Chay Wai Chuen
Singapore
“As a result, some enterprising businesses and grassroots people have even come up with better ideas on equipment and machines designed to suit our HDB estates, HDB rubbish chutes and our older workers, to make the equipment easier for them to handle. 3.00 pm I give this as an example.”
“Since there are so many anomalies administered by the two agencies up to now, and because so many retailers will be affected, I urge the Ministry to freeze this scheme and review the procedures and policies entirely and put up the designated land for tender to be administered by one agency.”
“Sir, I would like to ask the Minister to give more choices, in terms of compensation or alternatives and flat type allocation for those people who are affected by the Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme. Children should be, as best as possible, allowed to help pay for their parents in some of these choices that they have to choose.”
“Sir, the MUP Programme has been in place for some time and it applies to units which are 17 years and above. I would like to ask the Minister why are 40-year old flats still not upgraded.”
“Mr Chairman, there is an increase in the operating expenditure of $648 million this year for the Ministry of Defence. I would like to know what is the rationale for this increase.”
“Sir, the SAF has been involved in peacekeeping missions on several occasions, in East Timor and the Middle East, typically in the area of logistics and medical services. I wonder whether the Minister can enlighten me on what kind of role the SAF can play in this area of peacekeeping missions.”
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“Size, for example, is a very big competitive advantage in this sector. So to develop that kind of size for our own local enterprise, Singaporean enterprise, is it the same set of policies that is required for us to develop if we are only interested in providing efficient services at home? Strategic investment that is provided over a long term, for example, will not be undertaken by local service providers, because it may not be profitable over a given time frame. And if we do not do that in Singapore, then we may not have the experience, the know-how and the knowledge base to proceed overseas. So such investments that have to be made locally may be of strategic advantage to our country. So it leads me to the question of whether IDA will be able to achieve its objective of promoting and maintaining fair and efficient market conduct and effective competition. Will the IDA not have its own favourite son? This is particularly so because in clause 6(1)(m), the IDA is supposed "to encourage, promote, facilitate, invest in and otherwise assist in the establishment, development and expansion of the information and communications industry in Singapore". I hope the Minister can clarify. Assoc. Prof. Toh See Kiat: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister has said that IDA is an important step to better manage the convergence of IT and communications. I agree, Sir. Indeed, one of the concerns when I entered this House in 1997 was how we should perhaps restructure our Government and Ministries to cater to this problem. And it was reported in Hansard, 19th November 1997, in columns 1893 and 1894, when I asked the Prime Minister a question whether he would form a Ministry of Information Technology. Then the answer was simply no, that we had a National IT Committee to do that.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to speak in support of the Bill in the name of the Minister for Communications and Information Technology. This Bill seeks to merge the National Computer Board with the TAS to form this new IDA (Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore). One of the duties of this IDA is to promote the efficiency and international competitiveness of the information and communications industry in Singapore, as stipulated in clause 6(1)(a). I just want to seek a clarification from the Minister. The term "communications" here, I suppose, refers to telecommunications and not just communications, because in his Ministry, communications may also involve sea, land and air transport. Or does the Bill actually seek to cover these areas? The second point I want to ask is whether the notion of efficiency and international competitiveness mentioned in clause 6(1)(a) refers to our information and communications industry in Singapore in providing efficient services in Singapore or for them to go overseas and compete in the big league internationally. I am not sure whether the first meaning to provide efficient services in Singapore necessarily implies the other. So perhaps a clarification from the Minister as to what extent the aim of this Info-communications Development Authority extends well beyond the shores of Singapore overseas, and, if such is the case, whether such policies that we apply home will also be the best kind of policies that will enable some of our own companies to go overseas. While we would like our own service providers to give the best services and charge the lowest price for these services, does the Info-communications Development Authority necessarily see this issue of service providing as the sole issue for efficiency?”
“You do not even need to be IT savvy. Knowledge of IT is only the enabler. The business is all up to you. Hence, I feel very reassured that the Government is still very much focused on making our manufacturing sector a driving sector, maintaining at 25% share of GDP, to prevent the hollowing out of the economy. This is important for the manufacturing sector will provide the base and the linkage for jobs and exports. All Singaporean workers should be assured, because of the changes we are going to introduce to our training and work certification process. I ask all workers not to miss out on the many avenues and opportunities for training that the NTUC has established jointly with the Government. I wish to remind all my Singaporean workers that it was the NTUC who sounded the bell early last year on the impending issues of employability and retraining for our workers and came up with the positive solutions. Over the last one and a half years, much has been achieved by the NTUC together with the tripartite partners. Today, there is a Skills Redevelopment Programme workers can tap on. Our workers ought to be proud that there is a labour movement, led by leaders who can see further than many, the storms on the horizon and prepare the ground with the solution. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the motion.”
“More and more sophisticated machines in production can be built to replace specific operations and skills but it does not mean you should throw the baby out with the bath water. We should upgrade the skills of our workers. Hence, I find the Manpower Minister's speech yesterday very appropriate with his elaboration on the programmes that are available now to enable workers to upgrade their skills. In the United States, it has been found that the service sector is the one that gave the most employment during the period when the IT sector and productivity growth was highest in the last few years. For many workers who are not so IT savvy, there is still hope in the KBE. Even in the new economy, people need to eat, drink and travel. They need goods to be delivered, served and to be entertained. We need to raise the level of skills in our workers, especially in certain sectors - construction is one of them; retail, cleaning and the general service sectors. Professionalising these jobs will give better efficiency, justify more value-added and productivity. We cannot expect every Singaporean to be able to say he works in a knowledge economy. But we can ensure that production processes be fused with a significant component of the knowledge-based system so that our competitive edge is sharpened and maintained, and our people at the downstream services continue to stay employed, and earn a decent living. I once asked a well-known American economist who pioneered the study on the knowledge economy, Prof. Paul Romer, whether there is a typical sectoral profile in a knowledge-based economy. In other words, whether there is a special pattern in the sectoral distribution of the GDP in a knowledge-based economy. He said quite correctly that there was none.”
