Ow Chin Hock
Singapore
“Thirdly, I believe that Mr Simon Tay referred to links with ASEAN+3. Let me say that we do not preclude any such flexibility. Indeed, APEC is an established forum linking Australia and New Zealand with ASEAN and East Asia.”
“Sir, I am not an expert on the Constitution, but I am aware that the Supreme Court's ruling is different from Mr Estrada being impeached and convicted in the Senate. NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES IN SINGAPORE (Facilities) 2. Mr J. B.”
“However, we are mindful that nowadays, Singaporeans who like to experience living and working overseas, have many other attractive career options, in both private and public sectors.”
“Sir, let me thank the Minister on behalf of the 3-room flat dwellers. My supplementary question is: in future, if any rebates are given, will the Minister consider making the amount of the rebates inversely proportional to the size of HDB flats, in other words, the smaller the flat the greater the amount of rebates?”
“Lastly, clause 8 of the Bill also proposes to amend the Banking Act to allow the Singapore branches of foreign banks to transmit information to their head offices or other overseas branches for data processing.”
“These requirements would help to ensure that such businesses are run in a proper manner, and that records are kept to provide an audit trail of transactions, in order to deter illicit transactions from being conducted via such businesses. However, these requirements impose additional costs on the licensees.”
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“Minister has only made reference to graduates of technical institutions, I wonder whether the output of university graduates has been included in the manpower development programme. Recently, a local newspaper has flashed the headline about the employment prospects for some university graduates. Sir, it would be a waste of human resources if we continue to produce unemployed graduates. I wonder whether the Ministries of Finance and Education have arrived at some coordinated policy on the intake of university students into various faculties. Secondly, although training and education would increase the working capacity of an employee, whether he will give his best depends on his attitudes towards work. The Minister has mentioned that "to instill correct work attitudes in our workers, employers must provide a proper working environment." Sir, I think this is grossly inadequate. The much more important motivational forces are rewards. Rewards could be classified into two types: intrinsic rewards such as a sense of accomplishment, pride in one's products and job satisfaction and extrinsic rewards, such as wage increases, bonuses. promotions etc. Sir, I submit that in a market economy and materialistic society like Singapore, intrinsic rewards have become impotent as a motivational force, particularly in areas where the production process is characterized by capital-intensity, a fine degree of specialisation, and mass production. Thus, the most pragmatic and effective approach to motivate employees (not just workers), to give of their best and to raise productivity is to assure them that they can derive monetary gains from such efforts. Employers must draw up appropriate incentive schemes, not just provide better working environment if workers are to be motivated.”
“On the positive side, interlocking directorship helps to keep these boards in line with major Government policies; on the negative, it can be a source of strain and pressure to the civil service. With their time and energy divided between several jobs, these civil servants cannot devote their best efforts and talents to each job and at the same time thoroughly understand the problems at hand. Also, because of their positions, the opinions of these top civil servants normally carry susbtantial weight in the boards. A few over zealous and powerful civil servants may therefore reduce managerial initiative. Without a national plan which maps out the relationship between various statutory boards and their relationship with the governmental departments, coordination between these organizations seem to be lacking, thus giving rise to duplication of effort in some cases and unnecessary delay in others. As the role of statutory boards in our national development is likely to become n-ore important. the abovementioned problems and some other problems I have not yet mentioned have to be rectified so that their usefulness and efficiency would not be affected. Mr Speaker, Sir, let me now turn to the five-point Economic Strategy Programme. The programme has been expounded by the Minister for Finance. The programme is realistic, as it reflects the nature of the Singapore economy as well as her role as an urban centre. The programme would also help us to attain the long-term objective of transforming our economy into an industrial centre and a base for regional and international services. However, I would like to make a few comments. First, on the manpower development programme. the Hon.”
