Ong Ye Kung
Singapore
“The Ministry of Health (MOH) recently enhanced the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) dental subsidies, which are tiered by income, for common preventive and restorative procedures.”
“Healthier SG GP clinics may also refer their enrolled patients to Active Ageing Centres and Community Health Posts to fulfill their social prescriptions and for subsidised services, such as medication management.”
“Public hospitals, such as the National University Hospital, the Singapore General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, have deployed robotic-assisted surgical (RAS) systems for minimally invasive soft-tissue surgeries.”
“The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) welcomes drug producers to choose Singapore as part of their first-wave filings. As long as a pharmaceutical product is approved by at least one regulatory agency, such as China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), it would also qualify for the abridged route.”
“A decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate in patients with diabetes can be due to multiple reasons. Doctors will first investigate the underlying cause before determining whether the patient should be referred to a specialist. Some causes are reversible and cause transient reduction in renal function.”
“Information on the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) cannot be made visible on the National Electronic Health Record system as it is protected under the Mental Capacity Act. Such information may only be disclosed by the Public Guardian to specified persons upon satisfactory submission of evidence(s) required under the law.”
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“I thank the Member. For specific SOP, typically the guideline is half an hour; 30 minutes. But I want to emphasise you are balancing two unpleasant things. One is being trapped in a train and I can imagine the discomfort and anxiety. Whenever there is a disruption like that, the battery does kick in the train. The battery cannot power the aircon but that there will continue to be a bit of light and some ventilation through a fan. It is warm and it is uncomfortable. There is a battery that will operate for about an hour. Within an hour, you then have to decide whether to do the other unpleasant thing which is detrainment. Detrainment, as I have mentioned, has risks. You can trip. There is a 750 volts DC, third rail, and you are walking next to it. You got to make sure you disable it, double confirm, triple confirm, quadruple confirm because it is no joke walking next to a 750 volts third rail. Then, like on that night, there could be inclement weather and then there was lightning risk. Once there is lightning risk, you should stop. Never put passengers' lives in danger. So, you are balancing between these two things. But typically, after half an hour, a decision should be made whether to do detrainment. In this case, there was some hope that they could repower, but the repower went wrong and brought down CCL, or sections of it. So, 40 minutes later, detrainment was decided. Not an easy task but the Operations Control Centre of SMRT has to make those decisions. And I think the decisions they made that night, in terms of detrainment, was correct. On companies that could be taken to task, if the operator has made a big boo-boo, resulting in a big disruption, of course, some of these actions would have to be looked into and there is a disciplinary framework.”
“I thank the Member for the question. This is one of the reasons, in consideration of elderly and wheelchair-bound commuters, that detrainment had to be a last resort. Yes, there are risks, especially for this group of commuters. But when we have to, you cannot have wheelchairs on the tracks. But on the Circle Line, in the tunnels, you can have wheelchairs because there is a side platform that you can push the wheelchair on. So, evacuation on the Circle Line is much faster. In fact, that evening, it took half an hour to evacuate three trainloads of passengers because of the side platform. For viaducts, the North-South East-West Line, it is not as straightforward. Typically, even when evacuation and detrainment start, the rest of the passengers can walk but the elderly and those with mobility challenges will stay on the train until further manpower, including SCDF, arrives. If need be, we use stretchers to carry such passengers to the nearest station. The stations are also equipped with what we call battery-powered motorised trolleys that we can use and deploy to ferry them to the nearest station. So, SOPs are in place. We are very careful about it. Walking on the viaduct has its risks and we will always be very careful. But most importantly, is to prevent such incidents from happening.”
“Regularly review SOPs and conduct staff training to ensure processes are up to date and everyone in the team knows what to do when the need arises. Third, MOT, LTA, SMRT and SBST must work as one team. This is the spirit of the One Transport Team. We coined the term to remind ourselves of the imperative. This was how we managed to significantly improve the reliability of our MRT system, bringing the Mean Kilometres Between Failures or MKBF from under 200,000 train-km just five years ago to more than one million train-km today. With the recent disruption, the morale of the teams on the ground has taken a hit. Nobody wishes for an incident like this to happen, but when it did, we should not let it break our spirit. There are honest and hardworking people who have toiled over the past few years to make our MRT system amongst the most reliable in the world. By believing in them and in ourselves, we can stand tall, be united again and press on with our work. So, as a team, we take collective responsibility, not finger point, and we will do our best, close the gaps and address the shortcomings. Only then can we continue to fulfil our collective mission of serving commuters well.”
“This is, unfortunately, inevitable in the event of a train disruption. While there is understandably concern about overcrowding, given the current COVID-19 situation, it will not be practical to ensure physical distancing without further inconveniencing the affected commuters in such an unexpected situation. The transport team simply has to do our best to prevent such incidents from happening in the first place and to rectify the incidents as quickly as possible should they occur. Thankfully, on that evening, commuters were very cooperative. They continued to wear their masks and minimised talking to each other, and I thank the commuters for their understanding and for doing their part under such trying circumstances. In the course of their investigations, our engineers learnt many useful lessons, to improve operations and maintenance. There are also wider, non-engineering lessons, too, for policy makers and, I think, for this House as well. I think there are three lessons. First, mass rapid transit systems are very complex. Engineers who have worked on mass rapid transit systems and other systems, and have a basis for comparison, will very likely testify to that. Several fields of engineering converge to get a mass rapid transit system to work reliably to carry millions of commuters safely, for many hours throughout the day. Given its complexity, when a major disruption occurs, the circumstances and causes are often unique. That leads us to the second lesson – because of the nature of mass rapid transit systems, we should never be complacent. Keep learning and keep improving. Always emphasise building up engineering and operational capabilities and experience.”
