Janil Puthucheary
Singapore
“Sir, I thank Ms Lee for her two supplementary questions, which address what are our targets and what is it that we measure. Indeed, the issue of how we should think about recycling and waste disposal will be at the heart of our review of our Zero Waste Masterplan.”
“Another strategy that we are embarking on is the strengthening of the reuse of waste residue and treated toxic industrial waste before and after they are landfilled.”
“Sir, about half of our recycling material is exported. It is processed overseas. There are business arrangements between businesses here in Singapore and businesses in the region or overseas, to be able to handle the recycling of waste and recycling of material, whether domestic or non-domestic, already today.”
“Sir, I thank Ms Poh for her questions. Indeed, we do have to shift behaviours. The incentives and disincentives around recycling and waste disposal are an important part of it. We will consider her suggestion on looking at the fees.”
“The heat advisory that goes out is clearly defined. In my original answer, I explained what a heat wave was. There are clear definitions that we have been using in Singapore since 2016, if I recall. It was then last revised in 2023.”
“Sir, in the planning of schools, the Ministry of Education ensures that our students can access a primary school near their homes. Except for a small number, 15 of Special Assistance Plan schools, all primary schools offer the three official mother tongue languages.”
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“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mr Gerald Giam has brought up several matters associated with the public sector governance of data and data privacy, data security. I thought I might deal with some of them although they are not directly connected with the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Bill which we are debating today. There are some matters of confusion, conflation and, perhaps, a misunderstanding, and I hope I can bring some clarity and understanding to the debate. The first point I would like to clarify is Mr Giam's assertion that somehow the Government believes that the standards for Government need to be lower than for the private sector. We completely disagree. We believe the standards for the Government should be as high, if not, higher than for the private sector. That is why, several years ago, when there was a Government data security policy in IM8 and there was not something for the private sector, we enacted the PDPA to improve standards for the private sector. Mr Giam also suggests that, perhaps, we should treat Government and treat businesses the same way, that the same tools and the same behaviours would either be useful or expected in the private realm and the public sector. This is not so. We expect Government to behave as one service, servicing residents, servicing our citizens, servicing our country as one entity. We expect the private sector to behave as individual entities and there needs to be an appropriate separation and gap in data sharing between private entities. We have, in Mr Giam's assertions, another confusion. He talked at the beginning of a high compliance burden for public sector officers and then asked later on whether the standards are high enough.”
“Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Pritam Singh for his question. There are two ways to look at this, which is, what are the jobs unfilled and the gaps that are growing or r what is the attractiveness of the job to Singaporeans and local graduates? To answer the question Mr Pritam Singh is asking, this set of cybersecurity jobs, especially those within the public sector and agencies, such as the Home Team, DSTA, Cyber Security Agency, GovTech and various others, are attractive to our local cybersecurity graduates. The competition to get into these jobs is significant and the awareness of the opportunities afforded by these jobs amongst our local graduates is very high. There are a number of surveys, studies and publications both in the private sector as well as coming out of the public sector that validate this. Nevertheless, globally, there is a dearth of talent for these types of jobs and there is a global competition for the kind of skillsets that we need to deploy in cybersecurity. That applies in Singapore, as it does around the globe.”
“Indeed, Mr Gan Thiam Poh is correct that we do need to ensure that we have the appropriate security protocols in terms of the hiring practices. While the nationality is taken into consideration, the key thing that we have to achieve is the breadth and depth of talent across our cybersecurity landscape in order to benefit both the public sector as well as the private sector here in Singapore.”
“Mr Speaker, the GPFirst Programme was piloted at Changi General Hospital or CGH in January 2014. It aims to encourage patients with non-emergency conditions to seek treatment at General Practitioners or GPs rather than at Emergency Department or ED. This enables the ED to focus on attending to patients with life threatening and critical conditions. Patients assessed by the participating GPs as requiring emergency care would be referred on and be given priority to be seen earlier at the ED. These patients will be given a $50 subsidy on their ED bill to help offset the cost of their GP visit. From 2014 to 2017, there was a reduction of about 8.5% in the self-referred attendances at CGH ED, which may be attributed to GPFirst and other measures implemented during this period of time. MOH has expanded GPFirst beyond CGH's region in phases. As of September 2020, GPFirst has been expanded to involve more GPs around Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and the Urgent Care Centre @Admiralty Medical Centre, and will be progressively implemented in the region surrounding Sengkang General Hospital, National University Hospital and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital by the end of 2021.”
“Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I just want to point out that the self-help groups do actually provide monetary contributions to OnePeople.sg as well.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I echo Minister Iswaran's apologies for prolonging this matter. I would just like to reframe the matter. Perhaps Ms Sylvia Lim is coming to this a little bit late. That such a body exists. In fact, we have several such bodies that exist that engage in non ethnic-based help, across a number of communities, across a number of causes, across a number of ages. This includes the People's Association (PA) – and I know Ms Sylvia Lim and her colleagues have particular views of the PA but it is not limited to the PA. But one of those bodies was actually founded by the self-help groups coming together several years ago and we celebrated our 10th anniversary a few years ago; I happen to be the Chairman of OnePeople.sg. Indeed, we have been engaging in such conversations with a wide variety of people. Rather than talking about getting rid of existing bodies or creating new bodies, perhaps, we should work with the bodies that already exist. And Singaporeans can volunteer for more than one body, more than one organisation. They often do. Singaporeans can contribute funding to more than one body, and often do. There is plenty room in Singapore for us to work through a variety of means to achieve this common aim. I just wanted to put that on the table. This is not a new idea. It has been posited before and there are people who have actually made this happen. And if people would like to come and find out a bit more about what these bodies are doing, I would be very happy to provide them some instructions. Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. Obliged for your indulgence.”
“Ms Tin asked if you had a proposal for youth employment, not the principles under which youth employment change or does not change. Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: Fair enough. Yes, but why that context is important is because we do not want to roll out specific proposals to address youth unemployment in a time when we are in a recession because we are not sure if the unemployment is justified or not. So, that is the reason for me stating that context. So, I do not have a specific policy in mind because I have not thought about it. This is a very slow 8086 processor, that kind of dates me —”
“Mr Speaker, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim was asked a question. While I appreciate his erudition in economics – and I am learning quite a lot from him – he has not answered Ms Tin's question. Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: If I may clarify, which question did I not answer?”