“One of the greatest challenges our Government and economy will face is to set forth the platform and strategic implementation for our training and skills retraining programmes for our people to launch and implement the Manpower 21 plan. The National Skills Recognition Scheme and the 'one institution two systems' approach' in our educational and training institutes are very important pillars. We must implement this fast because there is very little time. The sooner we implement this across our industries, the better chance we give our people to stay competitive and give them a better chance to a better quality of life. The second important thing that we must do is to professionalise more the jobs we create in the service or manufacturing sectors. This will allow more people to work efficiently and proudly in the service sector. The knowledge-based economy does not exist in a vacuum. Just now, we have heard my colleague, Mr Matthias Yao, expound very deeply into the meaning of a knowledge-based economy. I fully agree with him. Long before the use of minis and PCs, the Americans and the Japanese were already applying critical knowledge systems in their manufacturing or production processes. For them, the knowledge-based system was fused with the production system. In the manufacturing sector, they started by being craftsmen. Then, the machines replaced the craftsmen and the large scale production of goods replaced more and more skills in the jobs. Economists not long ago measured the comparative advantage of countries by their skill intensity in the production process. Knowledge-based systems were also present but not so intense. Today, production and service sectors require higher knowledge intensity to be competitive. It does not mean that skills are no more important.”
“I am glad that the Education Minister reiterated that the teaching of values to our students has not been forgotten to make them committed to Singapore. I prefer this simpler way of forging a nation - the better educated, more capable, knowing their roots and identified with the national values, the national goals, prepared to work for the betterment of his country and fellowmen. If we continue to teach our young to be world-ready and yet rooted in Singapore, we would not lose them, just because of globalisation and the IT culture. And these values of commitment are equally relevant in a modern, technological, knowledge-based economy. As long as we teach our children that they should be proud of the Singapore heritage, of how the country and their parents and brothers and sisters have done well against all the odds, all Singaporeans will be inspired by the Singapore Story. Their hearts beat as one. The moment we categorise them into heartlanders and cosmopolitans, we are creating an unnecessary divide. Sir, our economy faces many serious challenges in the years ahead. It is not just about going by how many percent per year. It is really about how we can sustain a meaningful quality of life for our workforce, our working population and a rapidly ageing one - a large portion of whom may find increasing difficulties in staying employed with an adequate income. Many of them need to continue working to be able to live comfortably. There are about 700,000 workers in the 45 years and above category with only a secondary two level of education. In a rapidly changing economy, there is always a danger of not being able to stay employed. The impact of this on our social fabric is something deserving our attention.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I wish to speak in support of the motion in the name of Mr Davinder Singh. It is fitting that the thrust of the Presidential Address is to exhort Singaporeans to build our future together. The problems that Singaporeans face and the Singapore economy faces are quite challenging. These problems affect all of us Singaporeans, whether heartlanders or cosmopolitans. Personally, I do not subscribe to this differentiation of Singaporeans. I feel it is unnecessary. We know in any country, whether in China, the United States, the UK, India, Malaysia or Singapore, there will always be some who, by their capabilities, by their connection, would have access to higher education or opportunities to work with people from many countries, travel internationally for work and business. These people, by their training and work and command of the English Language or a second language, can work in an overseas country. These people succeed in large measure due to the opportunities which their societies gave them in their formative years. We should therefore try to give everyone the maximum opportunities to excel and go far. We know that not all of us start life equally. But we have done so for many years. So I feel it is not necessary to make that distinction now and remind people that there are different classes. Are there really such distinct categories? I wonder whether all the maids and construction workers and factory operators from the developing countries who go to work overseas and earn relatively high income to send home to their compatriots will be considered 'cosmopolitans' in their own countries. I prefer to take the approach which the Education Minister yesterday elaborated - to educate all Singaporeans to be "world-ready and yet rooted in Singapore".”
“Will the Minister be able to tell us whether there is any coroner's inquiry in Singapore on this matter?”
“Sir, I speak in support of this Amendment Bill. I have, in general, no questions about the main items relating to this Amendment Bill. But there is one clause 11 which refers to section 21 of the principal Act which I am a little bit concerned. It concerns the application for the approval of fares. Under this proposed amendment, this application for the approval of fares should be supported by documents, including certified copies of the balance sheet and profit and loss account, and any auditor's report, relating to the applicant's undertaking as the Council may require. And in considering such applications, it is written in the Bill that the Council shall take into account the need of the applicant to remain financially viable as well as the need of the public interest. I want to ask the Minister to consider the possibility that there should be some efficiency criteria to be built into this kind of application to review or increase bus fares or public transport fares. The reason is that these are public charter monopolies in a sense. Proposals to raise fares in public bus companies or public transport companies can be made of course provided they are justified. The justification of it is not necessarily just on balance sheet or profit and loss account, but of course the need of the public. But there should be also efficiency critieria. How do our public transport companies, in discharging its functions and answering to the public, match themselves against other such public transport companies in delivering such services worldwide? With this benchmark, at least we know that such fare increases are justified and not just based on balance sheet and profit and loss account alone. I hope the Minister will consider this point and raise it with the PTC.”
“Sir, I would like to thank the Minister for all his answers to our queries and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. The sum of $325,505,650 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. The sum of $1,776,515,900 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates. Head M -”
“Sir, I would like to ask the Minister what is the rationale for allowing the bus transport companies to bid to operate the North East Line when the SMRT is not. The bus companies will have to bring in foreign train operators to run this service. Is it a kind of discrimination on SMRT? And how are we so sure that SMRT will not be able to provide a better low-cost service on rule-based competition compared with the foreign operators?”
“Sir, I would like to raise a question on Electronic Road Pricing. The Government intends to extend this ERP system. I have received feedback from a member of the public. According to this gentleman, he agrees that ERP and COE systems are necessary features. But what are the criteria the Government sets for evaluation before it extends the ERP? By what performance indicators do we measure whether the extension of the ERP is justified? When traffic flow in a certain location is below the standard set, his question is: who is at fault? Is it because the authority did not build enough egress or ingress roads to relieve the choked points? Or were there not sufficient improvements to public transport so that people have to continue to drive along that patch of road? Should there therefore not be a built-up or a monitoring period when information is transparent to the public as to the traffic flow situation and the alternative measures that are in place before raising the ERP charges once the traffic flow in that area drops below a certain target? I hope the Minister can enlighten the House.”
“The open bid model we are advocating that fits our system is the one-sided open competitive bid auction, with the lowest successful bid. It can be coupled with a Dutch auction where you bid down, or an English auction method where you bid up. I suggest we leave the details and the process to the study committee, which will come out with the proper model that can address the real nitty-gritty issues. The field of experimental economics is full of such case studies. There is a wealth of literature to draw on. All over the world today, consumers want to have the information and the power to choose and decide. Companies with hundreds of billions of dollars of sales are studying ways and means towards a more efficient consumer response using IT, with more rational processes. They are all re-evaluating and re-constructing their supply chain using IT for efficient processes. All over the world, electronic bids are done on the Internet, for example, E-bay dot.com. Business process will have to change to a more efficient way of doing things for the open world. The same goes for the bidding system. Singaporeans deserve and should be given the information and the responsibility for their decision and action. The consumers will have an important say in this and will determine the outcome of the bid which will reflect the social market value.”
