sessions with them. Because of BEPS, they will no longer enjoy the same tax advantages in Singapore. Meanwhile, other countries in the region are cheaper while their home countries are offering very generous incentive packages. So, they ask us: what else can Singapore offer to stay competitive? So, when Mr Louis Chua and Ms Hazel Poa talk about raising taxes for MNEs, my response is: please be very careful; we cannot afford to price ourselves out of the competition, or else Singapore and Singaporeans will end up the biggest loser. In fact, as we move to align ourselves with the BEPS rules, we will have to review and update our broader suite of economic development schemes to stay competitive as I mentioned in the Budget Statement. That will require more funding resources, and that is why MOF’s assessment is that the net fiscal impact of BEPS is unlikely to be favourable. Third, land sales revenue. This was discussed last year; and Ms Hazel Poa highlighted it again in her speech. She suggested then and now that we spend from land sales proceeds by treating it as revenue divided over the period of the lease. So, basically under the proposal, the land sales revenues or proceeds will be spread out over the duration of the lease. In other words, if you have a 99-year parcel of land, you will get about 1% of the proceeds each year. In fact, this alternative is not likely to generate more revenue than what we are already getting today from land sales over a period of time. Currently, when the state sells land, the financial proceeds go into Past Reserves, and they are invested to generate a stream of income into our Budget through the NIRC. The effect is that we will be able to spend more than 1% of the proceeds each year, because the reserves are being prudently invested and they generate long-term returns, half of which we get to spend as revenue. We believe this is a more sustainable way of deriving value from the land we own, through the NIRC that benefits us now and in the future. I have gone through three alternative revenue options but the fact remains that it is very hard for any of them to replace the GST. And given our growing needs, it is not a matter of choosing between GST and any of these alternatives. Contrary to what the Workers’ Party believes, we will need all of them and a mix of taxes – on income, consumption and assets – to provide sound and stable public finances in Singapore. Besides having a diversified revenue base, we also pay attention to the overall tax burden. And after factoring the changes in Budgets 2022 and 2023, including the full GST increase, Singapore’s tax-to-GDP ratio is 14%.[+10 sentences] This is considerably lower than most other advanced economies, as the chart illustrates. In other words, compared to citizens elsewhere, Singaporeans pay much less in taxes and yet are able to enjoy high-quality public services. At the same time, this low tax burden rewards hard work and enterprise, and allows our people and businesses to keep most of what they earn. Aside from a low tax burden, some may ask: is the distribution fair and progressive? And here, our philosophy is that everyone has a part to play in building our nation. Everyone contributes, but those who are better off contribute more. Everyone benefits from Government spending, but those with greater needs benefit more. We believe this is what makes for a fair and inclusive social compact. The outcomes are evident when you look at the benefits and taxes across different income groups. The top 20% bear the heaviest burden in taxes and receive the least in benefits. In recent years, for every dollar they paid in taxes, they received only about $0.30 in benefits.[+1 sentence] Conversely, the bottom 20% paid the least in taxes, and received the most in benefits. For every dollar they paid in taxes, they received around $4 in benefits.[+6 sentences] What about the middle-income groups? Several Members including the Leader of the Opposition Mr Pritam Singh, Mr Xie Yao Quan, Ms Nadia Samdin and many others shared concerns of this group. And I assure you that the Government remains very focused on advancing the well-being of the broad middle of society. How do we achieve this? First, by ensuring that they continue to enjoy real income growth. In fact, among the advanced economies, we are one of the few where people in the middle have enjoyed significant increases in real incomes in the last 20 years. Growth of median household real income per household member in Singapore over the last decade was more than 3% per annum.[+3 sentences] It is higher than what the middle-income in the US and most other European societies experienced and well above other Asian societies like Japan and Hong Kong. We will continue to do everything we can to help our broad middle raise their standards of living and support them in meeting their aspirations. Second, by keeping the tax burden low for this group. I have shared earlier the low overall tax burden for Singapore, that was expressed as a percentage of GDP, as a percentage of our economy. But you can translate that to households and when you look at households in the middle quintile and the total taxes paid – total taxes, not just personal income tax but other indirect taxes as well – the effective tax burden is around 10% of income.[+2 sentences] How does this compare to other advanced economies? My team did some estimates for the US, UK and Finland based on publicly available data. Not all the data are complete, we got what we could.[+1 sentence] But the estimates give a broad sense. And they clearly show that our tax burden is significantly lower than that of these countries.[+2 sentences] In his speech, Mr Leong said that the middle-income in Singapore are, I quote, “already over-taxed relative to their income”. I think the facts and figures speak for themselves. What Mr Leong said is an outright falsehood.[+15 sentences] Several Members, including Ms Jessica Tan, Mr Louis Chua, Mr Dennis Tan and Ms Hany Soh were concerned about the impact of the changes to the Working Mother’s Child Relief (WMCR) on the middle-income groups. And Sir, let me clarify this. When the WMCR was introduced, it was intended to encourage married women, and especially higher-income married women, to have children and continue working. At that time, higher-income married women had fewer children on average. And that is why the incentive was weighted toward this income bracket. But from our experience over the years, young couples in this income group typically base their decisions to have children on other factors and not so much on the WMCR incentive. Furthermore, the situation has now changed. Fertility has been declining across all income segments and we need to encourage couples in all income groups to have more children. And that is why we decided to change the basis of the WMCR. And with the fixed dollar relief, we focus instead on providing support for children regardless of the mother’s income. And effectively, we are tilting the help towards those with greater needs. Importantly, the WMCR changes should not be seen in isolation because they are part of a package of moves to support marriage and parenthood in this and previous Budgets. And that includes enhancements to the Baby Bonus Scheme, the increase in parental leave provisions, all of which will benefit young couples, including higher-income couples, as they embark on their parenthood journey. This brings me to the third point about what we do for the middle-income, because we really should not just look at individual schemes and changes to individual schemes, but we should focus on the overall taxes and benefits for the middle-income group. Here, again, it is clear that the middle-income on the whole receive more in benefits than the taxes they pay. In particular, for the middle 20%, the amount of benefits they received was about twice the amount they paid in taxes.[+27 sentences] This compares favourably with other jurisdictions, like the UK and Finland where the middle quintile received around $1.25 of benefits for every dollar of tax they paid – 1.25:1 – whereas our ratio is 2:1. This is for the middle quintile but some say, well, the middle-income group is very broad, but you can look at the slides. Even the upper middle-income groups, those in the 61st to 80th percentile, received about the same or slightly more in benefits compared to what they paid in taxes. They may not get as much in direct cash benefits compared to the lower-income groups, but they enjoy access to affordable housing, healthcare and world-class education. Of course, in every Budget debate, comparisons will be made about made about why some groups got something and others appear to be left out. For example, over the last two days, we have heard Members like Ms He Ting Ru and Ms Shahira Abdullah asking about benefits for singles and single parents. I understand their concerns but we should not look at the Budget Statement in isolation. In fact, the entire Budget itself provides for all groups. There are many existing schemes not highlighted in the statement per se but are in fact part of the Budget which everyone benefits from. And as the charts I have shown demonstrate, our system is fair, inclusive and progressive. At the same time, we review all our schemes from time to time to ensure they remain relevant. So, we enhanced our parenthood and family-related schemes in this Budget. Next time, we will look at other schemes so everyone will get a chance. Sir, this is how we have designed our system. It reflects our values and our sense of solidarity as a people. We encourage and support everyone to excel and be the best that they can be. We create and maximise opportunities for all. But we recognise that outcomes in life will not be equal. So, for those who are fortunate enough to do well and be in the top 20%, we hope they will feel that sense of commitment and responsibility to contribute their fair share and help uplift their fellow Singaporeans. This compact goes beyond monetary support because everyone in Singapore, everyone including the higher-income, benefit from something very precious here in our society. We are a high trust society, stable and harmonious with strong governance and rule of law. This gives all Singaporeans the safety and security to raise our families, build our lives and pursue our dreams. This sense of solidarity and trust is what makes Singapore exceptional. And that is why through the Forward Singapore exercise, we are refreshing our social compact so that it remains strong and relevant amidst a rapidly changing world. Let me move on to the second bucket of issues around the economy and whether we are staying competitive and helping businesses and workers sufficiently. Many Members spoke on this theme, including Mr Liang Eng Hwa, Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, Ms Foo Mee Har, Mr Sharael Taha and Mr Vikram Nair. Mr Edward Chia and Mr Derrick Goh also highlighted sentiments from the business community where some have wondered, has the Government changed, has the People's Action Party (PAP) Government changed? Have we moved from a '"pro-growth" to a "pro-redistribution" approach?[+1 sentence] Let me set the record straight. We remain focused on growing the economic pie, because only then can Singaporeans build better lives for themselves and their families.[+19 sentences] Only then will we have the resources we need to redistribute, strengthen our social compact, and progress as one people. Pursuing growth will not be easy amidst a more challenging external environment – I mentioned that just now. Competition and geopolitical tensions will continue to rise as the major powers race for the commanding heights of the global economy. Singapore has to adapt to this new era. And the good news is that we are moving forward from a position of strength. We are seeing healthy flows of investments, capital and talent into Singapore. And we are seizing these opportunities to build capabilities, strengthen our value proposition, and ultimately, create more jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans. We must build on our strong foundations and leverage our competitive advantages fully, while managing our inherent and permanent constraints, especially in the areas of manpower, land and energy. We will always be a "little red dot". Manpower resources will always be insufficient, land will always be limited, and we will always be energy constrained. And so, we cannot compete on the basis of cost alone. Instead, we must focus on differentiating ourselves in terms of quality and value. For example, we are not the lowest-cost seaport in the region, or the world. Yet, shipping companies prefer for their goods to transit and transship through Singapore, because of our good connectivity, robust port infrastructure and comprehensive range of maritime services. Our port is highly efficient, containers do not get lost, shipments are cleared promptly and reliably without shippers having to make any special or informal arrangements. This is just one example of how we differentiate ourselves. But clearly, given the more challenging external environment, we must redouble our efforts to raise our game. We must build more capabilities. And we certainly cannot score own goals, do moves that will price ourselves out. We must work hard to be more competitive and anchor more quality investments. And that is why we are setting aside additional resources and expanding the scope of the National Productivity Fund.[+8 sentences] Because having more high-quality investments here will help to grow our economy and create more jobs for Singaporeans. And this will also benefit our local ecosystem, especially through the transfer of technological know-how and expertise to our SMEs. Take the example of our medtech sector. We have built this up over the years, anchored by MNEs like Waters Corporation, Illumina and ResMed. These companies have brought cutting-edge capabilities to Singapore through their investments. Over the years, they have sunk roots here and contributed to the growth of our medtech ecosystem. They have developed strong partnerships with local companies like Richport, Nanofilm and Sunningdale, enabling our local enterprises to improve their capabilities and scale up their businesses to reach out to more customers. At the same time, we are continuing to put in significant resources to nurture and grow our local enterprises, especially our SMEs. In fact, the amount of support extended to SMEs through capability building grants, like the Productivity Solutions Grant, the Enterprise Development Grant and the Market Readiness Assistance Grant doubled between 2019 and 2022.[+5 sentences] The number of Singapore enterprises that we supported to build new capabilities, innovate and expand overseas increased by about 60% over this period. The additional schemes introduced in this Budget demonstrate our continued commitment to supporting our SMEs. Several Members, like Mr Seah Kian Peng and Ms Janet Ang, highlighted the challenges that SMEs face amidst rising business costs. We understand. There are challenges. And in this Budget, we have rolled out some measures to help businesses with some of their immediate cost pressures. This includes the Government taking on a major share, 75%, of the cost of wage increases under the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme.[+17 sentences] But the main thrust of our support for SMEs is focused on helping those who are prepared to take steps themselves to restructure their businesses, raise their productivity and venture into new markets and products. Because, as Prof Hoon Hian Teck said, this is the only way for enterprises to survive and thrive on a sustained basis. We take a sectoral approach through the Industry Transformation Maps to help our economy restructure and transform, because the circumstances, needs and starting points of each industry are very different. And several Members like Mr Pritam Singh and Miss Cheryl Chan spoke about this. Overall, we have made good progress in this transformation journey. In particular, outward-oriented sectors like manufacturing and financial services have achieved strong productivity growth and job creation. But as Ms Poh Li San and Mr Leon Perera highlighted, the domestically-oriented sectors like construction, retail and F&B face more challenges. This is not unique to Singapore at all. All countries face similar challenges. in these sectors, they will need to adopt structural solutions to increase productivity and grow sustainably. But there are some encouraging signs. In the construction sector, for example, more firms are moving towards Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, which includes using prefab modules and units. In the F&B sector, we have seen more companies with multiple outlets adopt central kitchens to automate and streamline their operations and take advantage of economies of scale. These and other strategies will help such sectors raise their productivity and reduce their reliance on manpower. So, overall, we have made progress, but we still need to go further. And that is why we will press ahead with our work on industry transformation and we also hope to see more companies making full use of the schemes available to restructure and transform. Even as we press on with productivity improvements, we also have to gear up for the green transition and the decarbonisation of our economy. And several Members, including Ms Carrie Tan, Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Prof Koh Lian Pin spoke passionately about this. There is clearly much more we will need to do to prepare businesses, workers and our economy for this green transition. I had announced several significant moves in last year's Budget, including our net-zero target and the carbon tax trajectory.[+4 sentences] Many of these moves are a work in progress, and the Minister for Trade and Industry will be happy to share more, I am sure, at the Committee of Supply. Mr Derrick Goh and Mr Don Wee also shared that the application process for grants is sometimes cumbersome for SMEs and disbursements can take a long time. We hear these concerns. Our economic agencies will continue to work closely with companies to support them through the different stages of growth. For example, SMEs can tap on the GoBusiness portal which offers convenient cross-agency access to over 100 Government assistance schemes.[+21 sentences] In processing applications and claims, we strive to be as efficient as possible, while ensuring accountability and safeguarding the integrity of the system. So, I hope Members understand this need to balance speed with the need for accountability in the use of public monies. But we certainly welcome further feedback. We will look into your suggestions and our agencies will continue to streamline and improve processes. As we grow the economy, we will also ensure that the growth translates into better jobs and opportunities for our workers. In a dynamic and vibrant economy, we must expect a continual refreshing and updating of jobs. Unproductive jobs will become obsolete, and new, better, more productive roles will be created in their place. These new jobs could be within the same companies and sectors as where the unproductive jobs are eliminated. They could also be offered by more successful and expanding employers in the same sector, or in other sectors altogether that grow to take the place of the declining ones. This churn is an integral part of healthy economic growth. But it does create uncertainties for workers, because workers will need to reskill and upskill to stay relevant and take on new roles, be it in the same company, or in a different company, or even in a different industry altogether. That is why we are investing significantly in skills and human capital, to help our workers progress in their careers and earn better wages. We started this journey – in fact, it has been an ongoing journey, but we made a further push with the SkillsFuture movement in 2015 and we have made progress since then. At the individual level, through SkillsFuture, we have empowered individuals to take charge of their own skills development and created a culture of lifelong learning, which is growing. Amongst our institutes of higher learning (IHLs), we have brought about a major mindset and paradigm change. Our universities, polytechnics and ITE no longer just focus on pre-employment training, but they are now firmly embedded in the continuing education and training space. At the employer level, we have also made progress. In the past, when you asked employers about the competencies and skills that their workers need, you probably might not get a clear response. Through efforts like NTUC's Company Training Committees, employers and unions are coming together to focus on job redesign and training. Yesterday, many Labour Members of Parliament spoke passionately about this. And you can hear from the speeches that we have come a long way, but we will do more. The Jobs-Skills Integrators is the next move to strengthen the training and placement ecosystem for our workers.[+3 sentences] Actually, the role that the integrator plays is not new. We have always recognised the need for such an entity – it could be a training provider, a company or an industry association – but there is always a need for such an entity to act as a coordinator and bring together the various stakeholders in a particular sector. Up to now, this integrator role has been done in, perhaps, a more ad hoc fashion. But we have studied the experience of other countries, like Sweden and Switzerland, which have formalised such a role, and seen some positive outcomes. And that is why we decided to pilot the Jobs-Skills Integrators in three sectors for a start and we have chosen sectors where there are more SMEs and more mature workers.[+9 sentences] We hope that with additional Government resourcing for this new formalised role and very clear outcome indicators and KPIs, we can achieve better quality training and job matches. I appreciate the strong interest in the Jobs-Skills Integrators. We are only at the start of this initiative and there is still much more to be done. The Minister for Education will share more at the Committee of Supply. Several Members – Mr Patrick Tay, Ms Mariam Jaafar and Assoc Prof Lim – also spoke about the challenges that mature workers will face especially if they are displaced or retrenched, and I agree with them. Younger workers in their 20s will often be able to get back to work quickly, particularly in the current tight labour market, where there are still high vacancy rates and job openings. But if you are in your 40s and 50s, and are displaced or retrenched, it is harder to find a job. At that age, many will also have heavier family responsibilities, to their young children, ageing parents, or both. So, they find it difficult to go for more extensive training, especially to switch to a new growth area. Instead, many will just take the first job available, even if it is not such a good fit for them. That is why we are studying how we can better support our displaced and mature workers through these challenging transitions and setbacks.[+2 sentences] I hope Members appreciate that we have to think through and design these moves carefully. We have to ensure that whatever we do does not erode the incentive to work. This is, again, not theoretical because we have seen the results of unemployment benefits offered in other places where displaced workers receive generous benefits, but they then find it more attractive to stay unemployed than to get back into the workforce.[+1 sentence] We want to avoid these negative outcomes. So, what we really should be thinking about is more like targeted re-employment support.[+1 sentence] We want to provide some cushion while the workers undertake training to upgrade their skills and take on new roles that better fit their abilities and aptitudes. Ultimately, we want to help Singaporeans bounce back stronger from any setback that they may encounter throughout their careers. So, we will consider this and other moves to strengthen our SkillsFuture ecosystem and we are, in fact, deliberating and looking at this very carefully because our workers will always be at the heart of our economic strategies.[+20 sentences] And when workers across the whole economy find their work meaningful, the result will be higher job satisfaction, greater fulfilment and a boost to productivity. Members in this House, I am sure, will remember that it was not so long ago when the Government was being criticised for pursuing a "growth at all costs" strategy – that we were chasing economic growth at the expense of Singaporeans. I think Ms Carrie Tan and Ms Nadia Samdin, to some extent, echoed some of these sentiments in their speeches, when they talked about adopting different models of success that are not just driven by a single-minded pursuit of growth. At the same time, now that growth is slower, we are in a different situation. Many Members in this House now are concerned that we are not sufficiently focused on growth. That if we are faced with a shrinking pie, contentious disputes over how to distribute limited resources will be inevitable, which can be very socially divisive, as we have seen in many other countries. But Sir, in fact, we have always taken a balanced approach in our economic development and strategies. Our focus has always been to grow the economy, not for its own sake, but as a means to improving the well-being and lives of everyone in Singapore. In all that we do, we work closely with our tripartite partners. As Senior Minister of State Heng Chee How, Minister of State Desmond Tan, the Labour Members of Parliament and Mr Raj Joshua Thomas highlighted, tripartism is the competitive advantage that sets Singapore apart and distinguishes us from other countries. Our model of tripartism has been the bedrock for Singapore's growth and prosperity. And it has been critical in enabling us to rebuild from crises and to emerge stronger. So, in Singapore, it is not about "pro-business" versus "pro-workers"; neither is it about "pro-growth" versus "pro-redistribution". It is about all of us – employers, unions and the Government – coming together, working together to advance the well-being of Singaporeans and build a better future for ourselves and our children. The third broad bucket of issues is about whether we are doing enough to help Singaporeans and households in need. And indeed, many Members spoke up in this area and supported the Government's efforts to help Singaporeans. Cost-of-living is a key concern for many. And that is why we have provided comprehensive measures to help Singaporeans cope with higher prices. Our focus is on the lower-income groups. But the help extends to sandwiched and middle-income families too, like those whom Mr Xie Yao Quan, Mr Abdul Samad and Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman were concerned about. That is why we have designed our packages to provide more help for larger families with young and elderly dependents. And we will continue to review our social support schemes and their means-testing criteria, taking onboard all your suggestions, including the Annual Value (AV) thresholds, to ensure that Singaporeans in need receive the support that they need.[+7 sentences] I am also heartened by the efforts of the Consumers Association of Singapore like Price Kaki which Mr Melvin Yong spoke about and we will consider and look into his suggestions as well, and the fact that companies like NTUC FairPrice and Sheng Siong are doing their part to help cushion the impact of higher prices. Another topic that many Members spoke about is on housing affordability. We debated this at length earlier this month. I was not going to touch on it originally but since so many of you spoke about this, I thought I should cover it briefly in my remarks. We are all concerned about the affordability and accessibility of public housing in Singapore. But I think it is important we understand the underlying causes for the challenges we face today. Because failure to diagnose the problem properly can lead to the wrong solutions. I say this with some perspective because I was in the Ministry of National Development (MND) during the period when HDB resale prices came tumbling down. They fell for six consecutive years from 2013 to 2019.[+33 sentences] Mr Desmond Lee is in the hot seat now. I was in the hot seat then for a different reason. And at that time, we used the same methodology to price Build-To-Order (BTO) flats then, as we are doing now. But when resale prices were falling, no one seemed to be unduly concerned about the prices of new flats. On the contrary, there was a great anxiety that there would be a huge overhang of flats and we would end up with a price meltdown. And that is precisely why the Workers' Party proposed in 2019 to cut back the annual BTO supply to just 9,000 flats. I read the letter published in The Straits Times today. The Workers' Party now says that it was not a proposal. Well, come on. You can call it whatever you want. But it was quite clear in the Working Paper in a section headlined "Calibrating the construction of new BTO estates"; it says very clearly that "around 9,000 or so dwelling units are required annually" based on various population parameters, otherwise HDB will have a vacancy rate problem. Fortunately, HDB did not take their advice. That was up to 2019. Then how did the situation change so quickly in the last three years? We had a pandemic that disrupted our BTO building programme. And when that supply was disrupted and waiting times became longer, people felt anxious and more started applying for BTO flats earlier. Others decided to get a resale flat instead because waiting time was so long; so that drives up resale demand. So, we had a confluence of both delayed project delivery and increased demand, contributing to the situation that we are in now. Who could have anticipated and predicted all this? Really? Indeed, if we had adopted the WP proposal – well, never mind, heeded their advice since you do not want to call it a proposal – and if we had done so and cut back the building of new flats and adopted their subsequent proposal to allow singles aged below 35 to buy new flats, we would be facing a much bigger supply-demand imbalance today. So, you know, let us all show some humility in this. What happened could not have been predicted and let us refrain from passing judgment with the benefit of hindsight. Under the current circumstances, the WP now says that the house price-to-income ratio should be lowered to three. Well, actually, why stop at three? Why not make it two, or even one? Regardless of the number, more funding will be required to make new flats cheaper. No one disputes that. Someone has to pay. But, I think, the WP does not want to talk about increasing subsidies and making the taxpayer cough out more. So, they have chosen instead to go with what they think is probably a more expedient and seemingly painless option – which is to dip into the reserves by selling the state land to HDB at a lower cost. But we must remember public housing land is sold directly to HDB at a fair market value determined by the Chief Valuer (CV) using established and accepted valuation principles. What would be the basis for the Government to get the CV to change the valuation method? In fact, it is precisely because we do not want the Government to influence the CV's decision that we have safeguarded the post of the CV in the Constitution and made the appointment and removal of the post subject to the President's veto.[+3 sentences] Mr Pritam Singh alluded to, in his question, that there is a discrepancy because State Land sold under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme can potentially enjoy a 15% discount. But that is a red herring. The fair market value of State Land sold through an open tender, such as under the GLS programme, is determined through price discovery when developers bid for the land. We set a reserve price for these tenders. It is at 85% of an estimated market value as determined by the CV.[+11 sentences] But that is a reserve price, not a discount. And this reserve price serves as a guidepost for the Government to assess the bids that are received before awarding the tender. For example, if the highest tendered price is below this 85% threshold, we might want to check this against other factors like the prevailing market conditions, the number of independent bids received and the specific circumstances about the site. So, it is a guidepost for us to do our checks. And if we are convinced that the bids are competitive and reflect actual market conditions because it went through a tender process, then we would still proceed with the highest acceptable bid in the tender because that is the fair market value of the land. Public housing land is not sold through an open tender like the GLS programme because there is only one developer – the HDB. But HDB flats are purchased and sold all the time in the open market. There is a well-established open market value for the flats, and therefore working backwards, one can calculate the value of the land used to build HDB flats. These transactions provide the CV with up-to-date market data to consider when making his or her independent determination of the fair market value of public housing land. These valuations are based on objective facts; they are not an arbitrary subjective opinion. It is also real, as every HDB homeowner knows who has sold his flat for more than he paid HDB, and used the capital gain to upgrade to a bigger flat, or to put aside for their retirement needs. The bottom line is you cannot just change the way land is priced to bring down the selling price of flats.[+18 sentences] And if you were to try to artificially "reset" the housing market in this manner, you will risk destabilising the entire property market. Actually, Assoc Prof Lim recognised this in his Facebook post two days ago. He said that with the proposal by the Workers' Party to reduce the land price, some homeowners who have bought their flats under current terms and subsequently wish to sell their flat for various reasons, quote, "may go underwater" or, quote, "have to stomach a loss". Is that what the Workers' Party wants to do – to arbitrarily wipe out a significant chunk of the value of Singaporeans' hard-earned properties? But at least Assoc Prof Lim acknowledged this problem. Because Mr Leong Mun Wai, who similarly wants HDB BTO prices to be drastically reduced, has claimed that his proposal has no impact on the resale market and Singaporeans can have their cake and eat it too – cheap BTO prices, high resale prices, home buyers still enjoying enormous capital gains, and the Government does not have to do anything. It seems like magic, but it is really a raid on the reserves. Suffice to say, there are no magic solutions to solve the current housing issues. The Government's approach – and what we believe is the right thing to do – is to tackle the root cause of the problem. What is the root cause? It is supply! So, let us ramp up BTO supply; catch up with the delays that had arisen over the COVID-19 period. HDB is doing the best it can, and Ministry of Finance (MOF) is supporting them with the resources to do so and I am confident that we will, through all these efforts, get things back on track soon. There is also a view being put out by some Members – I think, Ms Hazel Poa and others highlighted – that the Government's policy on land value is driving up public housing prices, that leads to continued increases in subsidies for BTO flats, which may not be sustainable. But now, again, we are looking at this now and the concern arises because of the current cyclical tightness in the public housing market. The situation will be different once the market stabilises or if you have a down market. So, rather than look at the ups and downs, cyclically, the fact is land value will ultimately be based on economic fundamentals. Meanwhile, because it will take time for the supply to go up, we have made some moves in this Budget to manage demand. In particular, we are giving greater priority to families with children and married couples aged 40 and below, who are buying their first home, and the additional ballot will significantly increase their chances of securing a BTO flat, especially one in a non-mature estate. And we are increasing the CPF Housing Grant for resale flats, so that eligible first-timer families and singles with more urgent needs can purchase a resale flat.[+5 sentences] I know quite a number of Members have highlighted concerns that this increased grant will cause sellers to ask for higher resale prices and may not work. I understand the concerns. And in fact, there will always be a risk like this when we increase the grants. And that is why we considered it very carefully, and we took into account the property cooling measures we had implemented and HDB’s progress in ramping up the BTO supply, before we decided on this move. Furthermore, not all flat buyers will benefit from the increased grant. Based on the data on resale transactions over the last two years, only about one-third of resale flat buyers received the CPF Housing Grant.[+12 sentences] So, while the enhanced grant may have some impact on resale prices, overall first-timers should benefit from the grant and pay less when they buy a resale flat. That is the intent. This is a targeted support measure, rather than a broad-based move; and we are confident that it will help first-timer families and singles buying in the resale market, and indirectly also reduce some of the demand for BTO flats. There is certainly a lot more we can cover on housing. This is not a housing debate: it is a Budget debate. So, I have focused on the key points, especially where it relates to land and reserves matters. But I am sure there will be more to discuss, and the Minister for National Development will address them at the Committee of Supply. Many Members including Dr Wan Rizal, Mr Desmond Choo, Mr Leon Perera, and Mr Christopher de Souza also spoke about what more we can do to tackle the related issues of inequality and social mobility. As I highlighted in the Budget Statement, our moves to uplift lower-wage workers through Workfare and Progressive Wages are showing results. Over the past five years, our lower-wage workers have consistently seen higher income growth than those at the median. So, we will continue with our efforts to uplift the incomes of lower-wage workers. Last September, we expanded the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) to workers in the retail sector. Next month, workers in food services, as well as administrators and drivers will come on board.[+8 sentences] In July, we will cover workers in waste management. Taken together, our Progressive Wage approach covers the vast majority of lower-wage workers. So, the moves we are making will have a positive impact in uplifting their salaries over the coming years. Beyond these PWM sectors, we are charting out skills-based career ladders for tradesmen in key essential services like plumbers, electricians and aircon mechanics. Earlier this month, the Labour Movement mooted the Career Progression Model, a new framework which will uplift the work prospects and wages of skilled essential tradesmen and professionalise these trades. The Government will support the Labour Movement in these efforts. We are also focusing on new entrants to the workforce, especially our ITE graduates, which Mr Desmond Choo and others spoke about. We are equipping them with industry-relevant skills and a strong foundation for future learning. In fact, through programmes like the Work-Study and Technical Diplomas, ITE graduates are seeing better employment outcomes, with median starting salaries that are comparable to those of polytechnic diploma graduates.[+16 sentences] These are positive indications and we will continue to do more. The Government will do our part, but we will not be able to narrow wage gaps on our own. As many Members highlighted, to ensure sustainable growth in real wages for our lower-wage workers, Singaporeans need to chip in too. As consumers, all of us must be prepared to pay more for services delivered by our fellow Singaporeans, be it cleaning of our housing estates, air conditioner servicing, security, or retail. Most importantly, we must treat everyone with dignity and respect, and value everyone for the work they do. That is why we join our brothers and sisters in the NTUC to affirm that “Every Worker Matters”. This is not just a slogan; it is a fundamental tenet undergirding our entire approach of nation building. Besides dealing with inequality, we must ensure that social mobility remains alive and well in Singapore. We have done better in this aspect than many other advanced economies. But any society which has been stable for a long time tends to stratify. That is why we must collectively lean against this tendency and do more to uplift disadvantaged groups. Here, support in the early years matters critically. That is why we have been making significant shifts on early childhood over the past few years and we will do more to narrow the preschool enrolment gap between children from lower-income households and their peers. We are also helping lower-income families tackle the complex and multi-faceted challenges they face holistically and through better coordination. I spoke about this in the Budget. Today, we have different Government agencies overseeing various schemes – for example, HDB has the Fresh Start Housing Scheme, MOE has its UPLIFT Initiative, and ECDA has KidSTART and so on. But in the end, our approach cannot be scheme-centric; it must be family-centric. That is why we are streamlining common functions such as outreach, befriending and case support under ComLink to serve the 14,000 families with children living in rental housing.[+23 sentences] The officers engaging these families take a different approach. They do not just promote specific Government schemes. Their starting point is the needs of the families – to find out their concerns, and what we can do to support them, such as helping them secure a better job, or ensuring that their children attend school regularly or have a conducive environment to study in. We are seeing many success stories of families being uplifted through this approach. It requires much more work and effort on the part of our officers; it also requires us to work closely with social workers and community partners on the ground. But ultimately, it is the best way to encourage and empower families to achieve success and to sustain their progress. Tackling inequality and sustaining social mobility is really about making our system of meritocracy work well for all Singaporeans. In fact, we have long recognised the problems with an “unbridled" and "winner takes all" meritocracy, which Mr Leon Perera spoke about. That is why we set out to achieve a more open and inclusive meritocracy over a decade ago. So, I am glad that Mr Leon Perera agrees with and supports the Government’s objectives. In fact, Members would have seen the many moves we have made towards these objectives over the years – from the earliest years of life to our efforts in schools and the labour market. We are not done yet, and we are actively working on all fronts to minimise social barriers and encourage mobility, because this is what Singapore has always been about and must continue to be. We remain open to all good ideas. We are pragmatic and we are also realistic. This is not about pursuing the latest fashion or fad in policy thinking. We will focus on what works, and what is effective in bringing us closer to our goals. Another group that we are focusing on is our seniors. Many Members spoke about this, including Ms Jessica Tan, Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Dennis Tan, Mr Sharael Taha, Mr Henry Kwek, Mr Saktiandi Supaat, Ms Tin Pei Ling and Ms Ng Ling Ling. They covered many areas, including employment, retirement adequacy and care options. Let me touch on these briefly. We all know that as our population ages, our healthcare needs and costs will increase. The strains on families and caregivers will grow. That is why we have been making moves in the Budget in recent years to take better care of our seniors. For example, seniors will receive significant benefits under the enhanced Assurance Package and the GST Voucher scheme.[+1 sentence] Besides providing near-term support, we want to help our seniors live healthily and independently for as long as possible. I also agree with Members that those who wish to continue working should be well supported to do so. That is why the Government is progressively raising the retirement and re-employment ages and providing substantial employment support for seniors.[+3 sentences] Over the past five years, we have seen an overall improvement in the employment rate of senior workers and we will continue to push for further improvements working together with our tripartite partners. As part of the refreshed Action Plan for Successful Ageing, we are also stepping up efforts to help our seniors remain socially active in the community. And when our seniors retire, we want them to enjoy their silver years. That is why we have been working hard to boost the retirement adequacy of different cohorts and segments. It is the reason why we are progressively raising the CPF monthly salary ceiling. The increase is intended to keep pace with the 80th percentile of monthly resident wages, which crossed $8,000 last year, and to help middle-income Singaporeans save more for retirement.[+3 sentences] Some Members have expressed concerns that the increase in the ceiling will add to business costs and reduce the take-home pay of middle-income workers. I understand the concerns, but I also hope Members appreciate that the move will, in fact, benefit workers. Because they will have more CPF savings, which can be used for healthcare and housing. Importantly, they will be able to save more and strengthen their retirement security in the longer term. We are phasing in this increase over four years because we have consulted our tripartite partners, engaged them and listened to their concerns.[+8 sentences] And we know that we need to do this over a period of time to give our employers and employees time to adjust. The annual salary ceiling will also remain unchanged at this juncture, which was also part of the considerations after consultations and this will limit the impact on business costs. Beyond the moves in this Budget, we are undertaking a review of our CPF system parameters and retirement policies, including the Silver Support Scheme. Our aim is to assure all Singaporeans that as long as they work and contribute consistently to their CPF, they will be able to meet their Basic Retirement Sum. And for those who do not have the ability to work, or the runway to work and save through CPF, we will find other ways to ensure their retirement security. We are also looking at the long-term care arrangements for our seniors, something which many Members spoke about. Many are concerned over the affordability of the care options and the burden of care amongst caregivers. Some have suggested providing more support for caregivers. Indeed, we had earlier announced the enhancement of the Home Caregiving Grant, and the enhanced grant will take effect next month.[+36 sentences] We will continue to review, but it is not just about caregiving support alone, because we have to review more broadly our aged care system to see how we can enhance the care and living options for the seniors within our community, while ensuring our long-term care services remain affordable. We are looking at various things, including how we can develop more senior living options in our housing estates, how we can best deploy and operate our Active Ageing Centres, something I spoke about in the Budget Statement. And beyond the hardware and infrastructure, how we can provide a more seamless continuum of care for our seniors, with easily accessible and integrated services across all neighbourhoods. It is challenging, as the aged care sector is complex and fragmented. So, we will need to think through our plans carefully and consider how best to deploy limited resources – both land and manpower – in efficient and sensible ways. This has always been our approach to providing assurance for our people. We review our policies carefully, we ensure that any long-term or permanent programmes are sustainable and reinforce the ethos of self-reliance and mutual support. That is how we have progressively strengthened our social security system and safety nets, and implemented schemes like Workfare, CPF LIFE and Silver Support. Mr Deputy Speaker, I have covered a few key areas where we are doing more to uplift vulnerable groups and support our seniors. But as I said in the Budget speech, the moves in this Budget are part of a broader review to strengthen our social compact. And many Members gave very good suggestions in this debate. Ms Yeo Wan Ling talked about how we can better support gig and self-employed workers. Dr Wan Rizal, Ms Nadia Samdin and Mr Melvin Yong spoke about those with mental health needs or conditions. Miss Cheng Li Hui, Mr Darryl David and Mr Eric Chua spoke about how we can make Singapore more family-friendly. Mr Don Wee, Dr Shahira Abdullah, Ms He Ting Ru, Mr Louis Ng and Ms Rachel Ong have highlighted other groups who need help, including persons with disabilities and their caregivers, students with special needs, healthcare workers and single parents. We are reviewing all these and many other areas as part of Forward Singapore. In the coming months, we will study the various suggestions provided and partner Singaporeans to develop new strategies and impactful solutions. Sir, taking care of one another is not just about meeting the needs of today. It is about looking after our children, grandchildren and future generations to come. We must do what is right for today and for tomorrow. That is the approach our forefathers took. In the earlier decades when our economy took off and grew rapidly, they did not just spend all the surpluses without any regard for the future. Instead, they painstakingly built up the reserves and they introduced the Elected Presidency to safeguard and protect our reserves. These values of discipline, prudence and the willingness to sacrifice for the next generation are the very essence of what undergirds our framework for the reserves. Looking after future generations does not mean that we are neglecting the current generation – far from it. Sometimes, we talk about the future as though it is some distant thing, many years away. But, in fact, the so-called "future generations" are really not very far away. Many in this Chamber will still be alive 20 or 30 years from now. Prof Koh shared his hopes to be in Singapore in 2050 as a retired professor looking at how green Singapore will be. I certainly hope to be there at that time too. Our children will certainly be growing up in that timeframe and will be directly impacted by what we do today. So, the future is not something abstract, something that is not linked to us. It is us and our children. In any case, all of us today are currently benefiting from the reserves. Our reserves are our endowment fund and our rainy-day fund. As our endowment fund, the returns from our reserves have enabled us to keep overall tax burden light, as I have shown just now. Out of every dollar we spend in our Budget, 20 cents come from the NIRC.[+26 sentences] It is our rainy-day fund. We saw both during the Global Financial Crisis and over the past three years how our reserves helped us to weather crises without having to incur debt that future generations will have to pay. So, what we enjoy today must never be taken for granted. Many Members highlighted this, including Ms Foo Mee Har, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, Ms Poh Li San, Ms Joan Pereira and Mr Shawn Huang. As they highlighted, we will have to brace ourselves for all sorts of possible disruptions and shocks in this new world and we have to do more to strengthen our national resilience. Take pandemics as an example. We had SARS in 2003 and then COVID-19 almost 20 years later in 2020. We may not need to wait another 20 years before we face the prospect of another deadly and devastating pandemic in the world. We face global warming and the growing threat of climate-related disasters. Climate risks can lead to other risks. It can disrupt global food supplies. It can facilitate the spread of more illnesses and pandemics. We now have superpower rivalry between China and the US and potential flashpoints in the region. The superpowers are now thinking in terms of "spheres of influence". So, smaller countries like Singapore will come under growing pressure. We have enjoyed peace and stability in the region for close to 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. It is hard for us to imagine how things could be different. But look at Ukraine and Europe and how the situation changed so quickly. With growing geopolitical tensions, can we be sure that our region will be able to avoid conflict in the coming decades? If there were to be a conflict or a hot war in this part of the world, how will that impact Singapore? These are major risks that we will have to consider and take seriously. And given these plausible scenarios of the future, what should our response be? To blithely spend more from the reserves as the Opposition proposes because we are just slowing down the growth rate as they claim? Or to husband our reserves and uphold the principles that underpin the protection of our reserves that have served us well all these years? To me, the answer is clear. In fact, I would say that there appeared to be a time when the Workers' Party seemed to me, to share the Government's perspective on the reserves. Because in 2009, when this Parliament debated whether to draw $4.9 billion of Past Reserves that year to help Singaporeans tide over the Global Financial Crisis, Mr Low Thia Khiang then from the Workers' Party expressed surprise at the need to do so.[+5 sentences] He said, and I quote, "Past Reserves are a strategic asset meant for use in times of need, especially when the Government faces financial constraints due to unprecedented circumstances which require the Government to respond in the interest of the nation." I could not have said it better. Later in 2011, after we recovered well from the crisis, we were able to put back into Past Reserves what we had drawn earlier. And Mr Low applauded this move. He said in his speech in Parliament that this was "one thing right" that the Government had done in the Budget that year. Many things were not right, but that one thing was done right. This time, I explained in the Budget Statement that we are highly unlikely to put back the $40 billion drawn from Past Reserves.[+2 sentences] Several PAP Members of Parliament – Mr Liang Eng Hwa, Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim and Ms Tin Pei Ling – have over this and recent Budgets emphasised the importance of fiscal discipline and urged the Government to try to put back the money into the Past Reserves should our fiscal position improve. But the Workers' Party has been completely silent on this. Instead, their repeated calls have been for the Government to spend more from the reserves – to slow down the growth of the reserves, increase the 50% NIRC formula, change the reserves rules.[+17 sentences] Different options and different suggestions dressed up in multiple ways but it boils down to the same consistent ask. And it sounds to me that the Workers' Party has shifted its position since the days of Mr Low. But in the end, Singaporeans will have to judge what is the more responsible approach to manage our finances and to take Singapore forward. I say, let us uphold the values of our forefathers and do what is right by past, present and future generations of Singaporeans. Let us maintain a strong fiscal foundation so that Singapore can continue to prosper and thrive for many more years to come in this troubled world. To conclude, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Budget is not just about dollars and cents. Neither is it about winners and losers or about pitting the well off against the rest of society. Instead, it reflects our values as a people and our unwavering commitment to build a fairer, more inclusive and ever more just society. In his opening remarks, Mr Pritam Singh gave an impassioned speech – that we must not allow "two Singapores" to emerge. This has in fact been the People's Action Party Government's steadfast approach all these years, so I thank him for agreeing with what we are doing. But I must say that I find it a bit odd how Mr Pritam Singh characterises the "two Singapores". In particular, he suggested that if you are unable to upgrade to a condominium or a landed property or own a car, you will be in the second Singapore. But the test of social mobility cannot be about owning a landed property or purchasing a car. Let us not perpetuate such narrow definitions of success. The fact is everyone will have their own aspirations and passions to pursue. Ultimately, we aim to value and celebrate every individual for who they are and to provide them with opportunities to do better throughout their lives. That is how we will refresh and strengthen our social compact. I also agree with Mr Pritam Singh's remarks that fiscal redistribution should not be about pitting one group against another. And I am very glad that the Workers' Party supports the Budget this year even though it includes the second step of the GST rate increase.[+1 sentence] But the irony is this. The Workers' Party shares the Government's view that those who earn more should pay more in taxes, yet it consistently refuses to acknowledge the unique way the People's Action Party Government has implemented our GST system, which requires the well off to contribute more and does not hurt the poor.[+2 sentences] And I cannot help but feel that it is because the Workers' Party thinks that there is political mileage, perhaps, in pushing for ideas to soak the rich and, maybe, political advantage to reject the GST despite everything we have done to implement it in a way that is fair and that does not hurt the poor. Sir, governing Singapore cannot just be about scoring political points or doing what is politically convenient or expedient. We have to do what is right for Singapore and Singaporeans. And when tough calls like raising the GST have to be made, we have to be upfront, explain our position and persuade Singaporeans why such painful decisions are necessary but will ultimately benefit everyone.[+7 sentences] This is what the PAP Government and successive People's Action Party Ministers for Finance have done. In the end, I have faith in Singapore and Singaporeans. We are a rugged and resilient people. We know what it means to live within our means, earn our own keep and stand on our own feet with dignity and pride. We are a caring and big-hearted people. We care for the people around us. We care about our children and grandchildren and our future generations yet to be born. We rally together through thick and thin and we move forward as one people. We will never mortgage the future of our children in the next generation but we will do everything we can to give them a better start in their lifetimes.[+3 sentences] Sir, our solidarity and our values are our deepest strength. They are what make Singapore work. They have kept Singapore going through good years and bad. And they will enable us to secure our prospects and build a brighter future together – as one united people and as one Singapore.