“On the evening of the disruption, the SOPs were promptly implemented. About 400 additional SMRT staff were immediately activated to both rectify the fault and help affected commuters. Safety of commuters is the top priority during service recovery. That is why detraining commuters is always a last resort because to have commuters walking along the track poses risk, especially for those who are elderly or handicapped. So, they need to be very carefully carried out. The Operations Control Centre, therefore, has to balance the risk posed by detrainment against the discomfort and heightened anxiety of commuters in the stalled trains. Therefore, as far as possible, the Operations Control Centre will try to restore power to the trains and then bring commuters through the trains to the nearest MRT station. However, 40 minutes into the disruption, the Operations Control Centre concluded that it could not restore power to the system quickly and, therefore, decided on detrainment. Train captains carried out the safety protocols, and station staff walked on the tracks to the trains to guide commuters to the nearest stations. All 6,800 commuters on the stalled trains were brought safely to the nearest station platform in under an hour, except for the 78 commuters whose detrainment was delayed by inclement weather and lightning risk. Free boarding of regular bus services was activated within 10 minutes of the incident to disperse the crowds outside the train stations. One hundred and twenty bridging buses were in place within 35 minutes of the incident and SMRT staff guided commuters to look for suitable alternative transport arrangements to carry on with their journeys. Despite this, crowds built up around the MRT stations.”
“Alstom will also replace all 113 trip coils in the circuit breakers along the Tuas West Extension by the end of this year. LTA will implement weekend early closures to facilitate the replacement exercise and we seek commuters' understanding for the inconvenience caused. During this time, SMRT will also step up the frequency of mechanical testing of the circuit breakers of this sector from annually to every six months. This is in addition to visual inspections of the trip coils once every 10 days, to ensure that they are in working order. As for the Operations Control Centre not isolating the fault before drawing power from Buona Vista Intake substation, this was a human error. Members asked if there was a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in responding to such a situation. There are, in fact, many sets of SOPs to cater to different scenarios, but one thing we have learnt over the years is that every disruption is different and unique. So, besides being guided by SOPs, the engineers on duty will have to exercise judgement and make quick decisions during an emergency. I have not been in their shoes and cannot imagine the challenges they are facing. But under the pressure of time and circumstances, the personnel involved, I believe, made an honest mistake. I have no doubt this has been a major lesson for them. They wished they had decided differently and they have much learning to share with their colleagues, so that such a mistake will not happen again. Members also asked about evacuation and crowd control. I want to assure Members that LTA, SMRT and the Home Team jointly conduct emergency preparedness exercises every year. SMRT staff also regularly get refreshed on their roles and responsibilities during a service disruption.”
“But that cut off power supply across large sections of the North-South and East-West Lines. At that point, the Operations Control Centre then made a mistake and did not isolate the fault before drawing power from the Buona Vista Intake substation. As the Buona Vista Intake substation also supplies power to the Circle Line, this, in turn, affected train services along parts of the Circle Line. Members have asked: why was the power cable faulty? Why did the primary circuit breaker, which is the first level of protection, not work? Why did it not work? Why did the Operations Control Centre not remotely isolate the fault before powering up? LTA, SMRT and Alstom have given their explanations during the media briefing. The reasons for the component failures are still unknown. The faulty power cable and the circuit breaker have been sent for forensic examination by the original equipment manufacturer, to ascertain the reasons for failure. What we do know is that there have been four power cable failures along the Tuas West Extension since 2018. LTA and SMRT had earlier expressed their concerns to Alstom, the supplier, who was forthcoming and had already agreed much earlier to replace some of the cables. In fact, work was on track to start in the later part of October. Following this recent incident, Alstom will conduct a complete replacement of all the power cables – 150 km of it – along the Tuas West Extension. This is quite a major undertaking and will be completed progressively by the end of next year. The cables will take time to procure and arrive. At the right time, LTA will schedule early closures and late openings on weekends or full Sunday closures for limited periods in 2021 to facilitate the cable replacement works. We will announce these plans in due course.”
“The 14 October 2020 incident was significant and affected over 120,000 commuters. As with this House, I am concerned about the disruption. Our imperative must be to get to the bottom of the matter, take follow-up actions and prevent similar incidences from recurring. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has, therefore, investigated the incident thoroughly, with inputs from operator SMRT and the equipment supplier Alstom. They identified what went wrong and have started to address the gaps and shortcomings. On 28 October, that is, last month, LTA issued a detailed media statement and its full investigation report. Together with SMRT and Alstom, they held a joint media briefing the same day to explain the cause of the incident, the follow up actions and answered many questions. Their findings, including answers to many of the questions posed by Members, were widely covered in the media. Mr Speaker, Sir, let me recap the pertinent points. The disruption was caused by the occurrence of concurrent faults and one mistake. First, there was a 22kV power cable fault in the electrical zone between Tuas Link and Tuas West Road stations. This is along the Tuas West Extension. This would not have caused a disruption if the circuit breaker, which is a protection feature of the system, had kicked in and isolated the affected electrical zone because, once isolated, the power can flow and service can continue. But then a second fault occurred, in that the circuit breaker at Tuas West Road station, close to where the faulty cable was, malfunctioned. It was later found out that the trip coil, which is a component of the circuit breaker, was faulty. A secondary protection mechanism at the sector level did kick in and then isolated the fault.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, can I answer Question Nos 4 to 8 together, please?”
“LTA's covered linkway programme is intended to connect large numbers of commuters to major public transport nodes like MRT/LRT stations and bus interchanges. As such, LTA focuses on building covered linkways near these transport nodes. This allows the prudent use of public funds to benefit more commuters.”