“Mr Chairman, indeed our strategies that I have discussed – the four moves – are to reduce the cost differential between an electric vehicle and an internal combustion engine vehicle, encourage consumers to take this up as a choice, both because of the aspiration to be cleaner and greener, then hopefully it makes increasing economic sense to do so. Over the lifetime of a vehicle, an electric vehicle, hopefully, should incur less maintenance cost, the mechanisms are easier to maintain, and also less energy cost. So, the short answer is we hope consumers will make the choice and we are trying to incentivise consumers to make the choice, as a result of which dealers should respond. Internationally, many manufacturers are developing new models and have committed in some cases, to only develop electric models past a certain date. That should also help to lower the price of these vehicles. Put together, we hope that over the next 10 years, there are increasing reasons for Singaporeans who choose to buy a car to choose to buy an electric car. And then, we hope that somewhere around 2030, we will have the last sale of an internal combustion engine vehicle and then, over a 10-year cycle by 2040, we will have an entire cleaner and greener fleet here in Singapore.”
“So, we do have some time to do it to meet our targets, but we will find ways to incentivise and encourage them to develop the skills and ability to do so.”
“Mr Chairman, on Mr Singh's first point. The best help for the private bus drivers is going to be when business is usual is returned to and the tourists come back and workers need to be transferred and the current crisis is over. They will benefit from some of the measures that are in the larger support package for businesses in general and for Singaporeans in general. We have not gotten a specific package for private bus drivers, but as business entities in general, they will be assisted. But it is something we were looking at. And if there is an appropriate way and appropriate opportunity to do so, it is something that we can consider. There are differences though, through the taxi operators, for example. There are ways in which we make sure that it goes down to the individual worker and so forth, and that is, the outcome that we would like to achieve. For the electrification of private sector buses, the changes around vehicle emission schemes would be one of the key measures through which we hope they would be incentivised to then think about transition to electric platforms. The difficulty, of course, is that there are not quite as many models and platforms of that size today. There will be, as the technology improves, but we hope to be able to incentivise this from the emissions perspective. The 60 buses that Mr Singh mentioned – 50 diesel hybrid – they demonstrate some of the difficulties that we have. We are exploring how to deploy and operationalise this technology and see what we need in terms of maintenance or depot reconfiguration, changes to the skill sets in our workers. And that is something where we have the entire network to deal with. I think for the smaller operators, it may take a little bit longer before they are able to make these changes.”
“Mr Chairman, absolutely, we would be very happy to work with NTUC and our tripartite partners. I will go a step further. I think it is essential that we do so and we would not be able to address the space adequately if it were not for the strong partnerships that we are able to develop. I would assure Mr Melvin Yong and his union colleagues that there will be plenty of jobs. The one thing we cannot be assured of is that everything will stay the same. But there will be plenty of jobs and if we take the right approach in terms of thinking ahead, developing these roadmaps around retraining and re-skilling, and then having our workers and our unions actively engage in that process of retraining and re-skilling, then everybody will be well looked after.”
“Mr Chairman, I thank Mr Sitoh for the question and I am going to answer the question even though he directed it to my colleague, Mr Baey Yam Keng. 12.15 pm Absolutely, public safety is a key consideration in how we develop our AVs. It is part of our phased and gated approach in the AV development. But it is also part of how we hope to have opportunities for the public to experience Autonomous Vehicles in a safe and controlled manner; and for the developers and operators to then learn about what is the public experience on Autonomous Vehicles so that the experience can be improved.”
“Mr Chairman, I thank the Member Mr Dennis Tan for his question. Certainly, the presence of foreign ICE vehicles is going to be an important consideration going forward. We are just getting started on our journey. If you look at what we are doing with the incentives, the waiver of some of the tax structures and some of the changes that we have to make, our regulatory space has not quite settled. But when it does and as it does, one of the things we will have to look at is the relationship between what we do for Singaporean vehicles and then how that impacts what happens to non-Singaporean vehicles that are ICE vehicles when they come in. So, it is a factor but a it is a little bit premature to be absolutely settled on how it should be treated at this point.”
“Over the next three months, drivers can also benefit from the Self-employed Persons (SEPs) Training Support Scheme, which the Minister for Manpower had announced in this House earlier. We will continue to work with operators and unions to equip our land transport workforce with the necessary skills and capabilities for the next phase of development. So, Mr Chairman, we have three major strategies today to move towards the land transport system of the future. We emphasise "Walk-Cycle-Ride" to deliver on the vision that we have for a 45-minute city and 20-minute towns. We want the system to be clean and green, and for every part of the system to be optimised through the use of technology and across all of these strategies, throughout all of our efforts, we have to keep our focus on making sure that there are good jobs, that we look after the workers and we provide them the opportunities to retrain and re-skill themselves, to take advantage of these new opportunities. There is a lot of work ahead of us to achieve all of this. We invite Singaporeans to partner us on this journey. Together, we can build a sustainable land transport system that brings Singapore together, one which future generations of Singaporeans will enjoy and feel proud of.”
“Another initiative borne out of this close tripartite relationship is the Rail Manpower Development Package (RMDP). The RMDP aims to expand the rail workforce and accelerate workforce transformation over the next five years. A key component of this is a set of incentives for rail operators to expand and accelerate their training in key technologies and skillsets such as data analytics and condition-based maintenance. We expect the first batch of workers to start training in these areas from the second quarter of this year, with over 3,000 expected to benefit over five years. RMDP will also attract, retain and raise the profile of rail professionals through the launch of new SGRail Industry Scholarships and Sponsorships. These will be open to fresh graduates and in-service staff to pursue further studies at Institutes of Higher Learning. By investing in our rail workers, we are also investing in the future of rail reliability. Beyond bus and rail workers, we will also continue to provide retraining and upskilling opportunities for taxi and PHC drivers, including allowing them to move laterally into adjacent sectors. The taxi and PHC operators have worked closely with the driver associations, with support from SkillsFuture Singapore, to develop training programmes for the drivers. For example, as of the end of 2019, about 4,600 ComfortDelGro taxi drivers have completed the SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace training programme, learning new skills to use e-payment technologies. Earlier this year, Grab and National Private Hire Vehicle Association (NPHVA) also launched the Grab Driver-Partner Training Kit that includes courses on safety and digital skills.”
