Lim Swee Say
Singapore
“The number of reports received via the Snap@MOM app, number of valid reports and number of companies issued with enforcement actions between 2015 and 2017 are shown in the table below: All valid reports have resulted in warnings or enforcement actions.”
“In the case of students from ITE, polytechnics or autonomous universities, employers do not need to contribute CPF if the student is employed by them for training that is approved by their institutions.”
“Together with our tripartite partners at the national and sector levels, we have to do our best to transform across all sectors, for our economy to transform and grow, pervasively, as One Singapore Unlimited.”
“Between April and December 2017, the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) and the Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT) concluded 3,750 employee salary claims where the employer was ordered to make payment to the worker. Salaries were fully recovered in about 92% of these orders. The remaining claims involved 139 employers.”
“The number of employed residents aged 62 and over, and 67 and over has increased over the last five years (see Table 1 below). Of all employed residents aged 67 and over in 2017, 64% were males; 80% held secondary and below qualifications, 9% had post-secondary qualifications, while 11% were tertiary-educated; 52% of this group of older w…”
“The proportion of full-time resident employees earning below $2,000 who received bonuses, including the Annual Wage Supplement, has remained stable at about 50% over the last decade. Employers and unions share the flexibility in structuring staff remuneration together under our Flexible and Performance Based wage systems.”
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“At the same time, in order to reduce and minimise the number of cases where the employers are not able to make any Page: 39 payment due to financial difficulties, MOM, together with the tripartite partners, is looking into how we can enhance the protection for workers in a more holistic manner.”
“Mdm Speaker, of the 645 cases prosecuted last year, most of them were issued advisories or warning orders, and 49 employers, as I mentioned earlier, were prosecuted in Court. This is the action taken against employers. At the same time, employers were also taken to the Labour Court to settle the payment to the workers. For that, last year, we cleared about 1,630 cases. And of these cases, two-thirds of the workers were able to receive full payment on the orders of the Labour Court. However, one-third of them, due to financial difficulties faced by the companies, received either partial payment or, in some cases, no payment. We investigated further into those employers who were not able to make full payment and we discovered that 80% of the employers were able to make full payment but 20% of them, were unable to pay due to financial difficulties and, in some cases, even business closures. As a result, there was no recourse for the workers and for the Labour Court to recover the payment. We take this seriously. Our sympathies are with the workers because they work hard for the money. MOM is doing two things: firstly, those workers who are not covered under the Employment Act, today, when they face a problem of salary non-payment, they have to take civil action, which can be protracted and costly. By the end of this year, we will be setting up the Employment Claims Tribunals so that workers, including managers, executives, even CEOs, who are earning more than $4,500 and not covered under the Employment Act, will be able to have access to the Employment Claims Tribunals.”
“The Employment Act (EA) protects both local and foreign workers against salary non-payment. Under the law, employers are required to pay their employees within seven days after the end of the salary period. Failure to do so is an offence and employers are liable, upon conviction, to a fine or imprisonment, or both. Besides prosecution, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) can take a range of enforcement actions, including issuing warning and imposing fines. These employers will also have their privilege to hire foreign workers suspended. In the most recent amendments to the Employment Act (2014), we raised the penalties for failure to pay salaries. We introduced mandatory minimum fines of $3,000 for first-time offenders and $6,000 for repeat offenders. We also introduced higher maximum fines for both first-timers, from $5,000 to $15,000, and for repeat offenders, from $10,000 to $30,000. At the same time, we enhanced MOM's enforcement and investigatory powers, granting employment inspectors the power to arrest any person believed to be guilty of failing to pay salary, as well as the power to enter workplaces to conduct inspections. MOM has stepped up its enforcement efforts since 2014. MOM now investigates every salary-related claim for employees covered under the Employment Act. We take a particularly serious view of employers who wilfully refuse to pay. Last year, MOM took action against 645 employers for salary-related offences. Forty-nine employers were prosecuted Page: 38 for severe breaches. This is four times more than the number in 2013. We therefore, urge workers who have not been paid their salaries or feel that their wages have been wrongfully withheld to come forward early to MOM or their unions for assistance.”
“Mdm Speaker, the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme (ELP), launched in March this year, is a work-study programme designed to give fresh graduates from the polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) a head start in careers related to their study. It provides them with more opportunities after graduation to build on the skills and knowledge acquired in school and to better support their transition to the workforce. The Food Manufacturing industry was the first sector to roll out the ELP in April this year. Other industries that will come on board in 2015 include Food Services, Games Development, Logistics, Infocomm Technology, Marine and Offshore Engineering, Retail and Precision Engineering. We will progressively implement the ELP in more industries and, eventually, cover up to one in three polytechnic and ITE graduates. We have prioritised these industries to start first because they are more ready. At the same time, we also encourage the participation of trade associations and chambers (TACs) to help reach out to companies in their sectors, whether priority or non-priority-sectors. Mr Thomas Chua may be pleased to know that the Government will support them with additional resources and work with them to design quality ELPs that are not only relevant to the individual companies but also to the industry as a whole. Together, we can move faster in developing skills progression frameworks and career progression pathways for our fresh graduates.”
“Madam, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 4 and 5 together, please?”
“The People’s Association (PA) promotes community bonding in Singapore. The budget allocated to the PA reflects a higher level of commitment by the Government towards promoting social cohesion and racial harmony. Of the $339.6 million or 51.3% increase in the estimated Financial Year (FY) 2015 expenditure of the PA, $239.3 million (70.5%) is for the development of facilities for our residents’ use. These include the building of the Tampines Town Hub, construction of nine new CCs and two Water-Venture outlets; as well as to upgrade 28 existing CCs under our 15-year upgrading cycle. The increase of $100.3 million or 29.5% in operating expenditure will go into implementing the Pioneer Generation Ambassador programme where staff and volunteers reach out to seniors where they live, as well as supporting the work of the grassroots organisations (GROs) and Community Development Councils (CDCs) in assisting the needy and in building and bonding our multiracial and multicultural communities. Page: 170”
“I think it is better that we overcome challenges of success before they turn into challenges of failure. We have succeeded before, from Modernisation to Globalisation. I believe we can make it again towards a better economy, a better workforce and better Budgets for many more years to come. Mdm Speaker, I support the Budget [Applause]. 4.57 pm”
“" And we reminded them that SkillsFuture credit may be $500, but do not forget this is net of training subsidies. In fact, many training programmes in Singapore are subsidised by the Government up to 70% to 90%. Workers need to use the SkillsFuture credit only to pay for the net fees which are net of subsidies. At 70% subsidies, $500 can buy you training of more than $1,500 if my calculations are correct. With 90% subsidies and $500, you can go for $5,000 worth of training. Therefore, my point in this is that, yes, it is a big investment that is more than just the $1 billion SkillsFuture Credit. What we have to do is to work together to make good use of this heavy investment. Let us help our workers learn hard skills, learn soft skills but, most importantly, help them to learn to be reskillable workers. Reskilling will not stop, because the future will not stop changing. Hopefully, if more workers can become reskillable workers, then more of them can become more employable in the future. Page: 99 Likewise, business should really take full advantage of the Transitional Support package because we would like to see more companies re-engineering themselves, re-positioning themselves before the transition is over. Because this is only a Transitional Package. In conclusion, Mdm Speaker, we live in a world full of challenges, some countries have to cope with challenges of failure, for example, uncompetitiveness, high unemployment, excess capacity in their economy. Our challenge in Singapore is of a different kind. Ours is not a challenge of failure, but a challenge of success. Not a problem with excess capacity but the challenge of keep growing, keep expanding while running at full capacity.”