“Do we find the prices of pork unduly higher because of some cornering of pork for market share or some frenzied consumption of pork over the last 10 years? The person responsible for developing this open bid real time electronic auction system for pigs more than 10 years ago is sitting very comfortably in the front bench as Minister and Government Whip. Of course, the technology was different but the fundamental concept is the same. Naturally, rules apply for such bid processes. Hence, I am confident the study will come out with a model, which can overcome the many fears expressed. I wish to thank all for the feedback. No one can give you the outcome of a bid process, whether it is going to be high or low. If he can, it has been fixed. The COE allocation or bidding mechanism can only take care of the supply side. We should make it more stable and predictable, more transparent. The demand side depends on the buyers. It depends on rationality, information power, income, economic outlook, expectations and the value perceived by buyers. The open-bid system gives a more transparent model with information to the buyers. The mandate to bid can also be given to a dealer but the mandate is transparent between the buyer and the dealer. This way the buyer knows exactly what the dealer is bidding on his behalf or whether it is within the mandate. Alternatively, the buyer bids on his own. In a close bid system, the information is not revealed. There are many kinds of auction systems that are practised by businesses all over the world. For example, there is the one-sided auction, the two-sided auction, the Dutch auction and the English auction. However, unfortunately, what we are more familiar here is only the seventh moon auction.”
“We are for a more dynamic mechanism with a revised formula that collapses the time lag and allocates the distribution to reflect changing preferences of the car buying public, instead of being locked into a distribution function of COEs that reflect preferences 10 years ago. We also made a recommendation for a trial out of an open-bid system in the open category. I will go into this a while. After all these recommendations, we ended with a prayer. We hope the dealers will provide a more transparent and arm's length, above-the-table engagement with customers, especially those who bid on their own. We do not believe all the unfavourable comments we have received on the dealers are justified, and we do not agree to the call to ban them from bidding. We believe they perform a service in the economy. The solution is to make the system more transparent and even out the information discrepancies arising from knowledge of market and experience in bidding or collusive power. Ten years ago, the technology and processes did not allow such a wide area open bid to be possible but today with information technology and computing power, electronic bidding goes on all over the world, every minute of the day. There are many ways in which an auction can be conducted. It puzzles me how before the model is even specified or developed, a writer to the Straits Times yesterday can talk of the flaws of an open-bid system. Caricatures of it appeared in the press, like frenzied bidding for some rare art piece or the seventh moon or-kim. However, it will not be the first time an electronic real time open bid auction is done in Singapore. The pig auction in Singapore is done electronically on a real time open bid basis daily. It has been done so for more than 10 years.”
“We recommended that the Government should consider raising the cap of 3% in view of the ERP system which can address usage costs more efficiently. We also recommended the merging of Categories 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 into two classes, the line being drawn at the 1,600 cc. Ideally, we believe there should be one category of cars. We do not recommend loading the already complicated COE system with all kinds of social equity reasons and factors, so that the value, benefit and costs are transparent and clear to all. Of course, we cannot completely dismantle the present system, but the Minister should be clear of our direction. By giving a bigger category size, ie, a larger number of COE quota with the merged category, we should find more competition, choice and a more stable outcome. In fact, too small a category size leads to a high possibility of an anomalous outcome. Merging the categories also gives wider choice of cars, and a more competitive environment for business benefiting the larger number of consumers. We also recommended to even out the surge in COE in the year 2000 by distributing it over two years, namely, 2000 and 2001. For everyone who owns or successfully bids for a COE, the Government must also be able to justify to the larger population who use public transport and pay taxes, that the road infrastructures are put to good use and social benefits and costs must also be weighed against private benefits and costs. The Government must be fair overall and not just please or bow to one section of car dealers or population who may have their own preferences or legitimate interests.”
“Sir, I beg to move, That the total sum to be allocated for Head I of the Main Estimates be reduced by $100. Sir, the Government Parliamentary Committee has submitted the review of the Vehicle Quota System and we have made some specific recommendations with the terms of reference set by the Minister. I will not go into the details of this report which have been variously carried in the press. One of the most impressive statements that I heard during all those hours of discussions and dialogues came from a freight forwarder. After all the feedback and complaints, as usual, during a 3-hour session, he stood up and confessed that in all his more than 30 years of the freighting business in Singapore, only today, in spite of so many vehicles on the road, can he really be confident to plan and execute a freight operation from one end of Singapore to the port, to time it such that there is a minimum of delay and time loss, and in the shortest possible time, in order for his goods to go up the container vessel berthed at the port just in time. He does this every day in his business. He attributed this to the VQS and the Government's forward looking systematic policies on land transport in Singapore. It is the power of technology and system and political will. This was the greatest compliment I heard for the Minister and his Ministry. Unfortunately, the Minister was not there, and it is not in the report. The Report made several recommendations which I will just highlight in order to give other Members the chance to have a go at it. We recommended to retain the system, although we went into it with an open mind. We found large support for the retention of the system with the lowest successful bid approach as against the pay-as-you-bid approach.”
“Many of such workers at this level may not be literate in English, but may have many years of working experience in technical jobs, and many of them are well versed only in the Chinese language. I believe we should not deny them. I hope such COC can be determined soonest to form the basis of our skills certification scheme. And our NTC pathways to diploma and university degrees should also be established. Only a year ago, I had appealed for a constituent who was a top student at the ITE and at the Polytechnic, but was not admitted to the University here. Only the enlightened intervention of the Senior Minister of State for Education gave this determined young man the chance to be admitted to study. Sir, I hope the Minister will consider this. 2.30 pm”
“Sir, this whole discussion on workers' and skills training in Singapore hinges on a set of important criteria which, unless we address them, I am afraid the effort may not be complete. I refer to the importance of the transferability of skills and certification, through the portability of the skills and the certification and the visibility of the skills experienced and the certification. Sir, the transferability of skills and certification refers to the recognition and credits we accord to various courses or the modules of training. The different pathways should be given recognition. The portability of skills and certification refers to the equivalences that we establish to accept and compare with other skills certification from other places. So, different pathways must be accepted and be recognised. For higher education, training is not just for the elite. Of course, every country has its own education and ranking system. I am not suggesting that we dismantle them, but the important step is to establish the equivalences across skills training and certification, perhaps in a modular structured way. We have our NTCs and we are working towards the certificate of competencies (COC) for our lower level workers without the NTC. I believe this is the correct way to go. We should even extend the transferability and portability of skills certification across the different pathways of training and education in Singapore. In order for a skill set to be transferable, portable or visible, we need to, firstly, identify the skill set. The skill set may be made up of several modular skills at various levels. Such a modular scheme should be determined as soon as possible, and the most basic of these is, of course, our certificate of competencies.”