“Around 6,000 visitors tried out the on-demand driverless shuttles in Sentosa last year. The feedback was positive, with most visitors indicating that they enjoyed the ride, mostly because for them it is really no different from a usual bus ride. We aim to progress to the next stage of trials with pilot deployment in the early 2020s. We have launched a Call-For-Collaboration last year and there has been keen interest from more than 20 companies. We are currently assessing and looking through their proposals. Safety and public acceptance will continue to be top priorities as we progress to pilot the deployment in other areas. These are exciting developments. But even as we continue to study and adopt new technologies, we have to ensure that this benefits our people through better jobs. AVs will transform the transport sector and create new jobs. Today, some of our public transport operators have already taken steps to familiarise our bus captains with AV bus operations. So, these bus captains then become confident of working with AV technologies in the future. To further prepare our bus captains for AV buses, LTA will work with stakeholders such as NTWU and Public Transport Operators (PTOs) to develop a skills and training roadmap to be launched by the end of this year. This will identify emerging skills and new job roles arising from AV deployment. On-the-job training and courses on AV safety protocol and operations will also be developed. We plan to train about 100 bus captains as a start. These efforts are part of the Land Transport Industry Transformation Map 2.0. The Government will continue to work closely with the unions and industry to prepare our workers for new job opportunities in the sector.”
“Prospective car owners will then be able to choose from a wider range of EV models, including those that use these CHAdeMO chargers. We will continue to review and refresh our regulations on EVs to ensure that these keep pace with industry developments. To recap, four moves to drive the strategy of EV adoption in Singapore: build up charging infrastructure, incentivise the purchase of EV vehicles, Government will take the lead with our fleet and updating our regulations. For our third strategy – harnessing technology to optimise land transport for the future. We have always relied on new technology to improve our transport system and deliver better transport outcomes. There are examples such as how today, you can plan your journey by looking up bus arrival times through the MyTransport app. Commuters can sign up for SimplyGo, allowing you to pay for public transport using your contactless bank card, so you no longer have to top-up your stored value cards. A further use of technology is Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). These have the potential to improve connectivity by more efficiently offering dynamically-routed forms of shared transport. Our AV trials have come a long way since one-north was designated as the first site for AV public road testing in 2015. Today, about 30 AVs are authorised for public road trials in a testbed that has expanded to include areas such as the National University of Singapore and Jurong Island. These trials have allowed developers to enhance their technology through real-world applications, and helped LTA learn how to safely introduce AVs to improve our transport network. The trials have also created opportunities for the public to interact with AV technology.”
“This component was introduced to partly account for the loss in fuel excise duties that EVs do not incur. It will be waived for a three-year period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023 for all EVs registered before this period. So, in future, going forward there will be an incentive for new purchasers of EVs. And owners of existing EVs, prior to 1 January 2021, will all see a reduction in road tax during this period. The third move is that the Government will take the lead to green our fleets. Last year, I shared that all public buses and taxis will run on cleaner energy by 2040. We will go a step further: all new public bus purchases from now on will be cleaner energy buses, including electric or hybrid buses. Since last March, we have deployed 50 diesel hybrid buses on the roads. We have also bought 60 fully electric buses and will be deploying them progressively this year. New bus depots will be designed to support electric buses. As we gradually replace our existing diesel buses with cleaner energy ones, Singaporeans will enjoy quieter commutes and cleaner air. The fourth move is that we will update our regulations to keep pace with technology. As one example, we will allow high-powered e-motorcycles into Singapore from 1 April 2020. This is in addition to the low-powered e-motorcycles which are already allowed today, and will add to the cleaner vehicle options available. Motorcyclists can now do their part for the environment by choosing an electric model. We will also approve CHAdeMO; it is a fast charging method for EVs, an optional EV public charging standard. This means that public charging points in Singapore can include these CHAdeMO chargers from today onwards.”
“Today, the upfront cost of EVs is about 78% higher than equivalent ICE vehicles. It is a large cost gap for a prospective EV owner. EV sales accounted for less than 0.1% of all new private car sales over the last five years. Today, we have about 1,000 EV cars. This is why Deputy Prime Minister announced the EV Early Adoption Incentive at Budget this year. With this, the upfront cost difference between an EV and an equivalent ICE vehicle will be narrowed by up to $20,000. With further adoption and new models, this cost gap will close further. We expect EVs to reach cost parity with ICE vehicles by the mid 2020s. In the meantime, we hope that this incentive will serve as an early signal to encourage more prospective car owners to consider EVs. We also hope that car dealers will be encouraged to bring in more EV models. This will provide more choice for consumers and cater to the increase in demand. Taxi companies will benefit from this incentive. Mass market EV taxi models will only need to pay the minimum Additional Registration Fee of $5,000. As fleets like taxis stand to benefit more from the lower per mile cost of EVs, we hope this incentivises more taxi companies to expand their electric taxi fleet. I am happy to hear that SMRT Taxis has already indicated their intention to trial more electric taxis in the near term. Although existing EV owners are not eligible for the EV Early Adoption Incentive, they will benefit from the technical revision to the variable component of their road tax from 1 January 2021 onwards. As a special transitional arrangement, we will exempt them from the additional flat component of the new EV road tax that was introduced at this year’s Budget.”