“" It is like flying west in a plane, chasing after the sunset but never get to see the sunrise. Actually, this is possible. A photographer actually did that. He went onto the plane, keep flying west for 24 hours and he was able to capture this sunset around the world during the 24 hours, keep staying with the sunset. He did it because it is a very interesting project. But I do not think businesses will want to do that because if you keep going west, keep chasing after the sunset, keep going for lower cost locations, I think, eventually, you will end up with darkness. Instead of flying west to keep up with the sunset, why not fly east? I think those of you who fly east before will know that the night is shorter and the sunrise will come sooner. And once the sunrise comes, we can stay in the sun for as long as we can, until it is time to move on to the next sunrise again. This mindset of embracing the future is applicable to workers, businesses and the economy as a whole. We must not live with problems of today by chasing after the sunset. Instead, we must turn challenges of today into opportunities of tomorrow. Robotisation, 3D printing, uberisation, big data, Internet of Things, digitisation of services, O2O – Online to Offine, Offline to Online – all these are coming. In fact, some are already here. So, there is no place to hide. With SkillsFuture, we hope that every one of us can put the SkillsFuture credit to good use. Some are worried that if we do not put the SkillsFuture credit to good use, then $1 billion is too much money to spend, too much money to risk. Some workers say, "With $500, how much training can I really go for to really make a difference to up my future readiness?”
“There is no need for us to try to transform every job so that every job is attractive to Singaporean workers. All we need to do on the whole is to transform at least two-thirds of the jobs in Singapore to attract the two-thirds workforce who are the local workforce, because it is not our intention to drive away all foreign workers in Singapore. You see, there will always be the one-third in the workforce that comes from foreign manpower. Therefore, my point to them is that you have to apply your mind, do not try to work on every job, but if every one of us is able to redesign to transform two out of three jobs into better jobs that are more attractive to Singaporeans, then we are there. SkillsFuture initiatives, such as Earn and Learn, are very much welcomed by the Labour Movement. Because we believe that through such programmes, it can help many new job entrants to move into new and promising industries and take on new careers without being hampered by their academic qualifications or the lack of working experience. In other words, if every employer values every worker and every worker values every job, then we can build a strong Singaporean Core and yet, at the same time, tap on the expertise and availability of foreign manpower in Singapore to help enlarge the Singapore economic pie. In this way, two-thirds plus one-third can be bigger than one, if we are able to break the "bottleneck" of manpower optimisation. Last but not least, the "bottleneck" of mindset, the mindset of breaking away from the present and venture into the future. Again, many employers and companies would say that it is very hard to survive here. We ask them what they are going to do. Some would say, "I Page: 98 want to keep moving to lower cost locations, lower wage locations, one after another.”
“What this means is that more of our growth in our future economic capacity will have to come from growth in labour productivity and innovation. We have heard this many times before and I have to say it one more time. If productivity growth remains low or even negative, we could end up with low growth or even economic stagnation due to this lack of capacity. When that happens, wages will go down, unemployment will go up, re-employment will drop. There will be less or no Budget surplus. It will be harder to do more good for our people. I am sure we do not want this to happen and that is why we must find ways to break this Page: 97 economic capacity "bottleneck". We are seeing encouraging progress in our strife for higher productivity. In fact, many Pioneers and early adopters are showing the way, including the SMEs. But they are the minority as of now and what we need to do is to continue to press on to widen our outreach, quicken the pace to bring on board the majority, the early majority, the late majority. We have to transform not just company-by-company but also sector-by-sector and make productivity a truly National Movement. The second "bottleneck" we have to break is manpower optimisation. We have two-thirds local manpower, complemented by one-third foreign manpower. The challenge is how to ensure that two-thirds plus one-third will be more than one and not less than one. In other words, we must find ways to value every worker – all collars, all ages and all nationalities, too. Local workers and foreign workers. I often hear employers telling us that it is not possible to transform every job to be attractive to Singaporean workers. So, it is not possible to attract Singaporean to take up every job. And my reply to them is always that we do not have to do that.”
“However, as we competed for better quality jobs, we realised that our limited experience, our limited capabilities in advanced knowledge, R&D, innovation and high-tech industry were our "bottleneck". So, what did we do? We embarked on a journey to nurture, support and upgrade our workforce, businesses and economy to where we are today. Because of our focus on globalisation, we were able to break the "bottleneck" in our skills and capability. Today, we still have to keep running because the world keeps changing. After modernisation in the 1960s, globalisation in the 1990s, what is next? I tried very hard to look for a suitable word. I searched all dictionaries and I could not find one that I feel is suitable. I have no choice but to come up with my own. It is called "Futurisation", meaning a mindset of moving faster into the future. Do not wait for the future to come to us but we go to the future, ahead of our competition. Meaning a mindset of preparing ourselves better for the future, ahead of our competition. In this journey of "Futurisation", we have to break not one, not two, but three "bottlenecks". The first is the "bottleneck" of capacity for future growth. Without additional capacity in our economy, there will be no room for growth. We have been expanding our workforce but the pace has slowed. Manpower utilisation is near full capacity. Unemployment is low, our employment rate is high. For males, our employment rate is higher than all the OECD countries. For females, we are among the top 15. Our foreign manpower is now reaching the long-term target of about one-third versus two-thirds. So, in other words, there is now limited scope for us to grow our workforce. Growth will continue to slow down to 3%, to 2%, and even, eventually, 1%, between now and 2020, 2030.”
“In the 1990s, it was a period of transformation for the Asia Pacific. To many multinational companies at that time, in their market segmentation – Asia Pacific was classified as part of the ROW. What does ROW stand for? "Rest of the World" means etcetera, etcetera. So, they paid a lot of attention to the North American market, to the European market, but Asia Pacific, together with the other under-developed markets, are called "Rest of the World". However, in the 1990s, with the Opening of the China economy, together with Japan and others, including Singapore and ASEAN, we collectively retransformed Asia into what they called a BOW – "Best of the World", because companies realised that they could not continue to grow, they could not outperform their competitors if they were not able to capture this very important market of the Asia Pacific. So, they rebranded Asia Pacific from the "Rest of the World" to "Best of the World." They decided to move away from vertical division of labour towards horizontal division of labour. In other words, instead of looking at Asia Pacific as a low-cost production base, they decided to move in some of the high-quality jobs, including product development, process development, innovation development, into the Asia Pacific. The rapid growth of Asia brought new opportunities to Singapore but, at the same time, new threats too, because we could have been leap-frogged by our competitors. Page: 96 Our response at that time was to embark on a journey of globalisation. I still remember that at EDB, we talked about Inner Globalisation within Asia Pacific and Outer Globalisation beyond Asia Pacific.”