“Out of some 3,300 carparks that use the Electronic Parking System, only one does not accept CEPAS cards for payment. This is a decision by the carpark owner, who chooses which payment modes to accept, taking into account factors such as cost and motorist experience.”
“The percentage of heavy commercial vehicles involved in accidents resulting in injuries and fatalities has decreased over the past five years, from about 1.7% of the heavy commercial vehicle population in 2015 or about 800 accident vehicles, to about 1.3% in 2019 or about 560 accident vehicles. Under the Road Traffic Act, heavy vehicles with a maximum laden weight greater than 12,000 kilogrammes are required to be fitted with speed limiters that prevent them from exceeding the speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour. This means that heavy vehicles are not able to travel above this speed unless the speed limiter has been deactivated or tampered with. The Traffic Police (TP) conducts regular enforcement operations along routes frequented by heavy vehicles to enforce against speeding and tempering of speed limiters. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and TP will continue to study ways to improve road traffic safety, including the technologies suggested by the Member, bearing in mind their effectiveness and impact on businesses and commuters.”
“From 26 May to 31 July this year, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) made an open call for joint industry projects to encourage our maritime stakeholders and technology community to collaborate on innovation projects. Applicants could propose any projects that address challenges and opportunities brought about by COVID-19 to enhance resilience and competitiveness for the maritime industry. The published eligibility criteria for applicants were as follows: (a) Incorporated in Singapore under the Companies Act (Cap. 50) or is a classification society appointed as Recognised Organisation under the Merchant Shipping (Authorised Organisations) Regulations; (b) Has at least two industry partners in the project; and (c) The project is to be carried out in Singapore. The published evaluation criteria for the projects were as follows: (a) Relevance and impact to the maritime industry; (b) Innovation and differentiation from existing solutions; (c) Capability development in Singapore; (d) Local value capture; and (e) Team competency. Qualified projects are being evaluated by a committee comprising MPA officers and industry experts, in consultation with SSA. The results will be announced in November 2020.”
“The quota premium is dependent on the supply of and demand for the Certificates of Entitlement (COEs). As the Vehicle Growth Rate for motorcycles has been 0% per annum since 2018, the supply of Category D COEs depends on the number of motorcycles deregistered in the preceding months. As COE bidding was suspended from April to June 2020 due to COVID-19, there was pent-up demand. Hence, when we returned the unbidded COEs accumulated from April to June 2020, we frontloaded one-third of them from July to September 2020, and will distribute the rest in the next nine months, from October 2020 to June 2021. Category D COE prices have held quite steady at around $7,300 to $7,700 over the last six bidding exercises, but still higher compared to pre-COVID 19 levels. We are mindful that many lower income Singaporeans require a motorcycle to go about their work. That is why motorcycles are subject to much lower Additional Registration Fees and road tax compared to cars. We will continue to monitor the situation.”
“The complete Certificate of Entitlement (COE) records date back to 2002. Since then, the breakdown of COE allocations on average every year are: 22.5% companies registered in Singapore, 77% to Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents, and 0.5% to foreigners. The Land Transport Authority does not track the detailed breakdown of COE allocation between Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents.”
“LTA does not regulate how private hire car (PHC) operators assign booked trips to their drivers. PHC operators have their own algorithms, but commercially, it will make sense for them to match passengers to available drivers who are closest to them, so as to minimise passengers' waiting time and maximise the trip allocations on their platforms.”
“To date, LTA has converted 43% of the lights on public streets to LED lighting, and expects to complete the island-wide conversion by end 2022.”
“Approximately 99% of all summonses are issued by LTA within two weeks upon confirmation that an offence has been committed. These include common offences, such as non-payment of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges, illegal parking, and travelling along bus lane during restricted hours. For non-straightforward cases, LTA may need more time. For example, some offences, especially more serious ones, require more time to complete thorough investigations before the appropriate summonses are issued. This is to ensure fairness to all parties, and to avoid prejudicing the outcome of investigations.”
“During engineering hours on 16 October 2020, a small fire started on a locomotive that was travelling in the MRT tunnel between Orchard and Somerset stations. It was immediately put out by SMRT’s maintenance staff using on-board fire extinguishers, before SCDF arrived at the scene. The situation was resolved within 20 minutes. The fire was caused by lubricant oil that leaked from a broken gasket and combusted upon contact with the locomotive's hot exhaust pipe. There was no damage to other parts of the railway and the incident did not affect train services nor SMRT's maintenance ability. SMRT is conducting a fleetwide check of all the gaskets and critical components on their locomotives, and will initiate a review with the equipment supplier, who had earlier replaced the gaskets in July 2020. All underground tunnels are equipped with ventilation fans which can expel smoke and supply fresh air. All trains and locomotives have fire extinguishers on board, with all MRT staff trained in basic firefighting and first aid. There is water supply in all stations and tunnels for firefighting. Standard Operating Procedures are in place to evacuate commuters in times of emergency.”