“So, if we choose that path there will be a higher cost associated with the technology, infrastructure and refuelling. Nevertheless, we will continue to monitor developments and we will move in a way towards this vision for 2040 that will allow us to adapt to other technologies in the future. It is an ambitious undertaking and there are serious challenges that we will need to overcome. The Government will make four moves to achieve this vision. First, we will ensure that there is enough charging infrastructure accessible to EV owners. It will not be easy, but this is very important. Because if you are considering purchasing an EV over an ICE vehicle, you have to be convinced that you have access to a charger which is as convenient as access to a petrol station. As a first step, we will prioritise the charging provision at carparks, starting with public carparks. We will also work with the private sector to improve charging provisions at private carparks. We encourage charging providers to partner private developers and building owners, as many of them are keen to increase the availability of EV charging on their premises. Greater EV adoption will result in an increase in electricity demand and we will be able to manage this because we will build new power generation capacity and we will reinforce our grid network. We will also incorporate innovations such as smart charging and energy storage solutions that store energy from the grid during off-peak periods. We are conducting studies to better understand the different factors that affect the demand for charging and we will also study potential solutions. This will guide our planned roll-out of the infrastructure needed. The second move that we will make is to incentivise demand for EVs.”
“Through this close partnership with NTWU, we have seen improvements to the working conditions for bus captains, such as upgraded staff canteens and more rest areas. The starting monthly pay for new local bus captains has also increased by over 25% since 2014, higher than the national wage growth of 18% over the same period. All of these would not have been possible without the NTWU's leadership and active participation, and we very much appreciate their contribution to this effort. Our second strategy – to encourage cleaner and greener vehicles. It appears self-evident and has been discussed at great length in other parts of this Committee of Supply (COS) and also in the debate on the Budget. It is important and it is vital as we continue to grow our land transport system. As mentioned in Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat's Budget speech, all vehicles will run on cleaner energy by 2040. This means that after 2030, we should see no new purchases of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Today, we have close to 900,000 ICE vehicles, and this will require an extensive transformation of the fleet, significant changes in commuting and consumer behaviour, and development of the necessary supporting infrastructure to achieve this vision. 11.45 am Today, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the most promising cleaner vehicle technology. Car manufacturers are developing new models that are energy efficient and increasingly cost effective. Other technologies such as the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, could be viable in the future, but today they are currently less suited for mainstream use. We in Singapore lack a supply of green hydrogen to power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.”
“First strategy on making Walk-Cycle-Ride the preferred modes of transport. It is sustainable, and Minister Khaw spoke about our ambitions for a world-class public transport network, our investments over the next decade to renew and expand the rail network. Senior Minister of State Dr Lam Pin Min spoke about how cycling and active mobility can play an appropriate role in this landscape. Buses will also play an important role. Today, they already connect millions of Singaporeans to their homes, their schools and their offices on a daily basis. The Public Transport Council's annual Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey (PTCSS) shows that commuter satisfaction in our public bus services continues to be high. The Bus Contracting Model (BCM) played an important part in achieving this. We have injected additional capacity through the BCM for more than 100 bus services. We have also built, replaced or upgraded 16 bus interchanges island-wide to keep pace with this larger bus fleet. Peak-hour bus waiting times for trunk services have come down from 20 minutes or less in 2016 to 15 minutes or less today. These improvements would not have been possible without the hard work, the dedication and the commitment of our bus captains. The BCM was a major change for our bus industry and tripartite partners worked closely together to ensure a smooth transition. In particular, the National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) played a key role in the development of tripartite guidelines to protect the welfare of bus sector employees and our bus captains. Bus operators competing for contracts under the BCM have to abide by these guidelines, which ensure that bus employees will be treated fairly and will be no worse off when a new operator takes on a contract.”
“But COVID-19 could have a longer term impact, so we are working closely with the operators and the driver associations to monitor the situation. If necessary, we will consider further support. Even as we deal with COVID-19's immediate impact, we must push on with our plans for a future-ready land transport system. The Land Transport Masterplan 2040 (LTMP 2040) sets out this long-term vision that we have for our land transport system. It was developed in consultation with over 7,000 Singaporeans. And many participants recognised that Singapore is running up against tighter land, manpower, fiscal and environmental constraints. Long-term sustainability has to be a key planning consideration for our transport system. There are three critical strategies for us to achieve this long-term sustainability of our land transport system. First, we have to make Walk-Cycle-Ride (WCR) the preferred modes of transport here in Singapore. Walking – connecting us to the transport nodes, to the MRT, to the buses, and also to the amenities. Cycling – for those who can, as a very efficient and healthy way of getting around town. And riding – whether it is the MRT, the bus or shared vehicles, in preference to private car ownership. The second key strategy is to move comprehensively to cleaner and greener vehicles – dealing with the emissions, dealing with resource utilisation and the issues around carbon. Thirdly, we have to optimise our land transport system for the future. Every little bit of marginal gain – whether it is safety, whether it is efficiency, whether it is cost, whether it is the experience of the commuters – is important; and the best way to do so is to appropriately and correctly use technology to optimise our land transport system.”
“Mr Chairman, several Members have asked questions or provided suggestions that I will address in my response. Mr Ang Wei Neng, Ms Sun Xueling, Mr Melvin Yong and Miss Cheng Li Hui have brought up issues such as COVID-19, taxi and private hire car (PHC) drivers, the transition to the Bus Contracting Model, the push for electric vehicles and the necessary incentives and infrastructure. They have also asked about our plans for autonomous vehicles and the future professional development of our transport workforce. I hope to address their questions. COVID-19 has affected the public transport and point-to-point sectors. Compared to about a month ago, ridership on our MRT, our public buses and point-to-point transport sector has fallen by around 20%. The taxi and PHC drivers' livelihoods have been badly affected. They need help so that they can continue to provide sustainable services for Singaporean commuters. Together with the operators and the driver associations, we launched a $77 million Point-to-Point Support Package last month. This will help to partially defray business costs incurred by about 40,000 eligible drivers. Taxi operators such as ComfortDelGro, SMRT, TransCab and Premier have committed to further help and will lean forward to provide additional rental rebates to their drivers, on top of matching Government's contributions to the package. This brings the total support committed by Government and operators to over $90 million over three months. Eligible drivers have started receiving rental rebates or cash grants of up to $36.50 per day. Drivers who do not meet the eligibility criteria can seek help via the Government-NTUC Driver Care Fund. We hope that this will help the drivers through this difficult period.”