“When he has found the right place, when there are enough fish for him to catch, more than what he alone can catch, then labour has become the "bottleneck". He will employ more boats and more fishermen to help him to catch more fish. Having caught more fish, but more than what his men can now process, then production capacity is now the new "bottleneck". So, he has to purchase machines and equipment to speed up the processing. And by the time he is able to produce more fish products with all these capital investments, more than what he can sell, then market has become the new "bottleneck". So, he has to invest in product development, process development and, most Page: 95 importantly, market development. From this simple story, you can see that only by breaking new "bottlenecks" along every stage of development can a business continue to upgrade and grow. In this case, from a resource-intensive industry to a labour-intensive industry, to a technology-intensive industry and to, finally, a knowledge-intensive industry. This, too, is what we have to do as an economy. We have to keep breaking new "bottlenecks" as we restructure our economy, as we move from one stage of development to the next. For illustration, I would just like to recall two defining moments in the past. In the 1960s, job was the "bottleneck", because we did not have enough jobs for our workers. Our response then was to embark on a journey of "Modernisation". So, the tripartite partners, instead of confrontation, we moved towards collaboration. As a result, we were able to secure full employment for our people and sustain it till today. I think it is an achievement that we all can be proud of. So, we succeeded through modernisation to break the "bottleneck" of jobs.”
“So, allow me to share the viewpoints of the Labour Movement and the tripartite partners, too. In the unionised sector, there are 1,500 unionised companies and organisations. Last year, wage increases ranged from 0% to 13%. Bonus ranged from zero month to 8.3 months. Collective Agreement took between three meetings and more than 50 meetings before the union and the management could reach agreement. Why the difference across these companies? We live in a real world and the reality is that even though we, as union leaders, always try to do our best for our workers, how much we can secure for our workers depends on how well the business is doing, in terms of profitability, in terms of growth. It is always easier to secure more for workers when there is a growing pie and much tougher when we have to fight over a shrinking pie. The same reality applies at the national level, too. Should we try to do more good for our people? Our hearts say "Yes" but our heads also remind us that we can only do more good for our people if we have more resources. And this can best come about if we can keep growing our economy and employment, too, so that we will not end up becoming a welfare state. So, instead of having to balance future Budgets by cutting back on spending, we believe that it is better to balance future Budgets by growing our economy and revenue. To succeed, we have to keep progressing from one stage of development to the next. Along the way, we will be confronted with new "bottlenecks" and we have to find ways to break them. For a fisherman who cannot find enough fish to catch, fish is the "bottleneck", he will have to find a better place so that he can break this "bottleneck".”
“We are able to deliver what we aim to do for our people. Why? The reason we can have such a good Budget is because, through the years, we have worked hard together, strived together and progressed together. I still remember the 1960s. Back then, our economy was still lagging behind, there was no job security and unemployment was high, wages were low and working conditions were poor. But the tripartite partners and the entire nation worked together to modernise our economy, our companies and our workforce to achieve full employment. I also remember in the 1990s, as China embarked on economic reforms, the entire Asia region prospered. This gave our economy an added boost, but also brought about greater pressure. During that time, we worked together to go global, explored new territories and created what we have today. Likewise, looking ahead, if we want to have a good Budget to take better care of our people, we still need to work hard together, have the courage to take on new challenges and strive for new breakthroughs. We will continue to move forward, from "Modernisation", "Globalisation" to "Futurisation". We want to achieve economic growth, with companies growing and careers making good progress, so that our economy, society and Singapore will have a better future. Page: 94 It is not a given that we will have a good Budget every year. We have to work hard together for a better tomorrow. Together, let us strive for it! (In English): Mdm Speaker, Budget 2015 is a good Budget. Some questions raised: is it prudent; is social spending sustainable; and will it lead us to becoming a welfare state? This is the last time I am speaking in the Budget Debate in my capacity as NTUC Secretary-General.”
“[Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] This year's Budget takes care of workers and all citizens, including children, students, working adults, working parents and retired senior citizens. It even helps middle-income families cope with various challenges in life. More importantly, this Budget not only takes care of today, but also strengthens the foundation of our future. This is, indeed, a very good Budget. Many workers, union leaders and residents all welcomed this Budget. At the same time, they have also been asking, "Will Page: 93 future Budgets be just as good or even better?" Take, for example, when we introduced the Pioneer Generation Package last year, those who were below 65 years old asked, "Will there be a package for the second generation of Pioneers?" This year, we rolled out the Silver Support Scheme to take care of low-income senior citizens for life. Some people asked, "Will this scheme be terminated halfway?" This year, we also announced the SkillsFuture Credit Scheme at a cost of $1 billion, which will be topped up every few years. Will future governments have the means to sustain this scheme? I can see that they are both relieved and worried at the same time. Relieved, because this Budget helps to lighten their burden in supporting their parents and children and even helps relieve their personal concerns. Worried, because they are afraid that future governments may not be able to provide a Budget that is equally good or even better. Then they will have to worry again. I can tell them very honestly that no one can guarantee future Budgets will be just as good or even better. Every government of every country hopes to announce a good budget every year so that citizens can benefit. It is something they want to but are unable to. We are different.”
“The People's Association (PA), in partnership with the Singapore Pools and SingTel, successfully held the live screening of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches at 58 Community Clubs for residents to catch the exhilarating football action with their families, friends and neighbours. There was overwhelming response, with more than 570,000 resident counts and much positive feedback. Besides watching the World Cup, our grassroots leaders and PA staff took the opportunity to organise fun-filled fringe activities for the residents to get to know one another better. Strong community spirit was evident during the screening. It was common to see residents of different ages and races cheering for their teams, neighbours arranging to come together and many voluntarily helping to clean up the premises and stack the chairs after the screening. Indeed, the success of the World Cup screening demonstrates the potential of using sports to bond our people. Er Dr Lee asked whether we would consider televising live broadcasts of popular international sports events, such as the upcoming UEFA Champions League matches, at the Community Clubs in the future. There are costs involved and it would depend on whether there is broad-based demand from the residents and sponsorship available to support such screenings. Individual Community Clubs might also fund the screenings themselves.”
“My speech today is very much a "dog bites man" kind of speech, but I believe in what I say, what I see and how I feel. Manpower has been, and will always be, our most critical resource. There are three types of bricklayers. The first type, the good type, will look at their job as laying bricks one by one. The better type will look at their jobs as building walls – wall by wall. But the best type will look at their job as building houses, schools and hospitals. We all want our workers to be of the best kind. We want them to be engaged, motivated and to always give their very best. But then, management, organisations, leaders, are we at the same time prepared to engage them and embrace them wholeheartedly? We must help them to strive for better skills, better productivity, better jobs and better pay. We must strive to make every job a better job, every worker a better worker. If we do that, then we will have good business, good economy and good Budget year after year for many years to come. With that, Mdm Page: 120 Speaker, I support the Motion. [Deputy Speaker (Mr Charles Chong) in the Chair] 5.26 pm”
“As a result, less manpower is needed and more pay for the workers. In electronic manufacturing, PMETs are being trained to become T-shaped – horizontal skills and deep vertical skills. As a result, they are more productive, more competitive and, more importantly, more employable, too. In shopping malls, landlords are now helping tenants with recruitment and conducting trainings onsite, so that these SMEs in the shopping malls can send their workers for training to improve their skills, productivity and wages. In a growing number of sectors, we are also seeing the upgrading of ITE and polytechnic graduates into professionals and specialists through professional accreditations. By breaking the glass ceiling for the ITE and polytechnic graduates, Page: 119 more are now able to move up the skill, productivity, job and wage ladder. The list goes on. If Members feel that these illustrations are just commonsense, I agree with you. Unfortunately, after years of high growth in manpower and unskilled labour, commonsense is not so common on the ground anymore. I am very glad that some are changing, but at the same time, we are sad that some still resist change. They would rather go out of business or get out of Singapore than to change and upgrade their operations here. It is their choice, but workers are the ones who will suffer the pain most. The world is changing fast and waits for no one. We need a greater and broader sense of urgency. Every change we make today may not always turn out right tomorrow. But if you do not take risk and responsibility, as advocated by Member Dr Janil Puthucheary yesterday, I am very sure many things will turn out wrong in the future. When a dog bites a man, it is no news. But when a man bites a dog, it is big news.”