“Even in the much vaunted stock and flow concept of skill/job retention and attrition, I urge caution. For example, I see in the information slides presented to Members of Parliament and resource persons, yearly inflow of 300,000 foreign labour and outflow of 260,000 for a fresh local cohort of 40,000. This seems to me to be a very large inflow and outflow figure in a year with a local cohort of 40,000. For years, we have been known to be the training ground for a lot of foreign workers - from maids, shipyard workers or engineering sector to executives, coming here to work and then going to other countries. We should bear in mind that experience and training opportunities go with the job. When a job is denied to a Singaporean, the training and experience opportunities to them are also no more available. 12.45 pm The danger is that when the Government machinery gets set in, the plan will be to get in the foreign supply to satisfy the equation forecast, while our own people who could be trained, cross-trained or upgraded are in the forgotten loop or out of the loop. Finding new ways and means to train and develop our people is a more valuable effort than just bringing in from outside the members to satisfy the equation. I wish to add that I am not against foreign talent. My concern and experience in the private sector is that many of the so-called foreign talents here are quite foreign but not quite talent. Bringing in the numbers will deny many deserving Singaporeans the opportunity of training that goes with the job, and the numbers may well be wrong.”
“Sir, I note that the Ministry has set up a special unit called the Manpower Planning Division and the Minister knows my view on this so-called manpower approach which I have expressed in the House. I think developing human resource is a far more important area of focus for his Ministry than just manpower planning. The significant experience of most of the manpower planning agencies in the US and UK historically is that they are usually wrong in their projections. Even in our case, for decades, we have seen how regular the universities have been out in projecting within a four-year period the output of graduates. The other day, I was talking to a young officer from the Community Development Council and she told me that she was a graduate from the Estate Management Faculty. She told me that only one third of her cohort from that Faculty probably found jobs in the estate management, real estate or property development sector where they have been trained. The rest have to look for jobs elsewhere in other sectors. There are many other examples of civil engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors which output from the university does not quite match the demand often times. The trouble with manpower planning is that at the high level, planning for manpower based on the growth of the economy is tautological. You need so many people in this area because we expect the economy to grow by so much in this sector. At the detailed level, where you try to project jobs at the industrial sector level, you can often be way out because of definition boundaries. This will be particularly so when the new knowledge economy will keep everyone guessing as to which are the sunrise and sunset sectors. In this game, the bureaucrats are not particularly the best participants.”
“Various grants or voucher payment schemes can be devised for modular training programmes that can be run by the private companies which can use their facilities and their plants for various modules of the training programme. The Government body can then concentrate more on administering these programmes, their certification and tests. With this more flexible system, we can train the kind of people that we need for the private sector economy, so that it could be more dynamic by engaging the right type of people. With a more flexible private sector oriented training scheme which I hope can be developed soon, we can expedite this important need for training and development in our economy. Sir, I support the Minister in his motion.”
“Hence, the multiplier effect of our Government budgetary stimulus is much smaller than what these figures are wont to show. So, we also have to be aware of the limitations of fiscal spending. Therefore, I see this role of trying to balance fiscal spending with our foreign exchange rate policy quite important. Due to the regional financial difficulties, our private sector has seen a significant part of its assets diminish through stock and property collapse or business failures. While companies are struggling to repair their balance sheets, there is a significant reduction in the wealth effect of our private sector in the economy. This reduction in the wealth component of our economy can lead essentially to a down-turn in spending. I think this is an important element that we must look specifically. We can see now the diminished demand for restaurant services, for boutiques, for cars and in the property market. So we need to give back as much as possible to drive the private economy to repair back its spur and to create back the wealth that has diminished. Singaporeans today are poorer than they were 1-2 years ago. So we welcome the various schemes that the Minister has highlighted of efforts by the Government to redress, through upgrading of various skills training programmes for our people in the workplace in order for them to get on to higher skilled jobs to earn the income that they require. Various training and grant programmes exist today, the skills development training centres, for example, run by the ITE and other skills training centres. I would urge that a skills training scheme or programme that can attract more private sector effort be studied.”
“I can understand the Minister for Finance in his responses in Parliament at various times to be quite ambivalent or vague about this foreign exchange rate policy instrument. It is quite acceptable for the Minister for Finance to say that we do not manage our exchange rates because we are an open economy. But I would say that even in spite of this, the fact that our economy is very open and that there is a great need for import and export, there is possibly some scope for some foreign exchange leeway rate movement. A cheaper Singapore dollar can attract capital, a capital account in the balance of payments through people coming in to buy up assets. A lower Singapore dollar can also operate through our goods and services sector where export competitiveness can be built up and the whole impact of all this will be essentially on affecting our money supply which at the time of potential recessionary spiral is something that we should not forget to look at. So, while we are reducing costs and reducing income, we must also drive exports and spending. I see that this exchange rate variable therefore is an important factor, and it should not be left only to the market. The $5.1 billion deficit in this current Budget should not be viewed as too alarming. After all, we have had many years of surpluses and reserves have been built up and a considerable part of this deficit spending is in the area of development expenditure. Yet, I must point out that the growth rate of our development expenditure over the last three years from FY 1997 to FY 1999 is actually slowing down. We should also be aware that the leakage component of our development spending can be quite high because of the open nature of our economy.”