“and the scope for industrial cooperation among the ASEAN countries would remain limited for a long time to come. At present, the better strategy .for the ASEAN countries would be to form a united front in dealing with these three advanced economic blocs in matters relating to tariff and non-tariff barriers. In this context, it is of particular importance for the ASEAN countries to pressurise Japan which has been enjoying huge surpluses in trade with ASEAN. Sir, flexible economic policies mean that we should do away with any rigid form of economic planning. In fact, the Government has not published any five-year economic plan since independence. Instead, ad hoc policies have been implemented to soften the impact of economic crisis originating from external sources, and to seize new economic opportunities which have appeared on the horizon. Given the need for flexibility and the emphasis on efficiency, it is not surprising that statutory boards have been used to implement or even to spearhead various economic and social development programmes. The attractiveness of this form of organisation is that it enjoys greater flexibility and is given more initiative to carry out its specific functions without the loss of ultimate responsibility to the appropriate Cabinet Minister. However, as board members and top management staff have been appointed by the Minister concerned, the activities of these boards are one step removed from direct accountability to the Parliament. Another problem area pertains to the appointment of directors. Top civil servants are normally appointed to board membership and some of them often take on several directorships simultaneously.”
“This will be in accordance with the spirit of the President's statement that "No major policy or legislation should be passed without the closest scrutiny, and passed only after the most thorough debate." Sir, in the Budget statement, the Minister has also stressed the importance of diversification and flexibility in our development strategies. and reiterated the five-point Economic Strategy Programme. Diversification means finding alternative markets, engaging in different economic activities, and purchasing from different sources of supplies simultaneously. With diversification, our economy is less vulnerable to a sudden slack of a given activity or in a given market. In general. we have been successful in diversifying our economic activities. On the other hand. our economy is still heavily dependent on the USA, Japan and the EEC countries. Economic realities dictate that for our future economic growth, we have to continue to depend on these advanced countries for markets for our exports, sources of capital inflow, and supplies of machinery and equipment and technology. Geo-political considerations, particularly after the Communist victory in Indo-China. have brought the ASEAN countries closer together than before. This is evident from the five ASEAN industrial projects, our bilateral tariff accords with the Philippines and Thailand, and the recent Agreement on ASEAN Preferential Trading Arrangements. These are welcome steps towards greater regional economic cooperation. Let us, however, also be realistic. Given the present disparities in the level of development. economic structure, trade pattern and pace and strategy of industrialization, intra-ASEAN trade would be comparatively less important than ASEAN trade with the USA, Japan and the EEC countries.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to support the Motion standing in the name of the Hon. Minister for Finance. The Minister has described the 1976 economic performance as "not unsatisfactory." With a 7% real growth in GDP, a 2% inflation rate (in terms of GDP deflator) and a 8.1% increase in domestic fixed capital formation, the performance is a fairly good one, particularly in view of the sluggish economic recovery of the advanced countries which our economy is heavily dependent on, in the second half of the year. Regarding our growth prospect for 1977, the Minister is more cautious, taking note that the OECD countries are expected to grow at a slower rate than in 1976. In the midst of economic uncertainties, the painless budget as proposed by the Minister is a sensible one. Only minor tax increases on liquor and tobacco products are proposed; at the same time, the increase in the Government recurrent expenditure is kept to a minimum. thus allowing more revenue resources to be transferred for development purposes. Hopefully. between now and the next Budget statement, the Minister will not give us any surprises and shocks. The recovery of our economy is still too new and fragile to absorb any shock of major tax increases. I note that the Minister, in his Addendum to the Presidential Address, has reserved the option of changing taxes as "one way of helping to encourage or discourage one kind of activity over another." This is fair enough. as using tax changes as an instrument for reallocating resources among economic activities is an integral part of fiscal policy. However, it is hoped that the important suggestions made by the Fiscal Policy Implementation Committee are to be debated in this House before they are implemented.”
“I reject the notion of providing public utilities free or with subsidies. However, Sir, may I submit to you that although most of our people are more prepared to accept the increase in electricity rates due to the increase in fuel price, it is difficult to convince them that a surcharge, which is not part of the cost, should be introduced in the first place. I think this Parliament should reconsider whether the PUB surcharge should be continued. 5.22 p.m.”