“In landscaping, workers can now cut grass using a remote controlled grass-cutting robot. Again, faster, with less labour and higher salary. Page: 118 In hotels, hydraulic pumps under the bed help the mature worker to clean the hotel room easier, smarter, safer and faster, too. Being able to clean more rooms means more pay for the workers and, at the same time, it means less need for manpower for the hotels. In the marine sector, welders have now become operators of welding machines. Instead of doing welding by hand, they now operate the welding machines. Again, they can do their job now faster, with more consistent standards, and at the same time, higher salary and they are able to work to an older age. In food factories, installation of packaging machines has improved productivity by many times. Again, higher wages with fewer workers. In F&B, the use of mobile ordering, installation of up-to-date kitchen equipment, nurturing of management trainees are helping some F&Bs to grow faster and more profitable, too. Workers are, at the same time, paid better. Some Members may not be aware that the perfect soft-boiled egg is cooked to 64 degrees Celsius. Anything lower than that will make the egg too raw; anything higher than that will make the egg too cooked. How do they ensure that every egg is soft-boiled to 64 degrees Celsius? An F&B outlet, Eighteen Chefs, has recently installed a machine that will produce egg after egg at 64 degrees Celsius and it will always turn up eggs that are perfect every time. It makes the jobs of the workers easier, faster, safer, and yet, at the same time, because of higher productivity, they are paid more, too. In security, a central monitoring system enables security guards to monitor multiple sites at the same time.”
“We have to attract good jobs of the future and, at the same time, we must be prepared to transform low-wage, low-skilled sectors to become less labour intensive. If we can do all that, I believe 2% to 3% gain in labour productivity can be within our reach. Several Members, yesterday and today, said that it is only natural to ask for more during the Budget debate. I agree with them because I am asking for more, too. I am not asking for more to be in Budget 2014, but I am asking and calling for more action outside of this Parliament, on the ground. More action by all agencies, businesses, industry bodies, unions, workers and consumers, too. The Labour Movement walks our talk. We are doing more on the ground. The Labour Members who spoke before me have shared with this House how we are strengthening our 4Ps support for all collars, ages and nationalities of workers. At the same time, we are updating the wage structure, too. In the past, when we tried to move away from the seniority-based system, the Labour Movement spearheaded the reduction of the minimum and maximum ratio in companies and job sectors. When we tried to minimise job losses during the downturn, the Labour Movement spearheaded the flexible wage system. Today, as we strive for quality growth, the Labour Movement is championing the Progressive Wage Model to support this transition towards quality growth. We are happy that the Labour Movement is not alone. Together with many businesses and workers supported by agencies, we are doing more and leading the way in this process of change. For example, in conservancy cleaning, with ride-on sweepers, cleaners can now clean pavements, drains and grass patches easier, smarter and safer. Much faster and, at the same time, save labour and earn higher wages.”
“Therefore, as long as we are able to create new jobs – good and better jobs with good productivity and good pay – we will be able to progressively upgrade the labour productivity in Singapore. For our national labour productivity gain to go up, we need to up the positive and down the negative. Only when the positive force is stronger than the negative force will we then see a net gain in our national labour productivity. To up the positive, all existing jobs, good or bad, we must make them better. We must turn old manufacturing into new manufacturing. We must turn old services into new services. We must try to professionalise every job – it does not matter whether they are high or low-end jobs. Every job can be professionalised. Ask the gardener in Japan; ask the cleaner in Germany; ask the waiter in USA. They will tell you that it is possible to professionalise every job. At the same time, we must create more new jobs, especially jobs of the future, to meet the aspirations of our people, especially the younger generation – from future manufacturing to future services, those driven by technology, innovation and knowledge, so that we can be more future-ready than the competition. Page: 117 At the same time, we need to down or lessen the negative. Many jobs in Singapore today are still not good enough. They are done in the way many years behind other developed countries. Cheap labour was an easy solution of the past, but not anymore. Instead of being a laggard, we must strive to be an early adopter of best practices, technology solutions, especially labour-saving devices in the Asia Pacific and, better still, in the world. Putting them together – up the positive, down the negative – means we have to upgrade and professionalise existing jobs.”
“If overall average labour productivity is 100%, imagine, if those sectors with labour productivity of less than 100% – that is, 30%, 50%, 70% – if they continue to grow and hire more workers, at that level of productivity, which is lower than the national average, they will bring down the overall average national labour productivity. This is the averaging-down effect. There are many sectors in Singapore today that are growing and they are below our national average in terms of labour productivity. These sectors range Page: 116 from cleaning, construction, security, retail, landscaping, cashiers, ticket sales, waiters, material handling, pest control, light goods vehicle drivers, low-end production and so on. I am very sure our interpreters will have problems catching up with me, but I am rushing through just to show that, indeed, we do have many sectors in Singapore today that are still below national average and, worse is, they are still growing very fast in terms of manpower requirements. These sectors, using outdated tools, equipment and methods, continue to be manpower- and labour-intensive. If nothing is done to improve these sectors, they will keep averaging down the overall national labour productivity. What about the positive force – the one that is pushing up our labour productivity in Singapore? When we transform existing sectors, whether they are above or below the national average, as long as we transform them and we improve skills and productivity sector by sector, they will add to improvement to our labour productivity. Or when we grow new sectors that have higher labour productivity than the national average, again, as they employ more people, they will average up our national level productivity.”
“But what is even more important is that we must prepare our economy, our businesses and our workforce for the future, so that we can sustain what we have today: good growth, good employment, good wage increases, and more importantly, the resources to do more good for our people. We are seeing encouraging signs on the ground. Yesterday, Member Mr Liang Eng Hwa said that PIC has become a verb. I agree with him. Indeed, there are healthy signs that the economy is shifting to a new track. However, we are not full steam ahead yet. Productivity gain has been low. The good news is we have stopped the decline in 2013 from minus 2% to 0%. But the bad news is there was no increase in 2013. There are many reports of productivity and innovation in the media. My union leaders asked me, "What happened? Are those innovation and productivity gains for real? If so, how could productivity gain be zero for last year?" I have to find simple ways to explain to my union leaders. Let us say labour productivity across the sectors, across companies, across workers, range from 0% to 200%. And let us say the overall average of labour productivity is 100%. Basically, there are two forces at work. One force is pushing up the labour productivity towards 102%, 103%. Another force is pressing down labour productivity towards 99%, 98% and so on. If these two forces are equal – up cancels out down – we will end up having zero. And that is what happened in 2013. What is this negative force that is pushing down our labour productivity? Back to the earlier example.”