“The Government, the National Private Hire Vehicles’ Association (NPHVA) and ride-hail operators have been working together to ensure that drivers and riders are adequately covered by insurance, as a matter of good industry practice. Today, Grab and Gojek are providing their drivers with medical, accident and also Prolonged Medical Leave insurance to cover them for income losses from extended periods of illness. This complements tripartite efforts, such as the taxi Drive and Save scheme and the GrabCar Driver Medisave Match programme, which encourage drivers to make regular contributions to their Medisave. Regulations also play a part. From 1 December 2020, food delivery platform operators will be required by law to insure their riders using active mobility devices against third-party liability, to cover expenses arising from accidents that can occur in the course of work. As part of our national SkillsFuture movement, ride-hail operators have also been supporting their drivers to pick up new skills. For example, Grab recently partnered Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the Employment and Employability Institute and the NPHVA to roll out training programmes. It has also developed a career portal to help drivers who wish to transition out of driving. Under the new Point-to-Point Transport (P2P) regulatory framework, P2P operators are not allowed to impose exclusivity restrictions on their drivers. That way, drivers can work for multiple platforms at the same time. We will continue to strike a balance between providing flexibilities to drivers and ensuring that platform operators continue to have an incentive to innovate and differentiate themselves in providing good services to commuters.”
“I thank the Member for his question. LTA released its investigation findings on 28 Oct 2020 and I will address them in my reply at the 3 November 2020 Parliament sitting.”
“All Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) are meant to be valid for 10 years. Hence, for a 10-year old vehicle, its COE can be renewed for 10 years based on the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP). However, some owners feel that their vehicles may not last for another 10 years. As an exception, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) therefore provides a five-year renewal option for such owners, on the condition that their vehicles must be deregistered at the end of five years. This is made known at the point of COE renewal. Most owners have deregistered their vehicles as required but understandably, some owners feel differently after five years, but it will not be fair for LTA to grant an exception for this group of owners. As an additional piece of information, owners can also renew the vehicle for another 10 years upfront, for which he can receive a rebate on the PQP paid if the vehicle is deregistered early.”
“As part of our effort to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2040, we plan to increase the number of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points from 1,700 now to 28,000 by 2030. The 28,000 charging points are all in government-related locations. About two-thirds will be located in HDB estates spread throughout Singapore. LTA is conducting a study with HDB, and found that out of 1,200 HDB carparks checked so far, 400 can readily support overnight EV charging, while the other 800 will need some upgrading of the switch room or substation. The other charging points will be installed in government-owned carparks, such as at offices or by the roadside. 28,000 therefore does not include privately installed charging points by residents in private estates, commercial developments like shopping centres, or new commercial initiatives, such as smart charging solutions that Sunseap announced recently. If we assume EVs are one-third of all private cars by 2030, that works out to about eight cars per charging point, which is not ideal. LTA is therefore reviewing the current plan with other agencies, including incorporating the significant effort of commercial entities to build up the EV charging infrastructure, with a view to bring down the EV per charging point ratio. That way, we can better support the growth of EVs in Singapore. We will announce details when ready.”
“LTA does build barrier-free covered linkways to link Community Clubs and Centres (CCs) to major transport nodes, provided the CCs are within a 400 metre radius of MRT stations or 200 metre radius of LRT stations and bus interchanges, and there are no site constraints. The CCs should also have covered linkways within their premises, connecting their building to their main gate. This is to ensure a continuous sheltered route. LTA will also take into consideration existing alternative sheltered paths to avoid duplication, so that the budget can be allocated to areas without such alternatives.”
“The installation of noise barriers on the Bukit Batok MRT viaduct between Blk 298 Bukit Batok Street 22 and Bukit Batok MRT station is on track to be completed by 2Q 2021. LTA remains committed to mitigating the impact of noise for residents living nearby.”
“There is an existing pedestrian walkway on Singapore's side of the Causeway. This is currently sufficient to meet the needs of travellers.”
“Under our public transport service delivery structure, Government is the owner of key public transport infrastructure and operating assets, which includes public buses, trains, signalling systems and other operating assets. Hence, Government is in a position to advance sustainability goals directly. For new public buses, LTA will purchase only cleaner energy vehicles to progressively replace the existing fleet. To date, LTA has deployed on a trial basis, 50 diesel hybrid buses and 15 electric buses, with a view to expanding such fleets. This is the first step in achieving our target of a 100% cleaner energy public bus fleet by 2040. For rail, all new stations since 2014 are designed to minimise carbon dioxide emissions, and to meet Green Mark certification requirements. Our rail operators also comply with energy efficiency requirements under the Energy Conservation Act, which mandates energy efficiency requirements and energy management practices. As public transport remains the most carbon-efficient mode of transport, we would like to encourage more people to adopt Walk-Cycle-Ride to meet their commuting needs. The peak-period Walk-Cycle-Ride mode share was 72% in 2019, and we aim to increase this to 90% by 2040.”
“Since May 2017, we have ceased the contribution of Category D Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) to Category E. This has stabilised the Category D market, and the total motorcycle population has largely remained unchanged over the last three years. As the Vehicle Growth Rate for motorcycles has been 0% since 2018, the Category D COE quota supply largely depends on the number of motorcycles deregistered in the preceding months.”
“Between January 2017 and July 2020, there were about 490 reported accidents involving personal mobility devices (PMDs) on public paths. We do not track the breakdown of accidents across different types of PMD riders. Notwithstanding, as delivery riders are heavier users of active mobility devices, we will require businesses to ensure that all active mobility device users engaged by them have appropriate third-party liability insurance coverage from December 2020 onwards. This will improve accident victims’ access to compensation, and protect riders from large claims.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for some useful information, although those are not questions. CAG, SIA, CAAS and MOT will work closely together. I do not have the details but some of the fees and charges have been waived for this period in order to reduce costs. But it is not a lot and not significant compared to all the costs of operating an airline because the planes are involved, huge number of workforce and we want to retain them as much as we can to maintain core capabilities. So, the overall fixed cost of maintaining SIA as a going concern, even when business is so far down, the cost is quite tremendous. But we have a plan. We do what we can and this is a crucial period in the next few months. We hope by taking such steps, comprehensive, clear steps, no doubt there is a lot of uncertainty but the direction we want to go towards, what we can control and what we cannot control, we have a good sense of it. We will do our best to revive the air hub. We want to ensure that when there is a vaccine, when air travel recovers again, we are right there and we are able to hold on to our position as an aviation hub.”