“There are great unforeseen international and regional disturbances that can really affect whatever plans we have, even now that we are moving towards steering our economic towards a turnaround. Even the necessary conditions in our own domestic economy, we must make sure that whatever effects we are introducing in the economy must be filtered down so that everybody down the line in the economy gets a part of the share in this cost-cutting. If the Government cuts statutory costs and only the landlord makes a gain by saving the cost but not filtering it down to the sub-tenants, the economy is going to face a lot of difficulties because down the line small businesses will continue to face such difficulties. To make sure that such cost-cutting measures that we do filter down the line is very important. How to do so is something I believe the Government should try as best as possible to monitor what are the implications of many of these statutory costs on the businesses down the line and to see what kind of redress they can have. Secondly, we must also ensure that whatever cost and price cut that we have must boost consumer and investor confidence. Whenever there is a price-cut or saving in wages, there is also, on the other side of the coin, a tendency towards a recessionary spiral. So we must balance the two. It is like a fine edge that we must balance and Government must somehow manage this task. Consumer and investor confidence must be ensured so that at the end of the day, our export competitiveness will also go hand in hand with this consumer and investor confidence to build back the growth in the economy. Thirdly, I would like to address this topic on our foreign exchange rate which is an important policy instrument.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. To answer Mr Chiam, perhaps he has not lived through the days of the Great Depression in the United States where the greatest democracy of the world was having great unemployment and hunger and people queuing up for food. So does it mean that because you have great democracy, therefore your economic situation will necessarily be the better? I must first proceed to address the motion by the Minister for Finance. I welcome the caution of the Minister for Finance in his Budget speech. Such a caution, delivered with a $5.1 billion deficit, is to be welcomed after so many years of surpluses that the Minister had delivered in this House. And it is quite likely that with a CPF cut of 10% and a $10.5 billion injection into the economy through competitive cuts in November 1998 which, it is estimated, can add to about $2 billion into our economy this year, there is good chance for the economy to move around. The cut in the CPF of 10% can mean an injection of about 5-6% to the economy. Why do I say that? Wages constitute about 60% of the GDP. If you have a 10% cut of the wage all round, there is likelihood that there can be a 5-6% injection in the economy. Add to the $2 billion competitive cost cuts that we have and last year's $10.5 billion, a turnaround therefore can be expected. But as the Minister said, barring unforeseen regional or international disturbances. Sir, there is a famous Economist Herbert Stein, who was one time advisor to the US President, and he said, "What cannot go on forever must stop." And I have just noted that our Prime Minister just mentioned in Australia about the great bubble that is going on in the United States. Perhaps, Mr Chiam should wait his time to see what will happen.”
“Will this have implications for us in serving the regional vessels in an economically difficult period? Clause 18 of this Bill stipulates that Government ships be exempted from these regulations. I can accept if it is due to matters of war, but navy vessels also operate within our congested waters around the port and around Singapore and they should be equally liable for such pollutions if they are due to accidents or through negligence. Under clause 7, subsection 3a(i), liability damages are determined in SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) expressed in Singapore dollars. My question is: why must the rate of exchange be determined by the date of judgement? Bearing in mind that such damages extend into millions of dollars, and judgement and settlement can extend over years, should not the rate of exchange between SDRs and Singapore dollars be determined on the date of the event or the last closest rate to reflect the real cost damages? On the Fund Convention, it puts our importers of oil and refineries on the need to contribute to this Fund. Does it affect the competitiveness of our refineries or oil importers when other refineries, including state-owned ones in other neighbouring countries, are not signatories? Sir, I support this Bill.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, first, I would like to support this Bill. This Bill has two main parts: one on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution and, secondly, on the accession to the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund. Singapore as an international port and maritime centre should subscribe to these two conventions and fund, which serve to limit liability to ship owners, and yet protect the interest of the countries around the seas where the pollution occurs arising from these ship operations. As the Minister pointed out, Singapore has been a signatory to the Civil Liability Convention of 1969, which was convened arising from the environmental pollution and damage of the "Torrey Canyon" in 1967. This Bill is to be welcomed. The question I want to ask is why it took so long for us to be a signatory to it. The Civil Liability Convention (CLC) will only be in force on 17th September 1998. In this period since the Convention was operational in the other more progressive countries, why were we so slow to join in? In this period between now and 17th September 1998, owners of vessels operating in our waters are exposed to liability because of the limitations of CLC 69. We have already experienced vessel collision like Orapin Global and Evoikos in October 1997, which caused major pollution. So technically we are still exposed till 17th September 1998. Does the accession to this Convention 92 mean that our ships from the neighbouring countries will be restricted in trade around our waters and our port, because such ships registered in these neighbouring countries may not be signatories? And will the higher insurance premiums and standard requirements imply that our port will be less open because it is more restrictive given the higher stringency for the regional vessels?”
“In particular, clause 26 of the Bill amends two subsections of section 114 dealing with the errors and omissions for information transmitted through telecommunication. Under this, public telecommunication licensee's exclusion of liability is enabled provided these injuries or losses are beyond the public telecommunication licensee's control. The safeguarding of electronic snooping or security control are important features for public telecommunication licensees. In the US, people have sued common carriers for losses due to fraudulent messages or other economic losses due to delays or distortions in telecommunication messages. One particular concern is that service provider employees should not be allowed to read the contents of other people's messages without authorisation. Perhaps, we have not built up enough case experience in this field to pinpoint, as of now, how the lines of responsibility should be identified or drawn within the various ambits of responsibilities. Nonetheless, it is important to know that the Bill does not exclude entirely the public licensee's responsibility.”
“It is good for the consumers here that some regulation for universal service and interconnection access and the sharing of infrastructure are provided for in these amendments. This is done in a general environment for encouraging deregulation and allowing access for the new prospective entrants to the industry. Consumers in Singapore have gained from the limited competition we have recently seen in the mobile phone and paging markets. Prices have fallen substantially and service quality has generally risen. This augurs well for further areas of telecommunication services which may be deregulated. The regulation for competition also gives our own major service operator the opportunity to get ship-shape and tip-top for its competition overseas in this very intense and technologically fast driven market. The most fundamental tenet in this deregulatory exercise must be to enable the industry and the players in it to be abreast of the latest technological developments and the facility they afford to discriminating consumers. Such technological developments have always expanded the scope for competition and the boundary limits of the market. It seems paradoxical that a deregulatory environment with new entrants is also bringing with it new regulations. These regulatory controls which TAS will have to administer are more complex and will have to be more alive to the inter-relationships and the efficient networking of infrastructure with interconnection access. It is an everlasting play for profit, technologies and efficiency for the players, the TAS and the consumers. I hope the Minister will also assure the House that consumers' interest will be safeguarded.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I wish to speak in support of the TAS (Amendment) Bill. The amendments, as introduced by the Minister of State for Communications, are quite wide ranging, and these amendments make up to date the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore Act, in a field which is characterised by rapid change and rapidly changing technologies which have very definitive impact on competition, markets and market powers of the players. The TAS has a role to create the framework for a competitive telecommunication service system in a market that has the scale and scope of a natural monopoly. Further, telecommunication services have also the features of call and network externalities which are, in general, spillover gains to others arising from the consumption of that service by an individual. These features of natural monopoly and externalities in the telecommunication services industry make the fair and efficient regulation of that market environment so difficult. By the character of a natural monopoly in scale and scope, it is entirely possible for a monopoly to supply the whole of the market demand cheaper than multiple firms. Yet, regulatory controls must be introduced for a rule-based competition, as competition is good for the consumer and raises the standard of services of the providers. Someone asked me, a few months ago, why the Government should regulate and control our single licence holder, SingTel, to give fair competition to all these new entrants, many of them from overseas, when our own operator may not be so fairly treated overseas in other markets. I do not know whether this is a valid complaint.”