“In the future, we also hope that the third generation would have the ability to look after today's second generation. So, let us strive together; every generation looking after another generation. May everybody live and work in peace and enjoy his golden years. Let us continue to be a unique Singapore. (In English): Mdm Speaker, in my chitchats with union leaders, grassroots leaders and residents, feedback has been most positive. It is a good Budget with bold moves. A few of them asked me, when they turn 65, would they be able to join the Pioneer Generation. I explained to them why not. I told them, in my case, I am now 60 years old. In 1965, I was 11 years old. Since I was only a Primary 5 student, I do not qualify as one in the Pioneer Generation. I asked them, by the time I turn 65, how old would I have been in 1965? They thought for awhile – still 11 years old. So, I told them, "It does not matter how old I get – whether 65, 75, 85 – I cannot change the fact that I was only 11 years old in 1965. This is the reason why I will never be able to join the Pioneer Generation." One union leader heard this, and was really disappointed. He said, "Oh, no! No hope, then." I said, "Yes, of course, there is hope." Today, we honour the generation before us. Years from now, if we continue to do well, if the Government is still clean, responsible and caring, if the Budget is still healthy, the generation after Page: 115 us may decide to honour our generation as well. Therefore, yes, there is always hope. To ensure that our Budget will always be good, year after year, of course, we must honour the past, take care of the present.”
“Mdm Speaker, in Mandarin, please. (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] The elderly are afraid of three things: one, seeing a doctor; two, going to the hospital; and three, receiving the bill. Now that we have the Pioneer Generation Package, residents told me they no longer need to worry; they can now have peace of mind. A pioneer citizen who is 65 this year, can benefit from the Package for 35 years if he lives up to 100. With the $8 billion fund, we can make sure this package will not be discontinued midway, so people can be further assured. The Pioneer Generation will have lifelong care; the second generation can now heave a sigh of relief. A resident, whose mother is in her 70s, asked me, "Will my mother's MediShield premiums continue to rise in the future?" I told Page: 114 him, "No, not only will it not rise, it will drop, maybe by half." After he heard my explanation, he heaved a sigh of relief. Another resident's mother is in her 80s. He asked me, "What about me? My mother is in her 80s. Will it be the same?" I told him, "In your case, it would be even better, because your mother will receive enough MediSave top-up to pay for her MediShield premiums". He, too, heaved a sigh of relief, and a big one as well! The second generation hopes that the Budgets in the future would continue to be generous. In order to have a good Budget, we must have a good economy. In order for the society to be more united, more progressive and more caring, we must have sustainable development. Our economy must continue to transform, our companies must continue to adapt and productivity must continue to improve. Only by doing this can today's second generation have the ability to look after the Pioneer Generation.”
“At the same time, I hope that the better Singapore of tomorrow will be different from the Singapore of today, that elderly workers will be better remunerated and are able to work for a few more years. I hope that low-income workers can see swifter improvements in their jobs and enjoy higher wage increases than other workers. I hope that working women can not only have successful careers, but also happy families, and not have to choose between the two. I also hope that our professionals will have more space to develop their talents. I also hope that the self-employed will not be overlooked, that more attention will be paid to these workers, in terms of skills upgrading, retirement and healthcare. I also hope that future graduates Page: 106 can have a better chance of joining the sectors they are interested in and have better careers. Of course, to achieve a better Singapore is not an easy feat. Hence, we hope that the entire nation and the tripartite partners will work together to help and rally our workers and businesses. In all, I hope that the better Singapore will be a country, society and people that value and respect every worker. (In English): Madam, life is for the living. So, it is important that we help each other to live a full and better life, and I believe that is what a Better Singapore is all about. So, let us value every worker, value every Singaporean and make it happen for all Singaporeans. With that, I support the Budget. 5.14 pm”
“Madam, towards a Better Singapore is a journey. We will not see the completion of the transition in three years. But if we do not take the first step, there will not be a second step. Therefore, what is important is for us to make sure that in the next three years, let us take this first step together. What is even more exciting is that we can take the first step together towards a better economy, and along the way, contribute to a better society as well. Why? Because as we move towards a better economy, we must learn to value and respect every worker. If we could do that as a society and economy, I believe that the Singapore society can be a better and gracious society. Ask ourselves, when was the last time we said "Hello" and "Thank you" to our bus captain, taxi driver, cleaner, security guard, waiter, waitress, employees, colleague or employer? When was the last time we did that? When was the last time we said "Thank you" to the person who holds the lift door open for us and to someone who gives way to us either in the shopping mall, on the highway or wherever? When was the last time we did that? In other words, it is very important that as we value every worker, we must also learn to respect every worker. That will make us, I believe, a much better society and economy. Madam, in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Our aim is to build a Singapore of tomorrow that will be better than the Singapore today. However, I hope that the better Singapore will be similar and yet different from the Singapore of today. In terms of similarities, I hope that the future Singapore will continue to be a nation with full employment, high employment rates and continued wage growth.”
“I, for one, am a lot more confident today than before. Some Members expressed their concern that we had been talking about productivity gain 10 and 20 years ago, but there is not much breakthrough in some of these sectors. But today, I feel a lot more confident that, this time round, productivity will happen. The reason why I am more confident is because we have decided to tighten on the increase of the foreign manpower. As I mentioned earlier, if we look ahead to the next 10 to 20 years, manpower will be the bottleneck of the Singapore economy. With manpower as the bottleneck, I am a lot more confident now that more and more companies will take this transformation towards a productivity-driven, innovation-driven economy a lot more seriously. We hope that enough companies will come forward so that we can look ahead into the future whereby more and more companies will be able to compete for customers by offering products and services which are cheaper, better and faster, and yet at the same time, able to attract, retain and reward the workers with better jobs and better pay. I read in today's paper that there could be some confusion when my fellow labour Member Zainal mentioned yesterday that "cheap is no good, good is no cheap". It has created a bit of misunderstanding. Someone told me, "Lim Swee Say, you said cheaper, better, faster. But your labour Member said that 'cheap is no good, good is no cheap'". Actually, there is no contradiction between what Zainal and I are talking about. "Cheaper, better, faster" refers to the product and services. "Cheap but no good, good but no cheap" refers to the workers. Page: 105 Workers do not equal to products and services, and products and services do not equal to workers. So, let us be very clear. In fact, we want to have both.”
“If the job is already a first-world job, let us do whatever we can to further enhance the job to stay as first-world. If the job is a second-world job today, upgrade the second-world job to a first-world job. And from the third-world to second-world, and eventually to the first-world. So, we believe that is the best way we can break this manpower bottleneck. I am happy to say that within the unionised sector, we are, in fact, seeing more and more companies adopting this concept. We now have more and more companies – from aerospace to hotels to F&B and so on. What they are doing now is to pursue Page: 104 breakthrough in productivity, to have the gain and, at the same time, share the gain with the workers in a very fair and reasonable manner. Madam, simply put, of the three options – no wage increase, or just normal wage increase, or, thirdly, invest and share – we believe that this investing in productivity and sharing the gain is the way to go. It will not be easy, but if we apply our minds together, we believe it can be done. Of course, for many SMEs, one of the challenges they face is that you can invest in your productivity today, but it may take another one or two years before you realise the gain. In the meantime, what do you do? In fact, this is where the Wage Credit Scheme comes in. Because with the Wage Credit Scheme, the Government is now co-funding the sharing of the productivity gain, even before the gain is fully realised by the companies. We really hope that more companies will make full use of the PIC, WCS and all the other programmes to ensure that they can invest in productivity gain and share the gain. Madam, looking ahead, our challenges, of course, would be in terms of can we speed up the momentum?”