Mr Deputy Speaker22 words
We have had 55 speakers over the last three days.[+2 sentences] Therefore, we will allocate time for clarifications. The Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied)977 words
[+7 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Finance Minister for his round-up speech. I have a number of clarifications in view of the interventions the Finance Minister made on the Workers' Party's participation in this debate. I will start with the first and this pertains to the tax burden on the middle class. I think the Finance Minister put up some charts. They set out what the Government has shared in the past about the burden insofar as how much a certain percentile of Singaporeans pay vis-a-vis taxes and the benefits they accrue in return. I think this has been something that the Government has done consistently. On this note, in 2018, my colleague Mr Leon Perera asked the Government to consider measuring the consumer price index (CPI), which tracks inflation for specific demographic groups like young couples, parents with children and retirees.[+28 sentences] The Government would say it would do this when it was ready. Five years on, we are still waiting. I think we saw the headlines this morning about CPI and how it continues to go up. I am raising this now vis-a-vis those charts that the Finance Minister provided because you have to assess the pain points of the middle class from various perspectives. I think the CPI, when you look at certain specific categories and classes of Singaporeans, you may get a different picture compared to what the Finance Minister raised. We obviously need a better resolution on that. My first clarification is whether the Finance Minister would consider providing information from that perspective – specific groups of Singaporeans which we know are in the sandwiched middle class. The second clarification has to deal with the strategy that the Finance Minister laid out. The Government keeps the tax burden low and it aims to keep the tax burden on Singaporeans low. In the course of the debate, of course, I listened to various PAP Members of Parliament (MPs). I heard proposals for more intermediate- and long-term care subsidies, checking the rental rate of Government-owned and managed properties, even a call for a windfall tax. Many of these proposals were made in the WP manifesto and by WP Members in this House. So, for a minute, I thought that the PAP had become "WP-lite". Be that as it may, what none of the PAP MPs who raised these proposals did, was to tell us where this money was going to come from, something that the WP did in the last debate. We put it out there. The Finance Minister referred to the debate we had at the last Budget debate. What then are the main strategies then that the Government has for keeping the tax burden on Singaporeans low? This leads me to my third clarification and that pertains to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) issue. I will be brief on this because I am sure some of the other WP MPs will come in and seek further clarifications from the Finance Minister. On this topic and the Minister's iteration of this back and forth that is currently going on in The Straits Times Forum between the PAP and the WP, I am reminded of what the Government Whip said many, many years ago in this House, "Sometimes it is not just what you say but what you do not say that also matters." And what the Government is not saying, of course, is the context of the WP housing paper was in response to Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS), a Government proposal which was not very clear and it was looking into the future. So, naturally, the housing paper looks at a longer-range forecast of the housing sector. And that was the context which I have not heard any PAP MP speak about. And in fact, they seem to be quite silent about it. And, on this note, of course, I have to then come to the irresistible conclusion that it is a convenient distraction because if indeed the point that was raised in the housing paper was critical, then the PAP would have raised it last year when the WP called for more HDB housing for singles. So, it was a response to the housing debate, I think the PAP recognised that accessibility and affordability of HDB flats is a serious issue, but I will leave it at that on the point of context. The second sub-point, however, I would like to make is an issue that the Finance Minister suggested that we do not want to deal with the difficult problem of subsidies and grants and how much this may cost the taxpayer. Completely untrue, because we raised it in this House. Again that the fact of the matter is more and more money, more and more fiscal resources are being diverted to the Home Ownership Programme – $1 billion in the past, touching $4 billion now.[+2 sentences] And given the approach that we are taking, this is only going to increase. So, when the Finance Minister says, when we ask questions about pricing of land and so forth, and he says that this is red herring, I respectfully disagree because we have to try and understand how we can make the Budget balanced, and how much is actually being devoted for a programme which the way we see it is just going to keep going up and up and up. The Finance Minister did not, of course, clarify some of the specific queries that I raised in my speech about this insofar as whether the Government will reveal the subsidies for each Build-To-Order (BTO) programme because it shows that, actually, there is a point of inequity that I think needs to be worked on.[+3 sentences] But I will leave it at that. The other WP MPs will come in with more clarifications. My fourth point has to do with —
Mr Deputy Speaker32 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Singh, may I invite you to be more succinct in your clarifications because we would have to go through quite a number of Members seeking clarifications of the Minister for Finance.
Mr Pritam Singh13 words
[+2 sentences]I will do my best, Deputy Speaker. I just have two more clarifications.
Mr Deputy Speaker10 words
[+1 sentence]If you can keep it succinct, it would be appreciated.
Mr Pritam Singh5 words
[+1 sentence]I will do my best.
Mr Deputy Speaker6 words
[+1 sentence]You have gone through four clarifications.
Mr Pritam Singh316 words
[+2 sentences]The fourth clarification is pertaining to the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) which the Finance Minister did pick up. The Finance Minister shared that overall, there was good progress. But, of course, there are some domestic sectors where there are issues.[+1 sentence] I would like to bring to the Finance Minister's attention to the Second Report of the Estimates Committee that was presented to Parliament on the 15 November 2017. And paragraph 29 says that the Committee, this being the Estimates Committee, expressed the need for robust KPI setting, monitoring and accountability of the various initiatives under CFE including ITMs.[+2 sentences] I raised this point in my Budget speech last year as well. Can the Finance Minister share some of this information with us? Because in the spirit of fiscal prudence, $4.5 billion dollars was allocated to the ITMs in 2016.[+4 sentences] I think we do need a report card. The final clarification pertains to the point the Finance Minister made about Mr Low and his responses to the drawdown of the reserves during the Global Financial Crisis. The simple answer to that is the position of the Workers' Party has evolved because circumstances have evolved significantly. And we can see it also, in terms of the contribution of the NIRC and the Government's own attitude to the NII framework post-Global Financial Crisis. You have Temasek being included in the NIRC formula.[+1 sentence] Why? Because we were told there were more needs, healthcare needs, ageing population.[+3 sentences] These are perfectly, eminently reasonable explanations as to why Temasek tap was included in the NIRC framework. I do not see this as a particularly problematic issue to deal with because naturally, as circumstances evolve, PAP also will change its position and the Workers' Party, of course, will be entitled to do the same. I will leave those clarifications out there for the moment and I will step in with more if I have to.
Mr Deputy Speaker9 words
[+2 sentences]Thank you, Mr Singh. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Mr Lawrence Wong1187 words
[+20 sentences]Thank you, Sir. Let me take these issues in turn. On the tax burden on different, middle-income and sandwiched groups and the CPI for these specific segments, we do the best we can. We continue to monitor all the different groups. Where data is available, we will publish and where it is useful, we will put it out for information. We are tracking not only inflation, but as we have repeatedly said, how real incomes evolve for all these different segments, because at the end of the day, we want to ensure that real incomes grow not just for the top end, but for the middle and, in particular and especially for the lower-income groups. We, already, in fact, put out CPI data by income groups. The Leader of the Opposition has asked for even more granular data for specific segments, different archetypes. We will continue to review and see what more can be done. Here, we share the same interest. There is nothing to hide. We are all concerned about the same thing and we will continue to do more and do better. On the strategy for keeping tax burden low and who has given more ideas. No one has a monopoly of ideas. In this House, Members across different parties will put out ideas. From the Government's point of view, we welcome all ideas. We will study them. We will look at them. Where they are good ideas, regardless of where these ideas come from, we embrace them. If the ideas may not be so effective, we will highlight and say that these are not ideas that we think are sound. In that light, we will continue to look at how we can manage growing spending needs, while keeping our finances stable and sustainable. There may be a need for additional revenues. And, if so, we will make sure that any form of additional revenues raised or taxes raised, are done in a way that keeps our overall system of taxes and benefits fair and progressive.[+1 sentence] That is our commitment. We could also look at meeting increased spending needs, not only through increased revenues and taxes, but we could also do it through re-allocation. So, there will also be a continual exercise to examine what are some areas that we can do less of, what are some things we might want to discontinue so that expenditure and funding can be re-allocated to new priority areas.[+39 sentences] And here, my appeal to everyone in the House, everyone in the House, across all parties is, as Finance Minister, you hear a lot more proposals to do more, but you very rarely hear proposals to stop doing something. I think it would be nice for a change to hear Members talk about some things we might stop doing, do less of. And then, we may have more ideas to think about how we can manage both expenditure and revenues, and ensure sustainable finances. Third, on housing and what the Workers' Party said in its Working Paper in 2019 and the context which, according to Mr Singh was not said. Actually, I thought I said it in the speech. I fully appreciate the context, because I was there in the Ministry of National Development (MND). The context was the concern about decay of leases, declining values. But the context was also in the midst of falling resale prices for consecutive years. And the Workers' Party is not alone in highlighting that, under such an environment, we better consider how many new flats we are putting out. Many experts shared similar concerns. I was under tremendous pressure to cut back BTO flats. There is no shame in acknowledging that you got that wrong because many people did. Why not just acknowledge it, that, yes, it may not have been a specific proposal or whatever you want to call it, but it was very clearly stated. We do not have to go through it. It is right there. I read the Working Paper, from cover to cover, in MND. I know what was said. And what was said at that time reflected the context of that time – a concern with overhang of supply, too many flats. If you build more flats, this is what will happen. So, why not just acknowledge that you got that wrong? Like I said, no shame in it. Many experts thought it was the right thing to do at that time too. And we are not here to pass judgement because, with the benefit of hindsight it is, of course, very easy to say. No one would have predicted that you would have a COVID-19 crisis and what has happened in the last three years. No one could have predicted that. We did not; neither did the Workers' Party. No one did. So, let us acknowledge, like I said, with some humility, what happened, and let us not rush to judge the current situation with the benefit of hindsight. Let us acknowledge that the current situation was created by a set of very unusual and exceptional circumstances. And the root of the problem is building more supply. And that is what we are doing. We are doing our best to try and fix the problem – not created by bad policies, by sacred cows which we are loath to slay, but by something that was exceptional. And we are doing our best to address it. Fourthly, ITMs and what was said in the Estimates Committee about robust KPI setting, outcomes and publishing of what we have achieved through the ITMs. Sir, I completely agree with what needs to be done. We need clear KPIs, outcomes for every ITM and they had been published, not all, but a lot of them have very clear outcomes reported. In the financial services sector which I launched, for example, we set out very clearly what we wanted to deliver, what was achieved and the next milestone, what we hope to do with the next version. Sector-by-sector, these ITMs, the sectoral agencies in charge of them, will put out the reports, more information, clearer outcomes. It is a continuing journey which we will continue to walk on and help each sector restructure and transform. Then, on the shift in the Workers' Party's position on the putting back of reserves, I am glad that Mr Singh has acknowledged that it is a change in the Workers' Party's position. But I would respectfully disagree with his comparing that with how we have updated our position on the involvement of Temasek in the Net Investment Returns framework. Because we have made it very clear when we embarked on this that we did want Temasek to come in it. But it was a matter that needed more time to study and therefore, the implementation was staged.[+1 sentence] More importantly, our underlying philosophy, our intent, our principles, have never changed and will never change. It is about fiscal prudence, discipline, responsibility, stewardship. That is consistent and has not changed and will not change, whereas, it seems to me, on that part, the Workers' Party has shifted.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)436 words
[+7 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I wish to respond to the point in the HDB paper and then I have two clarifications to put to the Deputy Prime Minister. And to some extent time, I am repeating what Mr Louis Chua said on the point about the HDB paper when it was first made, but I think it needs some treatment in a bit more granularity than what the Leader of the Opposition had time to do just now. Because the People's Action Party seems to be doubling down on this incorrect assertion, using its tremendous PR and communicative machinery to repeat this assertion about the Workers’ Party HDB paper again and again, on social media, in letters to The Straits Times, Zaobao. So, let me go back to that and we can read out those two paragraphs. I am glad the Deputy Prime Minister read our paper. We worked on it. The first paragraph contains observations and poses a question that does not amount to a call to action. The second paragraph is the call to action.[+3 sentences] The first paragraph makes observations about the risk of vacancies in the context of a paper on longer-term housing dynamics; that resale prices will inevitably come under pressure at some point. And I think the Government has acknowledged that. I refer to the exchange between Senior Minister of State Sim Ann and Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, my colleague. So, it is in that context that those observations were made in the questions posed. But the call to action comes in the second paragraph which says BTO projects should continue.[+12 sentences] I repeat, BTO projects should continue. It does not say BTO projects should continue at a reduced rate; it does not say BTO projects should stop. You laugh, you laugh. Let me continue. It does not say BTO projects should continue but at 9,000 rather than 17,000. It says, BTO projects should continue and then it goes on to say that you can taper that down in the longer term when our USB proposal kicks in, which would yield flats that could be repurposed as Sale of Balance flats (SBF) or for expanded public rental scheme. But that only starts to kick in in about 12 years’ time. So, I think it is very important to have debates on our real positions and not mischaracterise one another's positions. We did not put out a proposal in 2019 that you cut BTO construction. If we had wanted to, we would have set that out clearly in plain language. My other two clarifications to the Deputy Prime Minister. Firstly, about —
Mr Deputy Speaker13 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Perera, if I could ask you to keep them short and concise.
Mr Leon Perera290 words
[+6 sentences]Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will try to do that. The first clarification on the HPI. The Deputy Prime Minister asked, why does Workers' Party say a HPI of three, why not a HPI of two or lower? There is an organisation called Demographia and the Government in its Parliamentary Question (PQ) replies have referred to the research of this particular organisation. I do not think the Government would have done that if it is not an organisation that does not do credible work. Demographia regards anything above five for HPI as extremely or critically unaffordable; three to five as moderately unaffordable in some way; and three and below is affordable.[+9 sentences] So, there is some basis in the research and the science around this to say that that figure of three is a good affordability target. So, I would like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister for what the People's Action Party seems to be saying, that anything below five is fine. What is the basis for saying that? And the last clarification, I will keep it brief – in response to the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Prime Minister has set out a worldview that reducing the rate of growth of reserves is taking away from past generations. We have debated this many times. In 2008, the PAP did just that – when it created the Net Investments Return (NIR) Framework, slowed it even more, in 2015 with adding Temasek. So, why is that not irresponsible and not taking money away from future generations? But when the Workers’ Party says it, then is irresponsible! Is it seeking political mileage that it is okay when you do it but it is not okay when we call for it?
Mr Lawrence Wong899 words
[+4 sentences]Sir, let me again respond to all three points. First, on the housing Working Paper and what the Workers’ Party said. I think, Mr Perera now is sort of alluding to the fact that the assessment that they had put out was pertaining more to a longer-term concern about a supply overhang. But that is very clearly not what the write-up says. The write-up says and I read, “that private vacancies in the private sector have only started to inch down but there are still around 12,000 private units completing up to 2022." So, with that, comparing now, HDB, "will the HDB have a vacancy rate problem compounded by a still steady stream of 6,000 to 17,000 BTO units in the last few years, which will continue to increase supply up to 2022.” The assessment was very clear.[+19 sentences] There was a concern about short-term overhang; in the short term, too many supply of new flats. Like I said, I experienced it. It is not just you who was highlighting this concern. You can check the Hansard. I probably think some PAP MPs must have asked me the same question. I was under a lot of pressure to cut back BTO new flats, the building of new flats –precisely because of the short-term concern. It was not a longer-term assessment. It was a short-term assessment. It was very clear what was written; and arising from this assessment therefore, that there was the concern that you have to calibrate your building programme. To me, as somebody who was looking at the Working Paper then, on the receiving end in MND, I think it was as clear as daylight what the Workers’ Party wanted to do. You were not the only one. There were similar concerns expressed by others. So, all we are highlighting is let us be upfront and honest that the assessment made at that time was not right. Like I said, many people did not get it right. No one would have predicted what happened with COVID-19, but there is no shame in that. Let us now focus, look forward on coming together to tackle what the root cause of the problem is, which is what the PAP Government is indeed doing. On affordability benchmarks, yes, there are a range of benchmarks out there. We do not deny that, but we have made clear what the affordability benchmarks are. Our pricing of new flats have not changed at all these years from then till now. And our affordability benchmarks are not just expressed in home price to income ratio. We also look at the mortgage servicing ratio which is 25%.[+20 sentences] So, we have put all of that out. I can appreciate why anyone looking at it from an opposition point of view will say, "well, that is very good but let us make it cheaper, let us make it more affordable". And obviously, in this current time when the resale prices are high, whatever you say on that front will have more traction. People will feel the pain and they will say "yes, of course cheaper is better". But remember, at the time when prices came down, this was not so much of an issue. So, all I am highlighting is let us have some perspective on this. The market moves up and down in cycles. Let us not react to these cycles. Let us understand the root cause of what causes the cycles and let us continue with a certain consistency in policy and address the root cause of the problem. Then, on the NIR framework and why if the PAP Government were to make a change, it is okay; but if the Workers’ Party were to propose something, we say it is not okay. I think we have been through this debate too in this House. And I have explained, from the Government's point of view, we put in place a framework, we staged out the implementation over a period of time. We always had the intention for Temasek to be there but we put in place a framework that will provide discipline for the Government to use the reserves as an endowment fund. It was meant to be a set of fiscal rules that we live by, not to change at the time when we need money, which is what the Workers’ Party is proposing. So, yes, at the time when we put in place this set of fiscal rules, this framework for us to use the reserves as an endowment fund in a disciplined, responsible manner, I think the Workers' Party agreed to the framework. But what we are highlighting is, so soon after this framework was finalised, at the first sign of needing money, why the attitude of then going back to change the rules? Should we not live by the rules that we have set for ourselves and agree and put in place? And maybe down the road, years later, after the benefit of lots of experience, yes, we can come together to review this again because I have said that nothing is cast in stone. We should review but not so soon after we have finalised a framework and at the first sign of needing money. We do not think that is sound nor does that reflect the values that we want to uphold in our fiscal system and in our society.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Liang Eng Hwa.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang)135 words
[+4 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Sir, two questions, two clarifications for the Finance Minister. Firstly, on the Occasional Paper which I find very useful to get a forward view of the fiscal trend going forward. So, I would like to ask the Finance Minister will he make this Occasional Paper less occasional going forward? The second question is in his Budget Statement speech, he talked about this contingency funds where we are going to reduce the balance from $16 billion to $6 billion. It used to be from $3 billion to $16 billion; and then now we are going to $6 billion.[+2 sentences] I want to hear from the Finance Minister the rationale for doing that. Would we not want to keep more contingency funds in this environment where it is more disruptive and uncertain?
Mr Lawrence Wong356 words
[+7 sentences]Sir, if there is new information, we will certainly put out another Occasional Paper. I mean these medium-term projections do not change so quickly because we are not tracking year-to-year. We are tracking over a long period of time. And I do not think you will have very sudden changes in the projections. But over a period of time, as there is new information, maybe new revenue items, maybe new expenditure items, then obviously there may be some changes to the longer-term outlook. And yes, if that were to happen, we will either put out more information on the website, in the form of an Occasional Paper, or we will even update it in the speech. Because in fact, if you look at the Occasional Paper, a lot of the facts there, are not entirely new because we have put it out previously in various Budget Statements before. So, we are committed to updating, providing information as and when necessary, and being upfront and transparent about our fiscal outlook.[+1 sentence] On contingencies, it was $3 billion before. We raised it to $16 billion during the pandemic because of the emergency situation we were facing.[+3 sentences] You needed to be able to tap on funding quickly and you did not know where the needs might emerge from and there was therefore a need to do so. But now that that emergency period has passed, so to speak, we are in DORSCON Green, we felt that there was a need to go back to fundamentals and go back to that discipline that we have in budgeting and planning our resources, setting aside Ministry by Ministry, how much we have to spend. You will still need a contingency, but that contingency does not have to be so large. But we thought given the new environment, the shocks and disruptions we may face, we could make it a bit bigger than what it used to be, but not at $16 billion. Hence, the proposal to come down to $6 billion. But because we need a constitutional amendment to effect this, we will have to table a Bill in this House very soon.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Seah Kian Peng.
Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade)96 words
[+3 sentences]I just wanted to ask the Deputy Prime Minister. We all know that the NIRC contributes towards half of our Budget — Yes, the point I want to make is that what is very clear is that returns from investments are uncertain and yet our needs will always increase – be it for healthcare, education, defence. Given this too, in a scenario where the returns are coming down, could Finance Minister Deputy Prime Minister share with us how can we ensure that our spending and the programmes that we have are kept on an even keel?
Mr Lawrence Wong200 words
[+9 sentences]Sir, it is precisely for that reason and the concerns that Mr Seah highlighted that we should not change our NIR framework. Because there are headwinds to our investment returns and you can never be sure that you can continue to get the kind of returns we had in the past, given such an uncertain environment. But all the more we say, stick to the framework that we have. The ups and downs in the market cycles, we take care of, because we have smoothening formulas for that. And we apply an expected return, remember, in our NIRC, not actual return. So, we take care of the ups and downs in the markets with some smoothening formulas, but the broader point that this may come under pressure is a real one. That is why we have consistently said to the debate or to the question that Mr Perera asked earlier as well, let us stick to the framework, let us abide by it. And then, over time, we will see what our needs are. And we will have to think very hard if our needs were to continue to grow, how best to raise finances to cover these growing needs.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Hazel Poa.
Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member)246 words
[+6 sentences]Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I wish to respond to what the Deputy Prime Minister said earlier about my proposal for land sales proceeds to be taken as revenue divided over the period of the lease. He said that under the current arrangement, where the land sale proceeds go into reserves and we get NIRC, it generates higher returns or we get more revenue from that because we can get more than 1%. I wish to refute that by pointing out two facts. One, if 1% of the land sale proceeds goes into revenue, the other 99% still goes into reserves and continue to earn investment returns. So, the drop in NIRC is only with respect to the 1% that did not go into reserves. Mathematically speaking, there is no way the investment returns on that 1% can be higher revenue than the entire 1% itself, unless we are getting investment returns of 200% per annum from our reserves.[+3 sentences] Secondly, if we were to recognising land sales proceeds as revenue, in the first year, indeed, it will be 1% of land sales revenue, but in the second year, it will be 1% of current year plus 1% of the previous year, and in the third year, 1% of current plus 1% of previous and 1% of the year before, and so on. So, again, you will not have higher revenue under the current arrangement. So, that misunderstanding having been cleared up, will the Deputy Prime Minister reconsider?
Mr Lawrence Wong125 words
[+7 sentences]Sir, we did look at Ms Hazel Poa's proposal. I think she is right, if you work out mathematically, if you use her method. In the initial years, maybe you can get more. But we are not looking at just a "sugar rush" from an immediate injection of funds. We are looking in the longer term – what is the sustainable and what is the best approach. When we look over a longer period of time, frankly from our assessments, the revenue generated is not very different. And we believe what we are doing is a better, more sustainable method, because the proceeds are kept in the reserves, we generate returns from the reserves and the returns benefit both today and on an ongoing basis.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Edward Chia.
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah)98 words
[+4 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to first thank the Deputy Prime Minister for affirming that the Government is not going away from being pro-enterprise or pro-growth and not leaning towards pro-redistribution. I would just like to seek further clarification in terms of the consultations with employers. To what extent is it not just about what Government can do for employers, but also about what the employers can also share in the social compact renewal, especially for all the Forward SG conversations and our SMEs consulted in depth in their role in this renewed social compact?
Mr Lawrence Wong168 words
[+6 sentences]Sir, the employers certainly have a big part to play in our refreshed social compact. So, we are continuing our engagements and our conversations with them. Given the current pressures that many SMEs face, unfortunately, when you talk about their responsibilities as part of a new social compact, they sometimes look at these as additional obligations and burdens, which may therefore explain why they see a shift in Government thinking. And we have to continually explain to them, that this is not about a shift from pro-growth, to pro-redistribution. This is about how all stakeholders in society – employers, unions, workers, Government – all of us have a part to play and we do think that there are many things that employers can do. For example, in terms of HR – which many Members did speak about and I think the Member himself, did highlight – better HR, skills, training, fair progression, career progression, fair hiring, many roles that employers can play as part of our renewed compact.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Louis Chua.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang)236 words
[+12 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Just three very quick clarifications. The first is around the Working Mother's Child Relief, which several Members of Parliament have spoken about. My question is, what percentage of mothers will benefit from this change? As Deputy Prime Minister said in the opening speech as well as the round-up speech, it is supposed to benefit lower- to middle- income mothers. But based on my calculations on just one child alone, it seems that the lower-income mothers will not benefit and a very narrow base of working mothers will. And if you have more children, I am just not sure what is the number of mothers who would actually benefit from this change. Second, is in relation to the CPF annual salary ceiling. I do recognise that the higher monthly salary ceiling will be raised over the next four years, but I think in this House you have spoken a lot about giving businesses visibility, certainty. And so, in that regard, what is stopping the Government from giving that visibility as to the in tandem moves with the annual salary ceiling? Third, I spoke about the reintroduction of the NAV tax on higher-end and secondary properties, which I think during the Global Financial Crisis, Senior Minister Tharman, then as Finance Minister, abolished. What are the concerns by the Government on this, since I did not quite hear about that in the round-up speech?
Mr Lawrence Wong332 words
[+7 sentences]Sir, I do not have the figures on the percentage of mothers who will benefit, but I tried to explain the reason why we are changing our thinking on this. There was a reason why at that time when this scheme started – we wanted to address concerns and encourage higher-income married women to have more children at that time. The experience has shown that they do not really base their decisions on the incentive alone; there are many other factors. Since then, as I said, fertility has come down across all income groups. So, it is not just about who benefits, calculating that marginal difference, but it is really a change of philosophy. That we want to make sure that the support is directed at the children, regardless of the mothers' incomes. I think it is the right thing to do, given the current circumstances and we have explained the rationale for the change. On the CPF salary ceiling, we are changing the monthly salary ceiling but there is no plan now to update the annual ceiling.[+1 sentence] So, there is no need to talk about what might happen or to give any advance notification to employers on this regard. Because we think at the monthly level, there is a need to update to the 80th percentile. But at the annual level, the current ceiling still remains relevant.[+2 sentences] On the annual value tax that Mr Chua highlighted, this was indeed removed back then. But Mr Chua may not have picked this up – when we removed this at the time of removal, we had a not so progressive property tax schedule. So, the removal of this annual value tax on owner-occupied properties was done in the same time, as we really updated our property tax rate schedule to be much more progressive. And therefore, this is what we have now, not a separate tax on an annual value, but a property tax, which is a progressive wealth tax on everyone in Singapore.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Foo Mee Har.
Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast)122 words
[+8 sentences]Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I have one clarification for Deputy Prime Minister. Whilst we cheer the Government Budget this round, with the generous support to household. And I think we all support and cheer. I did mention in my Budget speech that some economists have cautioned that the Government handouts, such as the GST vouchers and cost of living support may actually stoke inflation pressures, as we have seen in other countries. I think Deputy Prime Minister has acknowledged that in his speech. I think there are a lot of economists wanting to hear your view about whether our inflation pressure is under control. So, if you could just share, in planning the support, that we will still have inflation under control.
Mr Lawrence Wong87 words
[+3 sentences]Sir, there will always be some trade-offs when we provide more support that it may inadvertently fuel demand and add to inflationary pressures. That is why we have to manage and calibrate this carefully. And that is why in rolling out or designing the package, we have not made it a broad-based support scheme. We have targeted the lower-income groups, we have given some to the middle-incomes as well. But based on the design of the package, we believe that the impact on inflation will be manageable.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang)276 words
[+4 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Two clarifications. The first is the reason why economists actually use a simple difference between revenue and expenditure to evaluate the fiscal stance is simply because every dollar received by the Government is one less dollar in private sector. Hence, I accept the Government has different justification for its accounting standards. But I think we should not confuse an accounting approach with the actual net impact of the Government on the economy. So, to that effect, the IMF's Article 4, issued in July 2022, did state that the gross operating balance was projected to be positive 2.7% of GDP, and net lending and borrowing at 1.4% of GDP.[+8 sentences] And this was indeed the basis of my claim. So, I wonder if I may ask the Minister, if this has changed, if MOF can confirm that our gross operating surplus or net lending is indeed negative for FY2022. I will, of course, happily retract, my original claim of a contractionary fiscal policy. My second clarification has to do with a redundancy insurance. I take the Minister's point that there are concerns about staying longer in unemployment than necessary and his suggestion that support will be tied to retraining. I do not find this objectionable per se, but only stress that of course, bills and financial commitments do not take a breather when one is made redundant. And yet, it does take time for an individual to be matched to retraining and reskilling. So, if I may seek the Minister's assurance that should a retraining contingent unemployment support scheme be implemented that payouts would not be unduly delayed at the point of redundancy?
Mr Lawrence Wong181 words
[+2 sentences]Sir, I do not intend to get into a technical discussion. I am sure Assoc Prof Lim is well familiar with the difference between the fiscal impulse and the fiscal multiplier. So, when we talk about whether a budget is expansionary or contractionary, we run it through our models, we assess what the impact will be. And as I said, our assessment is that, there will be a slight expansionary support for the economy.[+4 sentences] We think it is appropriate, given the weakness of the economy, but we cannot overdo the support because it will then lead to additional inflation. The fiscal impulse is really an accounting measure. It is quite simple to calculate. It gives you a rough proxy but it is not a full assessment of the impact that a budget or fiscal measure has on the economy which we work through our economic models. On the redundancy insurance or the support that we are thinking about for displaced workers, it is something we will continue to study.[+1 sentence] And we will take into consideration what Assoc Prof Lim has suggested.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Patrick Tay.
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer)187 words
[+6 sentences]I would like to thank Deputy Prime Minister for emphasising and reiterating that every worker matters, in response to the calls of the fellow labour MPs, in particular, the big focus on training, skills upgrading and development. I thought that I just wanted to seek clarifications on two points or should I say two suggestions. Firstly, thanks for the great support of the NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce as well as the rallying calls to better support mature PMEs in trying to re-enter and re-employ back into decent jobs. But at the same time also, we noticed a gap, as several of us have highlighted on career advisory and coaching and support services, particularly strong at the early career guidance level when they are still in school, particularly strong when they are unemployed, retrenched and laid off but a big gap where new entrants into the workforce as well as those who are in between or in employment. I thought this part we will make some rallying calls. We hope for Deputy Prime Minister and team to support the Labour Movement as we want to endeavour into this space.
Mr Lawrence Wong141 words
[+2 sentences]Sir, we agree with Mr Tay and the Labour Movement in your observations of the areas that can be strengthened in terms of career advisory and counselling, particularly for new entrants to the workforce and even for some mid-careers. We do want to see how we can empower individuals to take charge of their own careers. Very much as how we talk about Healthier SG as a movement where we can empower individuals to take charge of their own health. I think we need a similar way of reaching out, engaging and empowering individuals to start thinking and planning ahead for their own careers.[+1 sentence] So, the Ministry of Manpower has some ideas in this regard and I am sure they will be happy to share more, maybe in their Committee of Supply, or certainly in due course when they are ready.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member)610 words
[+4 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Deputy Prime Minister said that I have said an outright falsehood. I categorically reject that and I will ask him a few questions to demonstrate that he has been trying to pull wool over our eyes. Firstly, the first question I want to ask, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the middle-class Singaporeans are not over-taxed and showed the benefit tax ratio as a proof. Can I ask whether the Deputy Prime Minister has factored in BTO subsidies and land cost in the equation?[+5 sentences] If the land cost is not considered a tax, but the subsidies given to BTO is considered a benefit, it is no wonder that the benefit tax ratio turns out to be very favourable for middle-class Singaporeans. But that does not reflect the true picture. The second question I want to ask: The Deputy Prime Minister has always said that the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) is money that we can spend as revenue. After having gotten us agree to not touching the reserves and ploughing back 50% of the net investment return to the reserves. Then if the NIRC now is not spent when most of it is being tucked away in endowment and trust fund each year, how can you say that that money is being spent because it will only be spent very slowly into the future? Can the Deputy Prime Minister share with us how much NIRC has been tucked away in total to-date and what percentage of that we spent every year?[+2 sentences] It is even more insidious when the Government, on one hand, tucked away all these revenues and then tell Singaporeans that we have not enough fiscal resources as a result "I need to raise GST and other taxes". Third question, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the total revenue – the total expenditure in 2023 cannot come down, it has to stay at $100 billion because, and that is despite the end of the pandemic, because of the effect of nominal GDP growth which I think that is what his chart shows. Can I confirm with the Deputy Prime Minister that nominal GDP growth had indeed increased by 33% from 2019 to 2023, which is exactly that increase in expenditure from 2019 to 2023, from $75 billion to $100, that is 33%.[+6 sentences] Has our nominal GDP growth by that amount over the last three years? And also, if what the Deputy Prime Minister said is correct, then I would expect the $25 billion increase in expenditure to be spread uniformly across the Ministries, but you look at the $25 billion difference, between 2019 and 2023 actually the increases were lumped up in mainly three ministries – Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Defence. Can the Deputy Prime Minister explain that? Lastly, last question: In his obsession with the reserves, this Government has actually lost its bearing. Can I ask the Deputy Prime Minister how can the affordable home scheme as proposed by Progress Singapore Party (PSP) which guarantees every Singaporean of each generation an affordable HDB flat because he only paid the construction cost, how can that be less equitable to the current BTO system, where future generations of Singaporeans will have to worry about how high the BTO prices will go? Given that we have not exhausted debating about the two schemes – BTO scheme and the affordable home scheme – in the sake of time, I will not go too much into that, but I hope the Government will consider our proposals carefully because they are overwhelming advantages in the affordable home scheme versus the BTO scheme.
Mr Deputy Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Deputy Prime Minister Wong.
Mr Lawrence Wong497 words
[+30 sentences]Sir, on the burden of the middle class and why I had said Mr Leong's remarks that the middle class were over-taxed was an outright falsehood. I did not rely on tax and benefits per se. I highlighted if you look at the tax on the middle-income household, 10% of income, total taxes that they paid. How is that more? And then if you say well, 10% is more, then let us look at other countries and I showed the chart. So, I rest my case. I do not want to elaborate further or get into a to-ing and fro-ing with Mr Leong. The facts and figures, as I said, in my speech, speak amply for themselves. On the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) and whether there is excess NIRC, never mind the argument that we have made before that it is not about NIRC, it is about revenues all coming together in a Consolidated Fund. But Mr Leong insists on not taking – recognising this, so he specifically says that there is excess NIRC because of Fund top-ups. I, actually, had a whole treatment on that in my remarks. Maybe Mr Leong was not paying attention. So, again, I should not belabour the point because I have already said in my remarks that Fund top-ups are not all spent in the future, considerable number of them are drawdown Funds, Funds for which the monies are needed today and on an ongoing basis. So, there is no slack there either. On Government's expenditure rising and in nominal terms, how far it has gone again, the facts are straightforward. You can look at where we are today as a share of GDP. By all means, go to Department of Statistics (DOS)'s website, check where the nominal GDP figures are, match expenditures today and expenditures in 2019. Expenditures have risen but as a share of GDP, they have not. Why have expenditures risen? It is not just because of a growing GDP, it is inflation. Nominal spending goes up. Salaries have to cost more. So, that is quite obvious, is it not? If you were to keep spending constant in real terms, how do you pay more for salaries, how do you pay more for projects, all of which cost more money. But what is important is to track spending as a share of GDP and, as I mentioned, it has maintained at the same ratio over 2019 and today. On public housing, I really do not want to get into a debate on that because we have gone through that extensively before. As I mentioned in the exchanges just now, the Government welcomes all ideas. We look at them seriously. We study them. We studied Mr Leong's and the PSP's proposal on affordable housing. Our assessment is that this is clearly a raid on the reserves.[+2 sentences] It will not be good for Singapore and Singaporeans and that is our conclusion. In the end, Singaporeans can judge for themselves.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Desmond Choo.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines)138 words
[+8 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. First, I want to thank the Deputy Prime Minister for a budget that would help workers navigate through very challenging times. Two points of clarification. It is very reassuring that Deputy Prime Minister said that those who work consistently will be able to meet their basic retirement needs. Would the Government also look at those who are nearing retirement and have a limited runway left to build up their retirement savings? And how about those self-employed persons which are actually growing in size? What is Government's direction towards helping such groups of people? Second, how can we help the NITEC and Higher NITEC Diploma holders to make career switches, perhaps earlier in life so as to be more resilient in their whole career journey and also to close the gap with degree holders?
Mr Lawrence Wong412 words
[+1 sentence]Sir, on the CPF system and retirement adequacy, we are studying this. Our starting point is look at the CPF system first, review the parameters.[+5 sentences] I note that in this debate Mr Pritam Singh and a few others have talked about, for example, the proportion between OA and SA contributions. Others have asked about other parameters. So, we are reviewing all that with a view that younger workers can work, contribute to CPF consistently and through that meet their basic retirement needs. That must be the assurance we give. So, that is something that we are studying. Older workers will not have the runway to accumulate savings through the CPF system.[+3 sentences] So, we have to help them separately. It could be through the Silver Support Scheme. It could be through other schemes but we are looking at that as a separate group to support. And then, of course, we have a third group which are self-employed persons who are not part of the CPF system. We have made one move for gig workers in working in platform companies to contribute to their CPF.[+7 sentences] So, we have taken care of that group of younger workers, but we will have to study more broadly what we could do for self-employed persons, recognising that not all of them want to be on the CPF system. Some of them may choose the flexibility not to, and how do we respect their wishes, give them the flexibility that they desire but, at the same time, find ways to make sure that they are able to save adequately for their future retirement. So, these are things that we are, indeed, studying. Did you have a second question? Ah, ITE. ITE students and how we might help them after they graduate? It is something that is on our minds, because we must ensure that ITE students not only graduate with skills that will get them a good job. But we want to make sure that we are able to help them upgrade, reskill and continue in their careers, whatever they are. So, that must mean a very good system of support for an ITE graduate, maybe comes out ITE with a higher NITEC but, eventually, can get a work-study diploma, a technical diploma or even a polytechnic diploma, or maybe even a degree and there must be that system to encourage and support them in their continuous pursuit of new skills.[+1 sentence] So, it is certainly something on our minds.
Mr Deputy Speaker30 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Leon Perera. I will take another two to three more clarifications because we breached over an hour of clarifications. I saw two more hands and I will call both.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)373 words
[+15 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I think Leader of the Opposition has a clarification as well. But I just wanted to make one point in response to the Deputy Prime Minister again on our 2019 housing paper. He read out this sentence, "Would the HDB have a vacancy rate problem compounded by a still steady stream of 16,000 to 17,000 BTO units in the last few years which will continue to increase supply up to 2022." If you look at the sentence, what the sentence is saying is not that there is an imminent risk of vacancies, not that there is going to be vacancies in 2022. It is saying that there will be, there is a risk of vacancies if you continue to build following this kind of pattern. So, there is no time frame attached to that and I would remind the Deputy Prime Minister again that the whole context of our argument or focus on this paper is longer term housing dynamic trends. More importantly, I would remind the Deputy Prime Minister again, that this first paragraph does not amount to a call to action, to a proposal, to a suggestion. We go on to say "BTO projects should continue". If we had meant to say "BTO projects should be cut back", we would have said that. So, I really hope the Peoples' Action Party will stop propagating this falsehood that our 2019 paper called for a cutback to BTO supply in 2019. And if it does not do that, I would really question if the PAP has become a party that propagates falsehoods to gain political mileage. The second clarification, on the exchange with the hon Member Ms Hazel Poa, I think initially the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned that based on his economic modelling, Ms Poa's proposal would not yield more revenue. But later on, when questioned by Ms Poa, he, to my mind, unless I misheard him, the argument changed to one of a "sugar rush". So, I just wanted to ask if, based on the Deputy Prime Minister's original response that the economic modelling shows that her proposal would not generate any revenue, could that model be shared so that economists and the public can scrutinise it?
Mr Lawrence Wong262 words
[+10 sentences]Sir, on the first point, let us not belabour this anymore. We might as well publish exactly verbatim whatever the Workers' Party has said in the Working Paper in 2019 and in the end, Singaporeans will be the judge of the matter. I think we have said enough on this point. The reality, as I have described it from my perspective at that time, was a very different reality. And do not talk about cutting; no one at that time even thought about building more flats. It would have been unthinkable. Everyone was asking cut back, cut back, cut back; no one said build more flats. With the benefit of hindsight now, it is so easy to say build more. But I just want to have some perspective here, that during that time, when resale prices were coming down, it was a very different context, it was a very different circumstance. And we can just put out what the Workers' Party said and everyone can be the judge of it. On Ms Hazel Poa's suggestion, when I talked about it not yielding more revenue than our current system, I was referring to it from a broader perspective and not just from a year-to-year perspective. So, it can generate more revenue in the near term, perhaps, but it really depends on the assumptions.[+2 sentences] You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out the assumptions. Just put it in a spreadsheet, do your sums and anyone can figure out that; actually, it is not very different from what we have today.
Mr Deputy Speaker30 words
[+2 sentences]Last two clarifications – Ms Carrie Tan and then we will close off with Mr Pritam Singh. Could I invite both Members to please keep their clarifications concise and short?
Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon)283 words
[+9 sentences]Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I think what I have just experienced in this House reinforces the point I would like to make, which is to clarify that — Thank you, first of all, Deputy Prime Minister, for addressing the point that I and Ms Nadia Samdin made about slowing down. I would like to clarify that the proposal that I made is not to make a slowdown so that we will not have growth in our economy, but that perhaps slowing down is the approach to help us achieve better growth in our economy. I think many in this House and also many of our Singaporeans can attest that when we are all overworked, spending too many hours in too many meetings, what happens is our brains – and science supports this – our brains go into what we call 钻牛角尖 mode. 分明讲的清清楚楚听起来糊里糊涂. In the end, we end up in very unproductive, unconstructive meetings – like this very, very protracted housing debate, for example. So, I would like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister to consider and invite him in his already very stretched bandwidth, whether in this tripartism that we have, that is such a beautiful and unique way of managing Singapore, whether we can approach productivity in a slightly different way with a commitment and a focus on our people's wellness. I think if we just slow down a little bit, we may be able to harness more clarity, more creativity in our people when we are less stressed. So, that is only thing I am asking. Can we consider the possibility that taking a slowdown can actually help us to boost the creative potential that we have as a people?
Mr Lawrence Wong132 words
[+2 sentences]I thought you were going to take two questions at a time. Answer is yes, for sure. [restates an earlier point]As I mentioned in my remarks, we are not pursuing growth for its own sake. We want to pursue growth as a means to an end and that end must be to uplift the lives of Singaporeans to advance the well-being of Singaporeans.[+2 sentences] And if indeed there are segments in our society who are feeling stressed out, burnt out, then that is not something we want to see either. So, we should look at it holistically and certainly we welcome suggestions from Ms Carrie Tan and we will continue to work with her and Members in this House and other stakeholders, and also with our tripartite partners, to continually advance the well-being of all Singaporeans.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Pritam Singh.
Mr Pritam Singh541 words
[+18 sentences]Thank you for the indulgence, Mr Deputy Speaker. Just two quick points. First one, again, I also do not want to belabour the issue of the point about the WP's housing proposal. The Deputy Prime Minister was saying we will have it published. It is already published. It is already publicly available for people to read. And the key point in there is the context that Minister speaks of in terms of his experience in MND is actually a subset of the larger context that WP was talking about, which was the announcement of VERS. The Finance Minister said there is no embarrassment in just changing your position and view – I agree with him. In fact, in 2018, it was Minister Lawrence Wong himself who identified a particular infographic, I believe, that the Workers' Party had put out on the capital reserves in PUB. And indeed, we took a look at it and our representation was incorrect; and so we corrected it. So, I do not think there is any difficulty that the WP faces in trying to correct something which is inaccurate. But I do not think the PAP has dealt with the housing paper in an even-handed way. Hence, the position that we are taking. No genuflection and we certainly do not intend to keel over when we feel that a relevant point has to be made. That is the first response. It does not require a response from the Finance Minister. But that is my response. The second issue was the fifth clarification I put to the Finance Minister pertaining to the reserves. The Finance Minister said he respectfully disagrees with my characterisation of the move made in 2015 to include Temasek and that this actually was a plan that the Government already had in the works for some time. So, I took the opportunity to pull out then Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's Second Reading speech on the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill, which effected this change. This is what was said: "We had deferred Temasek's inclusion when the NIR framework was first introduced and indicated that we would review this some years after implementation".[+9 sentences] So, that is correct. But the other thing that the Finance Minister did not say was including Temasek in the NIR framework, will provide the Government with additional fiscal resources in the years to come. So, that is the point that I pegged my response to, and I think I have made the representation in this House before, that the position in 2015 resulted in more fiscal resources, more reserves being employed by the Government. That is the point that the Minister did not state in his response to clarification number five. And just to set it out here, three reasons why these additional revenues were required: one, healthcare; two, human capability training, SkillsFuture, all this would be required, strengthening education; three, transport infrastructure, Changi Airport Terminal 5, Tuas Sea Port. These were the reasons why the tap was opened. There would be additional fiscal resources and because there is a need. The need for the hour calls for it. And that is the perspective that the WP are bringing when we speak of looking at the reserves differently.
Mr Lawrence Wong299 words
[+5 sentences]Sir, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the first clarification. We will leave it at that. Let us not dwell on this further. On the second point, on the inclusion of Temasek in the NIR. The intention was clear from the outset. The only reason why we wanted to stage it was because of the complexity of having to incorporate Temasek into the framework because Temasek is quite different from GIC.[+7 sentences] It does not invest in public markets. It is largely in the private equity space and therefore we had to take some time to work out how Temasek could be part of this framework. We always knew that there was going to be additional resources. I mean, that is to be expected, right? Once you put Temasek into the framework, obviously there would be additional resources. So, the intent was made clear from the outset. The reasons why we had to take time was because of complexity more than anything else. And in recognising that, yes, we have growing needs, this additional resource will be helpful. But the point remains, having finalised the framework, with Temasek in as we had originally intended, let us stick to the rules and let us keep that system going for now.[+4 sentences] Maybe many, many years down the road, we will have a rethink, a review, we will have new information, circumstances will change, and we will all have another discussion with maybe a different Finance Minister. But for now, the rules are sound. Let us stick to this. And if the Workers' Party agrees with that, then, hopefully, we can channel all our energies productively in thinking about how best to manage our rising expenditure needs without having to come back to the same old points about using more reserves.