“This House has sat through many Budget speeches by Deputy Prime Minister Heng. And I recall him mentioning many, many times all the recovery packages and help that we are giving to the aviation sector; and companies such as SIA often benefit from the top tier of the support. So, indeed, we are doing whatever we can to help our national carrier. As for increasing the number of flights, SIA make partly their own commercial decisions. I am sure they are listening to the Statement and they make their own assessment what are the flights they want to resume. They have announced they will resume up to 15% of their flights by the end of this year. On the other hand, there are some flights, although the load factor is low, but they are flying anyway to maintain what they call Minimum Connectivity Network, because you have got to be present in those markets and be in touch with your customers. Even though demand is low, you just need to be there. It is just the nature of the business. Also, from the Government's perspective, you will recall in March, Deputy Prime Minister Heng announced the Resilience Budget. And that includes the $350 million Enhanced Aviation Support Package and part of that package is to help SIA maintain this Minimum Connection Network because Singaporeans do need to go in and out – students, families and so on – and allow Singaporeans from overseas to come home. So, even though load factor is low, we support SIA to continue these flights and also to mount cargo flights so that our supply chain is not affected. So, it is a combination – both because of Enhanced Aviation Support Package as well as SIA's own commercial decisions that it is increasing the number of flights.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, selectively, the MTF has been reducing SHN but backed by healthcare experts' advice and our findings and understanding of the virus – 14 days to seven days, for example, for some countries and regions with a safer track record. But what I mentioned earlier about unilateral opening is better than reducing SHN from 14 days. In the case of Brunei, New Zealand, Vietnam and Australia, ex Victoria, we require zero days of SHN. Because these countries have incidence rates and risk profile that are similar to or better than Singapore. Like I had mentioned, when you have similar risk profiles, technically, there is actually no need for a test, because someone from those countries coming to Singapore – is not different from someone from Jurong or Sembawang or Bedok going to Changi Airport – same risk profile. But out of an abundance of caution, we still administer a post-arrival test and once negative, they are free to move about, there is no need for SHN. So, I think right now it is not the time to simplify rules or reduce requirements and then apply generally. It is not the time to do that. Now, what we need to do is to understand every single country or region, understand the risk profile and customise our approach for travellers from each of these countries or region, which is what we are doing.”
“I invite the Co-chairs of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce or MTF, to chime in, if necessary. Why is the drop in Singapore's passenger traffic so drastic? The key reason is the fact that we are small. We rely entirely on international traffic. We do not have domestic travel, like the US. The drop, I concede, is on international travel. But if you are a big country, China or US, you have a much bigger population who is flying out and not just flying within the country and that generates international traffic, which is why there is a certain cushion. For us, as a small domestic market, the numbers are more stark. SHN, 14 days – the simple answer is this. For travellers that we open up to unilaterally, they have to be tested upon arrival. What the Member mentioned about SHN 14 days, they refer to other individuals and they are undergoing their 14-day SHN, then they get their test at the end of the service of the SHN. For travellers that we open up unilaterally to – travellers from Brunei, New Zealand, Vietnam, Australia – they will be tested upon arrival. As for green lanes, perhaps I will ask Minister Gan or Mr Lawrence Wong to answer this.”
“Sorry, can the Member repeat the second question? I missed it.”
“So, I think we are still top of mind for many of the airlines but we have to start taking steps to open up our borders.”
“Mr Speaker, Mr Liang is right that the cost of running per passenger service now is higher. If you have to do a test, you have to have extra segregation and all that, cost is higher. But, at the same time, be mindful too that supply has greatly been reduced. So, there are many passengers who are still prepared to pay a bit more, even go through the discomfort of being tested in order to travel, either for business, leisure or just visit relatives and other reasons. I think the demand is there because the supply has totally been decimated. So, just to restore some demand, we believe there are passengers who are prepared to travel. You can just speak to your friends – Singaporeans who have not travelled for the whole year and now you tell them, you can pay a bit more, you can visit XX country or region – I think they will be quite happy to try to do so. Some are getting cabin fever and Singaporeans love to travel. So, I think the latent demand is there. I think we need to unlock it through the methods I mentioned earlier. As to whether major airlines will come back, that is why we need to start taking steps, as I had mentioned, to start signalling that we are determined to hold on to our status as an air hub. And we are taking active steps, as I had mentioned, to open up our borders and revive air travel again. And airlines are sensitive to this. We are in contact with the airline industry; many are still very keen to come back to Singapore. I just met a senior executive of a regional airline. He actually flew to Singapore, did his 14-day SHN Plus in order to meet some of us and he met me for half an hour with a clear message, "Please open up aviation again because our airlines want to come back to Singapore".”
“I think all these considerations can be done if there had been no COVID-19. There has been some discussion in ICAO, in the EU, in the international community. But I think the basic answer, the simple answer is this: we are in a crisis. SIA, as I mentioned, is ferrying 1.5% of its passenger volume, so it is not about passing the costs to passengers; it is that there are no passengers to pass the costs to now. And SIA is doing whatever it can to preserve cash. Because if you understand how a company is run – when a company runs out of cash, it is insolvent, it goes under. And SIA would have gone under if not for the massive recapitalisation exercise that happened. And therefore, we need to help SIA preserve as much cash as it can. It itself is trying to generate as much revenue as it can. So, this is really not the time now to talk about an environmental tax on SIA. If I were to do that, I think there is a Chinese saying, "落井下石". I would have made the situation much worse for SIA. It means "someone fell into the well and you throw a stone to make the situation worse". So, let us be very careful about that. When things resume, the international conversation will go on, on whether there should be an environmental tax.”