“The third option, which obviously is the preferred option from the standpoint of the Labour Movement, is for companies to take full advantage of not just the Wage Credit Scheme, but the total package under the transitional support package because, at the end of the day, it is important for companies to recognise that as we enter this new stage of development, in fact, the bottleneck of the Singapore economy, the bottleneck faced by all businesses, is now the bottleneck of manpower. The limiting factor of the Singapore economy as we move ahead is actually manpower. Given such a situation, a wise and logical thing to do obviously is to try to break this manpower bottleneck by making best use of every worker and every person. For example, making best use of every worker could mean giving everyone and every worker the best opportunities and do the best to reward them. For the younger and better educated workers, over the next five to 10 years, we are going to see the majority of the workers becoming PMEs. Like what labour Member Alex Yam mentioned, many workers of today aspire to be future-ready. They look forward to the factories and services of the future. When Deputy Prime Minister Tharman announced the future of manufacturing plan, I was actually very excited. It was not discussed much in this sitting of Parliament. But in my view, it is the kind of incentive, programme and initiative that would bring Singapore to the next stage of development, creating all these exciting opportunities for the workers of today and tomorrow to really enable them to rise to their full potential. At the same time, we must find ways to help our workers to do their jobs more effectively.”
“First option is to not grant any wage increase. So, no wage increase means no Wage Credit Scheme. Of course, it is not an option open to companies, including SMEs. But for these companies and SMEs, I am very sure that many of them are fully aware that it can be a risky move in the tight labour market because you could end up losing your workers – not able to attract new ones, and may not be able to retain the existing ones. The second option for the SMEs to adopt is that since the labour market is tight, I have no choice but to grant wage increases and then draw on the Wage Credit Scheme. So, if the SMEs grant $50, they can claim back $20 from the WCS, so their cost has come down to $30. If they grant $100, then $60, and $40 from the WCS. However, if these companies adopt the attitude that they just make use of the WCS to lower their wage cost without doing anything different Page: 103 – the job is still the same, the skill is still the same, and the operation is still the same, then at the end of the three years, they will be back to square one, because nothing has changed. The operation is still the same. Like what the Chinese say: "一寸光阴一寸金，寸金难买寸光阴". In other words, yes, you can make use of WCS for the next three years, but what is even more precious is that you would have missed the opportunities to upgrade and enhance in these three years. At the end of three years, if the companies are back to square one, I think they will face even greater challenges.”
“Page: 102 Madam, I share the concern that a lot more needs to be done and within a shorter time for low-wage workers. I am confident that if we put our efforts together and align our efforts, with the Workfare Income Supplement Workfare Training Scheme and the Progressive Wage system, we can do a lot for the low-wage workers a lot faster. Madam, as we pursue this better Singapore to stay ahead and for Singaporeans to live better, we need to ensure that all sectors at all levels will go through a transformation, not just the low-wage workers and low-wage jobs. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Mr Tharman announced the three-year transition support package. As a Labour Movement, we are very encouraged by this package. Over the last week or so, since the announcement of the package, the most discussed component in the transition support package is the Wage Credit Scheme (WCS). There are some questions asked about whether this will actually help the SMEs, will the SMEs lose out, will it really lead to productivity gain and will wages actually drop at the end of the three-year WCS support. Madam, if we look at wage increases, a normal wage increase would typically take into account, for example, the seniority of the workers, the performance and, of course, the market situation. If the market is tighter, the employers will typically grant greater wage increases. So, these are very normal market forces at work. However, given our present situation of a tight labour market and the expected tight labour market over the next few years, our assessment is that, on the ground, many employers, especially SMEs, will find themselves having no choice but to grant somehow a wage increase to the workers. Basically, companies can have at least three options.”
“Today, with the Workfare Income Supplement, all workers earning below $1,900 will receive Workfare Income Supplement. So, it is a way of topping up the salary. The important point to note is that the Workfare Income Supplement adds to the CPF, adds to the cash taking for the workers without imposing any burden on the employer. So, in a way, we are able to maximise the upside for the workers without the employers having to live with the downside. At the same time, we introduced the Workfare Training Scheme (WTS) to ensure that low-wage workers in particular can be upgraded as quickly as possible. Last year, we introduced the Progressive Wage System whereby we finally pull together four factors – the skills, productivity, career path as well as wages of the workers. With the WIS, WTS and Progressive Wage Model, we believe we have now the minimum wage model. In fact, it is more than the minimum wage model whereby we can maximise the upside for the low-wage workers, at the same time minimise the downside. Of course, as labour Member, Mr Zainal Sapari, mentioned yesterday, even though the Progressive Wage Model is a good model, but the implementation will take time. Yesterday, Mr Zainal suggested that we can go beyond accreditation. Can we go for licensing? If we were to go for licensing, then, effectively, we have put in place a minimum wage system, sector by sector and, on top of that, WIS, WTS and on top of that, not just minimum wage but a wage ladder. So, a cleaner need not be stuck at the minimum wage of $1,000, as advocated in the Progressive Wage Model. The cleaner can move from $1,000 to $1,200 to $1,400 to $1,600 through the collective effort of the tripartite partners.”
“From the Labour Movement's point of view, we share his concern, that more needs to be done and done faster. Madam, minimum wage is highly attractive. More than 90% of the countries in this world have already adopted minimum wage. So, Singapore belongs to the minority. Why is it so? Minimum wage as a policy has its upside and its downside. The limitation of minimum wage is that if you want to maximise the upside, then there will be more downside as well. If you want to minimise the downside, then the upside will be limited as well. So, in other words, minimum wage can be a zero-sum game. You cannot have high upside and at the same time, low downside. Singapore has been studying this minimum wage approach all over the world very carefully for many years. We have come to the conclusion that, firstly, there is no one way of implementing the concept of minimum wage. Various Page: 101 countries implemented it differently. In the case of USA, for example, they have a minimum wage. At the same time, they have an income tax credit, similar to our WIS. In the case of Australia, they implement minimum wage sector by sector. In the case of Germany, they do not have minimum wage, but they allow minimum wage to be implemented selectively in certain sectors. We studied all of them. We then asked ourselves in Singapore, can we try to do better? Can we put in place a so-called "minimum wage system" whereby we can have maximum upside and yet, at the same time, minimum downside? After all these years of exploration and experimentation, I think, today, we have finally settled on a model, not the final model yet, obviously it has to be evolved, but I think it is taking shape quite nicely from the perspective of the Labour Movement.”