Mr Leong Mun Wai48 words
[+4 sentences]Point of order, Sir, point of order. I am not asking new questions but the Deputy Prime Minister did not answer any of my four questions. Can I just request that he answer two questions? I will take care of the other two, at the Committee of Supply.
Mr Deputy Speaker86 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Leong, I listened to your clarifications quite carefully. I think they amounted to four or five. We have ended with the Leader of the Opposition and we have gone for more than an hour of clarifications. It is the decision of the chair that the question will be put to the House.
Mr Deputy Speaker29 words
[+4 sentences]Order. I propose to take a break now. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair at 3.20 pm. Sitting accordingly suspended at 2.58 pm until 3.20 pm.
Estimates of Expenditure for the Financial Year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024›Budget2 turns · 251w
· 3 highlighted
budget-2051
Speaker not recorded16 words
[+1 sentence]Order read for consideration in Committee of Supply .
The Chairman235 words
[+1 sentence]Main and Development Estimates of Expenditure of Singapore for the financial year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 contained in Paper Cmd 20 of 2023. For convenience, I shall take the totals for each Head of Expenditure in the Main and Development Estimates as they appear in the last columns of the schedules of estimated expenditure under the Main and Development Estimates Outlays for FY 2023 on pages 6 and 7 respectively of the Command Paper. A total of 661 amendments to the Estimates of Expenditure have been submitted this year. The guillotine times to the discussion of the Heads of Expenditure under Standing Order 92(7)(a) have taken into consideration the earlier commencement time of a Sitting, the reduction of Question Time and the extension of Sitting times of the Committee of Supply for each allotted day.[+4 sentences] I must remind hon Members that the total time for discussion of each Head of Expenditure includes the replies from the front bench. With the assistance of the digital timer in the Chamber, I trust that hon Members will be able to keep to the speech times indicated against their amendments. I would urge hon Members both from the back and front benches to adhere to their time limits as I will be stringent in my time-keeping. I shall deal first with the Heads of Expenditure in respect of which amendments stand on the Order Paper Supplement.
Committee of Supply – Head U (Prime Minister's Office)›Budget71 turns · 23,081w
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budget-2052
The Chairman9 words
[+2 sentences]Head U, Prime Minister's Office. Prof Koh Lian Pin.
Prof Koh Lian Pin (Nominated Member)134 words
[+1 sentence]Chairman, I beg to move, "That the total sum to be allocated for Head U of the Estimates be reduced by $100". The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held in Egypt last year was set against challenging global geopolitical and economic conditions. Despite this, countries were able to deliver a package of decisions that reaffirmed their commitment to limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change and increase support for finance, technology and capacity building for developing countries.[+1 sentence] Can the Minister share the significance of COP27 for Singapore, the Singapore delegation's contributions to the conference and expectations for COP28 to be held in the United Arab Emirates later this year?
Ms Poh Li San (Sembawang)264 words
[+5 sentences]Rising sea levels pose an existential threat to an island nation like ours. We must do our utmost to contribute to global efforts to combat climate change. On the other hand, we have very limited natural resources to generate green energy and rely heavily on traditional energy sources to keep the lights on and even to produce NEWater. How can we balance the needs of our economy to protect livelihoods and to mitigate climate change and the rising sea level threat? What factors did the Government take into consideration when it raised our climate targets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050? How was the decision reached to reduce emissions to around 60 MTCO2 in our revised 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)?[+7 sentences] These are ambitious goals, considering that we are a high-density city state and international hub operating one of the busiest seaports and airports in the world. Our value-added manufacturing, particularly in the chemicals, electronics and precision engineering sectors, our financial services sector, the information and communications industries are all energy intensive. Hence, I would like to ask how confident is the Government of achieving our climate targets while maintaining economic growth? How will we manage the green transition and enforce compliance? What are the Government's key strategies and policies that will help Singapore peak emissions earlier and reach net-zero emissions by 2050? I am concerned about the impact on our small and medium enterprises. Would the Government provide an update on the measures to reach out to our SMEs and guide them in their journey to transform their operations and reduce carbon emissions?
The Chairman10 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Louis Ng. You can take your two cuts together.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon)271 words
[+7 sentences]Sir, I welcome the commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. I also commend our revised 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution, which was submitted after a public consultation. I also thank the many activists and individuals on the ground who have worked tirelessly over many years for Singapore to be more ambitious on our climate goals. In my speech last year, I shared the stories of Esther from CDL, Lastrina, Cheryl and Swati from SYCA, Xiang Tian from LepakinSG and Wei-Shan from YP. There are many others fighting alongside them. They hold us accountable to our promises to future generations. Net-zero emissions by 2050 is an important but not an easy goal. The public sector has committed to taking the lead of achieving net-zero emissions around 2045.[+2 sentences] Can the Government share how it intends for the public sector to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 and for the nation to reach the goal of net zero by 2050? Achieving net zero by 2050 has to be a whole-of-nation effort involving the Government, civil society, businesses and individuals. In 2021, the industrial sector and energy sector collectively contributed to 88% of Singapore's greenhouse gas emissions.[+4 sentences] While we encourage individuals to adopt low-carbon practices, efforts directed at the industrial and energy sectors will have the most impact on our nation's carbon emissions. Additionally, transitioning to a green industry will create more jobs. Can the Government share how it will move away from emissions-intensive industries? Will the Government provide a roadmap for the nation in achieving net-zero emissions by ensuring that all 23 industry transformation maps are reviewed with the goal of net zero by 2050?
Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang)240 words
[+10 sentences]Chairman, our Singapore Green Plan 2030 was launched in 2021. There is no lack of publicity about our efforts to achieve net-zero emissions and we have invested in various infrastructure projects such as electric vehicle (EV) charging points, the use of EVs, promoting green buildings and offering grants for energy efficient technologies, among others. These were commendable efforts and we have thus far kept up with the momentum, although it was eclipsed shortly by the outbreak of COVID-19. Today, we have learned how because of high energy prices, some countries have taken a step back to using coal to supplement their use of fossil fuels. But there are also countries that stepped up their effort in moving forward to use clean energy and invested heavily in wind, solar and others. In fact, nearly half of the world's low-carbon spending took place in China last year, according to one research. Every one of us has a part to play in our Green Plan 2030. I would like to ask what is the Government doing to help individuals, households and businesses to play their part in the Singapore Green Plan and the transition to a greener, more sustainable economy? What Government support is there to help in this transition? From the individual's perspective, how will the Government ensure there are good jobs and good growth opportunities for Singaporeans amidst this Green transition from a little red dot to a little green dot?
Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio)126 words
Chairman, as we transition to become a green economy, new jobs and business opportunities will be created in almost every sector, ranging from engineering to finance, manufacturing to trade, services to construction.[+1 sentence] At the same time, certain jobs and businesses will become obsolete. Workers and staff who are unable to adapt will risk unemployment.[+1 sentence] Traditional enterprises that fail will affect livelihoods and invested capital and funds. How will the Government support workers who will be affected by the green transition? Will the Government share an update on the training and education measures to facilitate the preparation of workers for good jobs and career paths in this nascent sector? What initiatives are available to promote and support green businesses to encourage Singaporeans to explore such new opportunities?
Mr Chairman5 words
[+1 sentence]Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.
The Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security (Mr Teo Chee Hean)1352 words
[+11 sentences]Thank you, Mr Chairman. I speak as Chairman of our Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change (IMCCC). The IMCCC works very closely with the various ministries, and the ministries, in turn, work very closely with the sectors that they are responsible for, and in particular, we work very closely with Minister Grace Fu and the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE). Today I will give a broad overview and each of the Ministries will elaborate, in detail, on the plans that they have specifically. Reducing global greenhouse gas emissions is urgent. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report warns that after 2030, it will become increasingly difficult to limit global warming to 2°C and we will face heightened and more complex climate risks. At COP26 in Glasgow, countries pledged to act. But recent conditions have made it more difficult to stay the course. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, exactly a year ago, disrupted energy and food supplies, causing energy and food prices to increase in many countries. Despite these external challenges, Singapore decisively stepped up our efforts against climate change last year. In Budget 2022, we announced Singapore's intention to raise our climate ambition. In October, after several months of public consultation, we formally revised our climate targets. We will reduce our emissions to around 60 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2030, after peaking our emissions earlier. We also committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.[+13 sentences] Ms Poh Li San asked about the considerations for raising our ambition – after all, we also are affected by external events and Singapore, as a small, alternative energy disadvantaged city-state, faces natural limitations on our climate action measures. Mr Chairman, first, climate change is an existential threat for us here in Singapore. As a low-lying island, we are vulnerable to rising sea levels. Being densely built-up, we are prone to trapping heat in our urban environment. Climate change poses risks to our biodiversity, food and water security, and public health. To mitigate climate change effects on Singapore, we must engage other countries to reduce their emissions worldwide. We must do our best and do our part, so that we can shape international norms to bring us closer to our collective goals. Finally, putting our climate ambition into action positions Singapore as a choice location for businesses and investors interested in participating in the regional green economy. This puts us in good stead to capture new economic opportunities in the climate transition. Ms Poh Li San, Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Mr Louis Ng asked how we will meet our climate targets. The Government, through IMCCC, strikes a balance between ambition and practicality of action. And it will take a whole-of-nation effort. The Green Plan sets out how the Government, businesses and the community can work together towards a greener future. The public sector will set the example by aiming to achieve net-zero emissions around 2045, five years ahead of our national target of 2050.[+17 sentences] This year, we will enhance our public procurement strategy and start making regular progress reports on public sector sustainability initiatives. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and MSE will provide further details to this House. We will also continue to forge international collaborations on climate action. Prof Koh Lian Pin asked about the significance of COP27 and COP28. Let me share two positive examples of how Singapore contributed and made a difference. At both COP26 and COP27, Minister Grace Fu co-facilitated negotiations on Article 6. The Article 6 rulebook enables cross-border cooperation through carbon markets, for countries to jointly fulfil their national climate targets, making it more efficient and easier for countries to reduce their climate emissions and on a global level. The inaugural Singapore Pavilion at COP27 showcased our homegrown companies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), youths and academics, including Prof Koh, to the international community. For instance, Sembcorp Industries launched its carbon management platform, GoNetZero. And one of GoNetZero's partnerships, with OCBC Bank, encourages clean energy adoption and decarbonisation, starting with Singaporean companies and scaling up to the region. Overall, COP27 advanced workstreams to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement. And we will press on at COP28. Mr Chairman, government action is necessary but not sufficient to achieve a low-carbon future. Businesses need to act as well, and we will partner them in their sustainability journeys. The industry sector contributes over 60% of our overall carbon emissions. So, to reach net zero by 2050, we must decarbonise at every level – the economy, each sector and individual firms – so that our businesses are ready to thrive in the green economy. Our carbon tax shapes economy-wide behaviour. The Government has specified carbon tax levels up to 2027 and a range of $50 to $80 per tonne of CO2 by 2030.[+9 sentences] All of us must now factor in the cost of emitting carbon. And now that the carbon tax levels are known, companies can also plan with greater predictability. This will make greener modes of production, investment and living more desirable. The carbon tax collected will continue to support businesses and households. We will invest in green technologies and infrastructure, extend energy efficiency grants to businesses, and cushion our lower- and middle-income households from the impact of the carbon tax on electricity prices with U-Save rebates. The Government will enable the energy transition by securing greener sources of energy. Our National Hydrogen Strategy lays out the roadmap for the use of hydrogen which, with technological advancements, could potentially supply up to half of our power needs by 2050. In the meantime, we continue to see how we can import green electrons. Mr Louis Ng asked about support for industry. Aside from economy-wide moves, such as carbon tax and decarbonising our grid, we will also help sectors reorient towards greener production and develop competitive advantages in growth sectors.[+3 sentences] As a financial hub, Singapore has a head start in green financing services. Our industry sectoral roadmaps consolidate common challenges, allowing scale-up of promising initiatives and guide companies in positioning themselves to capture opportunities. The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) will update this House on the sustainability plans for the transport and tourism sectors respectively. Every business, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), must be financially and environmentally sustainable in order to thrive in the long run, by decarbonising their value chains and accelerating their green transition. MTI will report on how we are helping SMEs to level up in areas, such as sustainability reporting and carbon accounting.[+8 sentences] Small companies can drive sustainability efforts across their supply chains. One example is DTC World, a local SME specialising in corporate gifts. It champions sustainable procurement and promotes sustainable consumption and it has received multiple corporate sustainability awards. So, SMEs also can do their part. Finally, Mr Gan Thiam Poh and Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked how the Government ensures that opportunities and good jobs for Singaporeans will be there amid the green transition. Many Singaporeans are passionate about sustainability – not many more than Mr Louis Ng. We will support you in challenging your passion towards making an impact. For Singaporeans who may not yet have internalised climate change, understanding the implications of climate change on the environment and our society is the first step. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will elaborate on how we will nurture our young to become eco-stewards and live sustainably, with a focus on food sustainability in 2023. We will also support Singaporeans to acquire green skills and improve their access to green job opportunities.[+7 sentences] MTI will describe how we will do so with industry players and training partners. Mr Chairman, Sir, global climate action is urgent. All countries, including Singapore, must honour our shared responsibility for our planet earth. The IMCCC takes a whole-of-nation view to make sure our efforts are comprehensive and coordinated. Businesses, communities and individuals have a key part to play. The climate transition will be challenging, but it will be a rewarding journey, with opportunities for us to innovate and reimagine a greener and more sustainable future. So, let us work together, towards a better and greener Singapore.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Mariam Jaafar.
Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang)148 words
Mr Chairman, the Government has embarked on the Forward Singapore exercise to refresh and renew our social compact.[+6 sentences] It is an opportunity for Singaporeans to take part in a national conversation on the values, priorities and policies we want to see going into the future. Implicit in a discussion on social compact though, is the notion of a society, but what does that society look like? What is the size and make-up of the population, what are the population dynamics and what are the impacts on our social and economic development? The Government would, no doubt, have received a lot of views on population issues over the course of the Forward SG exercise: views on immigration policy, ageing population, encouraging marriage and parenthood, for example. How has this informed the refinement of our population strategies? And how do our population strategies support the refresh of our social compact.
Ms Ng Ling Ling (Ang Mo Kio)300 words
Mr Chairman, Singapore's population continues to age rapidly, with low birth rate and longer life expectancies.[+1 sentence] This means that soon, the number of citizens in the working ages could decline, a phenomenon that some other Asian countries, like Japan and China, are already facing. According to a recent study in 2021 on the long-term projections of economic growth in 47 prefectures of Japan, Japan's population's aging and decline has catastrophic impacts on the national and subnational economies. In its most pessimistic modelling, with zero immigration growth and without significant improvement in productivities, Japan's GDP can decline to levels back in the 1970s.[+5 sentences] While we know and have been confronting the rapidly ageing population with low birth rate problem for some time now in Singapore, does the Government perform similar modelling and long-term projections, to understand what are the degrees of changes we need in productivity improvement of our resident workforce and immigration policies, to reach what target GDP growth for the next five to 10 years? Given that we have a much smaller population compared to Japan, if our Government has similar modelling and long-term projection exercises, do we involve our people in the process of formulating the models, and discussing the scenario options and opportunities? If we do not have such co-creation process yet, can the Government consider developing one with the opportunities for a significant number of Singaporeans outside the Government, including both young and old, to be part of the process? The advantage of such an approach, guided by population projection experts and Government officers, is that more Singaporeans can have a deeper understanding on the issues and trade-offs, and own a stake in co-creating a future scenario that we aspire for our country and our future generations. I hope that the Government will consider my suggestion.
Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang)265 words
Chairman, one of the biggest takeaways from this Budget is that it is pro-family.[+14 sentences] Some young parents have provided feedback to me that the Budget policies do help to ease cost of living and promote work-life balance for families. However, they also voiced some concerns. Firstly, we have heard from many Members from this House who have voiced concerns about the changes to the Working Mother's Child Relief (WMCR). How does the Government intend to better communicate the intent of these policy changes? In addition, how does the Government intend to encourage middle-income families with mothers in PME jobs to remain in the workforce after giving birth, as they have much to contribute to the economy? The lapse of the FDW levy tax relief may also be interpreted as a signal that the Government is reducing support for working mothers. Such tax reliefs make a significant difference to household finances, especially for families with more than one child. I hope the Government can shed more perspectives about these policy changes. I appreciate the acknowledgement that monetary support alone has a limited impact in incentivising working mothers to have children. Ultimately, a rounded approach is needed to create a conducive child-rearing environment. This is where changes like increased Government-paid paternity leave come in. What can we learn from other countries' best practices, to improve the Government's strategies to encourage Singaporeans to settle down and have children? How can we encourage the wider society, such as employers and communities, to play a part in engendering a more family-friendly environment? What are the measures of success for this?
The Chairman9 words
[+3 sentences]Ms Hany Soh. Not here. Prof Hoon Hian Teck.
Prof Hoon Hian Teck (Nominated Member)744 words
Mr Chairman, Singapore's total fertility rate (TFR) declined from above five in 1960 to around replacement level by the mid-1970s and has remained below replacement level since.[+1 sentence] The decline in the TFR as a country becomes richer appears to be a fairly general phenomenon across countries, as people become richer, they choose to have fewer children, but make heavy investment in their children's education. Given the past trend of TFR, the growth of Singapore Citizen workforce will slow down and its size will be expected to shrink at some point.[+9 sentences] If innovation requires creative and talented people and if the probability of being a creative and talented person is independently distributed among people, then it follows that a greater number of creative and talented people would be found within a larger population. If it is people who create ideas, then a decline in TFR means a shrinking workforce, which is likely to reduce the flow of innovative ideas. Another point comes from recognising that, at any given moment in time, there coexists different generations of people within a given population. There is a certain number of young people who work and who have the capacity to pay taxes that fund items, such as health subsidies, that are predominantly received by a certain number of old and retired people. A decline in the population size thus reduces the tax base supporting each old and retired person, making it desirable to increase population growth. The question that can be asked is: what can be done to take advantage of work-from-home (WFH) arrangements to bolster family life and contribute to boosting the total fertility rate? Arrangements, such as flexible work schedule and telework, are sometimes said to be ways to improve work-life balance. However, when workers schedule flexibility comes together with working long hours, this may lead to less job satisfaction and diminish ability to manage family life. It appears that doing part-time work has tended to be the primary means for workers, especially women, to achieve work-life balance. However, COVID-19 has quite unexpectedly enabled the business sector and public sector to conduct a natural experiment to test whether work can be productively done when most employees are working from home. There is some evidence that WFH, whereby employees work a mix of days at home and at the workplace each week, improves firms' retention rates and workers' job satisfaction and productivity. It is also striking that preferences for WFH arrangements are stronger among women with children.[+2 sentences] Thus, employers across the whole economy might find it profitable to introduce some form of WFH arrangement in the workplace, even post COVID-19. The organisation of work, as well as the promotion and compensation system, might be adjusted to enable workers who have a better control of their work schedule, while keeping their full-time employment status. While the slew of policy measures already in place to boost total fertility rate, including parental leave, childcare subsidy, child tax reliefs and the Baby Bonus remain important, what systems-wide approach can be taken to ride on the momentum of the aforementioned natural experiment to facilitate the achievement of our citizens' career goals and satisfying family life with children?[+8 sentences] The organisation of the school system affects the behaviour of parents. A perennial problem faced by parents is the amount of time that they feel they need to give to help their children with school homework. Is it possible to introduce time in school after formal lessons, so that outside-the-school trained personnel can be hired with government subsidy to supervise these children with their homework? Then, when the children return home from school, the parents can devote their time to bonding activities with them. With support from the Government, family day activities can also be organised during the weekends to further enrich family life. To be able to work regularly on certain days in a week from home and being relieved to some extent from the need to supervise their children's homework, will allow parents to adjust their parenting style and possibly, their decision about having another child. Mr Chairman, an unexpected consequence of COVID-19 is that at a societal level, we found digital means to perform work-from-home at a reasonably productive level. As husbands and wives find the employment landscape in the post COVID-19 world, potentially allowing them to spend more time at home, this could provide an opportunity to put in place policy measures to influence parenting styles and their decision on childbearing.
The Chairman10 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Louis Ng, you can take all your cuts together.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang966 words
[+7 sentences]Sir, last year, Minister Josephine spoke in this House about whether paternity and maternity leave should be equalised to better reflect the desire for equal sharing of responsibilities. She said, "Questions like these should not be forgotten. Every now and then, we should revisit them. And even if we do not, Mr Louis Ng will make sure that we do". Sir, I am here to fulfill this prophecy and make sure we revisit this important question. Like many, I am happy we have doubled paternity leave. As Minister Indranee knows – and she bore the brunt of my repeated questions – I have fought for this for many years. As we celebrate this good news, and I do not want to sound too greedy, we need to ask for more, 12 more weeks of paternity leave.[+2 sentences] We should remember that an IPS research found that our family policies continue to signal that childcare is a woman's responsibility and reinforce gender stereotypes. We should not do this overnight but can gradually increase paternity leave over many years. Will the Government commit to this and announce a roadmap for equalising the leaves?[+18 sentences] The times I spent with my children during my paternity leave were precious time. It is time we can never get back. I am glad we have doubled paternity leave, but we urgently need to look into increasing the usage of paternity leave. As the Deputy Prime Minister said, "We want paternal involvement to be the norm in our society and we will stand behind all fathers who want to play a bigger role in raising our children." Indeed, we should but we know that only about half of fathers use their paternity leave and the key reason for this low uptake is the lack of workplace support. Can we do more to help our employers, similar to how the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) supports employers when it comes to reservist obligations? Can the Government work with companies more closely and consider more incentives to ensure their employees use both their paternity and maternity leaves? Parents struggled during the pandemic to find time to look after their children who had COVID-19 or when their schools closed. Things are not getting any easier as we emerge from the pandemic. For many, the lack of time to look after their children continues. Worse still, Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) is back which can keep children away from school for about two weeks. I experienced this first-hand when all my children got HFMD previously and COVID-19. The Government knows many parents are begging for childcare sick leave. The Government knows how important this leave is and already gives it to public servants. I have been calling for childcare sick leave for many years because both our children and our parents need this. They need this breathing space. I am sure Minister Indranee agrees as well. And I agree too that we have to balance this with the needs of businesses, especially SMEs. Will PMO form a citizens' workgroup to look into recommendations about childcare sick leave that will address both the concerns of working parents and businesses?[+10 sentences] One of the best journeys has been my parenthood journey. I am grateful that I have three healthy, happy and crazy girls and I proudly share many stories of Ella, Katie and Poppy in this House. But I have three children only with the help of IVF which is a physically and emotionally painful journey. We can do more to help those undergoing IVF. IVF is extremely stressful for both husband and wife. One doctor shared that some female patients were not allowed time off from work for their fertility appointments. He has also shared he met some men who break down because they do not know how to accompany their wives without employer support. Some women may end up leaving the workforce because of this lack of workplace support. The Government has urged employers to be sensitive to couples undergoing IVF. But we need to do more than just urge. As we create a Singapore made for families, the Government can do more to help employers be more sympathetic by introducing gender neutral fertility leave.[+10 sentences] This will support couples, send employers a clear signal, and trigger mindset shifts in the workplace. And finally, this pandemic has shown that working from home is possible. Through many surveys, we know that people want this option. The Government has also shared many times how flexible work arrangements (FWAs) help businesses. In his Budget speech, Deputy Prime Minister said that FWAs are a key component in helping parents manage work and family commitments. We cannot have a Singapore made for families without FWAs. I know we are implementing the tripartite guidelines next year. The question is, why wait so long? Businesses already had the experience of the past three years to structure themselves around FWAs. There is no better time than now to lean into FWAs. Can we implement the tripartite guidelines on FWAs this year and also consider legislating the guidelines instead of having them only as guidelines?[+5 sentences] I should also say that I have spoken up so much about giving time because I have lost time. My dad passed away just before his retirement, before he could spend time with his family after working so hard his whole life. I lost time with him that I will never get back. I want to make sure no one goes through the pain I went through and still go through each day. Giving childcare sick leave, paternity leave, parent-care leave, fertility leave and all the other leaves I fought for is not just about the minutes and seconds, but about giving people precious time to spend with their loved ones while balancing work commitments.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang)508 words
After hitting a recent high of 1.96 in 1988, Singapore's TFR has been steadily on the decline, down to new lows of 1.1 and 1.12 in 20 21 and 2022 respectively.[+3 sentences] While our enhancement of the baby bonus scheme in Budget 2023 is welcomed, it is time we adequately address the root cause of the low fertility problem and tackle the concerns of parents and would-be parents alike. More policies and spending should therefore be directed towards tackling deep societal, cultural and institutional issues that currently discourage women, with agreement from their male partners, from taking part in procreation. First, address stereotypes of gender roles and establish the idea of equal shared responsibilities. Based on the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)'s Labour Force in Singapore 2022 Report of caregivers who are outside the labour force, a dominant 89% were females.[+3 sentences] If we work on entrenching equal shared responsibilities, young mothers, who fear loss of time, identity, personhood and even employment, means they have more time to rest, pursue their aspirations and contribute to the community at large. Meanwhile, men who try to take on greater responsibilities for caregiving will be able to put aside their fears of being discriminated against in the workplace or facing backlash for the lack of perceived work commitment. Earlier this year, I received an email from my company's HR to update employees about the parental leave enhancements from 2023. The firm is extending and increasing the flexibility of parental leave with all parents benefiting from 26 weeks of fully paid leave for primary caregivers and six weeks for secondary caregivers.[+13 sentences] This is regardless of the gender of the employee and there is also the option to take this flexibly over 12 months. I understand that even Temasek has raised its paternity leave to about four months and maternity leave to about six months. While not gender-neutral, nonetheless, it sets a workable example for the Government to follow when it comes to adequately giving prep time for parents to play their caregiving roles. More importantly, it takes a village to raise a child and we should go beyond merely adopting a practical approach to calibrating childcare leave provisions. In Singapore, true flexible work arrangements only began commonplace due to COVID-19. But that trend is worryingly reversing again. According to a June 2022 UOB study, almost half of Singaporeans have returned to the office full-time even though more than 80% prefer some form of flexible work arrangements. I fear that that number is much higher today. A fellow Singaporean who is a new mother currently on maternity leave emailed me about some thoughts which resonate with me. She shared her how she was lacking the intellectual stimuli and adult social interaction that came with work. But meanwhile, her husband faced opposite problem. Back to work too soon, he kept thinking about the time he was not spending with his daughter. Let us push for longer gender-neutral parental leave at a policy level for the country and empower new parents with the choice to share parental responsibilities.
Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap (Aljunied)285 words
[+3 sentences]Sir, the Child Development Account (CDA) was introduced in April 2001. The objective is to assist parents to lighten their financial commitment in raising children. The CDA scheme consists of two components: First Step Grant and Government co-matching. In this year's Budget Statement, it was announced that there would be an increase in the First Step Grant from $3,500 to $5,000.[+4 sentences] Secondly, the co-matching caps have been increased to $4,000 for the first child and $7,000 for the second child, an increase of $1,000 respectively. CDA funds can be utilised at approved institutions for approved expenses, which includes basic educational fees, medical fees, purchases of vitamins and health supplements, optical appliances and payments for assistive technological devices. I would like PMO to consider extending the use of CDA for purchasing milk formula and diapers. Parents are spending a substantial amount monthly on these two essential items. According to a recent report in The Straits Times, the price of a tin of infant milk formula can go as high as $113.35 for a 1.8kg tin.[+6 sentences] In April and May 2017, many parents had voiced concerns on the price hikes for infant milk formula, asking for regulation of price and fair pricing. These calls were also heard in this Chamber. The cost of infant formula has not gone down since then. I understand that the Government would like to encourage breastfeeding of newborns and infants, but many parents have to rely on infant formula for various reasons. Sir, for many low-income families, diapers and infant formula are a significant financial burden. Adding milk formula and diapers to the list of approved items would be much welcomed and bring relief to many parents, especially those from low-income households.
Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member)601 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Chairman, two weeks ago, on 6 February 2023, Minister Indranee answered Parliamentary Questions on the decision not to prosecute the Keppel & Offshore Marine (KOM) executives involved in a corruption case. She said that it was standard practice not to issue any statement if law enforcement agencies decided not to proceed after an investigation. But if anyone has questions on the decision, the matter can be raised in Parliament. However, the answers given by her in Parliament were far from satisfactory. The US succeeded in prosecuting KOM and imposed a huge fine of US$422 million. But we were told CPIB is unable to find sufficient evidence to prosecute.[+10 sentences] Surely we would want to know in more detail why we have failed where others have succeeded. We want to know what were the facts uncovered during the investigation and which could not, which led to the decision not to prosecute. The Minister’s replies to several questions were however evasive, uncertain or “I don’t know”. Let me give a few examples. When asked by the Leader of the Opposition whether the Board of Keppel at the time when corrupt payments were made were aware, the Minister replied that she cannot answer for Keppel. We are not asking the Minister to answer for Keppel, we are asking for the result of CPIB’s investigation. Whether or not constructive knowledge is an offence is beside the point. Corruption is an offence and during their investigation of this offence, surely, CPIB would make it a point to find out which decision makers were aware of the act. Did CPIB look into this? If they did, what was the result? When asked about the mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests, she replied that she does not know all the details of the MLA but that for at least one or two of the latest ones there were no response.[+15 sentences] When asked about the witness who changed his tune, her answer was again uncertain: “I think the answer is yes” and “I do not have details of what exactly was said”. When asked whether the six KOM executives involved were aware of and authorised the corrupt payments, she replied that she did not know because she did not conduct the investigations. Whilst the Minister claimed that anyone with questions could raise them in Parliament, she did not come into Parliament equipped with sufficient facts or knowledge to answer those questions. This does not help the public maintain trust and confidence in our enforcement agencies. Our zero-tolerance policy on corruption is there for good reasons. If we stand by while corrupt companies win contracts and prosper, while more capable but uncorrupt companies lose out in the competition, what kind of world are we moving towards? Will the Minister consider appointing a committee to consult the public on what questions they want answered and to get the answers to those questions from the relevant agencies? Transparency and accountability is the way to convince the public that the investigation was conducted professionally and competently, and the decision not to prosecute is a sound and impartial one. Next, onto fertility measures. I welcome the increase in paternity leave. Experience in some European countries has suggested that a more equal distribution of parental duties can help to improve the fertility rate. Higher baby bonus is always welcomed to keep pace with inflation. But the Working Mother Child Relief continues to be a disappointment to stay-home mothers. Stay-home parents contribute to society as much as working parents. Will the Government consider introducing appreciation of the contributions of stay-home parents in the form of CPF top-ups?
Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines)138 words
[+4 sentences]Chairman, we often have seniors appealing for PRs or citizenship as the rest of their families already are. Take for example, at last Monday's Meet-the-People's Session, Mdm Wong appealed for her mother’s PR as they have been residing in Singapore since 1984. Her father, siblings and families are all Singaporeans except for her mother. Will ICA consider more favourably on seniors' PR applications especially those who have been residing in Singapore for decades and with strong family ties here? During the Committee of Supply debate in the last two years, Minister Indranee mentioned that the numbers of new citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs) granted in 2020 and 2021 were impacted by COVID‐19‐related travel restrictions and safe management measures. What were the numbers of new citizens and PRs granted in 2022 and were these numbers still impacted by COVID‐19?
Mr Gan Thiam Poh67 words
[+3 sentences]As one of the fastest ageing countries in the world, how are we ensuring that we have enough youths and working adults to support the expanding cohorts of the elderly? Do we have an optimal old age dependency ratio to target at? Is the Government prepared to review policies to reduce the old age dependency ratio through boosting our birth rates, attract Permanent Residents or new citizens?
The Chairman7 words
[+2 sentences]Ms Tin Pei Ling. Both cuts, please.
Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson)467 words
[+1 sentence]Sir, our citizens and businesses transact with the Government every day. Government services are therefore very much part of our everyday life. Building on a strong foundation of efficiency, our Government has been on the e‐Government journey since the early 1980s. Today, our Government has achieved much and won international acclaim. From e‐government then to digital government today, we should continue our efforts to make Government services more convenient, user‐friendly and at a lower cost for our citizens. In this vein, I would like to ask, what is the current progress of the “Smart Nation and Digital Government” efforts and how have citizens and businesses benefited from these efforts?[+19 sentences] Sir, our digitalisation efforts today are for the youths today and seniors tomorrow. While our population is increasingly digitally savvy, we still have a generation of senior Singaporeans who struggle to keep up with the pace of digitalisation, despite everyone’s best efforts. Some are fearful of being left out and left behind totally. We need to give them enough assurance so that they do not reject digitalisation altogether. Hence, I would like to ask if the Government will continue offering non‐digital options for seniors to fall back on? The implementation of National Digital Identity (NDI) has been successful and very useful. With a mobile phone and data connection, much can be done from wherever and whenever. With utilities such as the NDI, not only is convenience of services and transactions enhanced, security is improved too. It also enables more ground‐up innovations. MacPherson Care App, for example, used MyInfo to make registration of seniors and volunteers much easier and more seamless. And it also enabled us to verify identities, making it safer for seniors who may be served by the on‐demand volunteers whom they could be unfamiliar with. So, this solves a key problem for us when we were designing the app. Can the Government share more about the efforts in investing in the next bound of digital infrastructure and utilities, so as to support our Smart Nation drive? Data is fundamental to innovations. The Government holds a diverse and vast amount of data, but such data is not easily accessible, and understandably so, by non‐government entities – such as community organisations hoping to do better for the community and businesses pursuing quality innovations – and this is perhaps also so between Government agencies as well. Adequate data protection is most certainly necessary. But how can we avail some or more of such data in a secured environment that allows experiments and product testing, without compromising data privacy and security? Could the Government share more about the data sandbox? And given the emergence of technology such as blockchain and cryptography, might there be scope for more curated Government data to be accessed in a safe, controlled and anonymous manner?
Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade)169 words
[+12 sentences]Since June 2020, more than 130,000 seniors have gone through the Seniors Go Digital Programme. Making digital and online services a way of life is not a one-off effort. It requires constant tending. How is the Government ensuring that people who are less digital savvy are not left behind in our drive towards a Smart Nation? I have two suggestions and one request. First, can we consider more resources to provide peer support to trainers? That is, for seniors to train one another in learning how to communicate and transact online. Given their similar life experiences, they understand how best to keep each other safe from scams. Second, has Government carried out any surveys among seniors on their most urgent needs, in relation to digital inclusion? And what proportion of the elderly require such help? And my one request is a very simple one, and it is to ensure we never have an only digital programme, at least not in the short term. We need to bring everyone along.
Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast)318 words
[+17 sentences]Mr Chairman, digital services are now becoming essential in Singapore. Ease and confidence of using digital services does encourage the use and adoption, especially for the less digitally savvy. Can Minister share the Government’s assessment of the digital services experience for Government services? For less digitally savvy users, what is the level of adoption of essential digital services? How are we leveraging technology to make the digital services experience more natural and human or intuitive? What are the design considerations for Government digital services? There are clear benefits of reach, access and speed to making digital first our strategy. While we advocate digital to improve the delivery of Government services, I hope that we do not move to being digital only. This is not just to ensure that physical access to services is available and that no one is left behind, but also to recognise that engagement with citizens is one that has many touchpoints and channels. What is important is how we integrate the experience of citizens and their access to services through the various touchpoints. Digital is a channel for engagement and delivery of services. The focus is serving the needs of citizens and enabling the best delivery of services to meet the needs of citizens. Can Minister share the Government's plans to make it easier for people to use digital services and apps to improve their digital experience? A common complaint when accessing Government services is not knowing which agency to go to or having to deal with different agencies. Digital can enable collaboration across agencies and integration of the user experience to deliver a more seamless experience. An important element of the digital experience is availability of support or helpline when there are questions or when the service does not go as planned. Can Minister also share the structure of support for help for citizens when the service experience does not go as planned?
Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee)164 words
[+7 sentences]The world – commerce, communications and much of how we live our life – are now inextricably intertwined, bound together in the digital sphere. Into this mix, the murky underbelly of the real world has replicated itself into the digital one. Cyberthreats are now part of the digital landscape. Crime has taken a new form. From identity theft, scams, ransomware, malware to national security threats. Complexity of combatting cyberthreats cannot be underestimated. Singapore is an important node in this interconnected world. We are therefore a prime target, especially our critical information infrastructure (CII). We should focus on operational technology security, and it becomes ever more important and urgent for us to do so, to shelter our CII from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. I therefore ask the Ministry, what threats have been detected and stopped during the past year?[+1 sentence] What is the Government doing to strengthen and protect our digital systems and how our citizens can also play our part in helping in that process?
Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol)217 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Chairman, at the Smart Nation Summit week closing dialogue in 2019, Prime Minister Lee in his speech mentioned for us being a Smart Nation is not about flaunting glitzy technology. But it is about applying technology to solve real world problems that would make a difference to people's lives and across the whole-of-society. One of the roles of the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group is to develop digital enablers and platforms to raise economic productivity and catalyse innovation. SNDGG has rolled out many projects to test technologies such as the personal alert button to help the elderly seek help, the lift monitoring system in Town Councils, the computer vision drowning detection and also develop technologies that we are now regularly using such as Life SG, PayNow and Digital IC.[+2 sentences] Given that there are many proofs of concepts and technologies already developed, how can SNDGG partner and engage businesses and the community so that the businesses and the community can tap on the opportunities brought about by these technologies as we collaboratively work towards the next bound of Singapore as a Smart Nation. How can we use this ecosystem of partnership between SNDGG, businesses and the community as a comparative advantage in light of rising business costs and increasing competition in attracting investments around the world?
Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied)489 words
[+4 sentences]Sir, I call for the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 years to empower younger Singaporeans to have a say at our National Elections. I first raised this 16 years ago during the Committee of Supply debates. I pointed out at that time that the majority of countries have already lowered their voting ages to 18. In response, then Law Minister Prof S Jayakumar highlighted that Malaysia's voting age was also 21 and Japan's was 20. Today, these two countries have also lowered their voting age to 18, Malaysia in 2019 and Japan in 2016.[+11 sentences] Therefore, today, Singapore is becoming an outlier in keeping the voting age at 21 years. Of course, we do not need to blindly follow the policies of other countries. So, we must question the rationale for Singapore's stand. What is so unique about our youths aged between 18 and 21 that they should not be entrusted with the vote? The answer from the Government more recently can be summarised in three points. First, it is said that voting requires experience and maturity and only at 21 does a person come of age to make adult's decisions and engage in activities that involve significant personal responsibility. Secondly, voting involves the election of the President who exercises custodial and veto powers and the election of the Government. Thirdly, youths aged 18 to 21 are able to express their views through other platforms such as in Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth's Youth Action Plan. Sir, clearly, these reasons are inadequate. To the first point about only coming of age at 21, we already require those under 21 to engage in some very serious undertakings. Boys are enlisted into National Service by 18 years, required to carry weapons and vow to defend Singapore with their lives. As far as taking significant personal responsibility where actions is concerned, today, if a young person above 18 commits a capital crime, he is liable to suffer capital punishment and be hanged.[+7 sentences] Since our policies treat them as adults for these undertakings, how do we justify depriving these youth of a say at National Elections. On the second point about voting involving the election of the President and the Government, is that not the whole point? It seems that most other countries trust their youths to vote for their president and government, but this Government does not. As to the third point about being able to give feedback on the Government's youth action plans, I think we can all agree that giving feedback is not the same as having your vote counted at the National Elections. Sir, the period from 2007 to now has seen momentous change. For instance, this House changed its position on section 377A of the Penal Code and decided to repeal it, noting that half a generation has passed. I hope the Government will be similarly open-minded about lowering the voting age as well.
Ms He Ting Ru (Sengkang)308 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Chairman, strong institutions and good governance are key in ensuring continued political and economic progress. Singaporeans quite rightly expect high standards of conduct from our elected and public officials. Maintaining public trust is crucial for the effective functioning of our Parliamentary democracy. How then can we better manage and minimise potential or even perceived conflicts of interest for our elected officials and in the Civil Service to ensure the integrity of our public institutions? While the Parliamentary Act 1962 prohibits the over exchange of gifts and fees for influence in Parliament and civil servants are governed by a Code of Conduct which articulates key conduct principle and expected behaviour, the lack of public knowledge of how different interest groups are advanced and handled can lead to misunderstandings or speculations that damage the trust and standing of our elected officials and public institutions.[+1 sentence] A possible way of managing and deterring potential conflicts of interest is to shine a stronger light of scrutiny on activities that serve to advance various interest groups. Will the Prime Minister Office consider a mechanism to create and administer a public system of declaration for these purposes? Taking the EU Transparency Register as an example, the ideas to open about what interests are being pursued, by whom and with what budgets? It requires that all organisations and interest groups that seek to influence directly or indirectly, policy-making EU institutions including elected officials are registered on the Transparency Register and need to follow a code of conduct.[+4 sentences] This system is not perfect, but it is a good start. Of course, such mechanisms are not silver bullets. But if they are designed well, they can go some way to reduce real and perceived conflicts of interest. In doing so, they bolster the public confidence in our Public Service, Legislature and Government by enhancing understanding, full transparency.
Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang)304 words
[+17 sentences]Chairman, COVID-19 has taught us that technology can transform service delivery. But we can always do better and explore how technology can better serve residents. One common feedback about Government e-services is that there are too many apps and systems in place. Many services are also embedded within agencies’ websites, which makes them difficult to access. To complete a transaction such as getting a housing loan, one has to go through inter-related steps involving several Government agencies, before we can arrive at the process completion. Surely, we can do more in terms of process mapping, to make the digital service journey more seamless to residents. On a broader note, how can we also leverage on the benefits of new and emerging technology, such as generative AI, to turbo-charge Government services and processes? One population segment that can certainly benefit from using technology to access Government services are seniors. However, they are hit by a double whammy. First, many are still not as familiar with technology as the younger generations. Second, many are concerned about online scams. For instance, I know some of my Yio Chu Kang seniors have missed critical Government announcements as all these are sent electronically, as emails or through Government service apps. Some seniors either do not know how to access this online information or are too afraid to click on the relevant websites for fear of being scammed. How do we address these two dilemmas? One obvious response would be to push on with training and education, such as those offered by the SG Digital Office. We should also aim to go digital as much as possible, while keeping physical services and touch points available for seniors who are not digitally savvy, to access public services. How can we remain agile and resilient to uncertainties, while avoiding a tech divide?
Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh)253 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Chairman, Singapore’s success in responding to and managing unexpected emergency situations such as COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having an adaptable Public Service. It includes working with the people and private sectors to tackle issues and Singaporeans’ needs. One key aspect of adaptability is the Public Service’s openness to innovation and to embrace technology. Technology has been deployed in the direct interactions between the Public Service and the citizens it serves. As Minister Josephine Teo shared at last year’s Committee of Supply, the deployment of islandwide 1,600 vending machines enabled the distribution of 30 million masks, 1.3 million TraceTogether tokens and 2.5 million ART kits with automatic ID verification.[+2 sentences] Within the Public Service internally, technologies such as ChatGPT are being explored to further enhance efficiency – so that our delivery of public services maximises the value of every tax dollar spent. With the proliferation of different tech solutions since the launch of Smart Nation in 2014, it is perhaps time for consolidation. The centralisation of different functions on a single platform would enhance the user experience of our citizens and make it easier for the Public Service to aggregate data and utilise AI to "push" integrated services from across different Government agencies to match an individual’s specific needs. How is the Public Service enhancing how we serve citizens better, including providing more personalised services centeon people’s needs through technology, especially seniors and how is the Public Service planning to better partner people and private sector to stay agile and resilient?
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer)278 words
This month marks a major victory in our fight against COVID-19 as we stepped down from DORSCON Yellow to Green.[+2 sentences] Over the course of the pandemic, the Public Service has responded well to the rapidly evolving situation. I want to place on record our thanks to all in the Public Service, including our union leaders in the public sector, for going the extra mile and for tirelessly seeing us through these three years of toil and trouble, and seeing us through the entire pandemic safe and secure to the admiration of many countries across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of the agility of the Public Service, especially through enhancing officer’s cross-deployability. For example, the National Call Centre for Mask Collection was stood up quickly by re-deploying many Public Service officers to the call centres to support the mask distribution efforts. These officers were not frontline service staff and had to be trained quickly to manage calls and address queries. It also underscores the importance of developing a Public Service with officers equipped with multiple, diverse and future-ready skillsets that we can tap on quickly to address critical needs.[+1 sentence] These new skillsets also enhance the employment and employability of our officers in the Public Service. On behalf of our unions and union leaders in the public sector, I wish to ask how is the Government supporting the growth and development of public officers so that officers can acquire diverse skills, and to ensure that Public Service remains ready, relevant and resilient – ready with the new skills, relevant to the new jobs and requirements, and resilient to the new changes and curveballs hurled at us?