“So, you cannot restore aviation just by banking on cargo. Further, cargo flights ferry non-living things, and in the end, aviation is about people-to-people linkages – Singaporeans connecting with people from around the world. Therefore, we still have to work on as hard as we can. Finally, what infrastructure plans. As Members know, we have T5, and our terminals are going through upgrading as well, so we are not short of infrastructure plans. What we need now is not so much the hardware, but the software of being able to open up our borders, welcome travellers to and fro but do so safely. It will be in infrastructure such as testing capacity, such as people who can do the tests, such as adopting new, novel testing methods including rapid test kits that allow us to open up safely. This is what is critical now. If we succeed, if we can make the first moves, then when there is a vaccine, when air travel opens again internationally, we will find that Singapore is right up there, ahead of the curve and we can retain our air hub status.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, on ASEAN, I think we need to recognise first that ASEAN is quite different from the EU. EU has a Schengen treaty. So, between EU member states, they signed an agreement, they agreed for free movement between different citizens of EU member states. Even so, between EU Schengen member states, they impose border restrictions on each other. So, Schengen means that you do not have to apply for a visa to travel from say France to Germany, but between the countries, they impose border measures. I asked some of my European friends, what are the border measures and they said, "It is too complicated to explain. Here is the website". I went to the website – EU member state has a separate border restriction. I think practically this is what is happening – and in ASEAN, it will be the same. As of now, I would not say ASEAN is ready to discuss a regional plan but individual countries, member states, are doing our own assessment of what is safe, what is unsafe. Within ASEAN countries, as Members know, we have opened up to Vietnam, it has a very good track record and MOH recognises that, so we can have opened up unilaterally for Vietnam. Where possible, and we have RGLs or Reciprocal Green Lane arrangements such as with Malaysia or Indonesia. So, we will push in that direction, taking a country-by-country approach and bearing in mind ASEAN is an important market for us. So, that is where we are. On cargo, yes, we will ramp up when there is demand and when demand justifies it. Therefore, today, because of the ramping up, cargo flights is 2.5 times more than COVID-19. So, that is one thing that went up in aviation despite COVID-19. But bear in mind, even during pre-COVID-19 times, cargo flights were only 4% of total flights.”
“But as we learn to control the virus and testing becomes much less of a constraint, the trade-off between health and economic needs, between lives and livelihoods, is no longer so stark, and the two do not have to be at odds. Eventually, when there is a widely available and effective vaccine, air travel will resume. But in the meantime, we will have to learn to live with the virus – taking sensible precautions, while earning a living, and keeping hopes for our future alive. We have opened up safely before. We did that when we emerged from the circuit breaker in June and we have been bringing back our community and social life, step by step. We have been restoring school life for our children, activity by activity, and made sure throughout that process, that our children stay safe and they did not lose their school year. We did not rush, but neither did we baulk at what we need to do to regain our normal lives and livelihoods. It will be the same with our international borders, to open up step-by-step, carefully, safely and steadily. What is at stake is not just hundreds of thousands of jobs, but our status as an air hub, Singapore's relevance to the world, our economic survival, and in turn, our ability to determine our own future. When Terminal 1 opened in 1981, it opened up a whole new world and brought prosperity undreamt of in generations past. Today, the skies remain key to our economic survival. We must open up slowly, carefully, and holding each other accountable for our collective safety. But open up we must. I hope to have the support of all Members of this House, and all Singaporeans, for this critical endeavour, so as to take our place in the world once again and to start building our future as we once did. [Applause.]”
“There are ways to facilitate these travellers to come to Singapore while managing the risk of virus transmission. Many stakeholders and members of public have written to us with very well thought-through and sensible ideas and we are studying them carefully. In particular, we recognise that the requirement of having to serve a full 14-day Stay Home Notice or SHN in a hotel, will deter most travellers from wanting to come to Singapore. So, we have to facilitate the visits without such an onerous restriction. For example, we can replace the 14-day SHN in a hotel with new requirements, such as a more stringent and repeated test protocol – on arrival, three days later, five days later, seven days later, we will study that. We can segregate them from the rest of the community, a process that we call "bubble wrapping", and we can closely track their movements while they are here. This will benefit not just business travellers important to our economy, but a range of people who need to come to Singapore for various purposes, such as compassionate reasons or to re-unite with a long-separated partner. The message we want to send to the world is this – Singapore has started to re-open its borders. In the near future, if you have the virus under control and infection rates are as low as Singapore's, you are welcome to visit us, but travellers will be subject to a COVID-19 test, as a precaution. If you are from a place where infection rates are higher than Singapore, you can also visit us, so long as you agree to conditions such as testing, segregation and tracing. The Task Force will be studying these approaches and developing the schemes. Mr Speaker, Sir, let me conclude. Earlier in the year, we had to close our borders to keep Singaporeans safe.”