“Yes, every five years, every 10 years, when we look back at our progress, I think every one of us hopes that Singapore would get better every five years, every 10 years. The Singaporean workers want to see not just a better Singapore, but rather they want to be able to say that we the Singaporeans made it happen. Yes, Singaporean workers recognise and the Labour Movement recognises that the Singaporean Core does not equal to Singaporeans only. In fact, we should welcome foreign manpower as our partners and friends but we must remain at the core. In other words, yes, we would like to achieve a better Singapore with the help of foreign workers and foreign manpower, but not the other way round. Madam, the second aspiration for many Singaporean workers is that a better Singapore must be and will be inclusive of all Singaporeans and progressive for all Singaporeans. We would like to see a broad base upgrading, in terms of skills, productivity, career and wages so that all Singaporeans can have better jobs, better pay, and live a better life. We would like to see a Singapore where we all respect each other, care for each other and work together with each other. But most importantly, we would like to see a Singapore where we, as one people, live not just in one nation, but more importantly, live together in one same world. Why do we say that? Singapore has made the transition from Third World to First. I think we often say that. But from the workers' point of view, there are still many jobs today that are stuck, that remain in the Second World and the Third World. We have to change them for the better and change them fast. Of course, one option is to introduce minimum wage. I think Member Inderjit Singh mentioned it.”
“Over the last two days, my fellow labour Members have touched on the aspirations of the various types of Singaporean workers. For the older workers, my fellow labour Member, Mr Heng Chee How, called for the re-employment age to be raised to 67 from the present 65. For the low-wage workers, my fellow labour Member, Mr Zainal Sapari, called for the licensing of certain low-wage sectors so that workers can enjoy fair wages. For the women workers, Nominated Member Ms Mary Liew, called for more measures to be introduced so that women can have a good career and a happy family both at the same time. For the PMEs, my fellow labour Member, Mr Patrick Tay, called for fair opportunities through the introduction of labour market tests and even quantitative measures, such as the imposition of dependency ratio ceiling. For the SME and service sectors, labour Member, Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, called for more support to encourage bottom-up breakthrough in productivity gain and gain sharing. For the self-employed, labour Member, Mr Ang Hin Kee, called for greater attention to be paid to them to help them to upgrade better, at the same time, to help them to save more for their retirement, for their medical needs and so on. And last, but not least, for the new job entrants, labour Member, Mr Alex Yam – Members have just heard from him – called for a fair employment market as well as making sure that our new job entrants will be future-ready. Madam, putting all these together, I would just like to highlight two aspirations of the Singaporean workers, from what we know through our interactions with Singaporean workers. Page: 100 Firstly, Singaporean workers really aspire to do more to strengthen the Singaporean Core in every sector of our economy.”
“Madam, there is a saying that people do not care how much we know until they know how much we care. As we strive for a better Singapore, what do we really care about? From the perspective of the Labour Movement, a better Singapore must be about enabling Singaporean workers to live a better life. Madam, it is often said, money is not the only thing. But if there is no money, how to do anything? This is the reason why as a Labour Movement, we have always firmly believed that a job is the best welfare and full employment is the best protection. I am happy to say that this philosophy, this commitment, is actually embraced not just by the Labour Movement but by our tripartite partners as well. As a result, decade after decade, we work very closely together to ensure that we keep unemployment low and employment rate high so that Page: 99 workers can have the best welfare and the best protection. As a result of this concerted effort, today, while other countries are trying to lower their unemployment rate, here in Singapore, we are talking about how to increase our employment rate. Other countries are stuck with wage stagnation. Here, in Singapore, we are talking about how we can sustain real wage increase. Other countries are fighting for job growth because they simply do not have enough jobs to go round their workers. Here, in Singapore, we are having a tight labour market, shortage of workers, we are talking about how we can pursue better paying jobs. Madam, as we go through this period of transition, I feel it is very important that we keep what we have done well and at the same time improve on areas which we have not done as well. As we strive to do better, we must make sure that this better Singapore will be better for all Singaporeans.”
“Mdm Speaker, may I seek your consent and the general assent of Members present to move that the proceedings on the item under discussion be exempted from the provisions of Standing Order 48(8) to remove the time limit in respect of Acting Minister Tan Chuan-Jin's speech.”
“Yes. I am trying to clarify this point that if we had told the investor, the wafer fabrication company, "You can only hire the operators and wait until the disk drive companies "close shop", when they will release the manpower, the operators, then you hire these operators," because we have a Page: 75 policy of zero net increase in foreign workers. Mdm Speaker, if this was the case, the projects would not have come to Singapore. My point here is that as a Labour Movement, we are very concerned that, yes, we want restructuring. But with restructuring, it cannot be like a restructuring cliff-jump. Today from disk drive to wafer fabrication tomorrow, overnight. It would not happen. You have to go through a process of transition. Therefore, I think it is an important point that I wish to clarify.”
“" At the same time, they also reminded us that it is not possible to operate the new state-of-the-art wafer fabrication plant with 100% PMEs because you need 50% who are the operators. In other words, the investor was asking the EDB, "Are you able to promise us a total package? Which means I must be able to find the 1,000 engineers, technicians and production operators. Otherwise, I cannot operate the plant." We said, "Sure, we are prepared to do so." But we had a problem because, given the tight labour market in Singapore, 80% of the engineers, the PMEs are Singaporeans. Twenty percent, we told them, "Fine. If you cannot find enough engineers in Singapore, you can take 20% from other countries, but 80% are Singaporeans." But for operators, it was the other way round because we just could not find enough operators for them. In the case of operators, actually, it was more than half were foreign operators and less than half were Singaporeans. Mdm Speaker, my point here is this. If we had insisted to this wafer fabrication company and said, "Look, you can come to Singapore, bring —”
“Mdm Speaker, I spent quite a few years with the EDB. In the EDB, we had to go round the world to attract investments. I can speak from my experience that some of the challenges we face are these. Take, for example, the case of the electronics sector. For a long time, Singapore was a capital for disk drives. We did very well. In fact, we had something like 10,000 or 20,000 workers working in the disk drive sector. But way before the disk drive sector went into consolidation, the EDB had to look ahead. If we did not look ahead, eventually by the time the disk drive sector exited from Singapore, then we would not have had new investments continue to flow in. Page: 74 At that point in time, EDB had to look ahead. The next stage of developments for the electronics sector was wafer fabrication. When we went into wafer fabrication investment, investments of the wafer fabrication companies were well sought after in the world. Each investment was worth about US$1 billion. However, each project required 1,000 persons to operate the plant – 500 engineers or PMEs; 500 are operators. At that point in time, I still remember very clearly, that the first significant project we were competing with Korea for, actually decided to go to Malaysia. Finally, we went to the Japanese companies and tried to bring a Japanese project to Singapore. The Japanese management basically asked a very simple question. They said, "Look, we have the money to put in the investment. We know Singapore has committed to provide the land, water, and so on. But they said, "Look, the most important factor is manpower because once you go to higher value-added, knowledge-based economy, it is all about manpower.”
“Mdm Speaker, in my speech earlier, I made the point about the fear for the workers in terms of over-tightening of the labour force. If I may have your permission to clarify the point in my speech earlier, Mdm Speaker?”