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang)740 words
Mr Chairman, five years ago, I spoke in this House about the $422 million price settlement for Keppel Offshore & Marine (KOM) for bribery acts in Brazil conducted through its subsidiary in the United States.[+3 sentences] This is in part due to the conviction of KOM lawyer Mr Jeffrey Chow in US court for his role in the corruption. Chow is given a one-year probation which he could serve in Singapore and $75,000 fine. That may not be a heavy punishment to some, but it is still a criminal conviction. Almost five years later, in January 2023, CPBI issued stern warnings to six unnamed former KOM senior executives for the same corruption case.[+1 sentence] Earlier this month, the hon Ms Indranee Rajah told this House that no prosecution was mounted due to the lack of sufficient evidence. What is difficult to understand for many Singaporeans is that while the company has admitted liability and paid massive fines, the CPIB could not find a single person working in the company whom they could charge for complicity in the bribery acts even though about $55 million of KOM's monies were paid out for bribes.[+5 sentences] How were such moneys allowed to be paid out? And how did they pass through the senior management's and auditors' scrutiny? Will any recovery actions be taken against any employees? Notwithstanding the alleged evidential difficulties, the stern warnings might have inadvertently sent an alarming message that a Singapore-linked company can be involved in a case of serious corruption, but individuals involved may not be dealt with proportionately. This is not good news for the credibility of Singapore Inc, not to mention a GLC which should be leading by example. Then, there are other recent cases where aspects of corporate or investment governance involving our GLCs have some under question. We learnt that executives at Singapore Press Holdings, now SPH Media Trust, inflated circulation numbers by up to 90,000 daily copies, including by printing and destroying extra copies of newspapers.[+3 sentences] Not long ago, there was also the bankruptcy of the crypto currency exhange, FDX, due to massive fraud. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong informed this House that losses to Singapore's taxpayers' monies from Temasek investment in FDX were limited. But the company's management and owners still allegedly engaged fraud worth several billions of US dollars. Recently, press reports indicated that Temasek may be exposed to companies under the Adnani Group, possibly to the tune of several billion dollars.[+12 sentences] A shadow of potentially serious financial discrepancies hangs over the Adnani Group. Sir, back in the Committee of Supply debates in 2018, I mentioned a number of measures where we can improve corporate governance for our companies. I said that it is startling that the existence of bribery contracts and payments somehow seem to have escaped the notice of Keppel's senior management, board of directors, audit committees and even the external auditors for 14 years. Could this point to the weaknesses in our company and auditing regime? Among other suggestions, I had asked for the Government to review and enhance company regulations and suggested that the Government should consider having inspections and subject companies, directors and audit committee members to penalties for any non-compliance, and that the Government should review and enhance the requirements for whistle-blowing policies in companies. Sir, my remarks here today are less about what specific dollar amounts of exposure or loss or whether individuals received particular types of punishment or not. Rather, I am concerned about the potential rise of a view following recent cases that corporate governance standards in Singapore including Government-linked entities may not be what they used to be – and this should not be the case. Following the disappointing outcome on the investigation by CPIB, what steps would the Government take to improve the corporate governance of our companies? Specifically, what are the lessons we learn from how KOM was able to carry out the bribery acts of such magnitude and for so long? What are the measures that Government intend to take to prevent similar cases from happening again? I am referring to the brazen bribery acts as well as the difficulties in prosecuting individuals even though KOM itself admitted liability and paid massive fines to foreign governments. I hope the Government will take steps to improve corporate governance for our companies and I also hope the Government will ensure that Government-linked companies take adequate due diligence before committing on investment on public monies.
Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok)396 words
[+3 sentences]Sir, imagine a situation whereby the anti-corruption agency of a country arrests a high-ranking police officer for a corruption offence. In retaliation, the police arrests a high-ranking officer from the agency on what is believed to be a trumped-up charge of corruption too. This scenario may seem fanciful in Singapore, but unfortunately there has been precedent for such kind of behaviour elsewhere. From a jurisdictional perspective though, it can happen here. This is because the Director of CPIB is vested with the powers under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1960 (PCA) to investigate corruption.[+4 sentences] At the same time, there exists anti-corruption provisions dealing with public servants in the Penal Code 1871. Investigations under these provisions come under purview of the Police. When I asked in this House whether there is utility in maintaining the Penal Code provisions which have not been used in the recent past, the Minister for Home Affairs felt that there is as these provisions are more targeted. He however accepted that these provisions should be ported over to the PCA. Against this backdrop, it is my respectful view that there is scope for the CPIB to reopen the review of the PCA that it closed in October last year without taking any step.[+4 sentences] We should put to bed this potential jurisdictional issue as quickly as possible. There are other reasons for this review. I had recently suggested that PCA provide for extraterritorial reach with respect to Singapore registered companies. Let me expand on the reasons for this by reference to the KOM case. In 2017, the AGC served KOM with a conditional warning in lieu of prosecution for an offence under the PCA. In lieu of prosecution, KOM had to pay more than $100 million to the Singapore authorities.[+4 sentences] What is clear is that this case involved foreign bribery. Hence, to find jurisdiction under the PCA currently, one of the ingredients of corruption must have happened in Singapore. This is because there is no extraterritorial reach of the PCA vis-à-vis Singapore companies. CPIB’s stated policy in this House is that it will investigate all cases whether they happened locally or overseas. In these circumstances, it makes sense to extend the ambit of PCA to cover situations where acts of foreign bribery were committed by a Singapore company.[+1 sentence] Lastly, Sir, there have been steps taken in other jurisdictions to enlarge the ability —
The Chairman5 words
[+1 sentence]Can we wrap up please?
Mr Murali Pillai5 words
[+1 sentence]I will stop here, Sir.
The Chairman5 words
[+2 sentences]Thank you. Ms Indranee Rajah.
The Minister, Prime Minister's Office (Ms Indranee Rajah)4154 words
[+11 sentences]Mr Chairman, I thank the Members for their questions and suggestions. There were two categories on population and fertility as well as on corruption. I will take the cuts on population and fertility first, and Ms Hazel Poa’s cut on corruption, I will address later when I respond to the cuts on corruption. Under the Forward Singapore exercise, we have spoken to many Singaporeans who have shared their views and aspirations for the future. As we work towards building the future we aspire to, it is important to understand the key population trends affecting us and how we must work together as one people to address them. As Ms Ng Ling Ling mentioned, countries around the world are facing demographic challenges brought about by ageing populations and declining fertility rates. South Korea’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR), currently the world’s lowest, dropped to a new low of 0.78 last year. China’s population also shrank for the first time in more than six decades, and their annual number of births nearly halved compared to six years ago. Births in Japan have plunged to a record low. Even Norway and Finland, who were previously successful in improving their fertility rates, are finding it difficult to sustain these gains. Like other advanced societies, Singapore’s TFR has been declining for many years. In 2022, our resident TFR reached a new historic low of 1.05.[+4 sentences] This was partly due to the Tiger year in the lunar calendar, which is generally associated with lower births among the Chinese. But beyond that, there are longer-term global societal trends at play, which apply to us too. While the aspiration to marry and have children remains strong, more are postponing marriage and more are also postponing having children or having fewer children. At the same time, we are living longer. Resident life expectancy at birth has risen from about 72 years in 1980 to more than 83 years today. By 2030, about one in four Singapore citizens will be aged 65 and above.[+5 sentences] With an ageing population, we will find it increasingly challenging to sustain economic growth as the growth of our resident workforce slows. Caregiving needs will intensify as family sizes shrink and more Singaporeans will face the dual pressures of raising young children while caring for their elderly parents – and in fact this is already happening. We are also becoming a more diverse society. We have always been multiracial, multi-religious and multicultural. While the proportions of our main racial groups remain stable among our citizens, our social fabric continues to evolve. In recent years, around one in three citizen marriages each year were transnational and around one in six, inter-ethnic.[+17 sentences] It is therefore even more important to that we recognise this diversity as a core part of our identity, appreciate different cultures and their practices more and make this multicultural aspect of living in Singapore and being Singaporean, a strength. These trends show the complexities and challenges on the population front. Our population strategies are key to managing these challenges. Ms Mariam Jaafar asked how these strategies relate to the Forward Singapore exercise. Through these conversations, Singaporeans have shared their views on the kind of Singapore we want to be and how we can forge our future together. Our population strategies take into account these views and seek to achieve a stronger social compact by strengthening assurance for Singaporeans throughout their lives, growing opportunities for Singaporeans through a vibrant and resilient economy and strengthening solidarity for a more cohesive society; as well as planning ahead for a better home for ourselves and for generations to come. Let me elaborate on each of these in turn. First, we will continue to strengthen assurance for Singaporeans. A key aspect of this is the support we give to help Singaporeans realise their marriage and parenthood aspirations, among other life goals. Mr Yip Hon Weng asked what we can learn from other countries’ best practices to encourage Singaporeans to settle down. Key elements that have made a difference elsewhere include societal norms that embrace children and families and encourage shared parental responsibility as well as a family-friendly workplace culture. We need a whole-of-society effort to foster such norms and to build a conducive environment that values and supports families. For individuals, this is often about finding a work-life rhythm that is suitable for our different life stages as we pursue our family, career and other life goals. And for employers, it is also about valuing employees’ family and overall well-being that could at the same time result in stronger talent attraction, retention and higher productivity for the employer. It is also about everyone doing our part to strengthen the overall ecosystem of support so that we have a family-friendly environment. On the part of the Government, as Deputy Prime Minister Wong announced in the Budget statement, we are providing more support for the early stages of family formulation in a few areas. We are doing more to enable young Singaporeans to achieve their housing aspirations. First-timer families with children as well as younger married couples will receive greater priority in their BTO flat applications, including an additional ballot.[+2 sentences] We have also increased the CPF Housing Grant for first-timers purchasing resale flats. Minister Desmond Lee will share more on these plans at Ministry of National Development’s (MND) Committee of Supply (COS). We are increasing financial support for the early years of raising a child where it is most needed by parents. We have increased the Baby Bonus Cash Gift and the Child Development Account (CDA) First Step Grant for all eligible Singaporean children. In addition, we have raised the CDA Government co-matching cap for the first and second child.[+2 sentences] These enhancements apply to eligible Singaporean children born from 14 February 2023 onwards. We have also extended the Baby Support Grant for eligible Singaporean children born from 1 October 2022 to 13 February 2023. With these enhancements, parents can now receive up to $24,000 in financial support for their first child and up to $37,000 for their subsequent children.[+5 sentences] This represents an increase of up to $6,000 per child up to before the age of seven. I hope this provides more assurance to couples like newly-weds Mr Ng Jia Jing and Ms Chia Shi Min, who are planning to have a child next year. They are looking forward to the enhanced Baby Bonus Scheme which will help with their child-raising costs. This targeted financial help is in addition to existing subsidies for preschool, education and healthcare for all Singaporean children, and regular top-ups in each child’s CDA, Edusave and Post-Secondary Education account, including the most recent top-ups announced at Budget this year. We will also increase support for parents in managing their work and family commitments. As Deputy Prime Minister Wong announced in Budget, we will double Government-paid Paternity Leave for eligible working fathers of children born on or after 1 January 2024 onwards, something that Mr Louis Ng had long asked for.[+28 sentences] This is a big step towards normalising and enabling fathers to play a bigger role in raising our children. As mentioned by Deputy Prime Minister Wong, we intend to mandate the additional Government-Paid Paternity Leave in time to come. Mr Ng asked about efforts to increase the use of paternity leave and proposed equalising the amount of maternity and paternity leave. Mr Louis Chua also spoke about shared parental leave. Our focus for now is to encourage and enable fathers to use the paternity leave that is available to them. Even as the Government increases paternity leave and stands behind fathers in playing a more active role in child-raising, we need shifts in societal mindsets and norms to encourage and support fathers in taking up this leave. Workplace culture, in particular, the attitudes and mindsets of supervisors and colleagues will make a big difference in helping fathers feel assured about using their leave. The take-up rate for paternity leave has gone up over the years and I hope to see it continue to increase. I encourage every employer to consider providing this additional paternity leave and I urge supervisors and colleagues to be supportive when fathers take time off from work to care for their children. We will also double Unpaid Infant Care Leave for parents with children below two years old from 1 January 2024 onwards. Each parent will be able to benefit from an additional six days of Unpaid Infant Care Leave per year in the child’s first two years. Taken together, eligible parents will be able to take up to 26 weeks of parental leave in their child’s first year. Mr Louis Ng asked if we can increase childcare leave provisions to cover needs such as caring for sick children or provide leave for couples to seek fertility treatments. We are aware that employees need time off from work for these and other personal needs and commitments. Apart from leave, another important strategy we are focusing on is to increase the adoption of flexible work arrangements (FWAs). These include but are not limited to Work-From-Home, which Prof Hoon Hian Teck spoke about. FWAs are a sustainable way of providing more flexibility for workers. This is critical not only for caregivers of children but also for caregivers of the elderly. A company that has put in commendable effort to make FWAs work for their employees is CBM Private Limited. A facilities management company with 1,900 employees, CBM Private Limited has been adopting staggered working hours and Work-From-Home arrangements since 2017. During the pandemic, they further tweaked the staggered working hours arrangement to give employees more flexibility in their start times to avoid peak hour congestion. They recognised that staff like security guards have to be on site and leveraged technology like roving robots to reduce manhours. CBM also set up a floating team of covering officers to take over from staff who have urgent family or caregiving duties. CBM shared that with FWAs, their employees are more productive, more focused and happier at work as they are better able to adjust their work schedules to manage both work and personal commitments. Employers also benefit from offering FWAs. While there may be adjustments to work processes and costs of implementing FWAs in the short term, FWAs can increase productivity, lower absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee engagement in the long term if implemented well. Embracing FWAs as a workplace norm will help Singapore companies stay ahead of the competition and better attract and retain talent. The tripartite partners have developed a set of best practices for employers to voluntarily adopt under the Tripartite Standard on FWAs. To further encourage the adoption of FWAs, we will roll out the Tripartite Guidelines on FWAs in 2024, which will require employers to fairly and properly consider FWA requests.[+3 sentences] Mr Ng asked if we can implement these Guidelines earlier as well as consider legislating them. Even as we encourage more FWAs, we need to make sure workplace harmony is maintained. The best way to achieve this win-win outcome is not by taking a legalistic approach at the onset but to focus on shaping norms and fostering workplace trust. Tripartite partners are developing the scope of the guidelines and we should also give them enough time to consult stakeholders. We will thus introduce the Guidelines by 2024, as committed in the White Paper on Singapore Women's Development.[+4 sentences] Beyond these measures, there were other suggestions to improve support for parents and to better recognise their efforts in bringing up their children. We have received feedback from parents about the difficulties they face in accessing reliable infant care arrangements when they return to work. Under the Forward Singapore Care Pillar efforts, we will be reviewing how we can better support new parents in caring for their infants. We will share more when ready. Mr Faisal Manap asked about expanding the approved uses of the Child Development Account to purchase items such as infant formula and diapers. We have just enhanced the Baby Bonus Cash Gift by $3,000.[+3 sentences] This should help in defraying expenditure in these areas. Ms Hazel Poa suggested recognising the contributions of stay-at-home parents through CPF top-ups. Many of our marriage and parenthood measures are given regardless of the parents' employment status, including our recently enhanced Baby Bonus Cash Gift and Child Development Account. In addition, we also provide a tax relief of up to $8,000 per calendar year to individuals who make a cash top-up to their loved ones' CPF savings.[+19 sentences] I hope these enhancements and plans will give greater assurance to Singaporeans. Second, we want to grow opportunities for Singaporeans amidst a more uncertain global economic outlook. Economic growth over the past few decades has generated good employment and business opportunities for Singaporeans as well as the resources to support public infrastructure, healthcare and education. Ms Ng Ling Ling spoke about the decline in the number of Singaporeans in the working ages and asked how we will achieve economic growth to generate more opportunities for Singaporeans. Indeed, with a slowing resident workforce growth and a maturing economy, we will have to work harder to restructure the economy to sustain economic growth. Economic growth is driven by new ideas, new technologies and output from the work of people. Even as we strengthen efforts to enhance our overall productivity, there will be a limit to economic growth if companies do not have enough workers with the necessary skills to support their businesses and activities here. Under the Empower and Equip pillars of Forward Singapore, the Government is looking into ways to further develop our local workforce. This includes preparing our students well for jobs of the future by providing access to good quality education and diversifying pathways in schools. We invest heavily in the upskilling of Singaporeans and help them to strengthen career health and reach their full potential. We also want to build a stronger pipeline of Singaporeans for leadership positions across different sectors of the economy. Even as we strengthen the quality of our local workforce, there are not enough Singaporeans to meet all our economic and social needs. Remaining open to foreign manpower brings benefits to countries by filling skill shortages in the labour market, boosting the productive capacity of the economy and supporting innovation. This is true too for Singapore. Some segments of the foreign workforce support the caregiving needs of Singaporeans. Other foreigners help companies in Singapore grow by filling manpower gaps. Businesses know this well. Companies, including Singaporean-owned ones, have been raising concerns about the lack of sufficient local workers and the need for foreign manpower. Global talent, such as those coming in on the Overseas Networks and Expertise (ONE) Pass or Tech.Pass, also bring in investments, new business operations, technology and job opportunities for Singaporeans. We fully understand Singaporeans' concerns about job competition and we remain committed to ensuring that Singaporeans can compete fairly and strongly. We have raised qualifying salaries over the years and introduced the Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS).[+1 sentence] These measures ensure that the foreign workforce complements rather than displaces the local workforce. The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) protects workers from discriminatory hiring practices. We will be enshrining the TAFEP guidelines into law.[+25 sentences] We will also continue to transform our economy and industries to create better jobs for Singaporeans. Under the Industry Transformation Maps, we are pressing on with economic restructuring, automation and redesigning jobs for higher productivity. The Government will continue to work with our unions to support industry and our workers as we transform our economy. We must be prepared to work together as a society to smoothen the transition. There will be new technologies and processes to adapt to. Some roles could be replaced with new ones and so we must all reskill and take on new functions. Also, with higher wages, a part of increased business costs may be passed to consumers. While these cost increases may be calibrated to manage the impact on overall cost of living, we must still be prepared to pay more in the longer term to fairly value the work and services provided by our fellow Singaporeans in jobs currently with lower wages. We will benefit in the long run with a more productive economy, better jobs and higher wages for Singaporeans. Next, I will talk about the need to strengthen solidarity and maintain a cohesive society in Singapore. I had earlier spoken about how one in three citizen marriages is transnational. As Singaporeans venture overseas for school, work and travel, they may meet and marry non-Singaporeans. Some return to Singapore to start and raise a family here. There are also others who meet and marry foreigners based in Singapore. Singapore is also an attractive place for skilled people who come here to work, given our connectedness, security and quality of life. Over time, some of them may share our aspirations and ideals, and may want to make Singapore their home. We should welcome those who are prepared to make the long-term commitment to Singapore. Mr Gan Thiam Poh spoke about reducing our old-age dependency ratio by boosting our birth rates as well as taking in new Permanent Residents and citizens to support our ageing population. This has been the Government's approach. While our policies do not seek to achieve any optimal old-age dependency ratio, welcoming such immigrants continues to play an important role in moderating the impact of ageing and low birth rates in our population. Most of our Permanent Residents and New Citizens granted each year are aged 40 and below. Immigration has to be managed delicately. We have seen how tensions over immigration in other countries have led to fissures and divisions in society. We must not let that happen here in Singapore. While most Singaporeans understand why we need immigrants, there are, understandably, concerns over competition for jobs and other resources and how the texture and character of our society could change and whether our infrastructure can keep up. Since the tightening of our immigration framework in late 2009, we have maintained a measured and stable pace of immigration.[+1 sentence] Miss Cheng Li Hui asked about trends in the number of new citizenships and Permanent Residencies granted. In 2022, we granted about 23,100 new citizenships, including about 1,300 to children born overseas to Singaporean parents. We also granted about 34,500 new Permanent Residencies (PRs). The numbers of new citizenships and PRs granted in 2022 were slightly higher than pre-COVID-19.[+4 sentences] At last year's Committee of Supply, I explained how COVID-19-related travel restrictions and safe management measures had slowed down in-person processes for the grant of citizenship or PR. A number of approved applicants in 2020 and 2021 had yet to complete the in-person processes and some applicants who had intended to apply during that period were also unable to complete their own processes to submit their applications. Hence, some of these applications were rolled over into 2022. We consider very carefully who we take in as immigrants. When granting PR or citizenship, we look at a comprehensive set of factors, including an individual's family ties to Singaporeans, economic contributions, qualifications, family profile, age and how long they have stayed in Singapore.[+33 sentences] This ensures that new immigrants are rooted, able to integrate and contribute meaningfully here. All new adult citizens come from within our pool of Permanent Residents. This means they have been in Singapore for some time already. Second-generation Permanent Residents serve National Service and in the process, forge bonds with other locals and contribute to the nation's defence. During the Forward Singapore engagements, Singaporeans reiterated the importance of safeguarding our identity as a multicultural and diverse society. To do so, we must remain open to people of different backgrounds and cultures. But it takes two hands to clap. We must welcome newcomers and help them integrate into our society. At the same time, newcomers should respect our values and norms and make an effort to adapt to our way of life. The Government has been working with our partners to develop resources and conduct activities to help foreigners settle in and understand our local norms and culture. This is a whole-of-society effort where different stakeholders including newcomers, Singaporeans, community groups and businesses all have a role to play. To illustrate this better, let me share the story about the friendship between Margaret and Heidi. Ms Margaret Hou became a Permanent Resident last year. She has lived in Singapore for the last 10 years. She regularly volunteers at community events and interacts with residents from different social and ethnic backgrounds. She takes the effort to interact and forge friendships with locals. Her ex-colleague turned friend, Ms Heidi Yeo, who is Singaporean, appreciates Ms Margaret's willingness to help whenever they had to work closely together in their respective job areas. They continue to meet up and help each other even though they are no longer colleagues and their friendship has blossomed over the years. Heidi shares Singapore culture and history with Margaret, which helps Margaret to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of Singapore. Margaret in turn pays it forward by helping other newcomers to integrate into the local community through chat groups, monthly meet-ups and monthly sports or family activities involving local Singaporeans. Such friendships show us how both locals and newcomers can make efforts to foster integration and how we can come together to strengthen our bonds with each other and our sense of belonging to Singapore despite being from different backgrounds. This is what the Unite pillar of the Forward Singapore exercise is all about. We continue to plan for the long term and steward our scarce resources for both present and future generations. Ms Ng Ling Ling asked whether the Government has long-term projections to understand how we should adjust our population policies to achieve desired outcomes for Singapore in the future and how Singaporeans can be involved in the process. We have engaged Singaporeans in thinking about our future. For example, as part of the Long-Term Plan review, we engaged Singaporeans of different age groups and backgrounds extensively to better understand how our land and infrastructure plans can meet their aspirations and future needs. Through the Build and Steward Pillars of Forward Singapore, we will further explore how we as a society can build a greener, more liveable and more sustainable home for all. Planning for the future is a complex process. We will have to consider what our future population will look like, not just in terms of size but also composition and make-up. And this is contingent on many factors – various demographic trends, such as birth rates, life expectancies, and migration, as well as future social and economic needs. For instance, we need manpower to build our homes or care for our seniors, but the numbers could change with evolving family structures and the health of our ageing population. Our businesses’ manpower needs may vary, depending on the types of industries in our economy and ongoing economic transformation efforts. As our workforce continues to evolve in tandem with economic transformation, their needs too will change. As such, we do not plan on a single population planning parameter. Instead, increasingly we develop various scenarios to stress-test our assumptions and allow for a range of possible outcomes. In 2018, we provided an update that our total population is likely to be significantly below 6.9 million by 2030. Based on the various scenarios we have, this remains the case. The planning parameter of 6.9 million remains relevant for the 2030s.[+11 sentences] Our aim is, as it always has been, to build better lives for current and future generations of Singaporeans. Our population policies are all aimed at this objective. Looking beyond 2030, it is critical that we will continue to plan ahead of time, to maintain the flexibility to adjust our plans, respond to new trends and safeguard options for the future. This will help us to provide a good quality living environment and home for all Singaporeans. Mr Chairman, in conclusion, I have laid out our population strategies and the key considerations behind them. In the coming years, our demographic realities will only become more keenly felt. Our ability to nurture a high-quality workforce while attracting the complementary foreign manpower we need, and to integrate newcomers into our society while maintaining social cohesion, will become ever more important for Singapore's future. This is a delicate balance and much will depend on how circumstances evolve. But we will continue to work hard to build a Singapore with the well-being of Singaporeans at the heart of it, with opportunities for all, a society where families matter and are supported and where we can be united even in diversity. Everyone – individuals, families, communities, businesses and Government – has a role to play in ensuring that Singapore continues to be a home with opportunities, assurances and a strong sense of solidarity. Together, let us work towards a better future for all Singaporeans.
The Chairman2 words
[+1 sentence]Minister Teo.
The Minister for Communications and Information (Mrs Josephine Teo)1531 words
[+8 sentences]Good afternoon, Mr Chairman. I thank Members for their questions and comments. In the interest of time, let me jump straight to the lessons we have learnt since we started our Smart Nation journey in 2014. The first lesson is to always put people first. I am happy to update Ms Tin Pei Ling that through digital technology, we have made it more convenient for our citizens and businesses to apply for government services, seek help and get support when and where they need it. Most transactions can be completed from the comfort of their homes. Singaporeans can use MyInfo to apply for credit cards, or LifeSG to access parenting, housing and other digital government services. Ms Tin is very familiar with these. Singpass and PayNow are widely used – 4.2 million people use the Singpass app today, and over 300 million individual and corporate transactions were made on PayNow in 2022.[+4 sentences] Businesses have also benefited from digital services. Abundance is a restaurant bar that started out as a home-based business. When it first opened in 2021, it used the GoBusiness portal to apply for the necessary licences. This helped it to be set up quickly without having to go from agency to agency physically. The GoBusiness portal also suggested suitable grants, such as the Productivity Solutions Grant and Energy Efficiency Grant, which Abundance used to improve its operations.[+1 sentence] I am happy to hear that Abundance has since opened its second branch last year. These efforts have helped improve citizen satisfaction with government services from 73% in 2016 to 84% in 2022. Business satisfaction with government services has also improved from 64% to 79%.[+11 sentences] This progress motivates us to further improve, and as Ms Jessica Tan suggested, leverage digital technologies to improve our service delivery. For example, the team at Open Government Products built the Health Appointment System last year to make it easier to book pneumococcal and flu vaccination appointments. It has facilitated more than 40,000 appointments to date. This system will soon be expanded for eligible women to book a subsidised HPV2 vaccination appointment. This will make it easier for our women to protect themselves through vaccinations. By April, the system will also allow appointment bookings for all vaccines under the National Adult Immunisation Schedule, and by June, vaccines under the National Childhood Immunisation Schedule. The second lesson is that safety matters. To use digital tools with confidence, our citizens must be able to trust that they are safe. With ever-evolving cybersecurity threats, this has become a tall order. Mr Alex Yam asked about protecting our digital systems. We are investing efforts to build stronger defences to safeguard people from scams and online harms. For example, ScamShield was launched on iOS in 2020 and on Android in 2022. It has about 500,000 users and since 2022, has helped block 200,000 scam calls and detected over 3.5 million scam messages.[+5 sentences] We will be launching a ScamShield Chatbot later this year on WhatsApp, to allow the public to report scam messages to the relevant authorities more easily. MHA will say more about their efforts to address scams. We are also improving government ICT infrastructure to be more resilient against cyber attacks. We are working with agencies to modernise and secure their key systems. This includes moving more government systems to cloud, to improve resiliency, security monitoring, and our threat detection tools. To date, we have migrated 64% of eligible government systems, and we are on track to hit our target of 70% by this year.[+26 sentences] As Mr Alex Yam pointed out, the Government cannot do all of this securing alone. We have launched the Vulnerability Rewards Programme to work with "white hats", or ethical hackers, experts and volunteers to identify weaknesses in our systems so we can continuously improve their security. In the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI)’s Committee of Supply debate, I will expand on efforts to uplift digital literacy and strengthen safety online. The third lesson is that to go far, we must go together. Smart Nation is a collective effort. For example, we are collaborating with and learning from, leading countries and companies in Artificial Intelligence. We recently signed MOUs with Israel and Korea, as well as with Google and Samsung. We also have AI research partnerships with industry, such as with SembWaste to improve environmental sustainability through efficient recycling, such as using computer vision to sort waste. We will continue to learn from the best-in-class, incubate good ideas and support Singapore companies in leveraging AI. More importantly, we must never leave our citizens behind in our Smart Nation journey. To points raised by Mr Seah Kian Peng and Ms Tin Pei Ling, we will continue our efforts to ensure our digital services are accessible and easy to use, for all. We will also continue to provide non-digital options for critical government services for the foreseeable future. In terms of design, which Ms Jessica Tan asked about, it is based primarily on following the user journey, identifying and fixing pain points in advance and rigorous testing. Minister Chan Chun Sing will speak more broadly about public service delivery, which Mr Yip Hon Weng asked about. I will share more on our digital inclusion efforts during MCI’s Committee of Supply debate, particularly, to support the lower-income and seniors. Mr Chairman, these lessons we have learnt are shaping the way we are thinking about the next bound of Smart Nation. During the various Forward Singapore conversations, it has become more evident how technology can enable and improve our lives. In MCI’s Digital Readiness Survey, 84% of Singaporeans agreed that digital technologies have made their lives easier. As we refresh our Smart Nation strategy, three broad areas will be particularly important. First, enhancing opportunities for Singaporeans to flourish; second, ensuring trust and safety in the digital world; and third, strengthening our communities. Let me outline each priority area in turn. First, digital technology presents immense opportunities for Singaporeans and our businesses. As Ms Tin Pei Ling pointed out, it is critical to invest in digital infrastructure. MCI will elaborate on this. Mr Sharael Taha asked how we can better support our businesses and citizens to grow and thrive in an age of technological advances. AI Singapore offers a good example. Since its launch in 2017, AI Singapore has partnered around 80 businesses to co-develop AI models and solutions, and created close to $60 million of value. For example, it supported Q&M Dental Group to develop an AI model that helps dentists detect disease from dental X-rays and recommend treatment plans.[+2 sentences] Q&M Group now plans to deploy this AI model to more than 150 clinics in the region. AI Singapore also runs the AI Apprenticeship programme to provide training using real world projects and help the trainees get better jobs. To meet strong demand from both industry and Singaporeans, AI Singapore will double the number of AI apprentices trained over the next five years from 200 to 400.[+3 sentences] We will continue to nurture innovative use of data just as AI Singapore and Q&M Group have done, including taking in Ms Tin Pei Ling's suggestion for us to find more opportunities to securely share government data with businesses and the community. We are already exploring the use of emerging privacy-enhancing technologies that allow us to share data in a seamless and secure manner, to nurture more collaboration with non-government entities. A second priority is to ensure that we can go digital with confidence, feel safe and secure using digital tools and services. The Government will step up our proactive cybersecurity measures. We have launched the Government Cyber Security Operations Centre to make greater use of artificial intelligence and data analytics in defending government systems.[+8 sentences] We have also developed PhishMonSG in collaboration with MHA. This is a tool that proactively hunts for phishing sites that pose as Government agency websites, so that we can remove them before they can harm the public. We also want to help level up our companies, especially small and medium enterprises. MCI will share more about our initiatives. The third area of priority is to help strengthen our Singapore communities. Our Smart Nation must be inclusive, so that all Singaporeans can participate fully in an increasingly digital society. As I have said, digital first need not mean digital only. There is also value to co-create with the community, promote opportunities for people and groups to come together to make Singapore a better home for all of us. In this regard, I am pleased to announce that SNDGO and URA, with support from IMDA, have just rolled out an Innovation Challenge in Jurong Lake District today, focusing on urban sustainability issues.[+4 sentences] I encourage companies and research institutes to submit proposals to address these real-life issues, and possibly pilot them in the JLD soon. Sir, it will soon be 10 years since Prime Minister Lee announced the Smart Nation initiative in 2014. However, the task of building Smart Nation, like that of building Singapore – is never done. We will continue to find ways to leverage technology to realise new opportunities for our people and businesses, to help our people go digital with confidence and to build a stronger community.
The Chairman2 words
[+1 sentence]Minister Indranee.
Ms Indranee Rajah2662 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Chairman, I will now address the cuts from Mr Murali Pillai, Ms Hazel Poa and Mr Dennis Tan, pertaining to our anti-corruption efforts and on corporate governance. I wish to thank Mr Murali Pillai for his support for CPIB's work and continuing interest in improving our anti-corruption efforts. With regard to Mr Murali's suggestion that corruption-related Penal Code offences be sited within the PCA, CPIB's assessment is that there is currently no compelling need to do so, as CPIB officers possess the requisite powers to investigate offences under the Penal Code.[+8 sentences] Mr Murali gave an example where, due to the overlap in jurisdiction between the Police and CPIB, there could be a risk of senior officers taking retaliatory action against one another. Under our system of criminal justice, charging decisions are decided by the Public Prosecutor (PP), who makes these decisions independently. Therefore, Mr Murali can rest assured that there is no room for Police or CPIB officers to raise trumped-up charges against one another, or against any one for that matter. Mr Murali renewed his call for CPIB to consider extending the extra-territorial reach of the PCA, to companies incorporated in Singapore. Insofar as companies are concerned, the CPIB expects Singapore-incorporated companies operating overseas to operate in compliance with the laws of the countries that they have a presence in. For corruption-related offences, one needs to establish the mens rea of the alleged offender, to show the requisite corrupt intent. Where the alleged offender is a company, the focus of investigations would generally be on the individuals who are the controlling minds or decision-makers of the company. For companies incorporated in Singapore, such individuals can be both Singaporean or non-Singaporean. Where these individuals are Singapore Citizens, the PCA is currently of extra-territorial application. The CPIB is empowered to take action against them irrespective of whether they committed the corrupt acts in Singapore or abroad.[+15 sentences] In fact, this applies even if they are officers of companies not incorporated here. The current extra-territorial reach of the PCA is therefore already quite broad and effective. The practical impact of Mr Murali's proposal is that if a company is incorporated in Singapore but involved in corrupt activities conducted overseas by non-Singaporean individuals and there is little connection to Singapore other than the fact that the company is incorporated here, the CPIB will nonetheless be obligated to investigate. While Singapore is firmly committed towards international anti-corruption cooperation consistent with our legal framework and international commitments, it would be a stretch to empower or require the CPIB to investigate activities taking place entirely outside Singapore, involving non-Singaporean actors. We have already seen the challenges in investigating activities by Singaporeans committed abroad. Investigating the activities of non-Singaporeans abroad will be even more so. We have to take a realistic view of the efficacy of doing so, given the evidential difficulties we can expect where material evidence and key witnesses reside outside of Singapore, and out of CPIB's reach. Mr Murali also suggested a review to allow for a non-conviction-based confiscation mechanism to deal with assets believed to be acquired through proceeds from corruption. We thank Mr Pillai for his suggestion. Where a person has been convicted of corruption, the PCA provides for the disgorgement of the gratification received. In addition, there are existing powers to confiscate outside of a conviction, which apply if qualifying circumstances are met. As Mr Murali noted, the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 allows for confiscation without conviction, but only where the accused person is deceased or has absconded. Further, under the Organised Crime Act 2015, it is possible to obtain a non-conviction-based confiscation order to disgorge ill-gotten gains from a person involved in organised crime activity, which includes corruption-related activities. The Government is committed to disgorging any financial benefit derived from offenders' predicate offences, which include corruption. But in the same vein, we need to ensure that the power is fairly scoped, particularly where the Court has not arrived at a determination of guilt. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and CPIB will review the non-conviction-based confiscation mechanism further.[+4 sentences] Ms Poa made several observations. And she also asked whether we could consider appointing a committee to consult the public on what questions they want answered and to get the answers to those questions from the relevant agencies. I think the Member may not be familiar with how such matters are dealt with. CPIB conducts its investigations independently. The investigation process and the evidence obtained in the course of investigations, is confidential.[+15 sentences] They do not, as a general rule, provide details of investigations, for good reasons, including to avoid prejudicing any action that may have to be taken subsequently if new material facts come to light, or adversely affecting informants or witnesses who may then become less willing to offer assistance. As explained before, where there is public interest in knowing more details, Members may file questions in this House and the relevant Minister will, after consulting the PP, answer the questions to the extent permitted by law. It is the role of Members of Parliament (MPs) to raise relevant and appropriate questions. We do not set up committees to find out questions. As to answering of questions involving investigations, the Minister answers to the extent permissible. The Minister is not involved in the investigations or charging decision and therefore would not have personal knowledge of the details. Ms Poa raised several assertions as to the answers that I gave in Parliament earlier. She said that answers had either not been given or were evasive and raised a couple of examples. I will deal with those examples in a minute. But first, I would like to remind the House that there were 16 Parliamentary Questions and I answered all of them. The questions that came up subsequently were supplementary questions of which I had not been given any prior notice. And of those, I had to deal with the questions as and when they were put to me in the Chamber. The first of these was raised by Ms Poa. She referred to the Leader of the Opposition's question as to whether investigations included determining the constructive knowledge of the Keppel board at that time. I sought clarification from him and he had confirmed he was not suggesting that this was an offence under the PCA. And my reply, which still applies, is that CPIB investigates offences under the PCA. So, there is no doubt on this, what I can share is that CPIB did look into the six individuals and the boards of KOM as well as their parent entity Keppel Corporation Limited (KCL). CPIB's investigations established the involvement of the six individuals, and no one else was implicated. In the case of the six individuals, CPIB did not have sufficient evidence to justify prosecution to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt for the reasons I have already explained.[+4 sentences] Next, I think Ms Poa raised the question of mutual legal assistance (MLA). She said that, when asked about MLA requests, I replied I did not know all the details of the MLA but that, for at least one or two of the latest ones, there were no response. That is not quite accurate. If the Member wishes to quote me, I would be grateful if the Member quotes me accurately. If you look at the record, what I had said on the MLA was that AGC and CPIB had sent three MLA requests to Brazil to secure evidence that was needed.[+37 sentences] AGC and CPIB also sent an MLA request to another relevant foreign authority to interview another potential material witness. And then, I said the contents and outcome of these MLA requests are confidential, but I can inform the House that they have either not yielded evidence that could be used to secure a conviction before our Courts, or the responses have not been helpful in advancing the case. In other words, whatever the number of MLA requests, the outcome of these were that the information produced did not yield evidence that could be used to secure conviction, or they were not helpful in advancing the case. And that does answer the question. Then, I was asked a supplementary question about the MLA. And I said that I did not know all the details, but I did know that, for the latest ones, there had been no response. So, that question was answered fully. Next, Ms Poa said that when asked about the witness who changed his tune, my answer was allegedly uncertain. She claimed I said, "I think the answer is yes" and "I do not have details of what exactly was said." That is a summary of something I said right at the end. Ms Poa did not inform this House of what I said at the beginning. It would be helpful if I do that, because again, it would be good if you are going to quote somebody, to quote them fully. With respect to that witness, I had said, "So, the question is, has he said something different here?" And I said, "I think the answer is yes. But I will not go into details. Firstly, I do not have details of what exactly was said." And then, I went on to say, "What I do know and I am able to say" is that "based on what has been informed to me, is that in this particular case, what was said in the US and what had been told to CPIB, there are differences." So, that was the question that was put to me and that was the question that I answered. Hence, I wish to put on record that the questions that were put to me were answered and answered fully to the extent that I was able to and within the ambit of the law. Let me come back to the point that Ms Poa has raised and her suggestion about a committee. Her suggestion is whether we could appoint a committee to consult the public on what questions they want answered and to get the answers to those questions from the relevant agencies. I would like the Chamber and all Singaporeans to understand what this request actually means. What it means is that we set up a committee, open to the public and we ask everybody "what questions do you want to ask". And then, because she is not saying, "Come back to the Chamber to ask the question", she is saying "Let us ask these of the agencies". So, this is something which every investigating office in the Police and other investigation agencies should take note of because it would mean that your entire investigation file will be open for questions. It is also something that every AGC officer should take notice of, because your entire file will also be open to question. It is also something that every witness who has given or will be giving evidence in response to a request to assist the Police or any investigation agency: everything that you say, everything that you would have told them, even before it is brought, to Court, even before it is proven, could well go out to a committee who will be asking you, "What about this? What about that?" And all of these before it is proven in Court. That is the ambit of the question that has been asked. And the answer is that it is not appropriate to do something like that. The proper process is that MPs, knowing what the ground or the public wish to know, come to Parliament, raise this in due process and the Minister will answer to the best of his or her ability. I turn now to the questions and comments raised by Mr Dennis Tan. Essentially, his broader thrust was about corporate governance in general. But he did make a point where he said that the public found it difficult to understand how, in the Keppel case, CPIB could not find a single person that they could charge. That is not correct. They found six individuals who were implicated. What they were not able to do was that they could not cross the evidentiary burden that they feel or they had been advised is necessary in law, in order to make out the case beyond a reasonable doubt. So, it is not that CPIB could not find people.[+3 sentences] They did. They had investigations. They narrowed it down. And as I explained in my earlier reply, the bulk of the evidence and the oral testimony which is crucial is not available in Singapore and we cannot compel the people to come here.[+3 sentences] That is the obstacle. That is not something which is lacking on the part of CPIB, but it is the nature of cross-border international corruption cases. That said, I take the point about the need for good corporate governance. In the case of Keppel, I understand that they had followed up as a result of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA).[+15 sentences] I mentioned this before. They were required to put in place a whole slew of improved corporate governance measures. They have also, I believe, the entire Keppel Group, taken on board the global best practice to mitigate bribery risks in an organisation. I think that is referred to as the ISO37001: Anti-Bribery Management Systems. In respect to the broader corporate landscape, listed companies are required under Singapore Exchange (SGX) listing rules and principles under the code of corporate governance, to put in place sound internal controls and risk management frameworks. They are expected to institute and disclose whistleblowing and anti-corruption policies. Boards are also expected to establish the appropriate culture, values and ethical standards of conduct at all levels that support the prevention, detection and reporting of wrongdoing. I should also mention that there is a spectrum of complementary legal and regulatory provisions in place to ensure that companies, directors and their officers have good corporate governance practices and do not engage in corruption. First, listed companies are subject to the listing rule requirements and principles under the code of corporate governance. Those require them to have internal controls and risk management frameworks, as I mentioned. Second, companies act through their directors and key executive personnel, who owe fiduciary duties to the company. Directors are required under the Companies Act to discharge their duties honestly and with reasonable due diligence. A director who takes a completely lackadaisical attitude towards the company's affairs or actively encourages its officers to engage in criminal activities could face criminal liability for acting in breach of his or her duties owed. Of course, there are other statutes that apply. CPIB has also been proactively engaging companies to strengthen their controls against corruption. For example, the Anti-Corruption Partnership Network (ACPN) was established in 2018 to encourage the private sector to take ownership of the need to prevent corruption.[+7 sentences] Besides sharing best practices, companies in the ACPN are encouraged to undergo the ISO 37001: Anti-Bribery Management Systems certification, which I mentioned earlier. Ultimately, businesses have the responsibility to keep their own houses clean and to comply with the prevailing laws and regulations of jurisdictions where they operate. By adopting a strong anti-corruption culture and actively reporting corrupt behaviour, companies in Singapore will reinforce our anti-corruption efforts and advance the reputation of Singapore as a trusted business and investment hub. The findings from the recent CPIB's 2022 Public Perception Survey affirms our national anti-corruption strategy. Ninety-six percent of the respondents surveyed rated Singapore's corruption control efforts to be effective – an increase from 90% in 2016. Mr Chairman, incorruptibility is a key part of the Singapore DNA. This did not happen by chance but is the hardearned result of our strong political will, effective anti-corruption laws, the society's unwavering support for zero-tolerance towards corruption and an effective CPIB that is committed to investigate any allegation of corruption, without fear or favour.
The Chairman2 words
[+1 sentence]Minister Chan.