“It is also why decades ago, we removed tariffs unilaterally for all countries. Yet, many countries chose to negotiate with us for Air Services Agreements and Free Trade Agreements – because our partners know that by connecting to Singapore, they connect with the rest of the world. They chose to deal with Singapore because it is strategic to do so. The fourth thing we will do, for these safe countries or regions, is that we will also negotiate Air Travel Bubbles or ATBs, or pursue such ATBs with them. Air Travel Bubbles are not the same as Reciprocal Green Lanes that I mentioned just now, which are for official and essential business travel only. Air Travel Bubbles are for general travellers and have no requirements for a controlled itinerary. While we should establish ATBs only with safe countries and regions, we can further manage risks by setting a quota on the number of travellers per day and ensuring that everyone abides by a COVID-19 test protocols. We also require travellers to apply for an Air Travel Pass before their journeys, to allow us to plan for their arrivals, and if need be, throttle down the numbers, or reduce the quota if the epidemic situation changes. Hong Kong has publicly announced its intention to establish ATBs with several countries, including Singapore, and we have responded positively. We hope to commence discussions with Hong Kong and other partners soon. Finally, we will not stop at these modes of opening up our borders, that I just talked about. The Multi-Ministry Task Force will explore other practical schemes. This is especially important for travellers from countries which are economically important to us, but with higher infection rates.”
“In this way, we can safely lift our border restrictions for these countries and regions and welcome their travellers. Their governments will decide if and when to reciprocate for travellers from Singapore. Once they do that, aviation links between us would have been restored. There is no need for lengthy bilateral negotiations. We have already taken the first steps. We opened up to travellers from Brunei and New Zealand last month, and more recently – in fact, last week – we opened up to Australia, ex-Victoria, and Vietnam. We do not expect big numbers in the short term because these countries currently discourage or restrict travel for their residents. Notwithstanding this, such unilateral opening is still meaningful because it is like a standing invitation. Although the other countries are not ready to lift their restrictions now, Singapore can be top of mind when they are ready eventually. Let me give you an example – the UK. Recently, it unilaterally allowed Singaporeans to travel there without a quarantine. Many of our students actually went to their universities as a result. At present, UK's incidence rate is quite high, so we still have a travel advisory against Singaporean residents travelling to the UK and we are also not ready to allow travellers from the UK to enter freely into Singapore. But we appreciate the UK's standing invitation. Once their infection rate falls and becomes comparable to ours, we will likely lift restrictions quickly, which will effectively restore air travel between our countries. Remember – we are small. Our domestic market is not a big bargaining chip. Instead, what we need to have is a mindset of generosity required of a hub. It is why when we were building up Changi Airport in the 1980s, we opened up our skies unilaterally.”
“Further, they will have controlled itineraries to minimise any residual risk of community spread. MFA has led this inter-agency effort and concluded arrangements with Brunei, China, Japan, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea. Secondly, we will continue to facilitate transfers at Changi Airport. As an air hub, about a quarter of our passenger volume at Changi are transfers, meaning the passengers do not clear immigration and are using Changi Airport as an interchange to get to their final destinations. Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked for the number of such transfer passengers at Changi Airport today. Since June, about 27,000 passengers transferred safely through Singapore. On a weekly basis, we are now serving about 2,500 transfer passengers and we expect the numbers to rise steadily. But this is still a small fraction of what we used to serve. We have put in place robust safeguards and no Singaporean has become ill as a result of these transfers. The third thing we will do – we should be prepared to lift our border restrictions to countries and to regions with comprehensive public health surveillance systems and comparable incidence rates to Singapore. That means we are of the same risk profile, which is low. We already know who they are. At the same time, when we do so, we should also lift our travel advisory for Singapore residents travelling to these countries and regions. Purely from an infection risk point of view, the risk of a traveller from these places carrying the virus when they arrive at Changi Airport is no higher than that of a Singaporean resident coming from Jurong or Sembawang because we are of the same incidence rate and same risk profile. But as a precaution, we will subject these travellers to a COVID-19 test to ensure they are free from the virus.”
“As of 5 October 2020, the United Arab Emirates had an infection incidence rate of about nine per 100,000 population per day and for Turkey, about two per 100,000 population per day. Singapore – we are at 0.1 per 100,000 population per day. I think there is a recovery and risk trade-off and we can learn from each other in managing the risks of opening up. But as I just described, because conditions have changed over the past months, the trade-off is not as stark as before. I need to manage expectations here. For Members who are hoping that I am about to announce some air travel resumption and possible December holiday destinations, I am sorry I will disappoint you. The fact is that borders are still closed for most parts of the world. Some countries such as Germany only allow business travellers from Singapore. And to the best of my knowledge, only a handful of countries – such as the US, the UK, Turkey, the Maldives – allow general travellers from Singapore. We cannot control what other countries want to do with their borders but we can control ours – to welcome back visitors, bring back jobs, revive our air hub safely. How we do this safely can be a useful reference point for other countries and perhaps even catalyse some safe opening around the world. The coming months will be crucial. It will be a difficult and gradual climb out of a very deep abyss. But climb we must, and we will do the following. First, we will continue to pursue Reciprocal Green Lane arrangements with partner countries or regions. These are restricted to a small group of essential business and official travellers. They will be subject to pre-departure and on-arrival tests to ensure they do not carry the virus.”
“Today, technologies such as SafeEntry, the TraceTogether app and tokens complement the work of human contact tracers. We can therefore quickly identify and isolate people who have come into contact with a confirmed patient. This helps to reduce the risk of any community outbreak. Finally, because of all these developments, internationally, there is now a desire to cautiously and steadily open up air travel again. For example, the European Union has designated countries whose residents can visit Europe. The United Kingdom – the UK – has recently exempted travellers from Singapore from their 14-day quarantine when you arrive. Vietnam is restoring scheduled passenger flights to several cities. Hong Kong has announced its intention to negotiate travel bubble arrangements with several countries, including Singapore. Mr Speaker, Sir, having described the situation – what has changed – let me now talk about the steps we will take to open up our borders and revive air travel. The key is to make sure we stay safe – we can manage the risks while we open up aviation. We have gone through quite a bit – including a painful circuit breaker – to arrive at the stable situation we have today. We must not give that up. We have seen how a second wave has broken out in other countries and regions. In some cities, in some countries, they are going back to a lockdown again. And we should learn from those experiences. Air hubs such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Istanbul in Turkey have restored flights quite quickly. Now, they are at about 30% of pre-COVID-19 volumes. Earlier, I mentioned we are at 1.5%.”