“Sir, I was pleasantly surprised to learn from the Minister just now that two thirds of the HDB shops have already been sold. I wonder whether he has forgotten some of his older customers and lessees in some of the older HDB shops in areas like Queenstown. In particular, I am referring to the Tanglin Halt precinct area where shops which are more than 30 years are still not sold. Many of the lessees of these shops are very keen to have their shops purchased, at least on a 30-year scheme or lease. They hope that with that they could rejuvenate the area and the shops. I was told that perhaps one of the reasons is that they are two-level shops. So the cost of land may be higher. But there have been cases of two-level shops which have been sold by HDB. Even in that precinct, many of the shops are actually on the ground level of high-rise buildings. I hope the Ministry can consider this and give these old and loyal customers of HDB a chance.”
“Sir, before I ask the question, I wish to declare my interest as a management staff of NTUC Fairprice. In Singapore, we have a land use planning policy where various categories of land are designated for various uses, some for industries, some for commercial, and some for residential. There is a category of retailers or foreign retailers who have come into Singapore and who have been using industrial spaces or land for such kind of retail purposes. I am not talking about warehouse sales. Warehouse sales where warehouses occasionally have their sales once in a while for promotion or for clearance, that is acceptable. But I am talking about industrial land or warehouses actually being used as shopping complexes. Land being scarce in Singapore, the proper use of industrial land should be for industries to generate jobs for high-value added contribution to the economy. I hope the Minister can look into this aspect of it and not allow such retailers who come in with new concepts and so on using such kind of industrial land. The difference is because commercial rentals and industrial rentals vary by a very big factor, two to three times. So people who operate in this kind of situation, in this kind of land or spaces, have a very unfair advantage. The retail sector in Singapore right now is suffering and it is not a joy to see the state of competition being so uneven.”
“Sir, I thank the two Ministers for their very detailed replies and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. The sum of $336,417,630 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. The sum of $1,830,916,600 for Head I ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates. Head U”
“Recently, the harbour tug services in the port have been privatised and I hope this is the beginning of many other downstream services that can be privatised for the port. In introducing competition to the port services, this is a good way to keep the port efficient. So terminal handling, berth services, even distribution centre services, are examples of such downstream services that we can do with a dose of invigorating competition. This task is particularly urgent now when the exchange rates of some of our neighbouring countries who have been building ports have been lowered. We can see that once they begin to recover, their competition will become very keen. So I hope that our port services will continue to raise their competitiveness in this respect. The MPA could consider privatising more of the downstream services soon.”
“Sir, last year, I raised the question of community-based bus services. I would like to raise it again this year. The PTC, in the recent Government announcement, has liberalised many features of public transport including taxi regulations. I hope this is a step in the right direction and more such deregulation and control can be given for efforts to improve community bus services. At the present time, bus services in housing estates and so on feeding to the main routes, trunk routes and MRT routes are done on a restricted feeder bus service. Very often, residents find that feeder bus services over a period of time diminish and disappear, leaving many residents rather unhappy. Because of the PTC's regulatory regime, it is difficult for anybody just on his own to come up with some idea or entrepreneurial effort to organise or to form companies for bus services. But I hope it can be considered within this context that communities which are interested in providing better services for their members, residents, families and children going to school can, on their own initiative with entrepreneurial effort and perhaps private entrepreneurial capital, be given this chance to run this kind of service within their community. With that, it can really answer the needs of that community of people. Sir, I hope the Ministry of Communications will consider this. [Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair] 4.42 pm”
“However, in the present scheme as proposed, the charges for the motorcyclists are higher than the taxis and the light goods vehicles, at off peak and peak hours. I think this is quite unfair.”
“Sir, I beg to move, That the total sum to be allocated for Head I of the Main Estimates be reduced by $100. In general, the latest measures announced by the Minister on ERP are much to be welcomed. The Government announced five principles which will be the basis for the new vehicular tax structure. These five principles are: first, charging on road usage; second, charging based on three factors - charging on the use of road space, damage to the road and the progressivity factor; third, tax concession to taxis and scheduled buses; fourth, rationalise existing structure; and, fifth, to maintain revenue neutrality globally. I wish to examine the new charge system for motorcycles, which I think is not very fair. We are told that a motorcycle is 0.5 pcu (passenger car unit), when a normal private car is 1, similar for a taxi and a light goods vehicle. A bus, for example, has a pcu of between 1.5-2. A car entering the gantry at the East Coast Parkway from 1st April 1998 will have to pay $1 from 7.30 am to 8.00 am, compared to a fee of 50 cents for the two-wheel motorcycle, which has a pcu rating of 0.5. A two-wheel vehicle, such as a motorcycle, should proportionally cause less damage to the road, compared with a four-wheel vehicle, in addition to the fact that it is, of course, half the size. Should not the rate for a two-wheel vehicle be less than 25 cents? At that rate, it would be the same as a light goods vehicle which is charged at 25 cents. Also, presumably because they are used for business. Motorcyclists also go to town a lot in the course of business. And if we were to factor in the progressivity element and rank the ordinal scale of charge, I would put it at less than that of a LGV, and definitely less than that of taxis.”
“I am concerned about this terminology as I hope we do not get into the danger of micro managing sectoral labour markets by specific manpower policies which, being managed by the bureaucracy, may be slow to react to the market place. The thrust of today's labour market policies is towards less rigidities, facilitating mobility of skills and flexibility in wages, in order to be competitive. I hope we should be looking for foreign talents and skills only to supplement what we lack, after we have done all our best to train, cross-train and to retrain our people, and not to plan to fill up the foreign manpower gap even when we have not done all these. It is foreign talents and skills we want, not foreign manpower per se. I suggest it is not too late to change the name of the Ministry to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, to prepare ourselves for the challenge of the 21st century market place. Where knowledge and skill intensity in product manufacturing and services will be the critical factors in competitiveness, we should always remind ourselves that our own human resource must be valued, and the utmost be done for its development so that our workers will be employable, with training to upgrade their skills and knowledge. We always say that human resource is all we have, knowing that it can achieve wonders with training. We never say manpower is all we have, knowing full well it is not very much. I hope the Minister will not consider I am nit-picking on a name, but a name is everything.”