The Minister for Education (Mr Chan Chun Sing)1618 words
[+2 sentences]Chairman, on behalf of the Prime Minister, let me first address the cut by Ms Sylvia Lim on voting age. This is not a new suggestion. Both sides of the House have previously raised this suggestion and our previous considerations remain valid. A number of countries have lowered their voting age – some to increase voter turnout, and others, perhaps for perceived political advantage. We do not have the first problem and we certainly should not do it for the second reason.[+12 sentences] Some of them regretted doing so when the political outcomes were not as they had expected, although they would not say so publicly for political reasons. Others were not clear if this had led to better governance. The opinions of our youths are indeed important. The majority of our youths under the age of 21 are in our post-secondary institutions. We do regularly and proactively engage our youths on national issues and societal issues to take into account their views in our decision-making and policy formulation. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, National Youth Council, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social and Family Development and other Government agencies do this on a regular basis. An example is the Conversations on Singapore Women's Development in 2021. The views surfaced in these dialogues were considered in the White Paper, which was tabled in Parliament last year. However, if we take a step back, the evergreen challenges for any democracy is how do we deliver good governance and a good government. The key to that lies in two things. First, how do we have good people with the right values and right capabilities to stand forth to serve? Second, how do we encourage every voter to not just think of his or her individual interests, for the here and now; but also for the wider interests of our society and future generations. Next, we thank Ms He Ting Ru for her comments on how we should not be complacent in the management of potential conflicts of interests both in the Public Service and amongst elected Members of Parliament. We adopt a three-pronged approach to safeguard ourselves.[+41 sentences] First, there are policies and guidelines that help organisations and individuals to avoid and manage situations of potential conflict. We have this in the Public Service. Officers who engage in external activities and may have potential conflicts of interest have to do the necessary declarations. For Members of Parliament from the People's Action Party (PAP), our Prime Minister issues the Rules of Prudence after every general election to remind ourselves of the standards that we should hold ourselves to. I cannot say this for other Members of the House, but I think what is set out by the Prime Minister for PAP Members of Parliament should be applicable to everyone in the House, because as Ms He said, we are all elected officials and we all owe a duty to our society to maintain the high standards that we expect of ourselves. Second, while these policies and guidelines are in place, it is equally important to have people with good character and judgement to make decisions on specific cases or situations. Third, where lapses occur, there must be processes in place to make things right and subsequently update and strengthen our system to prevent recurrence. This three-pronged approach must be refreshed and updated regularly so that we can maintain our hard-won reputation as a society that is corruption-free and with high integrity amongst our public officers and elected personnel. Next, I will address the cuts by Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Saktiandi Supaat and Mr Patrick Tay. This month, we stepped down from DORSCON Yellow to Green for the fight against COVID-19. But I would say that the fight is not over yet. The Public Service will lock in the lessons learnt from COVID-19 and apply them in our ongoing Public Sector Transformation efforts. We have reinforced four key lessons for good governance in an uncertain world. First, deliver services centred around citizens. Second, harness the strengths of the people and private sectors. Third, develop agile organisations and people. And fourth, strengthen our forward planning capabilities. Let me elaborate. First, COVID-19 reinforced the importance of officers from different agencies working together to address citizens' issues in a citizen-centric way. We will continue to organise more services around citizens instead of along agency lines. To Mr Saktiandi's point, technology is indeed a key tool in achieving this. As part of the Digital Government Blueprint, we have achieved almost 100% digital service delivery. However, digitalising services alone is not sufficient. We need to integrate and redesign services and processes in a manner that is meaningful and intuitive to citizens. An example is the recently launched "Care Services Recommender" digital service which provides personalised recommendations on areas such as care services and financial support schemes to caregivers based on their needs. This helps caregivers to find the right services and schemes across agencies quickly, easily and from one place. While digitalisation has helped to improve services for most Singaporeans, we acknowledge Mr Yip Hon Weng's point that some citizens, including elderly citizens, may still need physical transactions. Hence, we are also building a network of physical ServiceSG centres that aim to be a one-stop concierge for citizens. Today, we have two ServiceSG Centres at Our Tampines Hub and One Punggol and four smaller satellite centre nodes at Community Clubs (CCs), each offering hundreds of services from over 20 agencies. Officers at these centres can advise citizens on the suite of services that can help them, based on their circumstances and needs. ServiceSG is opening one more satellite centre at Bukit Canberra CC by the middle of this year. This will make integrated Government services even more accessible to more citizens. The second lesson from COVID-19 is the value of partnership with the people and private sectors. Take, for example, how the various sectors rallied together to secure essential supplies for Singaporeans, distribute masks and hand sanitisers and reach out to affected families. Our future challenges will be more complex, requiring whole-of-nation efforts to overcome. The Public Service must build up the mindsets and the skillsets to work with the private and people sectors. This effort is not entirely new. During the past few years, we have set up structures such as SG Healthcare Corps and Alliances for Action (AfAs) to aid us in saving lives and livelihoods. This is also why we want to send more officers to outside the Public Service to gain exposure and build new networks. The third lesson from COVID-19 is that our organisations and people must be agile. During the pandemic, the Public Service has managed to stand up large inter-agency operations and deploy manpower nimbly at short notice. Under SGUnited, more than 4,000 public officers were redeployed to fight COVID-19.[+5 sentences] They took on roles such as safe distancing ambassadors, officers handling dormitory operations and call centre agents managing public's queries. All these were not their primary responsibilities. Without formal structures in place, we had to rely on agencies to redeploy manpower at short notice or individual officers to volunteer to cover the manpower gaps. I am heartened that our agencies and officers have actively leaned in, across agency boundaries to support our battle against COVID-19. Many officers have also gained new competencies and forged new connections along the way. Notwithstanding this, the pandemic underscored the importance of having a centralised system to identify and redeploy surge manpower across agencies to quickly support critical crisis functions. As we emerge from the pandemic, the Public Service Division will systematically set up a structure to do this so that we are better prepared for future crises.[+1 sentence] The fourth lesson from COVID-19 is the importance of building forward planning capabilities while managing current operations. Singapore could react quickly when COVID-19 emerged as we had the benefit of learning from our SARS experience. We strengthened our emergency preparedness following SARS and established key public health institutions, including the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) which was set up in 2009.[+14 sentences] It developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test during COVID-19. There will be other crises in our future. The Public Service must retain our muscle memory in crisis management and strengthen our forward planning capabilities. To Mr Patrick Tay’s point, we are upskilling our officers to meet new demands in a post-COVID-19 world. This requires our officers to acquire skills in areas such as scenario planning, risk identification, data analytics and sense-making. These skills are not only useful in crisis, but also in the Public Service’s work in a dynamic and uncertain world. To achieve this, we continue to actively invest in training our officers to build broader and deeper competencies in their respective domains. This is further reinforced with a range of “learning by doing” development opportunities such as structured job rotations, inter-agency gig work and bite-sized attachments. Chairman, I would like to conclude this segment by thanking all our public officers for their contributions over the past three years. Our public officers have not only worked hard, but also applied innovation and worked across agency lines to achieve a common mission – to safeguard lives and livelihoods. "One Public Service" is not a slogan. It is something that we live by, it is something that we believe in, and it is something that we want our officers to have in their DNA. COVID-19 served as a glue to bring all sectors – public, private and people – together for a larger and higher purpose. As we work together to build Singapore towards SG100, I hope that this partnership will be continuously strengthened, so that we can all better serve Singaporeans and Singapore together.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Murali Pillai.
Mr Murali Pillai113 words
[+5 sentences]Sir, just a point of clarification. In my speech, I made reference to the respective jurisdictions of the Police and the CPIB in investigating corruption offences. I was really referring to investigative powers such as invoking the power of arrest. I do appreciate the hon Minister's point about the charging decision, which is, of course, reserved to the public prosecutor. Nonetheless, I appreciate the hon Minister's response, that the CPIB does not need a porting over of the provisions in the Penal Code and I may have to address this matter with the hon Minister for Home Affairs as to whether these provisions in these circumstances would be obsolete and should be repealed.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Louis Ng.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang116 words
[+7 sentences]Thank you, Sir. I have a clarification for Minister Indranee. Just two points. One on paternity leave. I think we know that fathers in more labour intensive jobs are taking less paternity leave. Could I ask that at least the Prime Minister's Office could deep dive into this and look into specific jobs with the lowest paternity leave usage and see how we can focus our efforts on helping employees in those jobs? Second on fertility leave, could the Prime Minister's Office at least look into launching a pilot whereby we can give fertility leave to public servants first and see whether that has been effective in helping some of our public servants for a start?
Ms Indranee Rajah80 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Chairman, with respect to paternity leave, indeed it is a whole-of-society effort and we want to encourage employers and employees in all occupations. So, the areas that Mr Louis Ng has identified would certainly include areas where we want to encourage more take-up of paternity leave. With respect to his second cut which was for public servants, we always look into the suggestions of Mr Louis Ng with all due seriousness and we will do so in this case.
The Chairman4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Ng Ling Ling.
Ms Ng Ling Ling132 words
[+7 sentences]Thank you, Chairman. I just have one clarification for Minister Indranee. The 6.9 million population target was first set out in the 2013 Population White Paper. I wanted to ask, will the Government consider doing a milestone progress review involving young people? I appreciate that population projection is a very complex matter, but will we at least involve tertiary students or young professionals who are trained in statistics, in economic modelling, in sociology? Because they were too young when the White Paper was set out in 2013, but they will be the group that will be in the prime of their working years when we reach 2030, when one in four are above 65 and they will have to shoulder quite a high burden. So, I just wanted a clarification on that.
Ms Indranee Rajah30 words
[+1 sentence]Sorry, could I just clarify with the Member, because she was describing about the young people but I was not sure I heard the question at the end of it.
Ms Ng Ling Ling55 words
[+1 sentence]The question is whether the Government or the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) will consider doing a review of what was projected in the 2013 White Paper on population, which had the mention of the 6.9 million population target by 2030, especially young people who are in the tertiary level now and young professionals.
Ms Indranee Rajah206 words
[+1 sentence]I thank the Member for the clarification. The first thing I want to clarify, and I hope that everybody in the Chamber will pay attention to is, that the figure is not a target. It is a planning parameter and it keeps coming up every time people ask the question, "Is 6.9 million a target?" or "Is the other figure a target?" It is not a target.[+4 sentences] I just feel like asking the Chamber, "Everybody, all together now. It is not a target. It is a planning parameter." It has been mentioned so many times. I think that subliminally and subconsciously people think of it that way. But I really do hope that people understand that it is a guideline, along which we plan; not something that we set out to achieve.[+3 sentences] With respect to the Member's suggestion, what we do is, at regular intervals, the Ministries look to see what needs to be done in planning terms. And I think that what we will do is whenever appropriate, the relevant agencies and Ministries will put out the figures or the data that they think is necessary. In terms of engaging people, as to what should go into those plans, we will do that as well.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Hazel Poa.
Ms Hazel Poa187 words
[+4 sentences]I thank the Minister for her reply to the points that I raised on the Keppel corruption case. First of all, I just wish to say that whatever I have said that was said by Minister Indranee all came from Hansard. I did not put words in your mouth. But I do accept your point that these were supplementary questions and therefore, that could have contributed to the words that conveyed uncertainty and I should not have read too much into it. Having said that, there were still two questions that I believe remains unanswered to this day, which is that whether the board of directors at the time when the corruption payments were made, were they aware of the act and also whether the six KOM executives were aware of and authorised the corrupt payments.[+3 sentences] I do not believe I have heard the answer to that. I apologise if I missed it. Can the Minister give us the reply to those two questions now or if it is not at your disposal, if we were to file Parliamentary Questions again, would we get answers to that?
Ms Indranee Rajah365 words
[+4 sentences]I thank the Member for her clarification. The Member may ask the question again, but I do not think the answer is going to be any different and let me explain why. Our investigating agencies investigate offences. They do not, in the course of investigating an offence, go and look for things which are not offences. And what I explained earlier in response, was that, when CPIB is investigating the Keppel case, they are looking to see whether corruption has been committed, and if so, who's committing it.[+1 sentence] So I explained that part. I also said – she may not have heard the answer – I said, what I can share is that CPIB looked into the six individuals and the boards of KOM as well as their parent entity Keppel Corporation Limited. And after looking into all of that, the investigations established the involvement of the six individuals.[+3 sentences] So, six individuals, insofar as offences under the PCA are concerned. Because when an agency goes in, an agency has to investigate something which is under its remit. You do not go and investigate, let us say, theft, and then start asking whether somebody has committed adultery or whether somebody has committed some other form of offence, unless it has come to your attention. And they are only supposed to investigate offences. So, the short answer is: they have looked at the corporations, they have looked at individuals and they have narrowed it down to these six individuals.[+3 sentences] And these six individuals, who they feel are implicated; they cannot clear the evidentiary burden. When you ask me, did they authorise? My answer is the same. The investigations are carried out by the investigation agencies.[+1 sentence] I am not privy to the investigations. But the investigation agencies obviously felt that there was reason enough to issue a stern warning.[+3 sentences] So, they clearly feel that something is not quite right, but they just cannot clear the evidentiary hurdle. What that tells us is that CPIB has done as much as it can within the remit of the law and that remains the position. So, even if the Member were to ask the question again, the answer will not differ.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Hazel Poa.
Ms Hazel Poa157 words
[+8 sentences]I thank the Minister for her reply. Can I just then get confirmation that CPIB did not look into whether the board of directors were aware when they were investigating? Because you said that they did their investigation and narrowed down to the six individuals. But when they started the investigation, they would probably be looking at a wider range of individuals who may be involved. So, does that not include whether or not the board of directors were involved? And did they find out whether the board, or did they ask or try to find out whether or not the board is aware? And with regard to the six KOM executives, you said that you are unable to answer whether they authorised the payment because you are not privy to the investigation. Can I ask whether it is not permitted by law for you to answer the question about whether or not they authorised the payment?
Ms Indranee Rajah248 words
[+20 sentences]As to the second question, I have answered it. This will be the third time I am answering it, and the answer is the same. I was asked that question, I believe, by Mr Louis Chua, if I am not mistaken. And my answer was, I do not know. I did not conduct the investigations. CPIB has conducted the investigations. They have matters within their knowledge. They do not disclose this to the Executive. They investigate independently. And this is a very odd thing because for all that some political parties talk about independence and separation of the Executive, they keep trying to get into what ought to be an independent activity. The CPIB has made its investigations, they have arrived at the conclusion that six individuals are implicated and that is as far as I can go. I do not know the answer to that. For this particular answer, it is not that I am not permitted in law to tell you. The answer is, I do not know. And if you ask, should I go and ask CPIB this, the answer is, it is not appropriate. I should not be interfering in a CPIB investigation. The Executive should not interfere with an investigation. And that is something which is very important for Members in this House to understand. Let the agencies do their work independently, and we should not be going and interfering with their investigations. What was the first one she reiterated, I am sorry?
Ms Hazel Poa18 words
[+2 sentences]About the board. Whether when CPIB did the investigation, did they also investigate whether the others were involved?
Ms Indranee Rajah50 words
[+4 sentences]Yes, so, again, my answer has not changed. When CPIB goes in, they look for commission of an offence and people who may have committed an offence. And if something is not an offence, then obviously they would not be pursuing that. That is as much as I can say.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Sylvia Lim.
Ms Sylvia Lim122 words
[+5 sentences]Chairman, clarification for Minister Chan Chun Sing on the issue of voting age. In other countries, we have seen that where there is military conscription, there can be a link with the age of conscription to the voting age. So, for example, in the US, we saw that in the 1960s, there was a big move to bring the voting age from 21 to 18 because teenagers were being conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War. The slogan at that time was "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote". So, I would like the Minister to explain to our youths, why they are old enough to fight and defend Singapore with their lives, but they are not old enough to vote.
Mr Chan Chun Sing68 words
[+3 sentences]Chairman, I think the answer to Ms Sylvia Lim's question had been given previously, but if I may just remind the House. If we look at the rights and responsibilities of all our people, from the age of 16 until 21, there is a gradation of scale. At different ages, they have different rights and different responsibilities; and Ms Lim might want to refer to our previous answer.
Mr Speaker4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Leong Mun Wai275 words
[+14 sentences]Thank you, Chairman. I have a question for Minister Indranee. On the KOM case, so far, we have always been talking about the criminal proceedings. But such a big case for our country, there is also a lot of implication on corporate governance. So, I would like to ask a question on corporate governance: for these six individuals – and maybe there are even other individuals – these things have happened and it is a very big case. So, there should be an internal report. And KOM is a Government-linked company or a Temasek-linked company, so I think that it is within the interest of Parliament to be able to understand the case better. I have, specifically, this interest: are the six individuals, after the case had happened, were they still under the employment of the company? Did the company relieve them of their responsibilities? The second question, now that they have gotten the warning letter from CPIB, did the company, retrospectively, go and impose some penalties on the six individuals. For example, as far as I know, some companies can take back their bonuses, the bonuses that they have learned in the past, based on these cases that they have now found out that these businesses that they have done in Brazil is not proper, but they could have gotten bonuses and other monetary benefits. So, is KOM as a company, going to do that? Because this has a lot of implications on corporate governance. Whatever we say about zero tolerance and all that, if all these things are not done, then whatever we say in this Parliament is not going to be credible.
Ms Indranee Rajah220 words
Mr Leong may not be aware, because he was not a Member of this House in 2018 when I answered it, but actually, the bulk of what he has asked about what the company did and actions taken against the employees were, in fact, done prior to 2018 before they entered into the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). So, I would ask the Member to read the Hansard and secondly, to also read the DPA.[+1 sentence] I do not have it with me today, but there is a paragraph in there, which says that Keppel investigated at the material time when this thing came up. Some employees were terminated, some were put on counselling.[+1 sentence] I had better check, but for some, there were penalties or sanctions, in terms of whether their bonuses — okay, I do not want to be inaccurate. So, please check the DPA, but there were definitely actions and steps taken against the employees. And as part of the DPA, in order to arrive at that agreement, the US Attorney's Office and the US Department of Justice required a very extensive corporate ethics and governance programme, which KOM was required to comply with before the charges would be withdrawn.[+1 sentence] And those were complied with, because when the DPA expired, the charges were withdrawn, which means that KOM did comply.
Mr Speaker11 words
[+1 sentence]Prof Koh Lian Pin, would you like to withdraw the amendment?
Prof Koh Lian Pin54 words
[+1 sentence]Chairman, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Committee of Supply – Head M (Ministry of Finance)›Budget43 turns · 9,825w
· 66 highlighted
budget-2053
Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang)767 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Chairman, Sir, I beg to move, "That the total sum to be allocated for Head M of the Estimates be reduced by $100". Sir, let me start by commending the Ministry of Finance (MOF) for publishing the Occasional Paper on the Medium-Term Fiscal projections; and releasing it just before the Budget debate. This paper provides a useful forward view on the likely fiscal trends in the next decade, as we debate Budget 2023 and our longer-term positioning in the new era. It is clear from the Paper that both our operating and development expenditures are rising, and may rise sharply in the years ahead. We look set to be heading towards a recurring spending bill of about 20% of our GDP by 2030. The key drivers are expected: healthcare, wage subsidies, security and other social spending.[+25 sentences] We know that these spending, once introduced, can only grow bigger and are unlikely to be reversed. Cutting costs to balance a Budget is increasingly not a possible option. We need to expand and diversify our revenue sources, and hence, growing our economy and growing our reserves for the annuities to help fund the Budget is an imperative. While we cannot cut costs to greatness, we should do our level best to ensure public funds are well spent, spend effectively and are achieving the desired outcomes. Given this backdrop, I would like to hear from the Minister, how MOF intends to maintain fiscal sustainability, even as our spending needs continue grow? Sir, as our fiscal situation tightened up, it is even more important that MOF scrutinise and ensure that our spending is value-for-money, that cost avoidance procurement practices are adopted, and that we closely monitor and track the outcomes and key performance indexes (KPIs). In the Budget Statement debate, I expressed concerns about cost pressures faced by businesses and the need to step-up the overall productivity. Many companies transact and do businesses with the Government and the way the Government agencies conduct its operations, and the processes involved, can have a significant impact on cost to the businesses. While we must be digitally inclusive when dealing with individuals; especially the seniors, we can aim for greater digital pervasiveness when doing businesses with the enterprises. There must be continued obsession to improve processes and users' experience; whether through greater digital adoptions or process streamlining. In this regard, I would like to ask if MOF has any plans to make doing businesses with Government even more seamless, less time consuming and lower the costs? The Government is a major buyer of goods and services, and many SMEs and start-ups have innovative solutions and product offerings that can be of value to the Government. So, I would like to also ask, how can MOF and the public agencies better support and facilitate the growth of SMEs when they participate in Government procurements? Sir, Singapore is transiting to a low-carbon economy and the public sector has set itself a net-zero emissions target by around 2045. This is a laudable effort and a major undertaking for the Government. Can I ask the Ministry: how is MOF supporting the whole-of-Government in this effort? The Government and MOF can also play a significant role helping businesses build green capabilities and capture growth opportunities, given the buying power of the public sector. So, can I seek an update from Minister in this area? Sir, one other area that I hope that the Government can facilitate to do more is the development of the social sector. The Government can be a catalyst to spur more innovative social solutions and contribute to a stronger social compact. So may I ask the Minister: how is MOF is supporting the development of the social sector? And finally, in this Committee of Supply (COS), can I also seek an update on the various policy measures in place, to encourage philanthropy and volunteerism? Sir, as I have two more minutes, I just want to add my views to the discussion on the budgetary stance for Budget 2023. Earlier in the debate, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim commented that the fiscal stance for Budget 2023 is a contractionary one. I have a different view. The fact that we have a significant Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) contribution to our Budget every year, currently at 20% of our revenue, would mean that our Budget would necessarily be expansionary. Our expenditures are way higher than the taxes that we collect from the system. Hence, from that angle, our Budget will always be expansionary if we rely on NIRC to balance our books.
Mr Chairman12 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leong Mun Wai, you can take your two cuts together please.
Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member)593 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Chairman, I have questions for the Minister of Finance. Firstly, the termination payment for the Sports Hub was advanced from the Contingencies Fund and this House is now being asked to vote on replacing the amount in a Supplementary Supply Bill, how much is this termination payment? The Contingencies Fund was created for urgent and unforeseen expenditure. Was the termination payment for the Sports Hub so urgent, that it had to be advanced from the Contingencies Fund and not paid out of the Budget 2023?[+2 sentences] Secondly, where and when were the $900 million for SPH Media Trust be accounted for? Three, are there financial projections available, to determine the amount or transfer to the endowment and trust funds, and is the actual spending from the funds included in the Budget, in the year when the spending was made or is it off-balance sheet of the Budget? Fourth, when will the financial report on the $72 billion COVID-19 expenditure be completed?[+18 sentences] Fifth, based on what is given in the Budget, can the Minister confirm, what are the total financial assets as of 31 March 2022 and what is the net investment return (NIR) estimated for fiscal year 2023? Mr Chairman, the People's Action Party (PAP) Government and some of its MPs like to invoke the claim of raiding of the reserves to attack alternative policy ideas and proposals put up by the Opposition. In order to have a more productive debate in this House, it will be helpful to have an understanding of what constitutes "raiding of reserves". I would like to suggest two criteria to assess any new proposal that might affect the reserves. Firstly, the amount of expenditure required for the new proposal, relative to the size of the reserves and NIR. And secondly, the purpose of the expenditure, any proposal that passes these two criteria, where the amount involved is small relative to the reserves, or even the NIR, and serves an important purpose, should not be accused of raiding the reserves. Let me illustrate the two criteria using the Affordable Homes Scheme, which the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) recommended during the recent public housing Motion on 7 February 2023. During the debate, I explained that the Affordable Homes Scheme will only defer the accumulation of reserves, because the deferred land cost will be collected when the flat is sold in the future. And even if, the whole deferred land cost of about $3 billion per year is not collectable, it is only 6.4% of NIR and 12.8% of NIRC. We do not even need to use our reserves, so we have passed criteria one comfortably. For criteria two, the money is to be spent on an important and noble purpose, which is to make the Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat affordable and accessible for every Singaporean, of each generation. It will allow Singaporeans to retire comfortably, without having to sell his flat or downgrade. The financial security accorded is expected to unleash the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit in Singaporeans, and you would be able to better compete with the rest of the world. So, we also passed criteria two. Hence, based on the two criteria above, the affordable home scheme is an example of an alternative policy that does not constitute a raiding of reserves according to my definition. I hope to hear from the Minister what does she think. In the future, from my point of view, if the Government makes such accusations again, I will call them baseless allegations. Singaporeans deserve better for country, for people.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)521 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Chairman, my cut today refers to my exchange with Minister Indranee Rajah during the debate on the Carbon Pricing (Amendment) Bill. In the exchange, I was told the Presidential approval had not been obtained on my proposed amendments. I asked the Government when these amendments had been referred to the President to obtain the decision to which Minister Indranee Rajah made this reply and I am quoting a little from the longest speech she made in the interest of time, "We determine that my amendments could not be supported, the reasons explained earlier by my colleagues and, as the amendments could not be supported, they will not put forward to the President for the President's recommendation." From this, it would seem that the exercise of the President's power to approve legislation that has fiscal implications has to be according to the Cabinet's advice.[+2 sentences] It would also seem that the Government can and does deem the President's approval to have been given or not given without necessarily referring the matter to the President. As I understand the statement, she did say that the President's approval or non-approval could be, to all practical intents and purposes, deemed to have been given by the Cabinet. And it did say that that particular matter had not been referred to the President.[+2 sentences] So, my questions here are two-fold. Firstly, in cases where the President has a constitutional duty to say "yes" or "no" to certain matters such as legislation with fiscal implications and when her decision can be deemed to have been given one way or the other by the Cabinet, is the matter referred to the President, the CPA and the other staff in the office of the President for at least discussion or information prior to the Cabinet's decision? And secondly, and much more importantly, what is the rationale for having such provisions in the Constitution whereby the Cabinet can deem the President to have said "yes" or "no" on certain matters and, hence, decide by itself?[+9 sentences] The role of the President in this regard does not seem to serve any check or balance function. What function then does it serve?One asks oneself what possible purpose could be served by such a procedural requirement baked into the Constitution. I can see no benefit to the body politic. In fact, I see a downside. Making it known that the President's approval is deemed by the Cabinet in certain domains as happened in November last year does not serve to enhance the prestige and standing of the Office of the President in the eyes of the public. In fact, to the contrary, this practice of "deemed approval" risks being seen by the public as involving the Office of President in a rubber-stamping or box-ticking exercise. It serves no constructive purpose and undermines the standing of the President. If there is no real reason for such provisions, will the Government do away with these provisions at some point in the future, given that there are no upsides but only downsides? Unless there are some upsides I cannot fathom right now and which the Government can explain.
The Chairman10 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Saktiandi Supaat, you can take both your cuts together.
Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh)335 words
Mr Chairman, our success in weathering the recent COVID-19 pandemic came down largely to our ability to utilise our deep financial reserves, which have been accumulated by the Government who has spent public monies responsibly and prudently.[+12 sentences] In refining our checks on public spending, we must be cautious not to add further unnecessary or disproportionate bureaucracy as this will erode whatever savings we achieve from public procurement. For example, while I agree there is still room to invest in automated systems and training to eliminate human error, adding another one to two levels of approving authorities may be an inefficient and even ineffective solution. Whether under Emergency Procurement or normal procurement procedures, how does Ministry of Finance (MOF) ensure that public spending is scrutinised adequately to enable cost savings and what efforts are being undertaken to ensure prudent spending at all levels across the Government? How are larger projects, for example, like infrastructure spending being monitored? Mr Chairman, the public sector is a major buyer of goods and services. Set up in June 2000, GeBIZ was ahead of its time and was followed by many other e-procurement systems in other countries aimed at enhancing transparent competition and lowering the barriers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to pitch for valuable Government contracts. We should not rest on our laurels. How can GeBIZ be further augmented to help businesses save time and money in their transactions with Government agencies? For example, we can explore adding new features to integrate any industry briefings, tender briefings or site show-rounds with the relevant tender opportunities; and to engage with the procurement agency regarding any tender clarifications. Besides ensuring that the public sector obtains the best value-for-money, public procurement can serve the role of supporting the growth of promising SMEs and startups who have innovative solutions. In line with our strategy of supply diversification for resilience, can MOF’s "value-for-money" metric accommodate this aim? And what else can MOF do to help support the growth of promising SMEs through Government procurement?
Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah)298 words
Mr Chairman, Sir, SMEs make up 99% of all businesses in Singapore's economy, employing nearly seven out of 10 workers and contributing close to half of our GDP.[+3 sentences] We should look for ways to further grow SMEs to large local enterprises (LLEs) to increase their scale and per capita contribution to our economy. Accordingly, I call upon MOF to facilitate more procurement opportunities for SMEs. What can MOF do to help support the growth of promising SMEs through Government procurements? In 2021, more than 80% of the procurement opportunities were open to SMEs.[+5 sentences] How can we further ensure that more such opportunities are made available for SMEs? Currently, a gap exists in contract value threshold for a request for quotations and tender. Also, can the Government review financial grading requirements for certain types of products and services to crowd source more innovative solutions? Some of these solutions can be provided by startups who may not meet the required financial grading due to the stage of their companies' growth. By doing so, the Government can tap on new innovations. An “in-between” or middle ground can exist, where there is a “tender-lite system” which can provide SMEs and startups procure opportunities more readily.[+4 sentences] Tenders do take significant time and resources for SMEs and startups which translates to opportunity costs. In relation to the point on opportunity costs, can the Government streamline its processes to help businesses save time and money in their transactions with Government agencies? Can these digital solutions and innovations in turn encourage more efficient ways of doing business between companies and their suppliers and customers? Mr Chairman, Sir, increasing access to public sector contracts and reducing cost and time to transact with Government at the tender and operational stages can significantly help grow our SMEs and startups.
Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang)312 words
[+10 sentences]Sir, like many in this House, I was cheered when Singapore brought forward its Singapore's NDCs to reach net zero by 2050, and for the public sector to achieve net-zero emissions by around 2045. This is a significant commitment and a non-trivial one to achieve, especially in the midst of an energy crisis. Many decarbonisation technologies are already ready today, but the speed of rollout depends on various other factors like infrastructure upgrades, business model and regulatory changes. EVs come to mind here. While other decarbonisation technologies, especially in hard to abate sectors of the economy, are not yet available at scale today. Until technologies like green hydrogen or CCUS become cost competitive versus carbon intensive alternatives, it will be difficult to mobilise the capital needed to scale and bring them down the cost curve over time. Governments must play their part to incentivise the flow of investment into these climate solutions, and the transition to these solutions given their cost disadvantage. By giving incentives to reduce the “green premium”, and through innovative risk sharing and financing structures, including public-private partnerships, Government can be the catalyst for a faster transition. Some governments have made bolder policy moves. The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of August 2022 has been billed as the largest piece of federal legislation to address climate change. Investing $391 billion in provisions related to energy security and climate change, including tax incentives and a green bank. The tax credits of $3 per kg of hydrogen is particularly notable, turning the US into one of the cheapest countries in the world to produce green hydrogen.[+2 sentences] In Singapore the Government has many fiscal and non-tax levers to drive the transition which it has used, such as carbon tax, and funding for research. Given recent developments, can the Minister provide an update on how MOF is supporting the transition to net zero?
Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast)475 words
[+5 sentences]Chairman, we anticipate a tighter fiscal space in the coming years. There is scope for wealthy families, businesses and individuals to contribute meaningfully through philanthropy to our rising needs. Unlike a conventional system that relies heavily on taxation and redistribution, philanthropy offers the added benefit of strengthening our social compact. The number of wealth owners and family offices in Singapore continues to grow at a healthy rate. Many of them have expressed interest to give back to society, both in Singapore and regionally. The Philanthropy Tax Incentive Scheme announced in Budget 2023 for Family Offices is another important step to facilitate philanthropy and to meet Singapore’s ambition to be Asia's philanthropic hub.[+6 sentences] As we encourage philanthropy to continue to grow, it is important to ask what types of philanthropy will have the greatest impact on Singapore. Prof Rob Reich of Stanford University has argued that philanthropy has a special role in discovery and experimentation, serving as society’s "risk capital" to foster innovation in important areas that deemed to carry too much risk for Government or private sector appetites. As such, philanthropy can be catalytic and complementary to public funding – it can identify and support high-impact opportunities that are in its early stage. When the solutions are proven, philanthropists can partner with the public sector to scale them up. It is also important to identify the most pressing areas of need where philanthropy can have the greatest impact. Take climate change as an example – it is an existential imperative, and the negative effects of climate change will also exacerbate other areas of need, such as global health and pandemics, inequality and displacement of communities. As a recent McKinsey climate philanthropy report has noted, philanthropists possess both resources and expertise to support climate mitigation and adaptation solutions, especially in areas that may lack market support.[+6 sentences] They can quickly deploy unrestricted funds in response to urgent problems such as natural disasters, back high-risk ventures, convene stakeholders and promote collaboration, develop and share research, and support large-scale implementation of climate solutions. So, I want to ask how can the Government foster support and public-private partnerships, both in Singapore and overseas, for such philanthropic causes, to address some of society’s most pressing challenges and issues? In promoting philanthropy, we must also consider policies across the continuum of doing good, which is wide-ranging and can include venture philanthropy, concessionary capital and impact investing – a broad range continuum. Many wealth owners, especially those in the next generation, are looking towards these newer and more innovative approaches, sometimes referred to as “moon-shot” philanthropy. So, we must also recognise that beyond grant making, there are other ways to give back such as volunteerism and the contribution of skills and networks. As the Government develops more initiatives and policies to promote philanthropy, how can it promote more diverse ways of doing good?
The Chairman7 words
[+1 sentence]Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat.
The Senior Minister of State for Finance (Mr Chee Hong Tat)1879 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Chairman, I thank Members for their questions and suggestions. Mr Liang Eng Hwa and Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked how the Government ensures fiscal sustainability and spend prudently within our means. Besides the audits by the Auditor-General’s Office and our internal auditors, MOF conducts regular reviews of Ministries’ budgets to identify areas for improvement and ensures every Ministry uses its allocated resources efficiently and effectively. Singapore’s overall performance has been good, with current Government expenditure being around 18% of GDP.[+3 sentences] Even as our expenditures grow further and exceed 20% of GDP by 2030, our Government expenditure as a percentage of GDP is significantly lower than most developed countries. At the same time, we are able to achieve positive economic and social outcomes for Singapore and Singaporeans. One example is how we reduce the costs of major Government infrastructure projects by applying a stringent cost-effectiveness evaluation together with experts from the private sector and academia. In 2022, we achieved total cost avoidance of around $1 billion through this process.[+4 sentences] This $1 billion saved means we can put it to good use and meet our spending needs in other areas. The Government also looks out for other forms of savings by integrating different projects to maximise the synergies. For example, the upcoming East Coast Integrated Depot, which incorporates three MRT depots and one bus depot, saved about 44 hectares of land. This is twice the land size of Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 or equivalent to approximately 60 football fields. Another example is VITAL’s Demand Aggregation contracts for common buys such as office supplies, catering and courier services. These saved the Government more than $50 million per annum.[+29 sentences] This approach also reduces the need for agencies to call separate tenders and quotations, saving at least 100,000 man-hours a year. Sir, Mr Liang, Mr Edward Chia, Ms Mariam Jafaar and Mr Saktiandi asked how MOF helps businesses to reduce costs and build capabilities for growth. The Government will continue to implement pro-business policies and measures and provide an environment that enables them to grow and succeed. Besides supporting businesses through our economic agencies and via a comprehensive suite of grants and incentives for innovation, productivity improvements and skills-upgrading, there are two additional areas where MOF’s work benefit our companies. First, by simplifying Government rules and processes, we enable businesses to save time and money when they transact with Government. Second, by helping businesses build capabilities to enhance their competitiveness and access new opportunities, both locally and abroad. Let me share some examples. We recently launched eGuarantee@Gov, a simple and secure digital process for businesses and individuals to provide a banker’s guarantee or insurance bond to Government agencies. Businesses can apply for an eGuarantee from over 20 participating financial institutions online for direct submission to Government agencies within a day. With eGuarantee@Gov, there is no longer a need to visit a bank to purchase a physical copy of the guarantee or to pay for courier services to deliver it. The new arrangement is quicker, better and cheaper. We expect up to 4,000 eGuarantees to be lodged in 2023, resulting in overall savings for all stakeholders of about $500,000 per year. There is also scope in the future for eGuarantees to extend to commercial transactions between businesses and their suppliers and customers. MOF and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) will work with the financial institutions and trade association and chambers to encourage adoption of eGuarantees for such transactions. Just as the use of PayNow for digital payments has allowed businesses and individuals to enjoy lower transaction costs and time savings compared to the traditional method of using cheques, the adoption of eGuarantees can bring about benefits compared to the current method of providing physical bank guarantees. Next, MOF removed the requirement for businesses with annual turnover of less than $5 million to submit audited accounts when applying for Government Supplier Registration. This benefits about 2,400 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) annually, with estimated cost savings of around $4.5 million per year. MOF continually makes improvements to GeBIZ, the Government-wide procurement system. For instance, about 3,000 businesses can benefit from the Supplier File Repository by the end of this year. Businesses no longer need to submit the same financial statements and company profile when responding to different Government quotations and tenders. We will also consider the features that Mr Saktiandi mentioned for future improvements. Sir, another example is Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s (IRAS) initiative to encourage businesses to use seamless filing software. Such software provides many productivity benefits for businesses, as they can automatically generate and file their corporate income tax computations and returns. This process takes only 15 minutes compared to the estimated eight hours required for manual preparation and submission. Moving on to the next area of how MOF supports businesses to develop capabilities for growth. We will continue to simplify our processes for suppliers, including SMEs, to participate in Government tenders while maintaining a level-playing field for all businesses and achieving value-for-money procurement outcomes. For procurement below $90,000, financial track record is not required. The terms and conditions are also simplified. For example, there is no requirement to provide security deposits. SMEs participate actively in our Government contracts and about 80% of these are awarded to SMEs annually.[+1 sentence] Winning Government contracts gives SMEs the opportunity to build up their track records, develop capabilities and capacity to tap into new growth areas. To further improve the access of SMEs to business opportunities through Government tenders, MOF will introduce a new category of tender by the end of 2023 called “Tender Lite”, which comes with fewer and simpler conditions. Tender Lite will allow more suppliers to participate in tenders with value higher than $90,000 but below $1 million and is estimated to cover over 70% of all Government tenders that are currently awarded to SMEs.[+7 sentences] MOF will work with representatives from Singapore Business Federation and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, as well as Government agencies on the design of Tender Lite. We believe this approach of Government and industry working together as partners will bring about win-win outcomes and allow us to move faster and innovate new solutions more effectively. My colleagues and I are keen to continue the partnership with our industry partners beyond Tender Lite and extend the collaboration to other subsequent areas of work that will benefit our businesses. Members such as Mr Derrick Goh have highlighted during the Budget debate that Government can help prepare SMEs for new requirements and opportunities in environmental sustainability. We agree. The public sector is supporting our suppliers’ efforts to adopt greener practices which are increasingly in demand by other major buyers. Over the years, the Government has incorporated environmental sustainability requirements into our procurement such as requiring information and communication technology (ICT) equipment and air conditioners to meet energy efficiency standards. Our target is to include environmental sustainability requirements and evaluation criteria into all Government procurement within the next five years, in a manner that keeps pace with industry readiness and international developments. Starting from FY2024, for tenders of construction projects and ICT projects with minimum estimated procurement value of $50 million and $10 million respectively, we will set aside up to 5% of the evaluation points for sustainability-related considerations.[+26 sentences] The Government will further engage the industry stakeholders on the details of these measures. Another capability that is increasingly sought after is sustainability reporting. Businesses that can provide good sustainability-related information can gain competitive advantage, expand into markets and potentially access cheaper funds through green financing. To drive sustainability reporting efforts for the industry, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and the Singapore Exchange Regulation established the Sustainability Reporting Advisory Committee in June 2022. The Committee will embark on its public consultations later this year. Businesses also need to accelerate their pace of digitalisation, a point which Mr Liang made. The Government will implement InvoiceNow as the default e-invoice submission channel for all Government vendors within the next few years. Using InvoiceNow will help businesses improve efficiency and reduce cost, by eliminating the need for manual processing and it also reduces errors. Businesses transacting on InvoiceNow can save $8 per invoice compared to the manual process. InvoiceNow also facilitates the direct transmission of invoices in a structured and standardised digital format that is accepted internationally across finance systems, and this helps businesses access overseas markets more easily. Today, about 55,000 businesses have adopted InvoiceNow, supported by 200 service providers. I encourage more businesses to come on board. Sir, Mr Liang and Ms Foo Mee Har asked how MOF will support and encourage more philanthropy and volunteerism from corporations and the community. Philanthropy and volunteerism are key elements for building a strong social compact. There is something intangible and different in how we build up the character of our society, when people go beyond what they are required to contribute under our fair and progressive tax and benefits system, where everyone contributes something and those who are better off contribute more. Many Singaporeans and also foreigners and companies who are based here, have an interest in philanthropy and are keen to help others in society. We have been strengthening our ecosystem to encourage their contributions and participation to maximise the positive impact to our local communities. This is a good way to keep our society cohesive and strengthen our solidarity as one united people. Not only through taxation and redistribution which are done through policies and laws but also through philanthropy and volunteerism which come from willing hands and loving hearts. MOF provides funding support for many community and ground-up programmes which contribute to the development of the social sector. There are many existing efforts by agencies working with intermediaries like the Community Foundation of Singapore and ComChest, as well as beneficiaries to link up donors with suitable charitable causes. I have also met wonderful people such as those from Utama and Majurity Trust, who started initiatives to help raise donations from high net worth individuals and corporations to fund worthy social causes like caring for vulnerable seniors and providing opportunities for children from lower-income families. The Government provides broad-based support in the form of 250% tax deductions for qualifying donations to Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs) and the Corporate Volunteer Scheme (CVS) supports volunteerism efforts by businesses in IPCs. The Government also provides matching grants to encourage charitable giving. For example, we allocated a top-up of $100 million to the Tote Board’s Enhanced Fundraising Programme which in turn provides dollar-for-dollar matching on eligible donations received by charities. Sir, to build stronger social resilience, the Government will continue to encourage our community especially those who have done well to engage in sustained giving and volunteerism. Through such efforts, we will strengthen our social compact and build a more caring and inclusive Singapore. This will then provide the social cohesion and stability for us to pursue pro-growth policies and enlarge our economic pie, generate more opportunities and provide more resources that we can then use to invest in our collective future and support the vulnerable amongst us. In this way, we can strengthen our social compact and grow our economy at the same time. The two objectives will reinforce and support each other, allowing us to move forward while staying together.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Minister Indranee Rajah.