“With this approach, we can seize the digital opportunities and embrace digitalisation with confidence together.”
“CSA is launching the SG Cyber Talent initiative to reach out to more than 20,000 individuals over three years, through existing and new programmes. This will build a pipeline of cybersecurity professionals to support Singapore's ambition to be a cybersecurity hub. Under the SG Cyber Talent programme, CSA will introduce two new programmes this year. First, CSA will work with the cybersecurity community and educators to nurture young Singaporeans with an aptitude in cybersecurity. This will provide participants with an arena for cyber sparring for mentorship for customised training and some support to participate in overseas competitions. Secondly, CSA will build communities of practice, offering training in cybersecurity and connecting cybersecurity leadership to global best practises and technologies. This will equip these leaders to secure their organisations more effectively. Singapore's cybersecurity workforce is important not just for the development of a competitive digital economy, but also for our national security. To Ms Lim's query on how CSA ensures that it has the expertise and knowledge for its mission, CSA has a Cybersecurity Professional Scheme and a Cybersecurity Competency Framework. Together, these guide the professional development of our offices and allow CSA to attract and retain people with the right skill sets. CSA Academy has also been working with global partners to provide intermediate and advanced training for CSA, as well as for the critical information infrastructure (CII) sectors since 2018. To date, the Academy has trained about 200 professionals. Mr Chairman, I have spoken about MCI's efforts to secure our digital infrastructure to protect our cohesive society and to support all workers.”
“These support the transition of both ICT professionals as well as non-ICT professionals into technology-based jobs. So, they provide an opportunity for people who are in a technology-based profession to shift their skillset, shift their career focus as well as people who have not had specific ICT training to develop ICT skills and move into a technology-based job. Not just the companies, not just the Government, but also our trade associations are also actively contributing to these efforts. Under the Career Compass initiative, experienced ICT mentors from the Singapore Computer Society partnered Workforce Singapore to provide career guidance to aspiring technology professionals. SGTech also manages Professional Conversion Programmes with platform companies such as Salesforce to train and place workers into new roles. These new roles include examples such as data protection officers (DPOs) and cybersecurity professionals. There are many new jobs and exciting opportunities that are being created, and we have to increase our effort to support the professional development in these new roles. I agree with Mr Patrick Tay on the need to upskill these DPOs. As he noted, the PDPCs DPO Competency Roadmap and Training Framework aims to support this. PDPC will collaborate with partners such as NTUC, to roll out additional courses and targets to train 500 DPOs in the first year. I encourage more workers to tap on such training to deepen their skills in data protection and seize the opportunities in this growing field. Other than data protection, cybersecurity, as we have discussed, is a critical enabler for digitalisation and we will need more cybersecurity professionals to protect our cyber space.”
“Finally, Chairman, we must support all workers as our economy digitalises. Technological disruptions have changed how we work, creating new roles and new manpower demands. The Government will continue to support all Singaporeans to capitalise on these opportunities and to meet industry needs. Mr Ong and Ms Tin asked about tech talent in Singapore. We must work with stakeholders to expand our talent pool and strengthen career developmental pathways for emerging roles. To grow our workforce, we have collaborations with the private sector. We are very glad that industry, for example, Apple and Alibaba collaborate with us. IMDA has been collaborating with them to develop programmes for Secondary school students to help them develop some experience in marketing and pitching business ideas as the develop the technological skills, applying some of these skills to problems that interest them; for example, waste identification and recyclable materials. These industry-led programmes allow young minds in Singapore to develop technological skills, contribute to the causes that they find meaningful and prepare themselves for their future. We will have to continue to make sure all Singaporeans – including those who did not learn tech skills in schools – are supported as they take on these technology-based roles. We will actively groom the innovation talent through mentorships, overseas attachments and structured training to position Singapore as a digital hub. Under SkillsFuture, the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) initiative supports professionals to upgrade their skills for the Digital Economy. These programmes include the Company-Led Training (CLT) and the Cyber Security Associates and Technologists (CSAT) programme.”
“IMDA has worked with the telcos to block international scammers from making their phone call look like they are coming from commonly spoofed numbers, such as 999 and 995. We will move on to introduce measures to stop international scammers from trying to spoof numbers that look like they are a local number, targeting our citizens by introducing a requirement to have the "+" symbol as a prefix for all overseas calls. We hope this will help consumers better identify international spoof calls and reject them. The Government will continue to develop additional measures to combat scams so that our citizens can be better protected. MCI will work closely with other agencies in the newly formed Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams announced by MHA to strengthen our collective efforts to tackle this problem. 1.15 pm Mr Darryl David and Mr Vikram Nair asked about measures to guard against deliberate online falsehoods. These can threaten our multiculturalism and the harmony of our society. We must protect our social cohesion in the real world and online to uphold the shared values of Singapore. The Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods recommended for the Government to support fact-checking initiatives and strengthen public education to build an informed and discerning citizenry. We will do so together with a range of partners. One timely development is the National University of Singapore (NUS)'s decision to establish a Centre for Trusted Internet and Community. The Centre will research how societies discern online harms and how to build responsible public discourse. MCI welcomes this effort. This will be an important academic complement to existing efforts that nurture healthy, well-informed and inclusive online activity.”
“The guides will include best practices and policies on the end-to-end management of data collected via such technology. For online consent agreements, the PDPA continues to apply. Organisations must ensure that online consent agreements are clear and spell out the reasonable purposes for which the individuals’ consent is being sought. The PDPC also updated the Guide to Notification last year, providing organisations examples of how to utilise just-in-time notifications and obtain dynamic consent. This allows individuals to make informed decisions as and when relevant, instead of one-off lengthy consent agreements. As part of the effort to continually support data-driven innovation and to strengthen the accountability of these organisations and consumer trust, the Government is reviewing the PDPA. The key proposed amendments under this review include: (a) obligating organisations to notify affected individuals and the PDPC of significant data breaches; (b) strengthening PDPC's enforcement powers; and (c) instilling accountability practices like risk assessments for organisations. We plan to amend the PDPA later this year. I announced on 28 February 2020 that the Government will be sharing more data with businesses and researchers to spur innovation. As we do so, the high standards of data protection that the Government imposes on itself must be extended to third parties using three guiding principles. First, the data is shared with these non-Government entities (NGEs) only when there is a specified purpose that will benefit the public. Second, as a general rule, only de-identified data is shared. Third, access controls and safeguards should be spelt out in contracts with these NGEs. Protecting our citizens online includes shielding consumers from scam calls.”