“There are also trials for less intrusive tests using deep throat saliva – but you must know how to spit – and efforts to develop rapid test kits such as antigen and breathalyser tests that can deliver results on the spot – in a few minutes – without having to send the samples to a laboratory for processing. We are watching this space very carefully and with great interest. And we will deploy these tests where practicable. Part of this increased capacity will be allocated to test air passengers. With high-sensitivity tests, we can now filter out the virus at the border – better still, before the traveller boards the plane – and significantly mitigate the risk of importing and spreading the virus in Singapore. In other words, on a selective basis, we can open up our border, do away with Stay-Home Notice, or SHN, which is a big deterrent to travel for anybody and replace SHN with tests. Testing is therefore the key to unlock air travel. With COVID-19 around for a while, the emerging international practice is to get tested before travel – not different from us going through security, having our bags checked before we board the plane. That is the emerging international practice. Changi Airport has already set up a facility to swab up to 10,000 passengers a day as a start and with some notice, it can ramp up the numbers quite readily. In the next few months, we plan to set up at Changi Airport a dedicated COVID-19 testing laboratory to support aviation recovery. A third key change since March is tracing capability. We have scaled up our ability to quickly identify and isolate new cases and their close contacts. When we had our first COVID-19 case in January, we relied entirely on human contact tracers to manually retrace a patient's steps.”
“The second major thing that has changed is our testing capacity. COVID-19 testing capacity is no longer a major constraint. Back in March 2020, we could only conduct about 2,000 tests a day and they had to be reserved for critical public health purposes such as testing high-risk symptomatic individuals. At that time, closing our borders was the only way to slow down the import of the virus and keep Singaporeans safe. For returning Singaporeans and residents, we subjected them to a lengthy 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) – and usually "Plus". It means a Stay-Home Notice, plus you stay in a hotel and not at home. So, it is a lengthy 14-day "SHN Plus" invented by Minister Gan to ensure that they were free from the virus before allowing them to mingle with the rest of the community. Today, we test more than 27,000 individuals daily – from 2,000 in March, to now, 27,000 daily today – using diagnostic polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests and we are on track to increase our testing capacity to 40,000 tests a day by November 2020. To give this a further boost, we will also be leveraging the private sector to develop commercial testing capacity. At the same time, testing technology is advancing. There are now promising tests with quicker turnarounds while maintaining acceptable test sensitivity. For example, DSO and A*STAR have developed the Resolute test kit. It halves the time needed to process and analyse patient samples in the lab from two to two and a half hours to between one and one and a half hours.”
“Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked about the plan for Terminal 5. This is a very large-scale project undertaken by CAG. Given the current situation, we have decided to take a two-year pause, so that we have more clarity on the pace of air travel recovery, before deciding how to proceed with the project. The Government will continue to support SIA, CAG and other companies in the aviation sector as much as we can. This includes the Jobs Support Scheme, where the aviation sector benefits from the highest level of support. We have also provided cost relief through the Enhanced Aviation Support Package and temporary redeployment programmes for workers affected. But the most meaningful support we can give to our aviation companies is to restore passenger traffic and revive our air hub, in a safe and controlled manner. How do we do this? We must recognise that compared to six months ago, when we closed our borders, the situation has changed, in a few very significant ways. First, the virus situation in Singapore – both in the community and in the foreign worker dormitories – is largely under control. The number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of one case per day in the last two weeks. Thanks to the hard work of our healthcare staff, we have had no fatalities resulting from complications due to COVID-19 infection since mid-July. Our fatality rate is also one of the lowest in the world. Thankfully, for many weeks now, we have not had any patients admitted to ICU due to COVID-19 infection or its complications. Members have heard all these updates before, but I thought I would repeat them anyway because this track record matters greatly to countries and regions seeking partners to restore aviation links.”
“It is trying its best to reduce cash burn, preserve core capabilities and explore all ways to generate revenue. Unfortunately, the SIA Group had to make the difficult decision to rationalise its workforce. One thousand nine hundred jobs have been rationalised through open vacancies that were not filled, early retirement and voluntary release scheme. The recently concluded agreement with SIA’s pilot union for pilots to take deeper salary cuts, enabled the SIA Group to reduce the number of retrenchments from 2,400 to 2,000. So, all in all it is about 3,900 jobs rationalised either through non-filling of vacancies, early retirement or retrenchments in the SIA Group – 3,900 jobs. Without the recent major recapitalisation exercise, there would not be an SIA today. It is far from being out of the woods. One of the initiatives SIA considered recently to generate some revenue and get more pilots to do actual flying, was a flight to nowhere. Mr Dennis Tan and Assoc Prof Jamus Lim asked if MOT would support this. It has now become a moot point, because SIA has decided to scrap the idea. Whichever way SIA had decided, MOT would always try our best to support our national carrier in times like this. But what I will not contemplate is to impose on them an environment tax at this time, as Assoc Prof Jamus Lim indicated in his question, because that will just worsen the crisis for SIA. CAG too has lost its revenue streams. With low passenger volume and flights, the amount of service charges it is collecting from airlines and passengers is miniscule. Shops and restaurants at the airport are seeing far fewer customers; many shops have closed. CAG is also dipping into its reserves, while preserving cash and retaining its core capabilities.”