The Second Minister for Finance (Ms Indranee Rajah)1373 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Chairman, I will be responding to the cuts filed by Mr Leon Perera and Mr Leong Mun Wai. Mr Leon Perera asked about the processes for obtaining the President’s recommendation to move a Bill, or amendments to a Bill tabled in Parliament. Mr Chairman, under Article 59(2) of the Constitution, Bills or amendments with financial implications cannot be introduced or moved in this House without the President’s recommendation. This mechanism ensures that the Government of the day has the sole right and responsibility to initiate financial legislation and therefore financial legislation cannot proceed without the Government’s support. It is very important to understand in this context, that for the purposes of Article 59(2), when the President gives his or her recommendation, it is upon the advice of the Government and not at the discretion of the President.[+16 sentences] If the recommendation is provided, then it shows that the legislation or amendment has the Government's support. This is different from the other provisions of the Constitution where the President acts upon his or her discretion, for example, in relation to draws on past reserves or the appointment of certain key appointment holders. Where the requirement in Article 59(2) is triggered and the Government does not support the Bill or amendment, there is no need to seek or to advise the President not to provide the recommendation. It is sufficient to inform the House that the Bill or amendment does not have the President's recommendation in accordance with the Standing Orders. Where the Government supports the Bill or the amendment, the Government will seek the recommendation of the President and formally advise the President to provide such recommendation. This requirement for Government support before financial legislation can be passed is a standard arrangement of many Commonwealth parliamentary democracies, although the mechanisms may vary. In Singapore, it is done through the mechanism of the President's recommendation, as I have explained. In New Zealand, where a Bill or amendment "would have more than a minor impact on the Government's fiscal aggregates if it became law", the government may issue a "Financial veto certificate" to state that it does not concur with the Bill or amendment, in which event, such Bill or amendment cannot be passed. In Canada, this is done by requiring the royal recommendation, which may only be obtained by a Minister, to be conveyed to Parliament. While the mechanisms may vary from country to country, the principle underpinning them is the same. That is to say, a Bill or an amendment with financial implications cannot be passed if the government of the day does not support it, in recognition of the principle that responsibility for financial matters lies with the Government. So, earlier, when Mr Leon Perera talked about "deeming", there is no "deeming" involved. If the Government does not support the Bill or the amendment, the Government would not even need to put it to the President. But if the Government supports it, then the Government will put it to the President with the requisite advice and the recommendation would be signified in Parliament. Hence, the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA) is also not engaged because this is not a discretionary function of the President. The President may consult the CPA for the discretionary functions. For a Government Bill falling within the scope of Article 59(2), the Minister giving notice of the introduction of the Bill must indicate whether the President's recommendation is required and when introducing the Bill at First Reading, must signify whether the recommendation has been obtained.[+4 sentences] This is provided for in Standing Order 67(1). Members may recall that a few days ago, I introduced the Supply Bill. When I introduced the Supply Bill, I signified to the Chamber that I had the President's recommendation. In the case of a private Member's Bill, the Minister for Finance has to inform the Speaker whether the President's recommendation is required under Article 59(2). If the Minister for Finance informs the Speaker that the President's recommendation is in fact required, then, before the Member can be called upon to move the Motion seeking leave to introduce this Bill under Standing Order 66(1), a Cabinet Minister must signify to Parliament whether the President's recommendation has been obtained.[+16 sentences] If no such recommendation has been obtained, the Speaker shall not allow the Motion for leave to introduce the Bill to be moved. The same procedure applies to amendments proposed to Bills. That is under Standing Order 74(3)(c). One more thing I should add, which is that if a Member intends to propose a Bill or amendments to a Bill, which make provision directly or indirectly for the list of financial matters listed in Article 59(2), he or she should inform the Ministry or Minister with oversight of the matters in the Bill or amendment as soon as possible and ideally no later than the time of filing the relevant notices with Parliament so that the relevant assessments and steps can be taken. If the Member is not sure whether the matters in the Bill or amendment are caught by the provisions of Article 59(2), then all the more so it would be advisable to inform the relevant Ministry or Minister early. That deals with Mr Perera's cut. I move on to Mr Leong Mun Wai's cuts. Sir, Mr Leong Mun Wai had a series of, I think, five questions. Mr Leong did not provide the indication of these beforehand. Normally in the gist of the Budget cuts, Members are asked to provide the gist. I also do send out a notice, generally, to ask people to provide the gist of their cuts because it will then enable us to respond in a more considered or fuller manner. With respect to the five questions which basically were given on the spot, I will give such replies as I can. If the Member has any other things, it will have to be taken up separately. Let me just run through very quickly. I think the first question was on the termination of the Sports Hub. I would say in response the reason for the termination of the Sports Hub was addressed in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY)'s Ministerial Statement in August 2022. The reasons for the urgency and the use of the Contingency Fund was: first, the transaction was market sensitive; and second, it was an opportune time to develop the Kallang Alive precinct as the sports sector recovered from COVID-19. The termination sum will be paid in this financial year.[+4 sentences] For his second question on the SPH Media Trust, that is from the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI)'s annual budget from FY2022 to FY2026. However, no money has been disbursed as Minister Josephine Teo had said in Parliament. For his third question, disbursement figures from the Government statutory funds are in the Government Financial Statements. The disbursement figures for the funds under the Statutory Boards are included in their financial statements. For his fourth question, the audit of the full $72.3 billion will be completed by the end of FY2024.[+4 sentences] This was answered earlier this month by Senior Minister of State Chee in a response to a Parliamentary Question. For the fifth question, I think the answers there can be found in the Budget Book. Then, with regard to his last point about what is the definition of "raiding the reserves", Mr Chairman, it is not a term of art. Essentially, we have a framework on how the reserves are to be used. When the principal amount is taken or drawn down or when land is alienated and if it is not made good or put back, that is a draw on the reserves.[+7 sentences] It is a simple principle that we adhere to. The framework is clear. It is not necessary for me to go into a definitional argument. The reasons and the rationale of when you can have a draw on the reserves are clear. A pandemic would be a good reason – when you are facing potential catastrophe and you have to save the economy, you have to save people. That is something that is built into the current framework. The reserves can only be used with the agreement of the President.
The Chairman4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Leong Mun Wai306 words
[+13 sentences]Chairman, I thank the Minister for the reply. I have three questions. One is that given the kind of payments like the Sports Hub and also SPH Media Trust, where is a big payment to a third party, what is the procedure whereby the Parliament can come in and have oversight over such expenditure? Meaning, how far can the Government just approve the expenditure, just like that? For example, now, we have this SINGA Bill where infrastructural projects that are more than $4 billion require – when it goes through the SINGA Bill, then it comes to Parliament. But does it mean that if in the future, there is a project where we need to terminate the project and it is a $4 billion payout, the Government just makes the decision like that without Parliament scrutinising the numbers? That is one question. The second question is, to your best knowledge as the Second Minister for Finance, what is the percentage of the endowment funds that are being paid out every year – as a percentage of the outstanding assets that these endowment funds have at the moment? The third question, with regards to the raiding of reserves. Your question basically means – does it mean that as long as the Government has a set of rules, we cannot debate against that set of rules? In this case, it is a set of rules regarding reserves management and the recording of the reserves. You can always say that what you have proposed is not in line with our reserve management policies but we can still discuss about it. There is no need to say right from the beginning, that this is a raiding the reserves and it is not only one time, but many many times by many people and over the mass media and all that.
The Chairman12 words
[+1 sentence]Could we keep it concise so that others can ask their clarifications?
Mr Leong Mun Wai6 words
[+2 sentences]That is my third question. Okay.
Ms Indranee Rajah714 words
[+1 sentence]I thank the Member for his clarifications. I think his first question is related to what authority does the Government have and what is the relationship with Parliament and the degree of oversight. I should start off with the first premise, which is that when the people elect the Government, it is to govern.[+3 sentences] It is to run the Government. Therefore, there are quite a large scope of things which is under the authority of the Government. The Government, obviously, has to be accountable. Hence, when the Government is accountable, it has to come back to Parliament for various things. But when it comes to Parliament, it is usually to scrutinise broad policy and not the day-to-day operational matters.[+2 sentences] So, the debate that we just had, for example, the Budget debate we call it the Budget debate but actually, people forget what it actually is. It is a Motion to ask this House to approve the Government's financial policy. You approve the financial policy, all those broad headings and the broad expenditure that is agreed to by Parliament, but the details of how that is to be spent if it is within the block budget, that is really within the Ministries' purview. But if it is thought, for example, that the Ministry has not done well in its expenditure, that can be queried in Parliament either through Parliamentary Questions, and we also have the Estimates Committee, which is a standing Parliamentary Select Committee which examines the Government's Budget and raises questions thereon.[+18 sentences] I think that is available to the Member as well. So, we have a whole series of checks and balances. You have got the Constitution, which sets the framework. The fiscal policy or financial policy is subject to Parliamentary approval and subject to debate. We have got the Estimates Committee. There is also the Public Accounts Committee. It is also subject to independent audits by the Auditor-General's Office (AGO). The Public Accounts Committee also examines the Government's accounts and the AGO's report and calls on the relevant agencies to explain particular issues or to take corrective actions. For the second question on the extent of funds paid out every year, since that is a very specific question requiring certain data, perhaps the Member can file a question on that. I do not have that offhand. The third question was, I think the Member put it this way – he said does it mean that if the Government has a set of rules, we cannot debate it because he said we can always say it is not in line. He also said that there was no need to say that it is raiding one time but all the time. Let me deal with the two separately. The first one – does it mean that we have a set of rules? The answer is yes. We do have a set of rules. Does it mean that you cannot debate the rules? No. If you want to change the reserves framework, by all means, you can debate that.[+9 sentences] You can suggest that it should be changed. But so long as the rules are in place and so long as what is proposed is not in conformance with those rules and is a draw on the reserves, then it means that it falls outside or breaches, if you like, or it is not in accordance with the rules. So, there are two things. You have a set of rules. And if you want to debate whether that should or should not be the rule, that is entirely up to that Member's prerogative. But if what you happen to be proposing does not fall within the rules, then the Government is entitled to say that it would be a draw or, put it in a slightly easier to understand form, it will be a raid on the reserves. And secondly, Mr Leong suggested that there is no need to say raiding the reserves, not one time but many, many times. The answer is that, if your proposals do actually intend to draw down the reserves not one time but many, many times, then, inevitably, it will draw the reaction that you are raiding not one time but many, many times. So, it all depends on your proposal.
The Chairman4 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Liang Eng Hwa.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa93 words
[+4 sentences]Sir, just want to come back to the question I raised in my cut which is whether the Government can do more to review our rules and procedures so that we can be more pro-business and help businesses save cost and save time. I often hear this feedback from the businesses. The pain point is always that the Government rules can be quite cumbersome and some are unnecessary and the procedures can be quite inefficient. I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State again if the Government can do more here.
Mr Chee Hong Tat431 words
[+7 sentences]Mr Chairman, I thank Mr Liang for asking this very important question. The Government deals with quite a lot of businesses: in our capacity as regulator, when they are applying for licence, they need our permit to operate; or as a buyer, when we procure services and then they are our suppliers. In both instances, there is scope for us to continue to look for ways in which we can do better in our interactions with businesses especially smaller businesses, the SMEs, because they do not have a lot of resources. So, when we design our licensing framework, when we design our rules and procedures, we also want to make sure that they are able to comply with not too much difficulty. Sir, I want to highlight that this is not just an MOF effort. This is actually a whole-of-Government effort. And my colleagues from the other Government Ministries and agencies, have also been embarking on this initiative. One of the initiatives, Mr Liang is aware, is the Pro-Enterprise Panel under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) where we regularly solicit feedback from businesses and from trade associations on where are some of the pain points and where are some of the areas for improvement. I recall, a few years ago, when I was with MTI, I shared an example of how we used business process, re-engineering and digital transformation to implement Go-Business licensing portal where we shortened the processing time for food-related businesses when they applied for licenses by up to 14 days and we cut down the number of forms that they need to submit. Previously, I think it was 14 altogether, more than 800 data fields. We did some consolidation and we reduced it to one form with fewer than 90 data fields, and we removed some of the duplicate licences and helped them to save on licensing fees.[+4 sentences] When you remove some of these, then they do not have to apply, do not have to pay. This is something we want to keep doing and it has to be a partnership with our businesses and our trade associations, because the Government may not know fully where are all the pain points and where are all the areas for improvement. But from the users' point of view, the businesses will know. That is why I mentioned in my speech earlier that I want to work closely with SBF and ASME, not just to improve on the tender processes by introducing Tender Lite, which is one of the ways to help businesses, but also on other pro-business initiatives.
Ms Indranee Rajah72 words
Sorry, Mr Chairman, I just wanted to clarify something to make sure I was absolutely accurate in my answer to Mr Leon Perera earlier, about when the President consults the Council of Presidential Advisors (CPA). I just wanted to clarify that the President must consult the Council before exercising any discretionary power, unless it is one of the excluded matters in Article 37I(A)2, that she only needed to consult in some situations.
The Chairman4 words
[+1 sentence]Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang)165 words
[+8 sentences]Thank you, Chair. The hon Member Mr Liang had suggested earlier on and, if I heard correctly, that so long as we have a positive NIRC, then the Budget must necessarily be expansionary. May I first clarify that that was indeed what he said. And, if so, since the NIRC has been consistently positive, at least since 2008, would that mean that he believes that over the past decade and a half, that we have never run a contractionary fiscal stance? And I am wondering if the Minister of Finance or anyone from the Finance Ministry is willing to corroborate this characterisation. If what the Member meant was, so long as the sum of the NIRC and revenue is less than expenditure, then it is expansionary. I actually have no quarrel with that. But since the NIRC has, in fact, been positive, this would actually mean an even greater surplus over expenditure, which would mean an even more contractionary budget, contrary to an expansionary one.
The Chairman2 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Liang.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa80 words
[+4 sentences]My point was that our expenditures are way higher than the taxes that we collected from the system. In that regard, it is expansionary because we are spending more than that we collect from the taxes. And in reference to the clarification earlier that the Member said that every dollar in the tax that the Government collected is taking out from the system. But, here, in our case, our expenditures are way above the revenue that we collect from taxes.
The Chairman4 words
[+1 sentence]Ms Foo Mee Har.
Ms Foo Mee Har147 words
[+6 sentences]Thank you, Chair. I have two clarifications for Senior Minister of State Chee, not on philanthropy because the question roughly is answered, but two clarifications regarding a debate brought up here. First, Senior Minister of State spoke about Government's effort to support businesses, especially SMEs. So, how we pay them is going to be important. I would like to ask, this has been brought up in previous speeches, what is Government's plan to try and pay the businesses transacts within 14 days? Is that achievable, that request from Nominated Member of Parliament Ms Janet Ang? The second clarification is, what is the targeted adoption rate for e-invoice for transaction with Government?[+3 sentences] The Senior Minister of State spoke about that just now. I want to ask what happens if some SMEs have not put in place the necessary infrastructure? Does that mean they cannot participate in Government procurement?
Mr Chee Hong Tat229 words
Mr Chairman, the current payment term for the Government to pay our suppliers is within 30 days.[+6 sentences] And this is a standard that I would say, is comparable, if not, better than some of the other governments and even private sector companies. But we will want to work towards, where possible, to shorten the payment period. Because, as the Member correctly pointed out, this will directly benefit our SMEs in terms of cashflow. I would want to caveat that a little bit by saying that it depends really on the nature of the contract. There are some that are more straightforward – the service has been provided, the product has been delivered, everything is okay, we can try and speed it up. But there are some that may require more evaluation because it is not so straightforward, or if the amounts are much bigger and we need to be careful, with due diligence, in order to ensure value for money and prudent spending. Rather than to have sort of a blanket yes or no, we will certainly aim to work towards where we can – for simpler, more straightforward contracts, smaller amounts, we try our best to go within 14 days.[+1 sentence] But larger amounts, more complex contracts, we may need to give the agencies a bit more time so that they also can safeguard the interests of public funds.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera257 words
[+12 sentences]Thank you, Mr Chairman. I would like to thank Minister Indranee Rajah for her reply to my cut. I just have one clarification, and I appreciate her laying out the process for seeking the President's recommendation on Bills, with fiscal implications as well as speaking about areas of exercisable discretion and so on. Those points are well taken. My clarification is just about why there is a need to have this rather curious and complicated procedure, where for these matters, something is referred to the President, but then, the Cabinet instructs the President to act in a very prescriptive way and President has to act that way and then the Bill can move forward in Parliament. It does not seem to serve any constructive purpose, in terms of time and the administrative effort and efficiency. And moreover, would the Minister give some thought to the consideration I raised? There is a potential disamenity in keeping such arrangements in place which is that of the President being seen to be a part of this sort of procedure which involves box-ticking or rubber stamping. It could be seen that way. It does not really help the standing of the Office of the President and just seems unnecessary. Will the Government consider reforming this aspect of the Constitution to sort of do away with that procedural step. And before I resume my seat, I just want to say that it should be clear that we have debated in this Chamber before on the Workers' Party's position on the Presidency —
The Chairman9 words
[+1 sentence]If you could keep it short on this point.
Mr Leon Perera14 words
[+2 sentences]That it should revert to a ceremonial Presidency. So, this does not change that.
Ms Indranee Rajah232 words
[+16 sentences]Mr Chairman, I thank Mr Perera for his clarification. But actually, this procedure is a very long-standing procedure, not just ours, but it is a feature of the Westminster model and parliamentary democracies. In other words, these procedures, you may call it elaborate. It is a polite way of coming to Parliament to say that you need the Government's support. Many of the things which have its roots in parliamentary procedure from the Westminster model come from these – you could say, these courtesies of the past. The New Zealanders, as I described, are a little bit more direct about it. It is just a government "veto certificate". "Nope" and that is it. But we are doing it in a polite way. We signify whether the President has given her recommendation. Whether or not the President gives her recommendation, would depend on whether or not the Government gives its support. It does not in any way affect the standing of the President. It was a very early feature of our Constitution. And you will find it, if you check, you will find it in many different ways, shapes or forms in other Commonwealth jurisdictions. And so, it is not so much a question of box-ticking, certainly not the case. It is very much a case of observing certain proprieties which are laid out and, in a way, that has a long-standing tradition.
The Chairman13 words
[+3 sentences]Very quick one. Mr Saktiandi. We have to end it by 7.15 pm.
Mr Saktiandi Supaat118 words
[+5 sentences]Thank you, Mr Chairman. I am just glad that we are discussing today about cost savings when our neighbour just released their budget and they are talking about cutting their deficits and reducing the government debt. My question is to Senior Minister of State Chee, in response to his answer to my cards. In regard to the scrutiny of infrastructure spending, he answered that question in terms of public accounts. But, maybe, if Senior of Minister of State can share a bit more about our cost savings and our efforts from smaller projects, smaller to medium-term projects, and what additional sort of scrutiny and efforts to review those and how we can enhance on that front as well.
Mr Chee Hong Tat98 words
Mr Chairman, Mr Saktiandi raised an important point because we do not just focus on the large ticket items. Those are very important, because, as I mentioned in my speech earlier, we managed to save $1 billion dollars through the process together with experts from private sector and academia. But many of the smaller projects on their own, may not yield a lot of savings. But if you add them all up and there are many of them, could make a positive impact on our overall value-for -money outcome.[+1 sentence] So, we have been encouraging the Ministries and —
The Chairman6 words
[+1 sentence]You can just quickly wrap up.
Mr Chee Hong Tat92 words
[+1 sentence]— agencies to empower the officers. What we want to do is continue this process of working closely with them, letting our officers know that when you bring up such suggestions, you will be supported. We will facilitate experimentation, trying out some of these new ideas. And even if some of them were to fail along the way, because we are doing some pilots and it is not guaranteed that all of these would succeed, it is okay. It is okay to try because we are all working towards a better outcome.
The Chairman16 words
[+3 sentences]It is okay. Thank you. Mr Liang Eng Hwa, would you like to withdraw your amendment?
Mr Liang Eng Hwa14 words
[+1 sentence]Thank you, Sir, I believe we are quite close to raiding our guillotine time.
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Yes, we have.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa92 words
[+2 sentences]Allow me to thank Deputy Prime Minister Wong and our best-in-class MOF team for the reassuring as well as forward-looking Budget; and also thank you to Minister Indranee and Senior Minister Chee Hong Tat for responding to our cuts. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Committee of supply – Head J (Ministry of Defence)›Budget16 turns · 3,754w
· 28 highlighted
budget-2054
The Chairman8 words
[+2 sentences]Head J, Ministry of Defence. Mr Vikram Nair.
Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang)720 words
[+1 sentence]Chairman, I beg to move "That the total sum to be allocated for Head J of the Estimates be reduced by $100". Singapore had a turbulent journey to Independence, with our pioneer generation of leaders living through both World War II, and at the cusp of independence, the Konfrontasi between Indonesia and Malaysia. We started National Service in 1967 and over the years, have slowly and steadily built the SAF into a strong and credible defence force.[+1 sentence] Singapore has lived with relative peace and prosperity ever since. An important reason for our peaceful environment was the commitment of the major world powers to peaceful co-existence in accordance with the UN Charter for the last eight decades or so since World War II. However, the commitment to multi-lateralism has eroded over time and one recent example would be Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.[+13 sentences] While some parts of the world community were quick to condemn the aggression and breach of international law, this cry was not universal. Every time an act of aggression takes place without consequences for the aggressor, the more each country has to fear for its own safety. There are also worrying developments closer to home. The strategic rivalry between the US and China is intensifying. Recent incidents, such as then-US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and the more recent shooting of China’s hot air balloons over the US have upped the ante, resulting in the cancellation of diplomatic meetings that could have facilitated constructive dialogue. There have also been more military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, one of the traditional flash points in the relationship. Both countries have also doubled down on the implementation of exclusionary measures, especially in the trade and technology spheres. As the strategic competition worsens between the two major powers, Singapore may be caught in the cross-fire. In addition, middle powers have also taken a greater interest in our region and started to develop more robust strategies to grow their presence in the Asia Pacific. While many of these are friendly nations, with the growing number of such powers seeking to establish a foothold here, the regional security environment could become increasingly contested and busier. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea has conducted further ballistic missile tests, drawing swift condemnation from neighbours South Korea and Japan and many parts of the world community. Japan, which had remained a generally pacifist nation since World War II has started to remilitarise in response to the rising military pressures around it. The challenges ahead for Singapore are many. Could the Minister for Defence therefore provide an update on the major global and regional trends that MINDEF and SAF are closely monitoring, and how MINDEF and SAF will be affected by these trends?[+11 sentences] I had earlier highlighted the major geopolitical and security developments that have shaped the environment around us. I would like to now focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and in particular, the implications for Singapore’s security. When the war broke out, many believed that Russia would quickly overwhelm Ukraine and take over. But instead, what has happened is that Ukraine has put up a spirited and vigorous defence, and they have gotten support, at least in terms of the equipment and finances from powers around them. With both sides unwilling to yield, the war will likely persist for some time. Although quite far away, we should monitor events unfolding in Ukraine and Europe. The Russia-Ukraine war has had spill-over effects, which have fundamentally changed the global order. Some of these include the hardening of military alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) which have now awakened and started growing again and increased defence spending amongst European countries. Russia for its part has announced the suspension of its commitment to the New Start Treaty which the US and Russia entered into to stop nuclear proliferation amongst the two largest nuclear powers. This may restart the nuclear arms race, which has been suspended since the 1980s. As the war continues, there may be more unintended and unexpected consequences that countries, including Singapore, have to deal with. Could the Minister for Defence therefore comment on the implications of the war in Ukraine for Singapore’s security, as well as the key lessons learnt from the war for us?
Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee)241 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Chairman, as mentioned by the hon Mr Vikram Nair, today marks the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an act that many did not believe would happen. It has tipped the world order on its head and underscored the importance of upholding international laws and frameworks and, of course, defending national sovereignty. Even by the lower UNHCR estimates, confirmed civilian casualties number over 8,006 killed, 13,287 injured, 7.6 million refugees and, almost 8 million internally displaced in Ukraine.[+7 sentences] This is a stark reminder for all of us in the world and especially for small states like ourselves. The global landscape is becoming more contested. It is therefore ever more critical to review our own plans and priorities in diplomacy and in defence. Regional powers are becoming more confident and assertive. How do we navigate relations with our neighbours while being acutely aware of the great power rivalry also playing out in our backyard? Threats and asymmetrical warfare have evolved as well. Growing digital threats, terrorism. As we continue to transform our SAF, we must be cognisant of the challenges of a shrinking population and its impact on our defence manpower, increase global spending on defence, especially in the region, and the need to maintain confidence and trust in the SAF. Therefore, I ask the Ministry for an update on the plans and priorities that we have put in place in light of the changes in the global order.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang)681 words
[+10 sentences]Mr Chairman, the recent incursion of an alleged PRC surveillance balloon into US airspace and its subsequent shoot down by the US military underscore growing friction between Washington and Beijing. This comes after the large-scale PLA military exercises bracketing Taiwan following the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei. These actions follow increasing PRC military activity in the East and South China Seas and near Taiwan in recent times, to which other militaries, including those of the United States, are mounting their own activities in response. The Prime Minister, and more recently the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, have noted rising tensions between the United States and the PRC, which play out over a range of issues and wide swathes of territory. Manila recently pointed to the PLA Navy using lasers on the Philippine Navy vessel in the disputed South China Seas waters, supposedly blinding crew on the bridge temporarily. These incidences and growing cleavages do not have anything directly to do with Singapore, at least for the moment. However, they could well affect Singapore and our interest in significant and potentially negative ways. I have little doubt that our professional foreign service officers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working very hard to encourage some amicable solutions and searching for means to mitigate risks for Singapore. Through careful diplomacy in the event tensions should further escalate, this reinforces efforts to support international law and accepted rules of the road that have facilitated Singapore's prosperity, safety and stability for so long. Nonetheless, I am mindful of the very real possibility that diplomacy law and institutions sometimes may not be enough. As a commerce-dependent island, Singapore needs open use of sea lanes, submarine cables and air routes that link us to partners in all of East Asia, across Southeast Asia, South Asia and points West.[+2 sentences] These could potentially be in jeopardy in the event of a major contingency involving the United States, the PRC and others that may occur around our region. Such an event could also spell political and military pressure on Singapore to provide or deny access to one party involved in a crisis or another in addition to broader disruption. This could also affect trade and communication and even the import of food and energy, not to mention safe passage for the shipping trade and maritime traffic passing through the straits of Singapore going both east and westwards, to near and far shores for which we are so heavily dependent on and possibly also civilian and commercial air traffic in the region. This may prove consequential for not just Singapore's prosperity, but possibly even stability and survival.[+8 sentences] Such pressure and disruption may take physical even kinetic form and not just be limited to information, cyberspace and political influence. I would like to ask for an update on the efforts of MINDEF and the SAF in building the capacity to withstand military pressure and coercion from actors with significant capabilities and safeguard Singapore's critical access to the air and sea in the event of an emergency, particularly in view of the tensions in the South China Sea and between different countries in the Asia Pacific region. What is being done to enhance such capacity in recent times, noting that much of Singapore investment in our professional military and national service has historically focused on the Army? Although I am greatly encouraged by the recent announcement of the appointment of our first Chief of Defence Force from the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). Apart from capacity, I would like to ask what preparations are in place to potentially sustain operations at longer distances from our shores. This may be important if we wish to prevent and perhaps minimise any dangers to Singapore and Singaporeans in the event of some major emergency in our region. Some people may well, see such concern as unnecessarily alarmist or dismiss them as remote and unrealistic. But as a nation, we must be prepared and vigilant for issues that may be looming to avoid any unwanted surprises, especially in these uncertain times.
Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang)369 words
Chairman, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many countries have started to allocate a bigger share of their budgets to defence.[+1 sentence] Countries understand that they can no longer take their security for granted. Germany intends to raise its defence spending by at least 2% of its GDP.[+18 sentences] Likewise, Japan is stepping up its defence spending and seeking to move beyond 1% of its GDP too. It goes without saying that the US and China have consistently expanded their annual budgets and will continue to do so. Many countries are likely to follow suit. Could the Minister for Defence tell us what some of the global trends in defence spending are? Given our small size and vulnerable position, how will these spending trends affect Singapore? Singapore has consistently and continuously invested in defence over the last five decades to ensure we have a strong military force capable of a robust defence. There are trade-offs and opportunity costs as a result of our efforts to sustain our commitment to defence. We have persisted, despite the challenges, as we are cognisant that Singapore, as a small island-state, can neither take its own defence for granted nor count on others to defend us. Many of our pioneers were sacrificed when Singapore quickly fell to the Japanese in 1942 when Great Britain was distracted by events in Europe. Hence, upon our Independence, our founding leaders heavily prioritised national defence as they were keenly aware that without ensuring our own security, there would be no future for Singapore. A recent MOF report states that the Government will need to make further moves to boost revenue. These fiscal pressures will continue, given the uncertain economic conditions, our ageing population and rising costs. Maintaining armed forces is expensive. Building a strong and advanced military is even more so. Being a small country, it is more challenging for us to negotiate prices for weapons and such as we do not have the economies of scale. Given these developments, could the Minister for Defence please tell us what will our defence spending look like in the coming years? What are the projections for defence spending this year? Will spending return to the past baseline following the impact of COVID-19?
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied)260 words
[+1 sentence]Sir, MINDEF's total expenditure of FY 2023 is projected to increase 5.6% for over FY 2022, on top of an 11.3% increase from FY2021 to 2022. In the revenue on expenditure estimates for FY 2023/2024, military expenditure is just a single-lined item with an amount of $17.0 billion, without any further breakdown.[+7 sentences] MINDEF does explain that operating expenditure includes the payments for the purpose of military equipment, maintenance of equipment and camps, allowances for National Servicemen (NSmen) and salaries of regular servicemen and women. While I understand the need for military secrecy, can MINDEF minimally provide the estimated expenditure for just these four items. This is a common practice in public budget estimates in other territories, including Taiwan, Latvia and Finland, all of whom face real and existential threats. I am aware that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) conducts scrutiny of the Government's expenditure and accounts, including the defence budget. However, does the PAC have access to any breakdown of military expenditure? If not, it will be difficult for the Committee to scrutinise the defence budget, given that military expenditure comprises almost 95% of the Ministry's total budget. Sir, I am proud that I served my full-time NS and completed all my operationally-ready NS cycles. I support the need to maintain a strong and credible SAF to effectively defend Singapore. This is why I believe that more thorough scrutiny of MINDEF's budget and expenditure will help maintain public confidence that the $17.97 billion allocated to the Ministry, the highest among all the Ministries, is going entirely towards achieving its mission.
Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry (Kebun Baru)259 words
[+2 sentences]Chairman, for the last few years, we spoke about SAF's transformation into a next-generation defence force by 2040. To achieve this, SAF has been investing in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), unmanned systems, robotics and data analytics. By 2040, SAF will acquire new capabilities and assets, where we will have, then will include Next Generation Infantry Battalions, new armoured tracked carriers and Howitzers for the Army, Multi-Role Combat Vessels, Invincible-class submarines, and unmanned vessels for the Navy, as well as F-15SG and F-35 fighter jets and Next Generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the Air Force.[+7 sentences] Beyond enhancing assets, SAF is also transforming the way it is organised. Last year, SAF set up the fourth service – the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) – to provide enhanced intelligence, advanced connectivity and resilience cyber defence. SAF has also set up a new Army "Sense and Strike" headquarters to help the SAF perform better in battle with less manpower. However, SAF must also factor in rapidly changing warfare. For example, we should consider how the recent events such as the Russia-Ukraine War has changed warfare; we should also consider how to tap on the growing trends of adopting quick, low-cost adaptation of civilian technology, like Starlink systems and drones into warfare. In short, even as SAF has built a strong foundation, and has a good transformation plan, we must always make sure that we adapt our plans to evolving realities. Therefore, can Minister for Defence provide an update on how SAF is enhancing our capabilities to build our Next Generation SAF?
Mr Chong Kee Hiong (Bishan-Toa Payoh)288 words
Chairman, the attack on Ukraine was a wake-up call that we should never take peace and stability for granted.[+5 sentences] While such violent conflicts may seem far from our realities here in Singapore, they serve as a stark reminder that we must be able to defend ourselves and deter threats that may come our way. The war in Ukraine has shown that even in the age of hybrid warfare and grey zone tactics, conventional warfare remains a real possibility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had to appeal for tanks, fighter aircraft and long-range heavy weaponry from its allies and partners. In addition, the digital terrain has become as real as the air, land and sea domains. The Financial Times had reported on Russia’s use of malware to infiltrate Ukrainian government and financial systems to create disruption in the early days of the war and even to disrupt crucial satellite connectivity. Singapore must be prepared for threats from all sources.[+3 sentences] The SAF must therefore maintain its ability to deter and defend against threats in both the physical and digital realms. At last year’s Committee of Supply debate, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen talked about the SAF’s transformation efforts to meet future security threats and challenges. I am glad that we have taken incremental steps to build up and transform the SAF over the years, not just to meet current security threats, but also to anticipate potential new threats that we may face in the future. One of the biggest challenges is our low fertility rate which affects the future number of NSmen. SAF would have to adapt through technology utilisation or policy changes, leading to further transformation.[+1 sentence] Can MINDEF provide an update on the progress of the SAF’s transformation?
The Chairman9 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Alex Yam, please take your two cuts together.
Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee)319 words
[+7 sentences]Thank you, Mr Chairman. We are now living in the digital age. There is no denying that we are bound together in the metaverse. This poses great opportunities for the world economy but also great challenges and even in the field of security and defence, we are seeing more and more threats emerged online. The threats of the physical world are now, therefore, manifest in the digital battlefield. We have seen it in Ukraine with large scale online campaigns against Ukrainian, assets as well as those of their allies in Europe. In this vein, I applaud the foresight in forming the Digital and Intelligence Service, the fourth service of the SAF. With its formal beginning just three months ago on 28 Oct 2022, but with different parts of it already functioning before that, I would like to ask the Minister how has the progress been since its formation?[+8 sentences] What is the assessment of the Ministry of the current digital battle terrain and what threats have been prevented or disabled since the formation of the DIS? How does the DIS work in tandem with civilian agencies like CSA? And, how can the DIS bring ordinary citizens on board to play a part in improving cyber security? While the problems are digital, the solution still lies in the real world. What is the manpower situation for the DIS? For example, how has the take-up rate been for the NS Digital Work-Learn Scheme in partnership with NTU, which is due to start in April of this year? How will MINDEF encourage more to come on board DIS? In addition, what have been the advantages of the unified command so far and how will the DIS strengthen its work with the three other services and other security agencies to ensure that while we keep Singapore safe in the physical world, we also keep our citizens and our infrastructure safe in the digital one?
Miss Rachel Ong (West Coast)230 words
[+9 sentences]Chairman, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has revealed the might and widespread use of cyber-attacks as an extension of warfare into the digital space, affecting critical infrastructure that not only impacts military efforts but also the lives of civilians. These attacks have devastating aftermath on communities, be it in the form of mass power shutdowns in times of harsh weather conditions or in the form of propagating false information to destroy unity or morale. Ukraine alone has suffered a threefold growth in cyber-attacks over the past year. The Cyber Peace Institute reveals that as of 17 February 2023, there have already been 627 cyber attacks on government entities and corporations in critical infrastructure sectors, excluding attacks on Ukraine and Russia. Last October, MINDEF established the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) with an eye on dealing with threats to Singapore’s security in the digital domain. This was a more than welcome development, to build on SAF’s abilities to defend Singapore on multiple and emerging fronts. To fulfil its mandate, the DIS will need a highly-skilled and collaborative digital workforce to continue to grow Singapore’s digital defence capabilities. At the same time, there is fierce competition for such talent in the technology sector. Can the Ministry of Defence share how DIS plans to attract appropriate talent to the service as well as how recruitment for the DIS has progressed since its establishment last year?
Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong (Jurong)141 words
[+3 sentences]The nature of warfare continues to evolve going into the 21st century. Unlike the past, battles today are no longer fought in the traditional physical domains of the sea, air, and on land, but also in cyberspace. We will also need to contend with another dimension – the rapid pace of technological evolution and disruption, which will also shape the texture of war and future conflict, and thus have a critical impact in shaping the SAF’s military doctrines and future battlefield tactics. With the private sector leading much of the technological innovation today, key technologies with high disruptive and dual-use potential are in the fields of AI, robotics and autonomous platforms. Could the Minister for Defence provide views on the emerging slate of military threats that MINDEF/SAF will need to guard against, and how MINDEF/SAF will stay ahead of these threats?
Mr Vikram Nair150 words
[+1 sentence]Chairman, technology has transformed the military domain. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict appears to have spurred the adoption of new technologies and we see drones being used with lethal force.[+3 sentences] This has the crucial benefit of reducing the risk of losing lives by combatants. I have been a big supporter of new technologies, particularly unmanned battle platforms and even automated warfare. During last year’s Committee of Supply debate, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) unveiled further plans to build up the Next Generation SAF. Of these new assets and capabilities, unmanned technologies were identified as a focal point. I would therefore like to seek views from the Minister for Defence on the SAF’s adoption of emerging and cutting-edge military technologies, and whether this would help it to remain agile and capable in responding to the range of threats.[+1 sentence] How will the SAF use these new military technologies as it continues to develop?
The Chairman2 words
[+1 sentence]Deputy Leader.
The Deputy Leader of the House (Mr Zaqy Mohamad)37 words
[+2 sentences]Sir, may I seek your consent to move that the Chairman do leave the Chair? This is to enable me to move a Motion to take the proceedings on the business of Supply today beyond 8.00 pm.
The Chairman40 words
[+2 sentences]I give my consent. . (proc text)]
Committee of Supply – Head J (Ministry of Defence)›Budget7 turns · 4,839w
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budget-2056
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Minister for Defence.
The Minister for Defence (Dr Ng Eng Hen)736 words
[+6 sentences]Much obliged, Mr Speaker. Colleagues, Mr Speaker, this Committee of Supply (COS), we sit together with the rest of the world coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have learned to live with the disease and are returning to normalcy. But it is also clear to all of us that the world has changed, and some things will never revert to the status quo ante. Among them, hybrid work patterns, greater digitalisation, increased vulnerability of supply chains, rising protectionism. Many of you have spoken about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in parallel, that and rising US-China tensions, which many of you touched upon, are seminal forces that will impede, if not unravel, globalisation. For Singapore, whose external trade is three and a half times our GDP, the proverbial “shop in the MRT station”, the “canary in the mine of globalisation”, so dependent on free flow of goods and services, capital and people, these changes are bound to affect us, and our country will feel the effects strongly.[+4 sentences] There is also the potential of physical disruption to key sea lines of communication. Mr Vikram Nair spoke on this. Mr Dennis Tan alluded to it. The South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore are indeed vital waterways. A third of global shipping goes through the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and carries 80% of the oil transported to Northeast Asia.[+2 sentences] Coupled with these external forces, internally, many countries see their citizens pushing against globalisation and immigrants. The rise in extreme right parties is a vivid sign of this inward-looking mood. In sum, the post-World War II constructs of increasing free trade and open borders are under severe stress.[+21 sentences] President of the World Economic Forum Børge Brende recently described our world as one which is gradually sliding from a period of cooperation to a period of intensifying global competition. China’s ascension into the World Trade Organization (WTO), if we cast our minds back, was in 2001, so some 22 years ago, where US President Bill Clinton at that time spent political capital to get his Congress to support it. Why did the US do it? They wanted to speed up China’s transition to a market-based economy for it to be more globally integrated. As the thinking went, if China was more like the rest of the world, trading with it and co-dependent, then surely Communism as a form of government would be weakened. More than 20 years later, I suspect that some within the US and their Western allies, in retrospect, might think that was a mistake. Because China has indeed risen economically and is now one of the largest trading nations. So, for the very reasons you push for China to be included in the WTO, it has succeeded. But just recently, Czech President-elect Petr Pavel asserted that China was “not compatible with Western democracies in their strategic goals and principles”. Think about this. The world’s second-largest global trading partner is not compatible with you. So, it is not what you do; it is what you are. These forces run deep and will alter the very foundational pillars of countries and their relationships with others. It is inevitable, even for large and middle powers, let alone tiny Singapore. And many of you asked what these structural forces, what these tectonic plates will do to us. Mr Alex Yam, Mr Don Wee, Mr Dennis Tan, Mr Vikram Nair. Let us first look at Europe. For Germany, that long believed and worked for the integration of Europe and Russia, those hopes have all but evaporated. Germany downsized its Bundeswehr, its military, in the 1990s to reap the so-called “peace dividends” after the Berlin Wall fell. Today, it has to reverse that policy. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Zeitenwende speech in 2022 marked, as the word means, the end of an era and a turning point. European Union (EU) countries have now pledged to spend more on defence in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Some, like Latvia, are also reintroducing conscription while others like Germany, Sweden, Poland and France continue to mull over the reinstatement of some form of national service.[+2 sentences] Closer to home, Asian countries too are upsizing their militaries, especially in Northeast Asia. With your permission, Mr Chairman, I have asked the Clerks to distribute charts on military spending as many Members asked about it.
The Chairman8 words
[+1 sentence]Please do.
Dr Ng Eng Hen1850 words
[+1 sentence]Members can refer to them and also access the handouts through your MP@SGParl mobile app. China is estimated to spend in excess of US$270 billion and announced a 7.1% increase last year. Japan has announced plans to double its defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2027 and to develop counter-strike capabilities.[+3 sentences] For the past decade, Japan’s military spending, albeit as a self-defence force, has been on the same level as France and Germany’s, around US$50 billion every year. Two percent of Japan’s GDP would be around US$85 billion today. That is more than what India spends. South Korea wants to increase defence spending by an annual average of 6.8% over the next five years, with a focus on securing capabilities to counter North Korea.[+7 sentences] If that happens, South Korea will spend as much as Japan today. Similarly, Australia will reach these levels of defence spending by 2030. I put in comparison ASEAN’s military spending. ASEAN is not a military pact, but in comparison, spends in aggregate about what one of the ASEAN+8 countries spends – South Korea. Taken together, and if these facts bring to your minds that Asia is spending a lot militarily, you are quite right. Taken together, Asia’s military spending on the whole had already surpassed Europe in 2009. The gap has since widened even further. Between 1999 and 2021, the defence spending by EU increased only by 20%, compared to the US that went up by 70%, Russia by 300% and China by 600%.[+6 sentences] EU countries will now be spending more because of the Ukraine invasion, but Asia’s military spending will be still larger for some time to come. The charts show the trends clearly. All of us of course are asking, as some of your questions alluded to – what will all this lead to? I doubt anyone can really be sure. But without a robust framework to maintain peace, this upsizing of Asian militaries can spell trouble ahead. Some of you know that there is a metaphorical Doomsday Clock that has been ticking away. Well, this Doomsday Clock has moved 90 seconds closer to midnight this year, the closest to global catastrophe since 1947, post-World War II.[+49 sentences] It is no wonder that some of us sleep less soundly at night. Here, it would be remiss of me as Minister for Defence if I did not thank Members of this House for their constant and strong support through the years for my Ministry’s budget. The record shows that Members of Parliament of all political parties and Nominated Members of Parliament in successive Parliaments have shown this collective support. None of them were beguiled or rendered complacent by peace to push for less defence spending. Yes, questions were asked about how MINDEF and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) put our defence dollars to use and if it was effective, accountability, so on and so forth. Questions that needed to be asked and were asked by Members here. But not reduced spending. Outside this Parliament, some political personalities did push for reduction, saying our defence spending is "excessive”, or that external threats for us "don't exist”. I wish that was true. To them, I say, do not sacrifice a strong defence for Singapore at the altar of political expediency. It may win some support, but it risks losing Singapore in that self-interest. As Mr Lee Kuan Yew reminded us even in his later years, “Without a strong SAF, there is no economic future, there is no security”. That is a hard truth that remains constant. We must never forget that defence is a long-term business. For the SAF, major systems and platforms take 10 to 15 years to conceptualise, build and integrate into our fighting force. That is assuming everything runs smoothly, without chop and change. If a military loses a capability and wants to build it back, it may take twice as long. We need to remind ourselves constantly that investing steadily in defence is the more prudent and cost-effective strategy, especially during good times and peace. Because it is not just the dollars spent, but the know-how, the human capital, the culture and most important of all, the psychology and mental build-up of commanders and soldiers, crucial for the SAF, which is made up of NSmen in the majority. Some of you have asked what have we learned from the war in Ukraine? We have learnt many lessons. We are watching it very, very closely. Because it is the only war in which modern state-on-state warfare has been fought in recent years. Mr Vikram Nair asked about this. There are indeed military lessons to be learnt. But more important than military lessons, examples of how people, ordinary citizens make the crucial difference, not only in civilian affairs but military too. Ukrainian civilians have played significant roles in the conflict from the very beginning. Let me just share some examples briefly. Workers cut up old train tracks and welded them together to create obstacles. These were known as “steel hedgehogs” – nobody taught them how to do it – and they put them up to block Russian military trucks. Volunteers produced, repurposed and operated drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And in particular, when Ukraine’s imports were disrupted and prices of lithium batteries went up and soldiers needed to communicate, volunteers started donation drives to collect and recycle batteries to power drone operations. More recently, we saw footage of improvised grenades reportedly made by the Ukrainian Army in partnership with civilian engineers. Basically, it shows a fragmentation grenade fitted with a shuttlecock that is attached for stabilisation. The grenades could then be lifted by commercial drones and dropped onto targets from above. A cheap and creative solution, perfect for recycling used shuttlecocks. Ukraine’s Armed Forces relied heavily on civilians to gather military intelligence through crowdsourcing. When the invasion began, the government added new features to the Diia app, it is the equivalent of our Singpass. And through a chatbot, citizens could help the military locate Russian troops and vehicles by providing photos and videos together with live locations. As footage flooded in, there were multiple reports of Ukrainian troops successfully destroying Russian convoys, thanks to the tip-offs from the public. There was another crowdsourcing app followed, it is called ePPO, and this was for citizens to report sightings of cruise missiles and kamikaze drones. That is how sophisticated their system had become. Passion, grit, bravery, innovation, even pure genius in the face of overwhelming adversity. Ukrainians had no electricity or running water, endured freezing temperatures, constantly under the threat of incoming missiles, but the resolve of the Ukrainian people to protect their country, to defend their freedom shone through, through all the misery that war brings. If the war has taught us anything, it must be that weaponry and fighting platforms are important, but ultimately, it is the fighting spirit of the people that will decide if they end up subjugated or sovereign. We Singaporeans must build and have that same spirit and resolve. Our lives and our country will depend on it. Let me now turn to the actual figures for MINDEF’s Budget. I think Don Wee asked specifically. In the coming financial year, my Ministry projects an expenditure of just under $18 billion. This translates to an increase of 5.6% from FY2022 due to mainly three reasons.[+4 sentences] First, inflation. MAS has estimated that core inflation should come in at 3.5% to 4.5% in 2023. Second, we are catching up of projects deferred or disrupted – for example, SAFTI City, NS Square, the delivery of our submarines. Third, we are spending more on digital and other non-kinetic capabilities. I will elaborate on them in the response to your questions on the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS). I had informed Members previously that MINDEF will strive to keep the growth of our Defence Budget to be in line with inflation and we have achieved this target for the past decade at about 4.3% each year. We expect this to continue for the next decade too, to stabilise at a 3% to 4% year-on-year growth.[+19 sentences] By design, as Members have noted, MINDEF does not give detailed information in the Budget Book. Members know the reason. It is not in our security interest to do so, just as we do not give the detailed cost figures for acquisition of planes, submarines and Army platforms because they provide an indication of our capabilities. Similarly, we do not want to provide an aggregated amount for the acquisitions – because you can guess – if your capability development is this budget and it is collected over years, what are you spending it for? But the key question, I think, that the Member Gerald Giam is asking is how then do you assure prudence and accountability of your spending? Like all public agencies, we are held to account for the management of funds. We are subject to independent audits by the Auditor-General's Office (AGO), where deep dives are taken into processes. In other words, you do not get to see the aggregated picture but you can see any of the individual processes. For example, AGO had discovered payment errors of flexible benefit allowances in FY2021 and these were promptly recovered. MINDEF does not have any say to what the AGO wants to look at. If it wants to look at platforms, we have to show the detailed processes. As Mr Giam said, the Public Accounts Committee can also request for additional information after examining AGO's audits, as it did in this case. We have strong internal controls to ensure that expenditure is within stipulated ranges of reference costs. In other words, when we pay for something, we take reference from other known quoted figures. Our procurement processes adhere to rigorous standards. When there are large-scale projects, we have senior management committees to ensure oversight and compliance. But I take the point – there is a necessary trade-off between accountability and full transparency. There has to be. But I think overall, Singaporeans – with an NS Army – can see what our dollars go into and, as I said, the detailed processes are subject to audit. Overall, MINDEF's spending has stabilised at between 3% and 4% of our GDP.[+10 sentences] Barring increasing tensions or persistently high inflation where military spending may have to go up, MINDEF expects this to be the steady state spending. I will repeat that because my officials are very nervous about this. We have stabilised between 3% and 4% of the GDP. That is saying a lot. And barring increasing tensions or persistent high inflation, we expect this to be steady state spending. In fact, this means that over the past few decades, because we have matured, as a percentage of GDP, we have been spending less. What has we achieved? The final accountability – what have we done with all these defence dollars? I think Mr Henry Kwek and Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked about this. With your permission, Mr Chairman, I have asked the Clerks to distribute a handout on SAF's transformation, which Members may refer to.