“Sir, I am not persuaded by the Ministry of Manpower terminology. While I certainly agree that we have to develop a globally competitive knowledge-based workforce and hence the need for an overarching strategy, I find the term "Manpower Ministry" a little outdated. I am not even thinking of gender neutrality. In the next millennium, surely brain power and portable skills are going to be more important in the global market challenge. Our people must be well educated and well trained. Those who reach a certain age group should even be retrained. Those who are well-qualified or skilled will be able to find a market for their skills, even across borders. And our regionalisation effort, which is an important facet of our necessary capital export strategy in Singapore, will have to integrate with our overall human resource development to enable Singaporeans to go world-wide, to invest and to work, and to build a second wing for our economy. Developing our human resource and networking the region or the world for the right kind of investment to build our second wing point to the right way to go for our future. In a world where industries or technologies can get obsolete very fast, emphasising portability of skills, training and transferability of skills and the learning culture are crucial and defining for our success. Hence, I find the Ministry of Manpower a bit of a misnomer. Perhaps we have even gone a step backward. At least labour is a factor input in macro-economic terms. When we are trying so hard to get our females to participate in the economy and join back the labour force, "Manpower" is a little inadequate to be attractive.”
“I am more concerned about the burden of non-compliance between owners of vehicles and drivers. When the owners comply, the drivers may be deliberately bypassing the ERP process.”
“Also, some kind of leaflets or publicity/introduction materials on planes may be necessary to familiarise the foreign visitors from overseas. In particular, I am not clear about new section 34E(6). If a vehicle where the ERP device, the IU as mentioned by the Minister just now, is faulty or caused to be faulty, the vehicle is seized, and if the vehicle after investigation is not claimed, it may be sold and the net proceeds paid to the Consolidated Fund. Is the fault of non-compliance the fault of the driver or the owner? How is the burden of non-compliance distributed between owners and drivers? Does pin-pointing all the cost and blame on the owners alone, as apparent in the Bill, solve the problem? Or does it provide a loophole for errant drivers to bypass the ERP process? Should the Bill not place some responsibility on the drivers who do not comply? Another section of the Amendment Bill, new section 34B mentioned that the Minister may prescribe road-user charges. As mentioned by the Minister just now, he intends to make this announcement of the scheme of charges in the coming Budget. I thank the Minister for pre-empting this point and in believing that this principle of neutrality that he has announced, the scheme of charges would be such as to generate neutral budget values. If that is the case, I wonder whether it is at least possible to consider announcing this scheme of charges even earlier, to let the public be informed on these various schemes of charges and adjustments so that there is ample time for the members of the public to re-evaluate switching transport mode and for making investment decisions.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I wish to speak in support of this Amendment Bill in the name of the Minister for Communications. Sir, this Bill serves to tie up some of the administrative and legal ends for the authorities to implement the electronic road pricing system which is due to begin in over a month's time. We are all aware, as pointed out by the Minister, that this will be the first of its kind implementation programme for the ERP in a big major city in the world. Naturally there will be some nitty-gritty issues to tie up, especially to take care of the people who for one reason or another do not comply. I hope the Minister can consider some grace period at the beginning of this phasing-in to give the benefit of the doubt to those drivers who may forgetfully miss the important thing to do on those days. A publicity blitz instructing drivers what to do may be necessary to sink in the message. I also hope the Minister can also allow not too costly penalties in the beginning for offenders, in order to give them at least a chance in the event that they commit the offence, especially as they may not be so familiar initially. I wish to seek a clarification on whether and how these laws will apply to foreign cars, especially those from Malaysia, whose drivers may be truly unaware of the hazards driving on the highways once the Amendment Bill is passed. The question is, for those Malaysian cars, how to effect these penalties, as mentioned in the Amendment Bill, when the owners of these vehicles, not necessarily the drivers, may be far away, as the Amendment Bill puts a lot of burden of penalties on the owners of the vehicles. I suggest also that some kind of leaflets, publicity leaflets on the ERP for foreign drivers, may be necessary.”
“The Government will have a harder time charting the economic course of the country. But if all work together, the damages would be lessened. Fewer business failures, fewer retrenchments, lower unemployment and fewer social and political problems. And when the time comes for sacrifice - on everyone's part - we must be prepared to do so. We have shown what we can do collectively in the mid-80s recession, and we can do it again, if need be. When things get really critical, as they could well turn out to be for Singapore and the region in facing the current economic turmoil, as the saying goes, we must hang together, or most assuredly, we would hang separately. Sir, I support the motion.”
“(a) Understand the lessons of the past and pass them down to subsequent generations for tripartism went through different phases during difficult times and good times. (b) Learn from other experiences and refine our models of tripartite relationships. (c) Find ways to strengthen workers' stake and role. It is about understanding mutually reinforcing roles. There is a need to try to bring aims and aspirations of labour and management to a happy middle ground. Labour will have to work hard towards helping businesses succeed via higher productivity and no unnecessary demands. It is after all basic commonsense. It is like a three-legged stool. It will stand if all three are strong. If any of them is weak, the stool will collapse. It is therefore in everyone's interest to see all succeed. It is like the "prosper-thy-neighbour" concept. All must pull in the same direction. Let us also look at different models of tripartism working (or not working) today, including those outside Singapore, and improve ours where and when necessary. The question of giving workers a bigger stake, for example, the question of worker representation on company boards can also be looked into. It will be a time when tripartism will be put to a test. We need to be creative to see how each party will have to play its role. Take training and retraining, for example, not many companies will be keen to do it during difficult times, when it is all the more important. Unions and the Government could help to look into this and also the plight of those who might be affected by the likely economic turmoil in the next few years. I do not want to sound alarmist, but in these troubling times, businesses will face difficult conditions and some will fail. Some, if not many, workers will lose their jobs.”