“We will introduce a new Data Portability Obligation in the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) so that individuals can have their data transmitted between organisations in a commonly used format. This will also improve data interoperability. On Ms Tin's questions on data centres, Singapore’s data centre market is expected to grow about 5% annually until 2024, according to a 2019 report by Cushman and Wakefield. We are mindful about the environmental impact of these data centres. As part of our nation-wide efforts to combat climate change, IMDA is working with EDB to improve the efficiency of these data centres. Mr Ong Teng Koon and Mr Yee Chia Hsing asked about Singapore's data protection regime. As we generate and store more data online, it is essential that our regulations enable the innovative, legitimate use of data and simultaneously safeguard consumer interest. The collection, use and disclosure of personal data are regulated by laws like the PDPA. This includes personal data shared between organisations and data collected through facial recognition technology. Personal data must be protected and used for reasonable purposes, like security, as mentioned by Mr Yee. Conversely, the example cited by Mr Ong of the sale of personal data to other organisations without consent would be in breach of the PDPA. Organisations are responsible for expunging the personal data when it no longer serves the purposes for which it was collected. Public agencies are held to similar standards under the Public Sector (Governance) Act. In order to promote the responsible use of facial recognition technologies, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) and the Government Data Office will publish guides on the responsible use of biometric technology this year.”
“CSA works closely with other Government agencies to enhance public sector data security. However, while related, data security and cybersecurity are different. Data security is concerned about the protection of data – whether this data is collected online or not. On the other hand, cybersecurity is concerned with the protection of systems, including, for example, train signalling. It extends beyond data protection. Both are essential and complementary. To Ms Lim's point on vendor management, organisations are ultimately responsible for their obligations. These obligations continue when they decide to outsource certain functions. If they do so, they should perform due diligence to select the right third party providers with proven track records and maintain sufficient oversight over this outsourcing of functions. I agree with Ms Tin Pei Ling that data is critical in this digital age. Data needs to be secure and interoperable to unlock its potential, to support innovation and to benefit consumers. The Trusted Data Sharing Framework introduced in June 2019 laid the groundwork for data interoperability and provided a common language as well as contractual templates to help organisations in Singapore share data in a trusted manner. Internationally, Singapore is contributing to common data protection principles, for example, the ASEAN Framework on Digital Data Governance as well as the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules and their Privacy Recognition for Processors Systems. This network of partnerships that Singapore has and our Digital Economy Agreements will also facilitate cross-border interoperability and collaboration.”
“Details on this Safer Cyberspace Masterplan will be announced later in the year. A growing area of concern is the Internet of Things (IoT). This refers to devices, like home routers, smart home hubs, which many of us may have in our homes and offices. We expect that the number of these devices will grow significantly as they become more and more useful. This poses a challenge because these devices typically have weak security and can be exploited by attackers, for example, in a distributed denial-of-service attack to flood systems and disrupt operations. IMDA and CSA have been working closely to address these challenges and to educate users about these risks and the precautions that they can take to secure their devices. Going forward, CSA will be launching the Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme (CLS) for home routers and smart home hubs. The scheme will raise consumer awareness on more secure products and aims to encourage manufacturers to adopt additional cybersecurity safeguards. IMDA will be setting minimum security requirements for home routers. This will improve baseline standards for such devices and will be a prerequisite to attaining the cybersecurity label. Together, IMDA and CSA will be launching a joint Public Consultation to seek feedback on this. In addition, IMDA will also be publishing an IoT Cyber Security Guide to offer enterprise users and their vendors better guidance on the deployment of IoT technology. CSA has made good progress since the launch of the national Cybersecurity Strategy in 2016. But the Government alone cannot secure our cyberspace. CSA will continue to work with individuals and businesses to enhance Singapore's cybersecurity. Ms Lim asked about CSA's role in the Public Sector Data Security Review Committee.”
“CSA has a framework to calibrate the approach to mitigate potential threats. Should there be an incident of concern, this framework also helps us to coordinate an appropriate national response to secure our cyberspace – a response that will involve multiple stakeholders and agencies as well as private sector entities. Similar to containing COVID-19, in cybersecurity, we need processes to give us an early warning and a multi-stakeholder approach to mitigate any impact of a large-scale cyberattack. We do this by ensuring timely information sharing from multiple sources. Under the Cybersecurity Act, CII owners are required to monitor systems and report incidents to CSA. CSA then works closely with industry and international partners to share cyber intelligence. However, we must plan on the basis that we cannot prevent all cyber incidents. Determined attackers will always find new ways to breach our systems. So, we must be vigilant and be prepared to respond to and recover quickly from any attack. To these ends, CSA conducts regular exercises, such as Exercise Cyber Star, to prepare the nation in the event of a widespread cyberattack. As part of Singapore’s Cybersecurity Strategy, the Government also works with businesses and the general public to improve their cybersecurity. For example, SingCERT provides regular advisories about identified vulnerabilities. Beyond the CIIs, CSA will continue to expand broad efforts to protect cyberspace through the new Safer Cyberspace Masterplan. This aims to make Singapore one of the most cyber-secure countries in the world, benefiting all. The plan involves, firstly, securing Singapore’s digital core; secondly, safeguarding activities in cyberspace; and thirdly, empowering a cyber-savvy population.”