The Chairman7 words
[+1 sentence]Yes, please.
Dr Ng Eng Hen2233 words
[+24 sentences]We can have a quiet satisfaction that the SAF today is recognised as one of the most advanced in Asia. I think Mr Dennis Tan asked – what are you preparing to make sure that your sea lines of communication, your airways, towards 2040, how are you preparing? Some perspective: the SAF is not large relatively. There was a reason I gave that the military spending for all the countries around us. But for our size – all our Services, we are the most advanced in Asia. We operate modern state-of-the-art platforms. Together, these Services can prosecute campaigns across a spectrum of security challenges. This modernisation is saying a lot. It has taken two decades but has been completed successfully. Very few militaries have achieved that. As a result, the Army now uses digitalised fighting and support platforms – the Hunter Armoured Fighting Vehicles, HIMARS and Leopard Tanks. The Air Force's Smart Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft and Aster-30 Missile Systems are new additions, together with the F-15s. The Navy has brought on a full fleet of Frigates and new Littoral Mission Vessels. In the next decade, more platforms and capabilities will be added. I previously informed this House in 2019 that our Air Force would purchase four F-35 Joint Strike Fighters because we wanted to evaluate it. It allowed us access to information and facilities for a full evaluation. Our pilots have flown in F-35 mission simulators. The F-35 is a single-pilot cockpit. So, you cannot share with anyone. They have flown in simulators and learnt from operational F-35 pilots. They have evaluated the electronic systems on board and made trips to F-35 bases to study how other users maintain their fleets. We have also flown with other F-35 operators, in particular, very recently, in Exercise Pitch Black in Darwin, Australia. All of these have given us valuable insights. MINDEF and the SAF have concluded that the F-35 is the best choice to meet our defence needs now and in the future. MINDEF will therefore proceed to exercise the option to acquire a second tranche of F-35Bs – eight of them – and they will be added to our fleet by the end of the decade. This acquisition will support the progressive drawdown of our ageing F-16s, which will retire from mid-2030s, which means that at steady state, our RSAF will operate F-35 and F-15 fighter planes – the most advanced in the region.[+4 sentences] For the Navy, we have launched our second and third Invincible-class submarines a few months ago in Kiel, Germany. Later this year, you can expect the first submarine to return home base. You will only have a fleeting glance. It is, most of the time, underwater, unless you are at Changi Naval Base, where you can see some of it. By the end of this decade, all four submarines will be operational around Singapore waters.[+25 sentences] These custom-fitted submarines will be stealthier, more agile and will remain submerged for a longer period. This significantly enhances naval capabilities to protect our interests at sea. And people notice. At the recent Munich Security Conference, they said, "You have got new Type-218SG submarines." I said, "Yes" – quietly. For the Army, the next-generation Howitzer and Armoured Tracked Carrier will be introduced as well as more unmanned aerial and ground vehicles in our combat units. Some of you ask about future threats – Mr Alex Yam, Mr Henry Kwek. Indeed, this was the reason we started the DIS. It has allowed us to consolidate military intelligence and digital and cyber capabilities. Most of you ask for updates, including most Members of Parliament. I have talked about an SAF digital range. It has made good progress. It will contain virtual replicas of networks and systems that we have nationally so that we can simulate a wider range of cyber-attacks. It will be completed in 2026. It will be used to train our DIS forces and conduct exercises with other military and commercial partners and we will organise joint training with other national agencies – I think Mr Alex Yam talked about that – to defend our critical infrastructure. Some of you ask what our cyber agency DIS' mission is. Digital threats in the cyber arena are pervasive daily – literally tens, if not hundreds of thousands. What our cyber agencies are more concerned with are external and orchestrated attacks by non-state and state actors, for example, terrorist organisations. The DIS has picked up some entities and is monitoring them for their activities. That is as much as I can say. The DIS will also set up the Digital Ops-Tech Centre, run by software engineers and data scientists, to provide in-house software development. This Centre will be operational in 2024. I am giving you discrete dates and these are our targets. Recruitment – some of you have asked this – including Miss Rachel Ong. In 2018, we launched a Cyber Work-learn programme and last year, a new Digital Work-Learn Scheme. Since the launch of both schemes, more than 350 NSFs have signed on. We also saw a 40% increase in applications.[+27 sentences] A significant number of applications are for non-uniformed roles. So, I think it is doing quite well. This transformed quadri-Service SAF will provide Singapore with a strong core against foreseeable threats. But even so, I agree with many Members here that we must prepare for new disruptive technologies as well as scenarios that we have not seen. The future is still evolving but the overall shape is discernible. In the not so distant future like many Members talked about, militaries will use a new generation of hypersonic missiles, lethal autonomous platforms and directed energy weapons. These are just a few examples. Unmanned platforms are now commonly used in both civilian and military settings. What will be a game-changer is when these unmanned platforms from air, land and sea are scaled to large numbers and weaponised. We have already seen it in the Ukraine war. How do you respond to those? A few years back, drone strikes from Azerbaijan took out Armenian air defences, artillery and armoured vehicles from above. Recently, in Sevastopol, Ukraine launched a coordinated drone attack against the Russian Navy – nine from the air, seven from the sea. These drones were able to break through multi-layered defences around the port and damaged at least two Russian ships. These concrete examples that Members of Parliament have shared are rewriting the doctrine and practice of modern warfare as we speak. So, how does MINDEF and SAF deal with this, I was asked. Well, we set up organically and organisationally the Future Systems and Technology Directorate (FSTD). It is literally called that – the Future Systems and Technology Directorate. In it are SAF planners, DSTA engineers and DSO scientists. Their job is to ignore vested interests in the present SAF but instead to be insurgents, to render obsolete if they can current platforms, forces and even organisations by producing improved ways for Singapore to defend itself in the future. They do not have that many friends because they are trying to steal somebody's lunch literally. And if they can show they can do that, then they have succeeded. Our future literally depends on them performing their tasks well. As an example, FSTD spearheaded the research and investments in unmanned platforms and this was a decade ago – even before what we talked about today. Today, autonomous technologies will be built into the Navy's new Multi-Role Combat Vessels to function as a "mothership", with unmanned platforms that can work together across a range of missions. This was a decade ago because that is how long it takes to conceptualise and build. So, while older RSN ships typically operate one unmanned system, these vessels are able to operate multiple systems simultaneously. The Navy will shift towards a future force structure where about half of its vessels will be unmanned. Fifty percent of our future Navy will be unmanned.[+11 sentences] There is one more last vital ingredient for the SAF – our people. We can have the best platforms and systems in the world, but as the Ukrainian spirit showed, it is the spirit and the know-how that will determine if the SAF can defend Singapore and its interests successfully. There is an infographic on how we are training. In order to have well-trained soldiers, we have to invest and we have invested heavily in our training infrastructure. SAFTI City – we have announced it in 2017 – is making good progress. The completed training circuits will include battlefield effects simulators that can replicate smoke and blast effects and interactive targets that can fire back – a far cry from our days when it is "bang, bang, bang, bang, I shoot you, you shoot me". Who confirms? We just assume that both did not get shot or both got shot. This one, cannot "play play", no bluffing, because you wear electronic sensors. If you are dead, you are dead. If your platform is hit, that is it. Phase 1 will be completed next year and will consist of over 60 new buildings – a mix of high-rise interconnected buildings, low-rise residences, a bus interchange and even an underground MRT station.[+2 sentences] Buildings and roads can be configured so that the soldiers can encounter a different layout each time they train at SAFTI City, so that they can train in a complex urban environment. Surrounding SAFTI City, we will build three new Instrumented Battle Circuits (iBACs). The first – Murai Urban Battle Circuit – will be ready by this year, and the other two will be ready by early 2024.[+1 sentence] These circuits will simulate energy fires such as artillery bombardment and air strikes, and they will help our soldiers hone their operational instincts and tactical fundamentals. When these iBACs start, up to 22,000 active and NS soldiers will use them every year.[+32 sentences] Realistic, efficient training. This will excite you. The new training facilities will have sensors and video cameras to capture data and provide instant replays. So, you say you shot him, he says he shot you. Video replay. Like football matches. Let us see what happened. Professional sports teams know the value of this. Soldiers and units will receive real-time feedback on their performance and this will help them stay alive, or remain alive. We have also invested large sums into overseas training facilities. I visited our soldiers in Australia last year in the Shoalwater Bay, and some of the facilities like the Urban Operations Live Firing Facility and the Combined Arms Air-Land Range will be ready for use from next year. This will allow our NSmen and NSFs to participate in Brigade, even Division-level exercises. We have also increased the use of advanced training simulators, up to 20% additional live training will be replaced by them. You can combine simulators now for different platforms. But even with all this, we will have to conduct some training locally. Because if COVID-19 taught us something, it is that our overseas training facilities can be terminated instantly and we do not want to be dependent. I know that Members of Parliament, especially living in the housing estates do get feedback and complaints from residents about noise. And we try to mitigate the impact of this noise. The Air Force reduces flying tempo during critical exam periods, but there is a limit to that. Help explain to your residents that just like NS, this local SAF training is the price we pay to ensure a credible force to protect our freedom and independence. I visited Luke Air Force Base, where our F-16 squadrons were training. We do to those communities as we do here, we have open house, we treat them to makan, and I was talking to the mayor. I said to the mayor, "Please tell your residents that we appreciate them tolerating all that noise." It is not as if Luke Air Force Base does not have housing estates. They have, just like us. And we fly together with the US planes. And he says, "Don't worry, I tell them this is the sound of freedom." The mayor in Arizona, in Luke Air Force Base, telling his residents, that this is the sound of freedom. But whose freedom? Not US freedom, but Singapore's freedom. They are willing to invest in our freedom. So, explain to your residents. Yes, we will do as much as we can overseas, but there is a limit and we must never be so dependent on others that if we have another pandemic, we find that we cannot train and we are operationally less ready. Mr Chairman, the defence of Singapore is a long-term commitment. The success of it is not for the faint-hearted and can only be achieved if we as one people have that staying power, never flagging in spirit or effort; never lulled or deceived that Singapore does not need a strong SAF because the world is safe or that others will protect us. We have come far as a multiracial and multi-religious nation to build an SAF that will fight with one heart and aim – to protect our Singapore. We will go even further as long as we commit each year to stay the course.[+2 sentences] I want to thank Mr Chairman and Members for this indulgence for staying on a Friday night. Thank you very much.
The Deputy Leader of the House (Mr Zaqy Mohamad)26 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Chairman, may I seek your consent to move that progress be reported now and leave be asked to sit again on Monday, 27 February 2023?
The Chairman49 words
[+2 sentences]I give my consent. . (proc text)]
Mr Speaker2 words
[+1 sentence]Deputy Leader.
Mr Zaqy Mohamad36 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, I beg to report that the Committee of Supply has made progress on the Estimates of Expenditure for the financial year 2023/2024 and ask leave to sit again on Monday, 27 February 2023.
The Deputy Leader of the House (Mr Zaqy Mohamad)34 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Speaker, may I seek your consent and the general assent of Members present to move a motion to take this day's proceedings on the Estimates for the Financial Year 2023/2024 beyond 8.00 pm?
Mr Speaker79 words
[+3 sentences]I give my consent. Does the Deputy Leader of the House have the general assent of hon Members present to so move? (proc text)]
Adjournment›Motions1 turns · 24w
· 0 highlighted
motion-2058
Speaker not recorded24 words
[+2 sentences]. (proc text)] Adjourned accordingly at 8.20 pm.
Inquiry into Death of SCDF NSF Firefighter in December 2022›Oral Answers to Questions8 turns · 510w
· 8 highlighted
oral-answer-3087
Mr Murali Pillai69 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Home Affairs whether an independent Board of Inquiry will be convened to investigate the circumstances leading to the death of the SCDF NSF firefighter who died during the firefighting operation on 8 December 2022 with a view to determine the contributing factors that led to his death and make recommendations to rectify any lapse in the firefighting operation that may be uncovered from the review.
The Minister of State for Home Affairs (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) (for the Minister for Home Affairs)135 words
[+1 sentence]Sir, the Police are currently investigating into the death of SGT1 Edward Go. When investigations are completed, the Police will inform the Coroner of their findings. The Coroner will consider the Police’s investigations and make a finding on the circumstances relating to SGT1 Go’s demise. We have decided that we will also convene a Board of Inquiry (BOI) under the Civil Defence Act to conduct a review of the incident. Since the BOI is also a fact-finding body, it will be held after the Coroner’s findings are established.[+1 sentence] The BOI will then also be able to consider the Police and the Coroner’s findings, in its assessment of the matter. The BOI will submit its report to the Minister for Home Affairs (MHA) and we will share the Board’s findings and recommendations at an appropriate juncture.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Murali Pillai.
Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok)107 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad to note the decision of MHA to convene a BOI to look into the circumstances of the unfortunate death of SGT1 Edward Go. May I just ask, in terms of timing, why is it preferred that the BOI be convened to commence its inquiry after the conclusion of the Coroner's inquiry case? I say this because to my knowledge, when it comes to deaths that are being investigated by the Committee of Inquiry set up by the Armed Forces Council under the Singapore Armed Forces Act, these things happen in tandem. The inquiries are not necessarily the same as well.
Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim96 words
[+6 sentences]Essentially, it depends on the circumstances of the matter. In this case, we find that we are going to have the Police investigations as well as the Coroner's investigations. And at the end of the day, both of them are looking at the different aspects of it. We know the Coroner's findings will reveal the how, when and where the death happened. And with regard to the Police investigations, there will also be further insights to it. We think that it is better for the BOI to look at all these findings and make its assessment.
Mr Deputy Speaker8 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Dennis Tan, you have a supplementary question?
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang)43 words
[+4 sentences]Yes, Deputy Speaker. Just a clarification for the Minister of State. He mentioned about the Coroner's findings. Can I just get the clarification that there will be a Coroner's inquiry held in public for this incident leading to the death of the NSF?
Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim49 words
Yes, there will be, as I shared in my answer. It will be revealed to the public and it will be public information.[+1 sentence] At the same time, we will also share the findings of the BOI. At a certain juncture, once we have completed, we will inform the public.
Impact on Singapore due to EU Ban on Russian Oil Product Exports›Oral Answers to Questions2 turns · 298w
· 5 highlighted
oral-answer-3088
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong67 words
asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how does the latest EU ban on Russian oil export products from 5 February 2023 affect the import, trading, storage, blending and handling of Russian oil products in Singapore including Singapore-based terminals and facilities as well as at its Outside Port Limits (OPL) waters; and (b) whether Singapore is reviewing its position in light of the latest EU ban.
The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry)231 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, the EU ban prohibits seaborne Russian crude oil and petroleum products into the EU territory. It also prohibits EU vessels and companies from carrying these products into third countries and providing related services, if the price of these products is higher than the stipulated price.[+1 sentence] This price is one that is determined by the EU and other countries participating in the prohibition. Singapore’s sanctions and restrictions imposed on Russia are specific and targeted, for the purpose of constraining Russia’s capacity to conduct war against Ukraine.[+1 sentence] Our approach is founded on the principles of international law and non-violation of sovereignty as well as territorial integrity and this remains unchanged. Our measures cover export controls on specific items to Russia, such as military goods and dual-use goods that can be used to inflict injuries on Ukrainian citizens, as well as financial measures, which, inter alia, prohibit financial institutions in Singapore from dealing with designated Russian banks and the financing of the above-mentioned goods. While Singapore is not a participant of the EU ban, companies and the financial institutions in Singapore have been informed of the ban that is imposed by the EU and other countries, via circulars issued by the relevant Government agencies.[+1 sentence] This is so that they are aware of such measures and can consider and manage any potential impact on their business activities, transactions and customer relationships accordingly.
Singapore's Support for Global Conservation Targets set at COP15 Biodiversity Conference›Oral Answers to Questions5 turns · 628w
· 8 highlighted
oral-answer-3089
Mr Leon Perera37 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for National Development whether Singapore will be funding efforts to support the "30 by 30" global conservation targets established at the COP15 biodiversity conference in lieu of Singapore's limited capacity to increase protected land.
The Senior Minister of State for National Development (Mr Tan Kiat How) (for the Minister for National Development)171 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, Singapore will work closely with other countries to support and implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in December 2022. Countries are expected to contribute towards the global targets under this Framework according to their national circumstances, priorities and capabilities. For example, Singapore contributes towards regional conservation efforts by sharing our technical expertise in areas such as protected area management and conservation. We have also designated the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve as ASEAN Heritage Parks under the ASEAN Heritage Parks Programme, which recognises these as protected areas of high conservation importance.[+1 sentence] As a responsible global citizen, Singapore will continue to play our part, while taking into account our unique circumstances as a small, densely populated city state. As part of our City in Nature efforts, we are safeguarding more green spaces where possible, establishing additional nature parks, and restoring core habitats.[+1 sentence] The Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity assists cities worldwide to monitor the progress of their conservation efforts.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)104 words
[+3 sentences]I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply. With reference to the Montreal event, COP15, some developed countries have pledged to make a financial contribution to support other developing countries, for example, in Africa, to protect biodiversity. Given the limitations that we face to protect our green spaces – as the Minister of State observed, we are a small, densely populated city state – would the Government consider reviewing in the future if it could make financial contribution to other countries to protect biodiversity specifically, given this is a good signal to send that we are committed to playing our part globally?
Mr Tan Kiat How313 words
[+5 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Member for the supplementary question. I would like to reiterate Singapore's commitment to the global effort to conserve biodiversity around the world. In fact, Singapore is seen by many countries and regions as playing an active thought-leadership role within biodiversity conservation. For example, I mentioned the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity, or the Singapore Index for short. It is one contribution Singapore has made to the collective thought-leadership on how we should look at conserving our biodiversity, especially in cities. To the point that the Member has raised on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, there are 23 action targets under this Framework.[+2 sentences] For example, there are targets looking at integrating biodiversity as part of spatial planning in cities and countries; looking at ensuring urgent management to halt human-induced extinction of known threatened species in our environment, and so on and so forth. These 23 targets are all very ambitious, meaningful and worthwhile targets. The "30 by 30" is one of the targets, Target 3 under the Framework, and Singapore is actively contributing to that global target. In fact, as part of an earlier Parliamentary Question (PQ) by another Member Mr Louis Ng, we also shared with the House that National Parks Board (NParks) is working closely with relevant agencies and stakeholders – for example, our local biodiversity groups and different non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – to update our National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, and to develop national targets to further contribute to this Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. As part of this process, we aim to submit our updated Plan prior to the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biodiversity in 2024.[+2 sentences] So, as part of this holistic response, we will look at different suggestions and ideas. But certainly, we want to continue playing an important role as a responsible global citizen.
Protocols and Fee Levels for COVID-19 Treatment Administered by Private Practitioners›Oral Answers to Questions9 turns · 793w
· 9 highlighted
oral-answer-3090
Mr Yip Hon Weng64 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Health in view of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce’s announcement on 9 February 2023 (a) with subsidies, how much is the average Singaporean expected to pay for COVID-19 treatment; (b) whether general practitioners are free to set their own treatment fees for mild COVID-19 symptoms; and (c) whether the Ministry will make publicly available the subsidised and unsubsidised costs of COVID-19 treatments.
Mr Yip Hon Weng76 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Health (a) whether patients who have been diagnosed with long COVID prior to the implementation of the new COVID-19 financing arrangements in April 2023 will continue to be covered under the current provisions; and (b) for patients who require admission into the intensive care unit for severe COVID-19 or need prolonged treatment for long COVID, what additional subsidies, aside from Government subsidies, MediSave, MediShield Life, MediFund, and CareShield Life, will be available.
Mr Yip Hon Weng44 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Health in view of the Multi-Ministry Task Force’s announcement on 9 February 2023 that COVID-19 treatments will no longer be fully subsidised, what are the measures taken to encourage the public, especially the elderly, to continue seeking timely medical attention.
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Ms Rahayu Mahzam) (for the Minister for Health)20 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, may I have your permission to answer Question Nos 4 to 6 in today's Order Paper together?
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Yes, please do.
Ms Rahayu Mahzam286 words
[+2 sentences]We are able to transit to DORSCON Green because of the strong resilience built up through hybrid immunity of vaccinations and safe recovery from COVID-19. This means we are no longer treating COVID-19 as a special category of disease, with special clinical protocols and subsidies. Hence, like all diseases, doctors will treat COVID-19 patients based on their clinical assessment and severity of illness. This means they will also charge treatment fees similar to other acute respiratory diseases, which is currently about $20 to $35 for subsidised patients at the polyclinics. Patients with lasting symptoms – that is, long COVID-19 – will be cared for and supported in the same way as patients experiencing lingering effects of other respiratory diseases.[+2 sentences] All patients with infectious diseases, COVID-19 or otherwise, will be encouraged to seek treatment promptly and exercise social responsibility. It is noteworthy that after three years of the pandemic, the vast majority of COVID-19 patients experience mild symptoms and are not expected to require a hospital admission. For the minority that require an inpatient admission, they will be supported by our S+3M framework, that is, subsidies, MediShield Life, MediSave and MediFund.[+1 sentence] The Member asked what other assistance are available that is beyond S+3M. The fact is S+3M is already designed to fully cover the bills for patients with financial difficulties. To illustrate, for a patient who is admitted to a C class ward for COVID-19, the median co-payment after subsidies and MediShield Life is about $700, which patients can pay for using their MediSave. For those who are unable to use MediSave and have difficulty with cash payment, there is MediFund to help. The same applies to ICU stay, which is very rare for COVID-19 patients now.
Mr Deputy Speaker2 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Yip.
Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang)93 words
[+5 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I declare that I am working in an investment firm and I am involved in a consortium that manages COVID-19 Community Isolation Facilities. I have two supplementary questions. How does MOH intend to communicate the subsidised and unsubsidised costs of COVID-19 treatment, long COVID treatments as well as the stay in Community Isolation Facilities to our residents? Second, if residents are unable to pay for such treatments, especially for long COVID that may last awhile, what assurances can the Government give that medical care will not be denied?
Ms Rahayu Mahzam205 words
[+6 sentences]I thank the Member for the question. I want to reiterate the point that I made earlier which is: as a function of endemicity, we have to go back to status quo. That means that there is no special treatment given for COVID-19 as an illness. We will continue as per normal in providing the services and all these, any changes or any developments, we will continue to provide advisory to the residents and to people at large. Generally, what we hope to see, is basically people taking care of their own health, their responsibility for that and continue to follow the advisory. For example, we have issued an advisory for the vulnerable group, recently, in February, encouraging them to take the booster and for those who are immunocompromised to do so as well. The issue about the concerns with regards to costs, same thing, we always had a framework of subsidy and support, as I mentioned earlier, S+3M and this will continue.[+1 sentence] Those who are concerned about that, I think they do not have to be concerned because whenever you have difficulties making payment for your bills, there is always that support that is available and we want to assure that that remains true.
Disclosing Public Sector Scope 3 Emissions under GreenGov.SG Initiative›Oral Answers to Questions7 turns · 161w
· 4 highlighted
oral-answer-3091
Mr Leon Perera22 words
asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment whether the Government will disclose public sector Scope 3 emissions under the GreenGov.SG initiative.
The Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien)44 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, we are not requiring disclosure of Scope 3 emissions at this stage of implementing our reporting framework. We will refine our framework as we strive to reduce our emissions and develop greater capability within the public service for tracking and reporting.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)38 words
[+1 sentence]I thank the Minister for her replies. Is there a timeline within which the Government will be looking to consider introducing reporting of Scope 3 emissions, because the Minister mentioned that this is going to be reviewed progressively.
Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien41 words
[+2 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to speak more about this topic in the upcoming Committee of Supply (COS) debate. At this point in time, just like to reiterate that we are not requiring disclosure of Scope 3 emissions.
Mr Deputy Speaker8 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera, next question or supplementary question?
Mr Leon Perera5 words
[+1 sentence]Question No 8, please, Sir.
Singapore's Contribution to Loss and Damage Fund Set Up in COP27›Oral Answers to Questions18 turns · 1,046w
· 7 highlighted
oral-answer-3092
Mr Leon Perera52 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) whether Singapore will be contributing to the Loss and Damage Fund set up in COP27; (b) if yes, what is the quantum of Singapore’s contributions and how is the quantum arrived at; and (c) if not, what are the reasons behind the decision.
The Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien)232 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, Singapore, as part of the Alliance of Small Island States, along with other developing countries, has long called for the establishment of a Loss and Damage fund. According to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II, climate change is already causing widespread loss and damage. Close to half of the world's population live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change. Of note, small island states like Singapore are disproportionately affected by sea level rise and are at risk of submergence by century's end, if nothing is done to prevent it.[+6 sentences] Such scenarios present an urgent need to channel financial resources towards building adaptive capacity and addressing loss and damage. We were therefore pleased that developed countries agreed to support this call at COP27 last year. A Transitional Committee has been tasked to make recommendations by COP28 on the details of the fund, taking into consideration the views of all stakeholders. Singapore will engage constructively with the Transitional Committee. A key guiding principle is that countries that have caused and are most responsible for climate change must take the lead in supporting vulnerable communities to avert, minimise and address climate-related loss and damage. The Paris Agreement, which was ratified by more than 190 countries, including Singapore, also reaffirms this obligation of developed countries to mobilise climate finance for developing countries.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied)76 words
[+3 sentences]I thank the Minister for her reply and my apologies if I did not catch this, but I am not sure if she mentioned whether Singapore will be making a financial contribution to the Loss and Damage fund under COP27. So, I would like to ask that. And also, if that is going to be the case, what that quantum of that contribution is and if not, what the reasons for not making the contribution are?
Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien45 words
[+2 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to repeat my reply which is: A Transitional Committee has been tasked to make recommendations by COP28 on the details of the fund, taking into consideration the views of all stakeholders. Singapore will engage constructively with the Transitional Committee.
Mr Deputy Speaker2 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Perera.
Mr Leon Perera78 words
[+3 sentences]Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. I thank the Minister for her reply. I think the Minister would be aware that I believe, seven countries have made a provisional pledge of I believe, US$275 million and those countries include if I am not wrong Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Canada, and New Zealand. So, to rephrase my question, would Singapore be pledging to contribute to the fund, bearing in mind that the details are still being worked out.
Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien101 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not want to repeat my reply but the gist of my reply is that the Loss and Damage fund, is a recognition of the plight of the developing countries, which is a group that Singapore belongs to. We emit 0.1% of global carbon emissions, but are affected by 100% of all the impacts of climate change.[+1 sentence] So, actually, it is a discussion about developed countries, which Member Leon Perera had referred to, for example, Germany, UK and so on, and a recognition of their responsibility to the developing countries and Singapore belongs to the latter group.
Mr Deputy Speaker8 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Don Wee and then Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang)54 words
[+3 sentences]I thank the Minister for her comprehensive reply. Many small and medium enterprise (SME) owners had informed me that they are actually affected by the climate change although their buyers may be overseas. So, I do hope that the Ministry for Sustainability and Environment (MSE) can consult the SMEs when setting up this fund.
Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien28 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to assure Mr Don Wee, at this point in time, there is no linkage between this fund and the companies in Singapore.
Mr Deputy Speaker3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera.
Mr Leon Perera86 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not sure the Minister has directly addressed the question I raised. I would like to put it again, will the Government be either now or eventually making a financial contribution to the Loss and Damage fund? Or is it the case that the Government is still thinking about that? And if so, then is it the case that it is not a definite no right now and there could be a financial contribution that the Government makes to this fund eventually.
Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien162 words
[+10 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, two points. First of all, a Transitional Committee will be set up to discuss this issue. What does it include? What are the terms of the fund? Who will be contributing to it? How can developing countries draw from it? All these details have yet to be discussed. Secondly, Singapore stands on the side of, we belong to the group of developing countries and therefore stand as a potential claimant from this Loss and Damage fund. But we are already doing our own adaptation. We are coming up with resources. In fact, we are dedicating a significant part of financial resources – we estimated up to S$100 billion dollars and that is diverting a lot of financial resources away from other urgent needs.[+1 sentence] I think we should really look at what is needed for us to adapt and also, how can we prevent such loss and damage from climate change from impacting our own properties and our own institutions.
Mr Deputy Speaker13 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Leon Perera, may I invite you to ask your last supplementary question.
Mr Leon Perera59 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Deputy Speaker, my last supplementary question, just to confirm my understanding of the Minister's reply. I believe what she is saying is that, this matter is still being studied, it is not a no, and the Government of Singapore may make a financial contribution to the Loss and Damage found in the future. Is that the correct understanding?
Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien31 words
The understanding is that we have not even had a chance to discuss this internationally and we have to decide whether we will contribute or we will claim from this fund.
Mr Deputy Speaker13 words
[+4 sentences]Order. End of Question Time. Introduction of Government Bills. Minister for Home Affairs.
Commencement Time of Committee of Supply›Announcement by Speaker1 turns · 74w
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speaker-2050
Mr Speaker74 words
[+6 sentences]Order. We have completed the debate on the Budget Statement. We are now going into the Committee of Supply to debate the estimates. I have revised the commencement time of the Committee of the Supply to start immediately. With a change in commencement time, the revised "guillotine" time for Head U – Prime Minister's Office, is 6.15 pm. Hon Members will be notified of the revised conclusion times for the subsequent Heads of Expenditure.
Singapore's Position on Papua New Guinea's Accession to ASEAN›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 202w
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written-answer-12904
Mr Leon Perera30 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs (a) what is Singapore's position on Papua New Guinea’s possible accession to ASEAN; and (b) what are Singapore’s bilateral activities with Papua New Guinea.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan172 words
[+8 sentences]Papua New Guinea was accorded the status of Special Observer in ASEAN in 1976 and has participated in ASEAN meetings in this capacity. ASEAN is presently not considering any new membership applications. Singapore and Papua New Guinea enjoy warm relations and close cooperation. As fellow Small Island Developing States, we share similar views on issues like climate change. Both countries recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on carbon credit collaboration in November 2022 on the sidelines of the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Egypt. Singapore remains committed to supporting Papua New Guinea's development journey, including by sharing our experiences through the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP). Papua New Guinea sends the second largest number of participants to our SCP courses amongst the Pacific Island States, with close to 800 officials having participated to date. Singapore also engages Papua New Guinea in multilateral forums, such as the UN, APEC and the Pacific Islands Forum, which Singapore has recently been admitted as a Dialogue Partner.
Individuals Currently Monitored under Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 102w
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written-answer-12905
Mr Leong Mun Wai52 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether any individuals are currently being monitored under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021 (FICA) for offences, such as attempting to influence domestic political discourse; and (b) whether any investigations or Police reports have been made in relation to FICA and, if so, how many.
Mr K Shanmugam50 words
[+2 sentences]The Police do not – unless it is in the public interest to do so – generally make public information on whether individuals are being monitored for offences. The Government takes the same approach in respect of investigations or Police reports made under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021 (FICA).
Non-Citizens Married to Singapore Citizens and Subsequently Took Up Citizenship›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 285w
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written-answer-12906
Mr Leong Mun Wai66 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Home Affairs for each year since 2000 (a) what is the number of non-citizen brides and grooms respectively by country of origin who (i) married Singapore Citizens that year and (ii) subsequently took up Singapore citizenship; and (b) what is the median number of years after marriage before a non-citizen spouse is granted Singapore citizenship, with a breakdown by country of origin.
Mr K Shanmugam219 words
[+13 sentences]The number of foreign spouses who took up Singapore citizenship from 2000 to 2022 averages at around 2,700 per year. The overall number of naturalised Singapore Citizens (SCs) is published annually. Thus, Singaporeans can see for themselves how many persons become SCs every year. The matter is also debated publicly. The number and regions of origin of foreign brides and grooms of SCs are also public and can be found on the Department of Statistics' website. We do not make public further breakdowns by specific countries. This is primarily because it could cause bilateral sensitivities with countries. That is not in our national interests. As regards foreign spouses, we require such foreign spouses to have been a Permanent Resident (PR) before he or she can apply for SC. When a couple decides to apply for PR or SC for the foreign spouse depends on their personal and family circumstances. For example, some couples might live overseas for many years before relocating to Singapore. In assessing their application for PR or SC, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will consider several factors, including the length of marriage, length of residency in Singapore and other indicators of rootedness and ability to contribute to Singapore. Therefore, the length of time between marriage and when the foreign spouse obtains SC can vary greatly.
Protocol of Police in Handling Reports of Fraudulent Debit Card Transactions and Bank Account Withdrawals›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 193w
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written-answer-12907
Mr Leong Mun Wai30 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Home Affairs what are the standard operating procedures of the Singapore Police Force when dealing with reports of fraudulent debit card transactions and bank account withdrawals.
Mr K Shanmugam163 words
[+5 sentences]Generally, upon receiving reports of fraudulent credit or debit card transactions and bank account withdrawals, the Police will commence investigations, including recording statements and gathering evidence. They will also ask the bank to deactivate the credit or debit card, or freeze the bank account, if the bank has not already done so. The specific steps taken by Police would depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. As part of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams, we have worked with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Standing Committee on Fraud of the Association of Banks in Singapore to implement measures to detect fraudulent transactions and safeguard banking channels. These include requiring additional customer confirmation to process significant changes to customers' accounts, notifying customers at the original registered mobile number or email address when there are changes to contact details, and putting in place an emergency kill switch for customers to swiftly freeze their bank accounts which they suspect may have been compromised.
Data on Work Permit Holders Charged with Crimes and Applying for Criminal Legal Aid›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 329w
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written-answer-12908
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang63 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Law in each year for the past five years (a) how many Work Permit holders have been charged with crimes; (b) how many have applied for the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS); (c) how many have been offered aid under CLAS; and (d) what are the top three reasons that CLAS applications by Work Permit holders have been unsuccessful.
Mr K Shanmugam266 words
[+11 sentences]The number of Work Permit holders (WPHs) charged with crimes for the past five years can be found in Table 1. These figures cover offences charged by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) which are under various legislation, such as the Penal Code, National Registration Act, Passport Act and Immigration Act. The Member’s questions on the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS) should be properly directed to Pro Bono SG (PBSG), which administers CLAS. PBSG is a company limited by guarantee, with the Law Society as their sole member. The Government funds 75% of CLAS’ general operating costs, which goes towards staff salaries and overheads. The rest of the costs incurred, including to defend foreigners who need criminal legal aid, are supported by private donations. Foreigners who seek legal aid under CLAS must pass their means1 and merits tests. CLAS does not track foreigner applications by the type of permit held. Based on what PBSG has told us, the number of foreigners who have applied to and been offered aid under CLAS, for the past five years, can be found in Table 2. According to PBSG, the top three reasons for CLAS applications by foreigners being unsuccessful are: (a) the applicant failed the means test criteria; (b) the offence was not covered under CLAS; and (c) CLAS was unable to contact the applicant/the applicant’s family members to complete means/merits testing. Foreign applicants who do not qualify for legal aid may also seek help from the Community Justice Centre and other legal clinics run by various community, religious and voluntary welfare organisations.
Breakdown of Grades of Officers Who Retired from Education Service›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 96w
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written-answer-12909
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang42 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Education among the officers who have retired from the Education Service, what is the number of E, D, C-, C, C+, B and A grades last received by these officers in each of the last five years, respectively.
Mr Chan Chun Sing54 words
[+1 sentence]This question has been addressed in my reply to Question 19 as published in the Circular for Written Answers on 6 February 2023.
Update on Workgroup Formed to Review Maintenance of Parents Act 1995›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 103w
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written-answer-12910
Mr Leong Mun Wai42 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether he can provide an update on the work of the workgroup formed last year to review the Maintenance of Parents Act 1995 and when the workgroup may be expected to complete its work.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M61 words
[+2 sentences]The Workgroup for the Review of the Maintenance of Parents Act, led by Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng with eight other Members of Parliament as members, was formed in October 2021. Mr Seah Kian Peng has indicated that, having completed its second round of public consultations in December 2022, the Workgroup is working towards introducing the amendment Bill this year.
Uploading of TraceTogether Device Data onto Ministry's Server›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 40w
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written-answer-12911
Mr Leong Mun Wai25 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Health when was the last time where TraceTogether bluetooth data stored on a TraceTogether device was uploaded onto the Ministry's server.
Mr Ong Ye Kung15 words
[+1 sentence]The Ministry of Health stopped all uploads of TraceTogether Bluetooth data on 26 April 2022.
Tracking of Children Contracting Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 105w
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written-answer-12912
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang39 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will reconsider its policy of not tracking the number or percentage of children who have contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and the number of times they have contracted the disease.
Mr Ong Ye Kung66 words
[+3 sentences]Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) is not notifiable to the Ministry of Health as it is a common childhood illness that is usually mild and self-limiting. Hence, the numbers are not tracked. Nevertheless, we have a sentinel surveillance programme for HFMD involving selected hospitals, polyclinics and general practitioner clinics, to monitor trends in polyclinic attendances, severe cases requiring admission and the types of circulating pathogens.
Data on Subsidised and Unsubsidised In-vitro Fertilisation Treatments›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 158w
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written-answer-12913
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang73 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Health for each year in the last five years (a) what are the number and percentage of those who have used all the co-funded in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycles but still do not have a successful pregnancy; and (b) whether the Ministry keeps track of the number and percentage of people who continue their IVF treatments unsubsidised in either public or private hospitals and, if so, what are these figures.
Mr Ong Ye Kung85 words
[+2 sentences]Based on data from 2017 to 2021, approximately 1% – or 200 out of 19,000 – of women who had attempted Assisted Reproduction (AR) treatment had fully utilised all six co-funded ART cycles and did not achieve a successful live birth. Amongst those who have fully utilised all six co-funding cycles without a successful live birth, approximately 50% of them, or 100 women, have continued to seek ART treatments, that is, started a seventh cycle, without any co-funding in either public or private AR centres.
Data on Work Permit Holders Who Are Paid Electronically and Not Living in Dormitories›Written Answers to Questions2 turns · 139w
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written-answer-12914
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang60 words
[+1 sentence]asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what are the current number and percentage of Work Permit holders not living in dormitories who are paid salaries electronically; and (b) whether the Ministry can provide an update on its consultations with tripartite partners on extending the requirements of electronic payment of salaries to Work Permit holders who are not living in dormitories.
Dr Tan See Leng79 words
[+4 sentences]We do not have data on the number of Work Permit holders not living in dormitories who are paid salaries electronically. The Ministry of Manpower has given priority to implement electronic payment of salaries to Work Permit holders living in dormitories. This involves verification that employers have been complying and following up with non-compliant employers. We will continue our discussions with the tripartite partners about extending the requirements for electronic payment of salaries to more workers in the future.
Committee of Supply – Head J (Ministry of Defence)›Budget41 turns · 10,467w
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budget-2062recorded 2023-02-27
Speaker not recorded52 words
[+2 sentences], (proc text)] . (proc text)]
The Chairman3 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Desmond Choo.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines)9 words
[+1 sentence]Mr Chairman, can I take the two cuts together?
The Chairman2 words
[+1 sentence]Yes, please.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines)368 words
[+2 sentences]In order to prepare our National Servicemen (NSmen) to effectively defend Singapore against evolving threats, our training facilities need to be consistently refreshed to make sure that they provide realistic and relevant battlefield environments. Today, the battlefield may not necessarily be in a field or a jungle, but also in an urban environment. Back in 2019, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) started construction on Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute (SAFTI) City, a state-of-the-art urban training facility that aims to leverage on technology to enhance training for our Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) soldiers. However, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, MINDEF announced that the development of the SAFTI City project had been delayed, similar to other construction projects throughout Singapore.[+7 sentences] With Singapore having entered into an endemic COVID-19 phase and gone to Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) Green, can MINDEF provide updates on the SAFTI City and the development of other military training facilities in Singapore? Many Singaporean soldiers have had the privilege of participating in SAF training overseas. For these soldiers, this was one of the highlights of their training and service to the nation. Overseas training is critical in bolstering our national defence. It allows us to overcome our natural space constraints and conduct important training that would have otherwise been impossible here. For our national servicemen, it is also an opportunity for them to appreciate the scale of the SAF's capabilities and operations. Such overseas training is critical to SAF building up capabilities beyond what the limited space of Singapore can provide. One of the biggest overseas training areas we have is the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Australia, which is currently undergoing an expansion. During the Minister for Defence's visit to the troops participating in Exercise Trident and Exercise Wallaby in Australia in September 2022, he stated that the expanded training area would eventually provide an area ten times the size of Singapore for our soldiers to train.[+2 sentences] I would like to ask the Minister for a progress update on the SAF's training area development in Australia and how can these new facilities enhance our training for our national servicemen? When will our soldiers be able to utilise this training asset fully?
Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong)201 words
[+9 sentences]Chairman, Sir, multiple residents have given me feedback about the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) flying activities in Western Singapore, for example, "They fly so low we can even read the numbers and logos on the planes." "Makes it impossible to work from home or have conference calls." "They blast their engines at 6.20 am and 9 pm." "My young kids get startled by the noise and cry." "We have stayed in the area for over 20 years and have never experienced this intense frequency of noise." One, we all understand that the RSAF must stay operationally ready, so it must train. Two, airspace in Singapore is tight and the RSAF must fly over residential areas en route to international air space. And three, some of the flying is, in fact, not training in nature, but operational responses to situations. But can the RSAF review its flying parameters on timing, flying altitude, frequency, and most importantly, its flight path, say if there is a possibility to fly more over the lesser populated Lim Chu Kang area, to ensure a more sustainable balance, in the longer term, between operational readiness and a tolerable level of noise for residents in the West?
Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry (Kebun Baru)165 words
[+10 sentences]Chairman, Sir, vigorous training is key to an effective military. Consider combined arms warfare, a modern warfighting concept used by the best militaries, including Singapore. It involves the combination of infantry, artillery, armour, air support and naval forces. It requires high coordination and communication between the branches. Units must be able to work in concert with others, adapting to changing battlefields. To acquire such sophisticated warfighting skills, our soldiers must train effectively to acquire individual or sub-unit skills. They must also participate in larger-scale trainings and exercises to build teamwork between units. At the same time, the application of technology can improve the realism and effectiveness of training. These technologies include individualised or combined simulators for our air, land and sea assets. This also includes war-gaming software and specialised training facilities embedded with sensors and playback capabilities. Can the Minister for Defence share how SAF is utilising the latest technology, combine with the right facilities and safety protocol, to prepare our soldiers for any contingencies?
Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong (Jurong)186 words
[+6 sentences]The challenges we face in the information and cyber domains have grown far beyond any single country's ability to address. Not only have they grown in relevance, countries are also becoming more reliant on social media and digital technologies. Almost every aspect of our lives has an online presence, including for the purposes of accessing essential services, transactions and communication. Losing access to the cyber and information domains would be extremely disruptive and is a challenge that transcends national boundaries. While the world has become more seamless, integrated and interconnected through digital means, it has led to a new wave of modern security challenges, increasing our exposure to cyberattacks, disinformation and misinformation. We have witnessed a significant increase in the volume, frequency and reach of disinformation and falsehoods, not just within, but also across societies. In order to combat these common challenges, deeper international and multilateral cooperation can be essential. In light of this, could the Minister for Defence provide views on what Singapore can do to ensure that multilateral cooperation remains strong, to address the increasingly transnational nature of the digital threats that we face?