“" Sir, when we look at the history of tripartism in Singapore, we will see that from the time when the economy was coming out of the doldrums in the early years of independence to the recession of the mid-80s and the many good years following that, tripartism had withstood the test of time. I am confident it will continue to do so. Whether in economic turbulence, tranquillity or transition, tripartism triumphs. There is effective communication and understanding of each other's role, even trust. While each has its own perspective and interest, when it comes to the crunch, national interests prevail. As SM Lee once said: "Each generation of union leaders must earn afresh the trust and respect of the workers they lead and of the managers they negotiate with. Similarly, managers must also earn the trust and respect of their workers to do well, they must balance the needs of their workers with those of management, and of Government. That is the context in which tripartism can succeed." It is no masak masak or kelong of relations, like some Members may like to suggest that unions are controlled by PAP MPs or PAP personalities. Tripartism has indeed succeeded. In the words of PM Goh, "let's not change formulas which have proven to be a success and useful for us." But obviously, we cannot rest on our laurels. Just how important a close working relationship among the three parties is will be clearly shown in the near future as Singapore, together with the rest of ASEAN, fight to restore the confidence and stability shakened by the current turmoil in regional economies caused by plunging currencies and stock markets. There are three steps which we can take in preparing for the 21st century, as far as tripartism is concerned.”
“When PSA corporatised last year, the spirit of tripartism showed its human face. Whether during bargaining for the new Collective Agreement or when adjusting the former statutory board's prerogatives to the Employment Act's requirements, the union and the management worked constructively well to secure a win-win situation for all. The Ministry of Labour was always there to lend a hand. In fact, a tripartite workshop-cum-dialogue on the Employment Act proved very successful. This practice of tripartite consultation and decision-making has been institutionalised in many key policy-making institutions, for example, in NWC, NPB (now the PSB), CPF, ComChest, HDB, IE, EDB, the polytechnics and the universities, even in the ad hoc committees to review and formulate recommendations on national and economic policies such as the Economic Committee (1986), Wage Reform, Cost Review, Flexible Wage System and Employment Act of 1994. I have here a picture, and possibly it was the first NWC meeting, where most participants looked very solemn, in fact, at first very sullen, but compare it with the recent NWC meeting. You can see very happy faces. This is because they realise and they acknowledge the contributions made by tripartism through institutions like NWC. I quote Prof. Lim Chong Yah: "The National Wages Council could not have been formed (in 1972) without the support of the NTUC. The union representatives were there to look after the workers' interests, but at the same time they were also prepared to take national interests into consideration. There has always been cordial but tough bargaining among the three parties in the process of coming to a consensus. Over the years, the NWC has contributed to the building of tripartite cooperation and goodwill.”
“Be realistic. Accept facts. Most workers do and the results speak for themselves, be it in terms of continued employability, rising standard of living and quality of life for workers and a meaningful role for workers in shaping their own future. Let us now see how best the workers have shaped their past, through tripartism, and create their future, through teamwork. After all, tripartism is not only about understanding the past but also gearing for the future. Sir, I rise in support of the motion by NMP Mr Cyrille Tan, a highly respected leader of the labour movement. First, allow me to declare my interest. I am currently the Executive Secretary of the Singapore Port Workers' Union (SPWU) and a member of the PSA Board of Directors. Sir, if I may be allowed to share my personal experience. I have been in management for about 25 years, but my recent immersion in the NTUC and the SPWU is most educational in appreciating tripartism. Not only is it alive and well, but thriving. The SPWU takes teamwork among the union, management and Government very seriously, for it benefits the workers. In fact, it benefits all. But I must hasten to add that this harmonious state of affairs did not appear like magic. It came through blood, sweat and tears. SPWU, the oldest union in Singapore, had a colourful and chequered past. Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew can personally vouch for the tumultuous years the union went through in its early history. There was so much distrust then that no union leader worth his salt dared even to think of constructive engagement. It was Mr Lee's strategic intervention that saved the situation. SPWU never looked back since then. In many ways, the SPWU-PSA industrial relationship is exemplary now.”
“After all, they can only survive if they can find a customer whether the businesses are in computers, software, IT or food retailing. One meaningful social role the employers and Government can do is to join hands with the NTUC in a redoubled effort at upgrading skills and retraining of our workers. Broadening OJT is a good way. I urge the Government to help by encouraging more private employers as well to obtaining easier grants and compensation in a more flexible skill retraining scheme. Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed (Cheng San): Sir, before I speak on the motion proper, allow me to say a few words on what Mr Chiam had said. As you know, Sir, we are in the midst of the fasting month and no matter how tempting it is to partake in a debate with Mr Chiam, I would rather opt for food for the soul. So in the spirit of Ramadan, I shall not belabour the point. Enough, however, for it to be said that although this is the month of enlightenment, unfortunately, there are still some people, as the Malays would say, sudah terang, lagi bersuluh, meaning still looking for light when it is very clear. Incidentally, Sir, I think we were all reminded yesterday by the NCMP, Mr Jeyaretnam, that he is not only here as an NCMP but also as the leader of the Workers' Party, but unfortunately when we are here discussing a very important issue of tripartism and the fate and welfare of the workers, Mr Jeyaretnam is nowhere to be found. Allow me also, Sir, to use a glaring, and if you will excuse the pun, the Blair-ing example of how even the British Labour Party had to bow to certain pragmatic realities to live up to contemporary demands. Mr Blair's visit to Singapore and his tribute to our labour movement speaks well of our system. [Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair] 4.35 pm My message is simple.”
“These are all extensions of cooperative businesses which have the ultimate aim of serving the interest and welfare of the workers. Various NTUC Clubs and Lifestyle Centres have also served workers' interests and their families' needs. These social services that the NTUC provides through its cooperatives are all done through the competitive markets. The social role of the NTUC Cooperatives often go unsung and unnoticed. They make the workers' dollars stretch more and help raise their standard of living by moderating the cost, and showing the private business sectors and competitors, whether they are French, local, Dutch or Americans, the standard and the benchmarks in cost and quality. The NTUC Cooperatives are meeting the tripartite challenge on equal grounds. If the NTUC Cooperatives can run supermarkets, insurance, childcare services, healthcare services, taxi services, recreation clubs or golf clubs successfully, there is no reason why it cannot run buses, before-and-after-school care, eldercare services, or HDB estate maintenance services equally well, if we choose to do so. The role of the unions is not restricted to collective bargaining for collective agreements and to maintaining the industrial peace. That is the old mindset. They have a social role and today the NTUC Cooperatives and the NTUC is even a launch pad for information technology in a joint project with the NCB in launching the smart card for electronic cash and retailing transactions for the unions and cooperatives. In this new vision to tripartism, I urge the Government and the employers to join hand with the NTUC unions in widening the social role for all three parties. They meet on equal ground. Businesses must also shift towards a more social perspective in their longer range thinking.”