“" For areas that are showing improvements, but with the increase in population, will the situation turn for the worse in future? Hence, I believe that Parliament should give Singaporeans a clear affirmation that areas which require improvements now will be fixed in the short term and we will do better in the long term. Mdm Speaker, the challenges brought about by the "three peaks" are inevitable. During the course of trying to address these challenges, if what we achieve is a "good economy" with a "bad" society, or a "good" society with a ‘bad' economy, ultimately, the economy will not be good, neither will be the society, people's lives will not be good either. However, if we have the spirit of serving the people at heart and work together to alleviate the concerns of the public, give our citizens clear assurances, reinforce their confidence in our future, I believe, that Singaporeans will have better lives in 2020 and 2030. (In English): Mdm Speaker, I hope that this House, after three days or, by tomorrow, five days of debate, we can come to a consensus on the key priority areas for us to move forward. I hope that we can speak in one voice, act in one heart and serve our people as one Parliament. Let us work together regardless of parties, regardless of idealism. Let us work together to maximise the upsides, minimise the downsides of a growing population. Together, we can overcome the crisis of the three peaks so that Singaporeans can live better in the year 2020, 2030 and beyond. Madam, I support the Motion with the amendment. [Applause.] 2.22 pm”
“I believe that if we work together closely, we can achieve a better balance between the two. Actually, this is not only my personal view. When Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean spoke on the first day of the debate, he said that if we can achieve our objective of creating a better life for Singaporeans, and the total population number is kept lower than 6.9 million, it is actually a good thing. So, we reiterated several times that 6.9 million is not our target but a projection for planning of infrastructure. We must also understand that there are actually ways to continuously lower total population growth, if we can work together. For example, in terms of work distribution, just as Deputy Prime Minister Teo had mentioned, in future, two-thirds of the population will be professionals, one-third will be general workers. For general workers, a lot of jobs are positions that cannot attract Singaporeans, and wages are not good enough. In the past, the idea is that if you have a job that does not attract Singaporeans, then you should look for foreigners. Looking forward, our views have changed. For example, we can use technology and innovation, or robots. In the USA, the use of robots is widely encouraged to improve competitiveness. I believe that if we go in the same direction, we can also keep the total population numbers as low as possible. But as I said Page: 45 previously, we should not act in undue haste because it will not only hit businesses but also hurt workers. Thirdly, another consensus is that the livelihood of Singaporeans has to continuously improve. This is in terms of daily cost of living and quality of living. Presently, residents are concerned, "with the Population White Paper, will areas that already require improvement further deteriorate?”
“Perhaps, the difference is that Mr Low Thia Khiang believes the Government is only using monetary incentives to encourage Singaporeans to have more babies. I do not agree with this view. In my years in the Cabinet, from Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, to then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and our current Page: 44 Prime Minister, all of them are very concerned about encouraging Singaporeans to have more babies. In actual fact, we have studied many countries and adopted many concepts, for example, in advanced countries like Denmark and Sweden. In Denmark, women are highly educated and the participation rate in the workforce is very high. At the same time, their fertility rate is higher than ours, at 1.85. Singapore's fertility rate is 1.2 or 1.3. They are also very happy, because their spouses also take care of the family. In these societies, it is deemed socially unacceptable if the husbands do not spend time with their families during the weekends. So, the husbands also put in their best efforts; likewise, the community, the Government and employers, too. Singapore is striving in the same direction. Therefore, the views expressed by the opposition parties and the Government are actually similar, which is, not to rely solely on monetary incentives, but a holistic approach. Moving ahead, I hope that parliamentarians will regard raising the fertility rate as a national priority, to see beyond partisan politics and work together to encourage more Singaporeans to have more babies. The second area that we have in common is that both sides believe that it is better to have a lower total population than to have a higher total population. Personally, I think 5.9 million is not practical, 6.9 million is not ideal.”
“These are citizens that know how to take care of the country and fellow citizens, who have the interests of the nation at heart. In other words, for the good of Singapore, not only are they concerned about pursuing their own ideals, they can also see the bigger picture, so that we can always be a country that can hold its head up high, and citizens that can stand proud. Mdm Speaker, since we know that the main issue is to address the challenges brought about by the three "peaks", the main concerns are good jobs, good salaries, good life, good environment, a good country and good citizens. Residents and workers would then like to know, after five days of discussions in Parliament, what is the next step. I believe that after the debate, we should strive for consensus. At present, there are many views in Parliament, and the divergence of views is great. If we move in different directions after the debate, the challenges brought about by the three "peaks" cannot be addressed. If the issue is not resolved, not only will the population shrink, the economy, the society and the nation will also go downhill. I, therefore, urge fellow parliamentarians, as elected representatives of the people, to seek common ground while reserving our differences, to achieve consensus as far as possible, and move ahead together to serve the country. In the future development of our country, we must identify our core objectives and rally Singaporeans to strive for the most benefits, the least harm, better lives and a better future. After listening to three days of debate, I feel that we have consensus in at least three areas. Firstly, having more babies is better than having more new immigrants. The Government, Members of Parliament, Opposition parties all agree on this.”
“In other words, they feel during the course of discussion that it should be clear that Singaporeans expect the Government and Parliament to improve on areas we have not done well in as soon as possible. For areas we have done well, more should be done to make it better. They are worried that as we discuss new solutions to today's problems, new problems will arise in future. Therefore, in terms of daily issues like food, clothing, transport, housing, healthcare and education, our union workers and residents hope that in future, all these will be more affordable, more comprehensive and developed faster. In addition, we must take extra care of our elderly Singaporeans, not because we view them as a burden. Mr Low Thia Khiang said a while ago that the PAP Government views elderly Singaporeans as a burden, I do not agree with his views. I am already 58 years old, one day, I will also become an old folk. I believe that this generation of Singaporeans does not treat the older generation Singaporeans as a burden. We want to take special care of them because, in the past, they had made great contributions in our process of nation building. Hence, it is our duty to take care of them, not because they are a Page: 43 burden to society. At the same time, our residents and workers are also concerned that, as the population increases, we must ensure that our sky remains blue, our water clear, our fields green and our air sweet. The third area our residents and workers are concerned about is whether Singapore will be a good country in the future, with good citizens. What is a "good country"? Well, it is one that takes care of its citizens, one that has citizens' interest at heart. How do you define "good citizens"?”
“Page: 42 After discussions with union leaders and grassroots leaders, I would like to relay their views. Generally, there are three areas. Their first concern is to have good jobs and salaries. It is good that we talk about pushing for companies to upgrade, but we must also realise that talk is easier than action. If we act with undue haste and hurt businesses, workers will ultimately be affected. At the same time, union leaders also reminded the labour Members that even though it is all right for the economy and pace of importing foreign labour to slow down, unemployment rate should not go up and wages should not remain stagnant. Indeed, their jobs are stressful, but it is even more stressful if they do not have jobs. (In English): As we discuss how we should tighten the growth of foreign manpower and the total workforce, it is important for us to recognise that what we are dealing with is really about the welfare of the workers. My point here really is that as we address this issue of economic restructuring, as far as the union leaders are concerned, a soft-landing approach is better than a hard landing approach. So, yes, I think some of the Members here may be in a hurry to try to force the pace of restructuring. Please bear in mind that there are implications not only for businesses but it may also cause higher structural unemployment and, as a result, the workers will eventually be hurt. Therefore, let us go for a soft landing rather than a hard landing. (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Secondly, residents tell me they are concerned whether they can have a good life and a good environment in future.”