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang)145 words
[+5 sentences]As we begin to step out from COVID-19, we are seeing the slow return of things to their normal pre-pandemic state. However, we have not been fortunate to witness a similar turning point in the regional security environment. Instead, we see a hardening of tensions and an increasingly charged geopolitical environment, overlaid by deepening UNited States (US)-China strategic rivalry. Recently, the spy balloon saga has caused the rift between them, to further widen and divide the global community. In last year's Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), there was a comment by a representative of China's People's Liberation Army of his perception that the forum is dominated by the US and its allies. Could the Minister for Defence provide an update on MINDEF's efforts to foster security dialogue in the region?[+1 sentence] How can Singapore position itself as the neutral platform for open and honest dialogue on regional security?
Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh)243 words
[+6 sentences]I am glad that the SAF has resumed its full-scale overseas training exercises in 2022, after two years of COVID-19 disruptions. These overseas exercises are essential to provide our SAF troops with realistic and effective training, given our land constraints. But this "return-to-normal" also makes training safety a paramount concern, especially where existing National Service (NS) commanders may not have the necessary experience from the last two years of lower-tempo training. The large majority of our soldiers are full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) or Operationally-Ready NSmen (ORNS). We can all agree that in peacetime, we owe it to their parents and families to return them home after training – safe and sound. That is also my hope when my sons grow up and serve their NS in future. Can MINDEF provide an update on how the SAF upholds safety in training, even as it seeks to conduct realistic and effective training?[+3 sentences] Training safety is often seen to be at the expense of training realism and operational efficiency. Whether through its Inspector General's Office or the External Review Panels on SAF Safety, how has the SAF sought to innovate so that training safety is being pursued together with the aims of operational realism and effectiveness, and not simply enhancing safety measures at all costs? Are MINDEF and SAF regularly engaging with foreign counterparts regarding approaches to training safety, and what are some of the useful lessons we have learnt or can learn from other militaries?
Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines)61 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Chairman, the safety of our service men and women is paramount. At last year's Committee of Supply (COS), Senior Minister of State Heng Chee How spoke about emphasising a strong safety culture in the SAF through audits and inspections. What were the recent findings from such audits and inspections, including those conducted by the External Review Panel on Training Safety?
The Chairman9 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Seah Kian Peng. Not here. Mr Patrick Tay.
Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer)149 words
[+6 sentences]NS is an important component of our nation's defence and the contributions and commitment of our NSmen are instrumental in ensuring peace, stability and security of Singapore. However, Singapore's total fertility rate, which is already one of the lowest in the world, is declining. As a result, the number of full-time NSmen is projected to decrease. This further exacerbates the situation as our NSmen form the bulk of our defence force. This statistic could be worrying for MINDEF and the SAF, as it poses a significant manpower and structural challenge to the SAF. We would eventually have to face the issue of maintaining an effective military force with a much leaner SAF. With that in mind, how is MINDEF and SAF working to ensure that we optimise the development and deployment of our NSmen within the SAF, to tap on and maximise their skills, physical status, capabilities and contributions?
Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio)160 words
[+5 sentences]Chair, many in this House would agree that our people are our most important resource. Our rapidly ageing population and low fertility rate have a direct impact on SAF. Thus, we must ensure that our NSmen are deployed efficiently to tasks which they are able to carry out effectively and safely. With the adoption of cutting-edge military technologies, there are now new tools that our NSmen can use in a wider range of vocations. It is, therefore, timely for us to reconsider whether there are now new opportunities for our NSmen to take on. At the COS debate last year, Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Heng Chee How shared with the House that the SAF had successfully implemented functional assessments for NSFs, with more NSmen safely deployed as transport operators. He also shared that functional assessments would also be extended to pre-enlistees with orthopaedic conditions.[+1 sentence] Would MINDEF, therefore, provide an update on the implementation of these functional assessments?
Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang)217 words
[+7 sentences]Chairman, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to our economy and society. In particular, the education, training and opportunities for our young people had been impacted. Many lessons and training programmes were conducted online, and our youth were not able to harness the full benefits of in-person interactions and hands-on experience. Technology is changing the way we live and work. Notwithstanding the global layoffs by major technology companies, digital skills – such as coding and data analytics – will continue to be crucial in the future of work. It is important that our young NSmen are adequately prepared to meet the challenges of the new economy, even as they train to defend our nation. In this regard, MINDEF's Work-Learn Scheme is well-placed to meet the aspirations of our people. Since it was introduced in 2018, MINDEF had expanded it to cover more roles and vocations. Last year, Senior Minister of State Mr Heng Chee How highlighted and updated that the SAF will introduce another two Work-Learn Schemes – the Digital Work-Learn Scheme for eligible servicemen to pursue undergraduate degrees in areas, such as Computer Engineering and Data Science, as well as the Work-Study Diploma for Supply Supervisors.[+1 sentence] Can MINDEF provide an update on the expansion of the Work-Learn Scheme for NSFs to more roles and vocations?
Mr Abdul Samad (Nominated Member)206 words
[+10 sentences]Chairman, I am heartened by Minister's response to my Parliamentary Question on the subject matter for vocation and choice for our NSFs. The examples he shared ranges from air defence, artillery, intelligence, island defence signals and transport. This certainly makes the NS period more meaningful for Singaporeans who got their vocation choices, instead of dragging their soles to report back to camp during the duration of NS. I am speaking on this from my own personal experience in the past when I served my NS. Can Minister enlighten if any NSFs have decided to pursue a career in MINDEF when they were posted to their choice vocation? What is the probability of NSFs having a career in combat as compared to non-combat related? With regard to transport that was mentioned in his response, does this include engine technicians or the equivalent? What kind of career can the NSF look forward to, should they choose to be in engineering as compared to combat? Finally, does MINDEF provides any Work-Study Diploma opportunity for NSF enlistees that come from Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs)? I believe that the sophisticated combat vehicles can entice young Singaporeans to take the opportunity to have hands-on experience in the engines of such vehicles.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh115 words
Chairman, I was heartened to hear last year that the number of expertise-based redeployments had gone up significantly in 2022.[+4 sentences] Allowing NSmen to use their civilian expertise to contribute to national defence should provide for a more effective SAF and a better NS experience. After serving their NS, many Singaporeans go on to fulfilling careers in various specialisations, some of which may be valuable to the SAF. We should consider how best to tap on their skillsets and specialisations, and enable them to make better use of their time during their ORNS. Would MINDEF share an update on whether the number of expertise-based redeployments has gone up and in which areas are they contributing to?
Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten)167 words
[+8 sentences]Sir, the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been trying for all of us, but we have also made significant technology-related gains during this period. Many Singaporeans now enjoy the flexibility of remote working and catching up with friends online has become more commonplace. Many NSmen use their mobile phones connect to their family, to their friends and colleagues. And these phones also serve as their calendars, wallets, bus and MRT cards. I would say not just NSmen, but all of us as well. But for many of our young NSmen, the digital life is the only life they have ever known. Given that our NSmen devote precious time to serve the nation, it is necessary for MINDEF to make the best use of technology to ensure that the NS' administrative processes are efficient and convenient. So, may I ask how is MINDEF leveraging technology to improve NS administrative processes – particularly to cater to the preferences of a young and digitally-savvy generation of NSmen?
Ms Poh Li San (Sembawang)133 words
[+4 sentences]Chairman, our NSmen make many sacrifices to defend our nation, while they juggle NS obligations with the other demands in their work and family lives. Ensuring an efficient and convenient NS Experience would be most helpful to them. I appreciate the OneNS initiative which seeks to achieve this goal by centralising NS transactions and services, such as SMART Information and Communications Technology (ICT) onto this one-stop platform. I understand that OneNS can anticipate the needs of each individual serviceman and personalise digital services, so that each can have easy access to relevant information and services in a timely manner. OneNS was rolled out in the second half of last year. Would MINDEF share the feedback and experience from its users and assess how much difference this platform has made to the NS experience?
Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman (Marine Parade)200 words
[+7 sentences]Sir, since 1967, NS has been the cornerstone of our defence, as well as the rite of passage for Singaporean males, shaping them from "Ah Boys to Men". The NS experience not only consists of two years' full-time service but also regular reservist call-ups in the years that follow, to ensure that the NSmen's skills and knowledge remains relevant and current. It is also a whole-of-society endeavour because families and employers play a huge role to support our NSFs and NSmen whenever they are required to answer their call of duty. Most importantly, NS is about strengthening Singaporean's commitment and ability to defend and protect Singapore. To mark the 55th anniversary of NS last year, MINDEF organised a series of activities to recognise the contributions of our NS past and present. The activities were designed to raise awareness of NS, promote fitness, and highlight the sacrifices and dedication of NSmen over the past 55 years. The NS55 celebrations also provided an opportunity for the nation to come together to show its support and gratitude to NSmen and their families. Can MINDEF provide an update on how Singaporeans have responded to these activities and whether these activities had achieved its objectives?
Mr Chong Kee Hiong (Bishan-Toa Payoh)204 words
[+9 sentences]Chairman, last year, we commemorated 55 years of NS. This was a meaningful opportunity to pay tribute to the contributions of our past and present NSmen. Their contributions and personal sacrifices have ensured the SAF has remained strong, and have kept Singapore safe and secure. While NS55 activities have concluded, recognition and support for our NSmen should continue. Our Singaporean sons devote two full years of their time, away from their families and loved ones, for the defence of Singapore. They put their studies and career aspirations on hold and serve with passion and commitment. After full-time NS, our NSmen continue to make sacrifices juggling family, work and NS commitments. I was, therefore, glad to hear that the NS Review Committee had prioritised recognition and support for our NSmen as one of the Committee's three thrusts. I appreciated that Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Heng Chee How talked about NS recognition in his COS speech last year, including about the enhancement of the NS HOME awards. What are MINDEF and the SAF doing to ensure that our NSmen continue to feel appreciated for their contributions to our national defence?[+1 sentence] How can MINDEF and the SAF better support our NSmen's families as well?
Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol)218 words
[+9 sentences]I would first like to thank our NSmen for being a key pillar of Singapore's national defence. It is important for us to ensure that NSmen and their families are supported and recognised for their sacrifices. We should not take these contributions for granted. Today, NSmen have to balance their professional and personal lives alongside their NS commitments during their reservist years. Some of them even have to set aside life milestones. Our growing freelance and self-employed workforce often face livelihood losses for each day that they are away from work and, hence, steps to alleviate unnecessary administrative processes will go a long way in helping with the balancing of their commitments. We should seek to continually improve the NS system, so that each and every NS man can have fulfilling and meaningful NS experiences. We should strive to increase conveniences for our NSmen by reducing administrative burdens for them where possible, without compromising on SAF's operational readiness. One instance of this was in 2019 when Senior Minister of State Mr Heng Chee How announced that ORNS would no longer have to notify the authorities when they travel abroad for less than half a year. Could MINDEF provide an update on whether a review is timely this year, given that four years have passed since the last announcement?
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim285 words
[+13 sentences]Sir, it has been one year since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. In the war's early days, the world watched with bated breath as the machinery of Russian warfare rolled into Ukraine. Would the Ukrainians be able to hold, and if so, for how long, how many days? Many feared that Ukraine faced overwhelming odds. One year on, however, the Ukrainians have defied the strong odds against them. Soldiers have fought bravely and valiantly on the battlefield to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their homeland. But we have to look beyond the traditional battlefield too. Indeed, the total attack nature of modern warfare today has expanded the realm of the traditional battlefield. Wars are no longer just conflicts between armies, but between nations and their peoples, and how to break their spirit and psychological unity. On this count, the Ukrainian people have, too, fought bravely against the chaos, destruction and horrors of war. Instead of buckling under pressure, the Ukrainians came together and rose to the occasion. Tales of Ukrainians from all walks of life banding together have hit the headlines time and again, displaying inspiring acts of heroism, resourcefulness and ingenuity. From engineers building portable stoves out of old refrigerator parts to fend off the cold amid power outages, to housewives fashioning makeshift but effective tourniquets and weaving camouflage nets as covers for military vehicles and soldiers. In light of these developments in Ukraine, could MINDEF share the key Total Defence takeaways from the Russia-Ukraine conflict for Singapore?[+1 sentence] Singaporean actor Ix Shen, who was living in Ukraine, recounted how Ukrainians who lined up in a supermarket to stock up on necessities made way for soldiers and gave them words of encouragement.
The Chairman8 words
[+2 sentences]Ms Rachel Ong. Take your two cuts, please.
Miss Rachel Ong (West Coast)405 words
[+14 sentences]Chairman, at the COS debate last year, Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Zaqy Mohamad shared that a "2021 Total Defence Review" was undertaken and had reflected sentiments of Singaporeans wanting space to contribute ideas and efforts towards shaping Singapore's Total Defence. During the same debate, I also raised the question on how we can continue to engage our youth in defence matters. The Senior Minister of State then shared about the launch of the Total Defence Sandbox. May I ask MINDEF for an update on the progress of the Total Defence Sandbox, as well as the follow-up on the suggestions and recommendations put forth by Singaporeans as part of the Total Defence Review. Also, the plans to ensure that Total Defence remains relatable and resonate with all Singaporeans? An important goal of Total Defence is to build resilient communities; communities that are able to withstand, respond and bounce back quickly from adverse situations. This has never been more critical in this era of uncertainty; politically, economically and also in the form of natural disasters. There are examples we can look to, which showcase the strength of a community banding together. As shared by some, the Ukrainian people have been a remarkable example of a people coming together to not only defend their country, but innovate in the face of great difficulty. Tech professionals in Ukraine used their talents to aid the nation's efforts and support humanitarian needs amid the crisis, such as creating apps that notify users about bombings or supporting humanitarian needs. Civilians with tech know-how found creative ways to adapt commercially, and to build drones and materials for military use. Businesses like Headway, a Ukrainian start-up, continued operating from bomb shelters in the midst of air raids, successfully offering bite-sized learning on an app used by 15 million people in over 140 countries. Others continue to attend and showcase their new innovations at international trade shows. In the words of a startup founder from Ukraine, Mr Nazar Trokhymchuk: "the militaries are fighting, Ukrainian business is working, start-ups are developing, so everyone is doing their job". I imagine that any crisis that hits Singapore shores, from either traditional or emerging threats, would demand a similar type of collective resilience, in order for us to bounce back stronger after each crisis. Therefore, may I ask MINDEF for updates on how MINDEF has bolstered community resilience through various initiatives under the Total Defence umbrella.
Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines)56 words
[+2 sentences]Chairman, every Singaporean has a part to play in our whole-of-society effort to build a strong, secure and cohesive nation. New threats continuously emerge, while existing threats evolve and re-invent themselves. The addition of Digital Defence is timely, which forms the sixth pillar of Total Defence.[+1 sentence] How has MINDEF partnered the community to strengthen Total Defence?
Mr Chong Kee Hiong125 words
[+1 sentence]Chairman, last year, the World Economic Forum recognised the contributions of one Ukrainian, Fedir Serdiuk, who had founded the First Aid Special Training, or FAST, organisation in 2016 to provide first aid training to ordinary Ukrainians. His organisation has reportedly trained more than 50,000 Ukrainians with the skills needed to render first aid, which has been particularly useful amidst the current hostilities.[+1 sentence] I hope that Singaporeans continue to be inspired by such stories and that more Singaporeans are encouraged to learn about how they can prepare themselves to respond in the event of a national crisis. How is MINDEF working with other agencies to enhance Singaporeans' civic preparedness?[+1 sentence] What are the measures planned to increase participation and the range of skills learnt by each participant?
Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar)276 words
[+9 sentences]Chairman, the global crises in the last two years served as important reminders that the people of Singapore need to be prepared to step up and respond in the event that we face crises. Let me cite three cases for illustration. One, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has shown the importance of prepared and willing citizens who are able to not only respond to challenges such as food and energy shortages, but also resourceful enough to put lifesaving skills and other civil defence responses into practice, to save their own lives and that of other citizens. Two, the COVID-19 pandemic, where not only our healthcare, border security and livelihoods were put to the test, but also the spread of misinformation and disinformation to make things worse. Three, the recent massive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, causing thousands dead and missing, and millions displaced. Situations caused by geopolitical conflicts, health and natural disasters. Singapore has not and will not be spared from such disruptions to their lives. We are even more vulnerable because we are a small-nation state and have to punch above our weight to ensure we will not be defeated and will emerge stronger than ever. It is, hence, vital that we prepare Singaporeans adequately and in advance for emergencies – from having sufficient essential supplies for our people, to giving timely and correct information to together navigate through such crises. What has MINDEF done, and will do, to better prepare Singaporeans for future crises? How will it muster the strong resources it has and collaborate and align with other Government Ministries, ground agencies and volunteers, to ensure that we can band together during tough times?
The Chairman9 words
[+3 sentences]Mr Seah Kian Peng. Not here. Ms Joan Pereira.
Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar)140 words
[+4 sentences]Chairman, I am heartened to note that MINDEF and SAF continue to engage the community and key stakeholders to understand the challenges, constraints and opportunities faced by our people and businesses. Such engagements will go a long way to help boost the public support for defence and enable Singaporeans to better understand defence issues, so that they can play a more active role in building a resilient society. Over the years, the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence (ACCORD) has provided an invaluable avenue for MINDEF and SAF to receive feedback and proposals. Last year, Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Zaqy Mohamad provided an update on the various ACCORD initiatives, including ACCORD's focus on engaging youth and women on defence issues. Would MINDEF provide an update on the various initiatives that ACCORD has been working on recently?
Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar)155 words
[+6 sentences]Chairman, our NSmen form the backbone of Singapore's defence and work tirelessly every day to ensure that they are always ready to respond to any current and future threat against Singapore. Yet, the continued strength of our defence cannot be predicated on the individual soldier alone. For a NS man to carry out his duties effectively and with commitment, the support of his community and family is essential. Singaporeans from every part of our society must continue to also show appreciation for the hard work that they put in. ACCORD plays an integral role, by reaching out to individuals from all walks of life, to strengthen their commitment to defence. ACCORD must continue its efforts to engage individuals, corporations and community groups, to mobilise support for defence issues, especially for NS. Could MINDEF thus update the House on ACCORD's initiatives and how it has encouraged community support for defence issues, particularly, with regards to NS?
Mr Lim Biow Chuan133 words
[+6 sentences]The Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC) is about who we are and what we want to be. I am glad that almost two decades on from its last major revamp, the SDC continues to keep Singapore's history alive for our children and grandchildren, and to be a place for interactive learning. Over the past two years, Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, has updated the House about plans to refresh and transform the SDC. If we do an Internet search on SDC, it currently looks like a tourist attraction, but surely, it must be more than a tourist site. May I ask MINDEF, what can visitors expect at the SDC today? How can we use the centre to help our children learn more about our history, and also about our future?
Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas)237 words
[+10 sentences]Mr Chairman, a shared sense of belonging is key to a country's identity. Central to this is a collective understanding and appreciation that citizens have of our country's history. We recently celebrated Total Defence Day on 15 February. For many young Singaporeans, it might have seemed like just any other day, except for the public warning siren that was played on that day. In case we forget, Total Defence Day is commemorated on the day that Singapore fell during World War II. It is a day to remind ourselves of the lessons from that dark chapter of Singapore's history – that the responsibility to defend our nation lies with all of us. It is, therefore, crucial that lessons from such key historical moments are passed down to future generations of Singaporeans, who will naturally feel increasingly distanced from long ago events that have shaped our nation. To this end, museums are a good medium. When my children were younger, I used to bring them to places, such as the Battlebox and the Army Museum, to help them relate to what it was like living at a time where safety could not be taken for granted. I would like to ask if the Ministry tracks the visitorship of our various military museums and whether younger Singaporeans have been visiting them? Are there any upcoming plans to revamp these military museums to enhance their appeal to our younger generation?
The Chairman7 words
[+1 sentence]Senior Minister of State Heng Chee How.
The Senior Minister of State for Defence (Mr Heng Chee How)530 words
[+4 sentences]Mr Chairman, Minister for Defence, Dr Ng, said in his speech, that defence is a long-term business requiring consistent investment over time. Aside from building a capable armed forces that can serve as a deterrence and defend us against threats, MINDEF works hard on defence diplomacy and cooperation – both bilateral and multilateral - to build defence ties and address common security challenges. Mr Shawn Huang and Mr Zhulkarnain asked about this. Let me cite two examples. As Dr Ng had updated the House last year, the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) had agreed to establish the ADMM Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence (ACICE) in Singapore.[+2 sentences] This Centre promotes research and information sharing among partner nations on emerging cybersecurity and informational threats. ACICE has started sharing products with all partner nations. The construction of ACICE's physical centre is also underway and we expect a formal launch in the third quarter of this year.[+2 sentences] The second example is that of the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD). After a two-year hiatus, the SLD resumed last year in a physical format. SLD22 was a successful event that was well-attended by 37 ministerial-level delegates, including from both the US and China. The SLD remains the premier defence and security conference in Asia and provides a venue to affirm mutually beneficial principles and to allow for dialogue, if not build trust. We look forward to commemorating the 20th edition of the SLD this year, where Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has agreed to give the keynote address.[+6 sentences] Beyond investing in a strong SAF and defence diplomacy, we have continuously invested in and evolved the NS system. NS is the cornerstone of our defence and national security. NSmen form the bulk of the SAF, the Police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). Their sacrifices and commitment lay the foundation for Singapore's security and prosperity. It is critical that we continuously maintain and strengthen the NS system. Here, I am happy to inform the House that public support for NS remains very strong. In one of MINDEF's surveys conducted among Singaporeans late last year, more than 98% of the respondents said that NS was necessary for Singapore's security, both now and in the future.[+11 sentences] It shows that Singaporeans understand that small states are inherently vulnerable, that we need to take responsibility for our own defence and that NS remains, I would say more than relevant – it remains critical. This outcome does not come by chance. MINDEF and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) make regular efforts to strengthen the NS system and recognise the contributions of our national servicemen. Last year, the NS Review Committee (NSRC) submitted recommendations to ensure that NS remained effective amidst Singapore's evolving defence needs, as well as the changing needs of our NSmen. We also commemorated 55 years of NS (NS55). Today, I will provide an update on these efforts. To recap, the NSRC's recommendations can be grouped into three broad thrusts. First, maximising the contributions of servicemen. Second, improving the NS experience. And third, enhancing recognition and support. With your permission, Mr Chairman, may I ask the Clerks to distribute a handout on the NSRC initiatives, which Members may refer to.
The Chairman14 words
[+1 sentence]Please do.
Mr Heng Chee How2361 words
[+8 sentences]Members may also access the handout through the MP@SGPARL mobile app. Mr Patrick Tay asked about MINDEF's efforts to optimise the deployment of NSmen to maximise their contributions. Given low fertility rates and shrinking cohort sizes, the SAF needs to optimise the contributions of every soldier – in two ways. The first concerns medical fitness and job requirements. To complement our existing medical screening process, we introduced functional assessments for pre-enlistees with selected orthopaedic conditions. Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked for an update on this. Under this functional assessment, we assess the pre-enlistee's ability to do physical tasks, such as running, jumping and carrying heavy loads. This approach allows us to accurately match more servicemen to operational roles as compared to the traditional approach of matching servicemen based only on their medical diagnosis. To date, 100 pre-enlistees with certain orthopaedic conditions have undergone such functional assessments and 75 have been found to be fit to be deployed to a wider range of operational roles than before.[+2 sentences] At the same time, we are leveraging technology to redesign jobs. Similarly, this enables more servicemen to be deployed into operational roles. Since 2021, the SAF has redesigned 1,300 jobs in vocations, such as Medics, Infantry Carrier Vehicle Operators and Transport Operators, opening them up to more servicemen. The SAF is on track to do the same for another 500 jobs by the middle of this year, and that will bring it from 1,300, to 1,800 jobs.[+8 sentences] The second way is to maximise contributions that concern knowledge and skills. To keep up with the changing nature of conflict and emerging threats, the SAF needs to grow and tap the skills of our NSmen. In this, we have made good progress. I have updated the House in recent years about Work-Learn Schemes for NSFs, a subject which Mr Don Wee asked about. Mr Abdul Samad also asked about career pathways in the SAF related to engineering. Under the Work-Learn Schemes, NSFs attain a diploma or partial university credits from Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) while performing a period of full-time NS followed by regular service. They are trained in domains, such as artificial intelligence, supply chain management and engineering, which allows them to be deployed as digital specialists, supply supervisors and technicians respectively. Two months ago, we also introduced a new scheme for NSFs to pursue Diplomas in Engineering (Mechanical Technology) and be deployed as Naval Warfare System Specialists. Overall, 450 NSFs have enrolled in such Work-Learn Schemes so far.[+6 sentences] By 2025, we expect 500 NSFs to be enrolled in Work-Learn Schemes every year. Our efforts to maximise expertise cover not only NSFs, but also NSmen. Some of our NSmen have skills that the SAF needs, which they have acquired in their civilian careers. The SAF has stepped up efforts to identify and redeploy these NSmen to make better use of their civilian expertise and skills. Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked for an update on the results. The results have been encouraging. Over the past year, the SAF has redeployed 200 NSmen under the Enhanced Expertise Deployment Scheme.[+27 sentences] This represents a four-fold increase from the average number of 50 NSmen a year between 2014 and 2021. New areas to which NSmen were redeployed last year included digital and intelligence, logistics and engineering. While optimising deployment is important, we also need to make NS processes more seamless, so that our national servicemen can focus on their training. Mr Lim Biow Chuan and Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked about this. This brings me to the second thrust of the NSRC's recommendations – that of improving the NS experience. A major administrative burden for employers and NSmen had been the filing of Make-Up Pay claims for In-Camp Training (ICT). In the past, this was done manually. Entries were, therefore, sometimes incomplete and payment delays happened. In September last year, we introduced an automated system that draws income-related information from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board and Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) to calculate Make-Up Pay amounts. If they so wish, employers and NSmen can review the computed amounts and file for adjustments. Otherwise, the amounts will be paid out automatically and there is no action needed on their part. As a result, we have had very positive feedback. The claim amounts derived from CPF Board and IRAS data have proven to be up to date and accurate. Since September, 92% of claims have been processed automatically. Based on our estimates, the automated system will save employers, NSmen, MINDEF and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) more than 260,000 man-hours of processing effort every year. Apart from saving time, the automation has also allowed us to make payment much faster. Since September, 90% of claims have been paid within 10 days from the start of in-camp training (ICT). Practically, the payment is processed while people may still be undergoing their period of ICT. Alongside this automated system, we also introduced a base NS pay of $1,600 per month whenever NSmen attend ICT or other ORNS activities. This means that if the data from CPF Board or IRAS indicates that an NSman earns less than $1,600 per month, MINDEF will top up his NS Pay to $1,600 per month, prorated according to the duration of the ORNS activity. As an example, if an NSman attends a 12-day ICT, on a prorated basis of a base pay of $1,600, he would be paid at least $600. This provides additional support to NSmen who are students or who are not employed or whose income from informal jobs may not be fully captured in CPF or IRAS data. We hope that this gives NSmen from lower-income segments greater financial security when they attend ORNS activities. On this, I just want to reiterate the point that MINDEF is fully committed to the well-being and welfare of both our NSFs and NSmen. Through so many examples that we have given, the public can be confident that we will regularly update such benefits, in order to take good care of our servicemen. Our efforts to digitalise NS transactions and touchpoints go beyond Make-Up Pay claims. Members who are NSmen would remember receiving physical vouchers from MINDEF and MHA in the past as part of our recognition efforts. Since 2021, we have replaced cash and voucher-based NS recognition benefits with digital credits disbursed through the LifeSG mobile app.[+4 sentences] With the change, national servicemen are now able to receive, carry and redeem their credits via their mobile devices. The credits can be used with any business that accepts payment by NETS or PayNow QR. Some businesses also offer our servicemen discounts for the use of the credits as a show of support for NS. When they do so, this has effectively further raised the dollar value of the benefits. As part of the NS55 Recognition Package, $100 worth of credits were distributed electronically in July last year to more than a million NSmen past and present. When we checked in mid-February 2023, the 136,000 NSmen who had rated the NS55 redemption eService on LifeSG app had given it an average of 4.8 out of five stars. Over the past seven months, 76% of NSmen have started using or have already used their credits fully.[+25 sentences] This is a relevant piece of data because it shows that when it is made available to be used electronically, it makes it much more convenient and it speeds up the utilisation and the enjoyment of the benefit. In comparison, it took 18 months to achieve the same use for physical vouchers when we did that for NS50. I encourage all national servicemen to fully utilise your credits. Ms Poh Li San asked about the use of the OneNS platform to improve the NS experience. The OneNS platform is a consolidation of NS-related services and transactions into a single mobile app. We rolled out the first phase of OneNS to selected ICT units. NSmen in these units can register their attendance at ICT easily with the geolocation function on the app. This has allowed the units concerned to start the proper ICT programme earlier. OneNS will be extended to more units in the coming months. I now move on to the third thrust, which is that of enhancing recognition and support for NSmen, something which Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked about. Last year, we conducted a year-long NS55 campaign themed "Generations of Strength". Mr Mohd Fahmi asked about the response to that campaign. Besides giving the NS55 Recognition Package to eligible NSmen, MINDEF and MHA organised a series of commemorative initiatives that was well received. As an example, the NS55 theme song "Back in the Day" accumulated over six million views online. The showcase at the Army Open House on the evolution of NS attracted 140,000 visitors. The community came together to organise activities such as walking alongside our NSmen under the NS55 Fitness Challenge. All in all, the NS55 campaign achieved its objectives. Surveys conducted after the campaign showed that 80% of our NSmen felt valued for their contributions to NS. And 90% of the general public felt that NS was a source of pride for Singapore. NS55 may have concluded but our efforts to recognise and support our NSmen and their families continue. In fact, we can already look forward to the opening of the new Singapore Armed Forces Reservist Association (SAFRA) clubhouse in Choa Chu Kang in May this year. That will bring an exciting host of amenities, especially to the 90,000 NSmen who reside in the northwest. I think many of us might have seen the exciting photos of my colleague, Senior Minister of State Zaqy's recent hard-hat tour of the upcoming facilities. So, look out for that. Beyond recognition benefits, MINDEF and MHA are also committed to strengthening financial protection for SAF and Home Team servicemen and volunteers. In January, we doubled the coverage for the Group Term Life and Group Personal Accident insurance, up from $150,000 to $300,000.[+16 sentences] We have also extended the coverage to conditions, such as long-term hearing damage and decompression sickness. It is, therefore, fitting that the Group Personal Accident insurance is now called Group Personal Injury insurance – to reflect that extended coverage. I have covered the three thrusts of the NSRC but these are not our only priorities. The SAF will always pay particular attention to safe and effective training of our NSmen. Mr Desmond Choo and Mr Henry Kwek had asked about this. We are investing heavily in our training infrastructure. Minister for Defence Dr Ng had spoken about how SAFTI City will allow our NSmen to undergo realistic training for a wide range of scenarios as well as the SAF's plans to leverage technology, including simulators and real-time sensors, to enhance training. The development of expanded overseas training areas, including those in Australia, will also allow our NSmen to have more opportunities to participate in large-scale, integrated training. While training must be realistic to be effective, we will never compromise on safety. Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked about how the SAF balances safety and training effectiveness. Sharing of safety practices and co-development of safety management plans have always been an important part of training exercises that SAF conducts, both for itself as well as with other military forces. Representatives from the SAF also attend international defence safety conferences, in order to share experiences and also to gain insights on safety benchmarks and practices. These are then put into reviews and revisions of safety standards to further enhance them where appropriate. The 3rd ERPSS, which began its three-year term in 2021, noted that the SAF had comprehensive systems to ensure the safety and health of our soldiers during training. This assessment was made after the Panel visited key SAF training schools and an overseas training exercise over the past two years. Miss Cheng Li Hui asked about audit findings and learning points. The SAF Inspector-General's Office recently completed its second audit cycle across all SAF formations. The audit findings show that the SAF's safety management systems remain robust despite the ramp-up of training over the past year following pandemic-related disruptions. I announced last year that the SAF was developing an Enterprise Safety Information System (ESIS). It has been fully adopted in the SAF, allowing quick spreading of safety lessons and easy submission of near misses and incidents by personnel across all ranks.[+6 sentences] The system enhances commanders' awareness and decision-making, in order to better prevent accidents. The SAF will continue to invest resources and harness technology to strengthen our safety culture. This concludes my update on the implementation of initiatives in our priority areas. Work in these areas will never end and we will continue to look for new ways to strengthen the NS system and recognise our NSmen. With that, I am now pleased to make two announcements. First, in an effort to improve NS processes further, we have reviewed exit controls for NSmen and concluded that we are able to further relax them. From April this year onwards, NSmen will only need to apply for an Exit Permit when they leave Singapore for 12 months or more, up from the current six months or more.[+2 sentences] This change reflects the growing mobility of Singaporeans, with many of our NSmen staying or working overseas for longer durations. Let me assure Members that we have studied this very carefully and the SAF's operational readiness will not be affected as a result of this change. Second, in appreciation of the contributions of our national servicemen, the National Service Resort and Country Club (NSRCC) will be building a social and recreation hub that will come with chalets, sports facilities and other family-centric amenities.[+4 sentences] More details will be announced in due course. We hope that this effort – to build this hub and enhance our services to NSmen – will cater even better to the leisure needs of a younger generation of NSmen. Mr Chairman, we need an effective NS in order to safeguard our security and our sovereignty. We must build on the contributions of previous generations, take care of our NSmen and ensure that NS is well-positioned to safeguard our way of life into the future.
The Chairman5 words
[+1 sentence]Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad.
The Senior Minister of State for Defence (Mr Zaqy Mohamad)2396 words
[+26 sentences]Mr Chairman, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen and Senior Minister of State Mr Heng Chee How spoke at some length about the importance of investing steadily in a strong defence. They stressed the importance of long-term investments in building up our military capabilities and strengthening our NS system, even during times of relative peace. I would add that we also need steady investment in Singaporeans' commitment to defence and our collective national resilience. This underpins our Total Defence philosophy that we started in 1984. Total Defence has helped us through crises in the past and the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. It is even more needed now to prepare all Singaporeans to withstand ongoing disruptions, to defend against the multitude of threats that lie ahead and for us to continue to thrive. Looking back on the past year's challenges, the Russia-Ukraine war resonates with me because it shows precisely why Total Defence remains critical for Singapore's survival. The world has been awed by the sheer courage and ingenuity of Ukrainians in their spirited fight against Russia. Member of Parliament Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim and Ms Denise Phua, as well as others highlighted this. And I think there is much we can learn from how the whole-of-Ukrainian society mobilised for its national defence. In an inspiring display of Civil and Psychological Defence, many Ukrainian individuals and businesses have volunteered their civilian support for the military effort. In the same month that Russia launched its full-scale invasion, a historian began making improvised bulletproof vests for soldiers, by taping sawed-off pieces of ploughshares and cut-up transmission belts from farming machines onto sleeveless dress jackets. Then, local business owners, specialising in everything from furniture to metalwork, came together to properly manufacture bullet-proof jackets sewn with camouflage fabric and tool pouches. Bullet-proof jackets are common apparel in Ukraine now. There are reports of farmers wearing them while working fields that are peppered with unexploded munitions, and parents preparing them for children in the event of evacuations. We also see the interplay between Military, Civil and Digital Defence in how Ukrainians have applied their computer and information technology expertise to help counter Russia's aerial attacks. To overcome limitations in their air defence system, Ukrainian volunteers worked with military and government officials to develop a mobile phone application that allows civilians to report sightings of incoming drones and missiles. Users only needed to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a button, and the application would send a report to the military, who would attempt to intercept the object before it struck. Demonstrating their social and psychological resilience, millions of Ukrainians have returned home since the war began, despite there being no clear resolution to the conflict in sight. Some are men who worked overseas and wanted to enlist to defend their country. Others are seniors, women and children who wanted to rebuild their homes and their communities. Their display of Social and Psychological Defence prompts me to reflect on the strength of our national identity and resilience. I hope that we never have to come to this. But should crisis arise and the country need us, Singaporeans must stand united and stay to defend our country. One people, one nation, one Singapore. Over the past two years, we have been engaging different groups of Singaporeans to strengthen Total Defence. Member Miss Rachel Ong asked about how MINDEF has followed up on our 2021 Total Defence Review. Through our review, we have identified two key priorities. The first is to help Singaporeans become more aware about the threats and challenges for our society, which would serve as a stepping-stone towards understanding how they can contribute to tackling these challenges. The second is to give Singaporeans more opportunities to propose Total Defence initiatives and to partner the government to implement these initiatives.[+12 sentences] In this spirit, we launched the Total Defence Sandbox last year, to crowdsource proposals from youths to put Total Defence into action. In the first round of submissions, we received 77 enthusiastic proposals, and have selected some proposals to implement this year. For example, university students Mr Caleb Tan and Mr Sheng Jiankai drew on their love of crime fiction to propose an immersive Total Defence Murder Mystery Role Play Game to help players learn about our multifaceted threat environment. Mr Tan said that through their game, they hoped that young Singaporeans would become more aware of the challenges and limitations that Singapore faces, and feel the urgency to take tangible actions for Total Defence. We think that their idea is fresh and engaging, and have partnered them with the SDC to bring their game to life. We are looking for more creative contributions from Singaporeans. Our second call for proposals to the Sandbox has just commenced and will run until May of this year. Chairman, we want to deter crises and conflict. However, when crisis hits, we must be prepared. The Government will spare no effort in our response, but the Government also cannot be everywhere all the time. This is where Singaporeans, all of us, must play our part to pitch in to support national efforts, as well as to take care of each other. Members Miss Rachel Ong, Miss Cheng Li Hui, Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Ms Denise Phua asked how MINDEF was partnering other agencies and the community to bolster community resilience and civic preparedness. Through the Total Defence Sandbox, a group of Singapore Management University (SMU) students proposed to conduct a table-top simulation to engage post-secondary students on Total Defence. We saw the potential of this idea and brought together Government agencies, grassroots organisations, education institutions and businesses to develop a full-fledged Community Exercise involving over 120 participants, as part of the 2023 Total Defence Day Commemoration Event. The exercise was conducted over two days in Chua Chu Kang Community Club, where members of the local community came together to draw up plans to prepare for and respond to disruptions of essential supplies.[+22 sentences] Visitors to the Total Defence Day Commemoration Event also learned about facilities and skills that are essential for civic preparedness. To show people that they can still prepare good food in the event of a shortage of fresh food, the ITE College West served nutritious meals that were cooked using ingredients with long shelf lives. In preparation for water-related emergencies, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) had booths to educate the public on water conservation and flood resilience. Residents were invited to try out PUB's mobile Water Bag Filling Machine, which can pack five-litre water bags for distribution in the event of water supply disruptions. So, this is a lot faster and quicker than what we used to remember – pail carrying and long queues. Some activities took place in the Civil Defence Shelter in the Community Centre, which is part of a longstanding shelter programme by the SCDF to protect civilians during natural and man-made disasters, as well as wartime emergencies. The SCDF also conducted public demonstrations of critical life-saving skills, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and fire extinguishing. I am pretty inspired by how an idea that started in the Total Defence Sandbox evolved into a comprehensive and inclusive community effort with the close support of partners. Every Singaporean can build up their crisis preparedness by getting certified with life-saving skills and learning how they should prepare for and respond in emergencies. We hope to encourage more people to undertake these actions, and we are working with the People's Association and ITE College West to conduct the exercise with Singaporeans from more walks of life. We are also exploring new and more engaging ways to encourage youths to learn about Total Defence. One way is through the Total Defence Interactive Videos, which are available on the MINDEF and SG101 websites. The latest video, launched just last month, follows a friendly and comical grandmother and grandson duo as they try to tackle modern challenges such as supply disruptions and fake news. Viewers role-play as the video characters and make decisions that determine how the story unfolds. Through the videos, we hope that viewers reflect on how their individual choices can create a greater impact in the national context. School activities also provide valuable platforms for youths to learn about defence and security issues. For example, most of us are familiar with the National Cadet Corps (NCC). Some of us may have been part of the NCC when we were in school. I, for one, was an NCC cadet too, at one point. Like many students over the years, this gave me early exposure to Total Defence and prepared me with relevant skills for NS. For some, NCC also seeded aspirations for a career in the military. Today, we continue this tradition of actively engaging students and are piloting a new programme to empower youths to act in Singapore's Digital Defence. Our fourth service, the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS), launched the Sentinel Programme last year to equip youths with digital and cybersecurity skills.[+1 sentence] Students from participating secondary schools, junior colleges and polytechnics were offered hands-on workshops, engagement sessions and competitions. The programme was carefully crafted to expose students to foundational skills, such as basic programming, cryptography and network forensics. We received strong student interest in the pilot programme, and are working with other agencies, such as the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), to offer the programme to students from all secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics and ITEs in the coming years.[+8 sentences] NS is fundamental to our Military Defence, as outlined by Senior Minister of State Heng Chee How. In turn, community support is critical for the continued success of NS. We established the ACCORD in 1984 to bring together community nodes that represent employers, educational institutions, family members and members of the wider community. ACCORD has grown tremendously and continues to contribute valuable feedback and proposals. Members Ms Joan Pereira and Dr Wan Rizal asked for updates on ACCORD's initiatives, such as efforts to increase community support for NS. In the past year, ACCORD actively rallied the community to show appreciation for our NSmen through the We Support NS Campaign. The campaign garnered discounts and benefits for NSmen at 275 retailers that operate a total of 2,500 outlets across Singapore. In addition, ACCORD remains passionate about preparing youths and their families for NS. ACCORD co-organised NS engagement sessions for over 11,000 students from post-secondary education institutions in the past year and most agreed that the sessions helped them better prepare for NS.[+16 sentences] We also wanted to give women a glimpse of what NSmen go through, so that they can better support and advocate for NS and Total Defence. With this in mind, ACCORD partnered with the SAF to host another edition of the Women's Boot Camp earlier this month. Ms Koh Wee Min is an alumni of the 2019 Women's Boot Camp who returned to the most recent Boot Camp to support the camp trainers and share her experience. Ms Koh also initiated an NS55 project last year to plot the participating merchant outlets that offered We Support NS deals on a shared Google Map list. This allowed NSmen and their families to easily search for the deals. I think that she embodies the Total Defence spirit of playing your part, wherever you can. We all have memories of what it means to play our own part for Singapore's defence. It may be something small, like taking pride in your Uniformed Group school unit achieving a Total Defence Gold Badge. Or maybe something more life-changing, like digging your first shell-scrape in the humid jungle or hearing the buzz of mosquitoes as you are doing your doing your sentry duties or sending your loved one off to Pulau Tekong for Basic Military Training (BMT). These memories of our achievements and sacrifices are precious threads in the hard-won tapestry of our national identity. We believe in preserving these stories and artefacts across generations, so that we can learn about and reflect on the trials and tribulations that we have undergone as a fledgling nation and military. Members Mr Lim Biow Chuan and Mr Melvin Yong asked about the plans for our defence and military museums, and what visitors can expect. To bring our Singapore defence story to life and better preserve our heritage, we have set up the Defence Collective Singapore to oversee all our defence and military museums. This will help us deliver the best possible visitor experiences and national education programmes at our museums. We have been refreshing our museums to ensure that the exhibition content is up to date, and that the visitor experience is interactive and educational. The SDC completed a refresh a year ago, with new multisensory and digitally-enhanced exhibits on Singapore's past, present and future. Echoing the Singapore Green Plan 2030 and MINDEF's commitment to environmental sustainability, SDC is on track to achieve its ambitious sustainability target of becoming a net-zero energy building by this year. The Navy Museum is undergoing a complete makeover of its galleries and will reopen to the public in the middle of the year.[+2 sentences] Spanning three floors, the refreshed museum uses multimedia and interactive exhibits to tell the story of the Navy's evolution from its humble beginnings to the professional, competent maritime force that it is today. It will also display real equipment from the Challenger-class submarines for the first time. The NS Gallery at Marina Bay is being built within the new NS Square complex and remains on track to open by 2027.[+7 sentences] Our NSmen have defended our land, airspace and seas over the decades, and we want to showcase Singapore's NS story and honour the contributions of our NSmen past and present. We will also progressively refresh the Army and Air Force Museums in the coming years. Collectively, visitorship numbers at our museums have been encouraging with over 400,000 visitors annually spanning our military museums and the SDC. Mr Chairman, as its name suggests, Total Defence remains an all-encompassing, unceasing effort to strengthen ourselves, our communities and our nation. MINDEF will continue to invest in Total Defence, in partnership with fellow Singaporeans. Total Defence is our best preparation for our best response to, and our best recovery from, the threats of today and tomorrow. We will withstand whatever comes that our way if every Singaporean steps up to play a part in our defence.
The Chairman26 words
[+3 sentences]Clarifications, please. Really? No clarifications? Mr Vikram Nair, would you like to withdraw your amendment? You have got lots of time, so you can go on.
Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang)86 words
[+2 sentences]Thank you. I would like to thank Minister and Senior Ministers of State for sharing the plans for MINDEF. It looks like the House is supportive and it is being passed without clarification. So, I seek leave to withdraw my amendment.