“Mr Chairman, digitalisation can bring greater convenience, efficiency, participation and better services for all. A secure digital infrastructure will be important to allow our citizens to live safely, work productively and enjoy themselves online. Mr Cedric Foo, Mr Vikram Nair and Ms Sylvia Lim asked about the Government's efforts on cybersecurity. The Cyber Security Agency (CSA) has been working to protect our Critical Information Infrastructures (CIIs). This is the first pillar of Singapore’s cybersecurity strategy. These systems are critical for providing essential services, like energy and water. Since the SingHealth Committee of Inquiry (COI) concluded a year ago, CSA has worked with CII sector leads to strengthen their defences and to implement the Committee’s recommendations. To date, the Energy, Infocomm, Security and Emergency sectors have fully implemented all the recommendations or compensating controls. Other sectors have made good progress and implemented measures for between 70% and 90% of their CIIs. We will continue to track their progress and enable the further implementation of these measures. It is crucial to strengthen our defences on operational technology (OT) systems as well. These are systems that control physical and industrial processes and manufacturing equipment. As many of the CIIs rely on these, attacks on OT systems can cause physical disruption. To address this, CSA has launched the Operational Technology (OT) Masterplan in October last year to raise awareness and competencies in OT cybersecurity. Mr Douglas Foo asked if Singapore has a cyber-response framework similar to the DORSCON Framework used to handle COVID-19. There are broad similarities in how we respond.”
“Mr Speaker, there is no good way to separate out the two issues. In order for one to take action as a responsible citizen, one needs to be aware of what the issues are and understand what the facts are. So, the answer to Mr Perera's question is, it is both, depending on need. Sometimes, awareness is sufficient; sometimes, action is desirable but that requires awareness as well.”
“We must continue to transform how Government works, by re-engineering our digital resources, investing in our people, and co-creating with the public. In doing so, we hope to galvanise everyone to build our Smart Nation together. 3.30 pm Safe Banking for Elderly and All”
“For the second collaborative design strategy, we have previously launched with an initiative called Smart Nation Co-creating with Our People Everywhere, also known as SCOPE, where citizens try out early prototypes of our products and share their thoughts on how they can be refined. This has been very useful. It has allowed us to continually test our ideas and improve them over time. One example, when we were developing the Active Ageing features for Moments of Life, many seniors suggested that the app should help them find exercise events nearby. This was not something that we had prioritised, but we adjusted our plans and now this is one of the most popular features of that service. To date, more than 23,000 Singaporeans have participated in SCOPE and it is not a small effort. I would like to thank our community of more than 1,000 Smart Nation Ambassadors, bringing these Smart Nation projects to Singaporeans from all walks of life. This year, we will expand the scope of SCOPE in two ways. First, we will start further upstream. Instead of just giving feedback on specific projects, we invite the public to join in the entire process of the development of Government digital services – from conceptualisation to deployment. Second, we will bring SCOPE closer to residents by holding the sessions on board a Smart Nation Builder mobile truck, which will slowly make its way around Singapore. Please look out for it when it comes to your neighbourhood. We will continue to make sure that we build digital readiness in Singaporeans so that they can take advantage of these opportunities and MCI will share more on this. Mr Chairman, Sir, our swift response to the COVID-19 situation is a glimpse of how Smart Nation is already here to impact our daily lives.”
“Its job recommendations are personalised to the preferences and skills of each jobseeker, and it will get better and improve its performance over time. We hope that with this approach, we can also design better policies. This has started and a team from MOM has used a cross-agency administrative data set to review how Workfare can strengthen retirement adequacy of lower income workers. Their analysis informed the Workfare enhancements that were announced in the last Budget and implemented since the start of this year. To best serve the needs of our society and citizens, we need to actively partner Singaporeans in building our Smart Nation, a point made by Ms Tin Pei Ling. Ours is a digital version of SG Together comprising two broad strategies. Firstly, we will develop more avenues for citizens to experience technology first-hand, learning more about how all these work. Secondly, we have to create opportunities for Singaporeans to join us in designing better products, services and platforms. To support the first experiential strategy, we are launching two major Smart Nation showcases – in July, the CityScape@URA exhibit, to give citizens an interactive experience of digital technology, and in December, the PlayScape@Science Centre, leveraging on the role that the Science Centre plays in our education, to bring the experience of being able to touch and feel and play with technology, to everyone. We hope to demystify technology and to encourage as many citizens as possible to visit these exhibits.”
“The progress that we have made in allowing this type of data sharing and the use of cloud-based services were also key factors that has enabled the MaskGoWhere team to deliver their swift and effective response. I agree with the suggestions made by Mr Darryl David and Dr Yaacob Ibrahim on the importance of maintaining public trust in our use of data and I would like to assure Members that the implementation of the Public Sector Data Security Review Committee (PSDSRC) is on track. Many of these technical safeguards have been built into our Government Data Architecture, ensuring that there is consistency in the compliance of these standards. We will publish an annual update on the Government's efforts in safeguarding personal data, starting with the first report later this year. We have also migrated non-sensitive IT systems to the cloud to take advantage of the latest technology and to improve cost-effectiveness. Similarly, we are adopting the best practices in software development by building a technology stack with modular software components for reuse and sharing across agencies. Putting all these together, we can more effectively harness digitalisation to serve our citizens and businesses better. Despite COVID-19, work continues on many platforms, products and services. Moments of Life is one example and GoBusiness is another, which embodies how we use digital technology to integrate services across agencies to be more user-centric. PSD will give further elaboration on this. But we must also create new value for citizens to be "digital to the core". One example is WSG's MyCareersFuture. This portal uses machine learning, matching job seekers to relevant opportunities.”
“Their willingness to step forward and rapidly put together what they understood was a solution to an urgent problem and the fact that they had the tools and capabilities to do so immediately demonstrates that we are well on the way to becoming a Government that is "digital to the core" and "serving with a heart". These outcomes are only possible because we decided to build up the digital engineering capability of the Government into a strategic capability a few years ago. With this strong engineering core, we can internalise within our service the capabilities and the skills, to use technology to transform our core businesses as well as develop the confidence to integrate with external stakeholders and the private sector, building platforms such as MyInfo – not just for ourselves but to enable our whole economy to innovate and digitalise. Finally, as in this example with COVID-19, we can respond swiftly and decisively to unexpected national contingencies. So, to Mr Vikram Nair's question, we will continue to invest in engineering capabilities, create the right environment and exciting opportunities for engineers to apply their ingenuity to serve the public good. More than developing good people, we have had to re-engineer how we use technology. To enable better and secure use of data, we have established the Government Data Architecture. It has been delivered, cutting the time needed to share the first tranche of core data sets to just four weeks when previously, it was several months. It will shorten further. We commit to getting it down to seven working days within this year, with more data sets for public officers to improve operations and service delivery. As Prof Lim Sun Sun has mentioned, more data will also be shared with companies and researchers in the future.”
“Mr Chairman, to support our fight against COVID-19, many GovTech engineers worked with the rest of the Public Service to build new digital services. One team put together MaskGoWhere almost overnight, giving citizens up-to-date information on where to collect their masks. This was identified as an urgent need to allay fears, provide accurate, reliable and real-time information. It needed to be created very quickly. Other teams worked on providing accurate information through the Gov.sg WhatsApp channel, Ask Jamie chatbot and developing software to help MOM monitor Leave of Absence compliance – just to name a few of these digital efforts to support our fight against COVID-19. I recently met Mr Ryan Tan, who was part of the team that put together MaskGoWhere. He has been with GovTech for five years, having joined us through the Technology Associate Programme immediately upon his graduation from NUS. He volunteered to help put MaskGoWhere together. He was part of an initial team. The team started with three people, scaled up to 30 people over a weekend and then, back down to three or four when it became stable. He applied his skills in cloud architecture and app development and deployment. He also applied the analytics tools that he works on in his normal job, embedding them within MaskGoWhere, so that the team was able to optimise their service's response in real time, as it received almost a million unique views over a very short time. This story of Ryan and other members of the MaskGoWhere team is an example of how we are transforming digital Government.”
“Mr Speaker, for the test fees, we are continually looking at the process of how we do these medical assessments. We will take the test fees into consideration. I thank the Member for her suggestion. We will have a look at this. In terms of the broader issue of the taxi operators, we have announced some measures to help the taxi industry. Some are directed at the drivers and some are directed at the operators. We will continue to work closely with the association, in line with the tripartite model, to look and see what is the effectiveness of the interventions we put in place and to see whether or not further interventions are necessary.”
“Mr Speaker, the Traffic Police require all drivers aged 65 and above to pass a medical examination to certify their fitness to drive a private car once every three years, in order to retain their Class 3 personal driving licences. Among these older drivers who wish to drive a taxi, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) requires them to also pass a medical examination with additional occupation-related health checks to certify their fitness to renew their Taxi Driver Vocational Licences (TDVL). We subject taxi drivers to more stringent medical assessment as they clock a much higher mileage than other motorists. This is to protect the commuting public. LTA is working with the Traffic Police to align the two medical assessment processes. Before the end of this year, taxi drivers who have passed their TDVL medical assessments should be able to use them to renew their Class 3 personal driving licences.”
“Mr Speaker, the issue about changes to work patterns or school closures is not something that falls under the purview of MOT. But in a broader context, the information we have so far is that there is very limited community transmission link in clusters. Currently, as I understand the postures of the other Ministries, there are no plans for those types of measures to be instituted at this point in time. Our public transport systems are serving the public well and there is no reason to believe that we should not continue to use them to get to work, to get to school and to go about our usual daily business.”
“We will continue to work with the Ministry of Health, our public transport operators and NTWU to introduce appropriate measures and efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 as the situation evolves.”
“Mr Speaker, the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) is a colour-coded framework that categorises the prevailing situation during the outbreak of an infectious disease. The framework provides general guidelines on what needs to be done to prevent and reduce the impact of infections, but does not prescribe specific measures for various sectors at the different alert levels. The Government will develop relevant measures, taking into account the unique characteristics of the disease based on the latest available information and the requirements of each sector. Since the start of the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19), the Ministry of Transport (MOT) has worked closely with our bus and rail operators and the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU) to implement relevant precautionary measures. For example, since 28 January 2020, all public transport workers returning from mainland China have not been deployed to frontline duties. This measure was put in place ahead of the mandatory 14-day leave of absence to be served by all workers returning from mainland China from 31 January 2020. Operators have also implemented more frequent cleaning of public surface areas and high commuter touchpoints, placed hand sanitisers at Mass Rapid Transit stations and bus interchanges for use by staff and commuters, and conducted twice-daily temperature screening for all staff. Messages on maintaining public hygiene have also been frequently shared with public transport workers. These measures seek to give commuters peace of mind to continue with their regular daily journeys. Commuters are also reminded to practise good personal hygiene. Commuters who are unwell should avoid public transport and crowded places.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Minister for Transport, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time." Mr Deputy Speaker, the Shared Mobility Enterprises (Control and Licensing) Bill 2020 will set up a new Act to regulate shared mobility services. The Bill replaces the relevant licensing regime of such services from the Parking Places Act and expands the licensing regime for more comprehensive coverage. This Bill is linked to the previous Bill in our Order Paper, the Active Mobility (Amendment) Bill 2020. In the debate we have just had on the Active Mobility Bill, I have already explained the amendments proposed in both Bills. Members have already raised their questions and expressed their views on both Bills during the earlier debate, although they are still welcome to do so now if there are any additional questions or views. Mr Deputy Speaker, I beg to move. [(proc text) Question put, and agreed to. (proc text)] [(proc text) Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House. (proc text)] [(proc text) The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. – [Dr Janil Puthucheary.] (proc text)] [(proc text) Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed. (proc text)]”
“I think we have to be quite clear about the perspective here. Ms Anthea Ong has brought up the vulnerable, low-income many, many times. The most important way for all our communities, including the vulnerable and low-income, to get around is by walking and using public transport, and they close the last-mile gap, not through a PMD, but through many other different means. We have to have our priority in ensuring the safety of that space. I think we will progress as best we can so that those who do rely on this for their livelihood can be supported in some way. And we will make sure that all Singaporeans are well educated about the provisions of this Bill and the enforcement of its provisions. [(proc text) Question put, and agreed to. (proc text)] [(proc text) Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House. (proc text)] [(proc text) The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. – [Dr Janil Puthucheary.] (proc text)] [(proc text) Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed. (proc text)]”