“We should not allow drug addiction and Communist infiltration to spread, particularly in view of the fact that we are heading for difficult times. Severe punishment of drug pushers, exposure of misled student leaders, and rehabilitation of drug addicts are all necessary steps to contain the spread. However, these alone are not enough. They must be supplemented by coordinated efforts on other fronts to educate the youths and their parents, to instil in them national values and to absorb their energy and free time in some other positive fields. It may be necessary, therefore to establish an organisation to coordinate these efforts and programmes to probe into the youth problems and to recommend proper solutions. Mr Speaker, Sir, I have also taken note of the President's Address that the vote of confidence of our people places on all the Members of Parliament the duty to ensure that all shades of opinion out in the constituencies are vigorously voiced in Parliamentary questions and debates. Sir, as a new MP, it will be presumptuous on my part to claim that I know exactly the feelings and opinions of my people in Leng Kee Constituency. However, through my frequent contacts with them during the Elections and in the last two months, I sense that while these people endorse the major policies ranging from national defence to our foreign policies, and have full confidence in our political leaders in charting the path for them into the future, many of them are unhappy about certain policies which affect their daily lives and the manner in which these policies are introduced and implemented. There are many such examples that could be raised in this Parliament. For the present. I just want to concentrate on one example, that is, the PUB surcharge. Personally.”
“As a start, a practical way is, wherever possible and whenever applicable, to encourage adoption of productivity incentive schemes at the plant level in Singapore. Mr Speaker, Sir, allow me now to turn to the security problem. The communists will continue to be the main threat to Singapore's internal security. The Government must continue to crack down on communist underground and front organisations. In the struggle with communists, there is no room for compromise. The hard-core communists must be severely dealt with. However, students and youths who have been misled and misguided into supporting the communists should probably be treated more leniently. They should be given a chance to turn over a new leaf. Their involvement should be regarded as one aspect of the youth problems in Singapore. Another aspect is drug addiction which is like a cancer in our society undermining the will, the morale and the working capacity of the younger generation. Generally, Sir, youths are less satisfied with the status quo. They are rebellious and rather impatient. In a highly competitive society like ours, some are frustrated in the process. This is quite inevitable. Those who are weak in will power and who try to escape, from reality would resort to drugs as an easy way out. Those who are more strong-headed and idealistic would turn against the present social order and try to change it. Youths of the latter category are the prime target of recruitment for the communists. In the Addendum to the Presidential Address, it was projected that by 1980, there will be some 810,000 persons or 33.8% of our population in the age group of 15-29 years old. This is a serious problem.”
“Thirdly, with the change in Japanese attitude, a trade war between Japan and the EEC countries probably will be averted, at least temporarily. Coming back to our region, our Government's effort in promoting greater economic cooperation among ASEAN countries has made further progress. Following the visit of our Prime Minister, bilateral tariff accords have been reached with the Philippines and Thailand. Admittedly, given the present volume and commodity composition of our trade with these two countries, the economic benefits will not be very substantial. Nevertheless, this is another big step towards a greater cooperation in the region of ASEAN. This progress, together with the result of our general elections, would enhance the confidence of the potential investors on the economic prospect of our Republic and this region. To promote industrial growth and to attract foreign investment, apart from maintaining political stability, we must also hold down cost of production. It is reassuring to note from the Addendum to the Presidential Address that "we shall watch carefully against too high Government charges for industry such as for port services and rates for electricity and water." More important, we must be able to prevent excessive increase in labour costs and to promote productivity increase. Wage increase must be orderly and related to increase in productivity. Though trade union and management have endorsed the productivity-gearing principle, nothing concrete has come out. There are many practical problems of implementing such a scheme, particularly in the service sector. However, this is the best way that wages could increase without damaging our competitiveness in the international market.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address, as moved by the hon. Member for Ulu Pandan. At the very outset the President has warned us that the security and economic prospects are not as good as those in 1972. On the economic front, there are two external factors which affect the performance of our economy: first, the recovery rate of the American, Japanese and EEC economies and, second, the magnitude and timing of the oil price increase. Statistics show that the economic recovery of these major industrial countries are not as rapid as originally expected. Furthermore, the recent increase of oil price by 5 to 10% would further slow down the already sluggish economic recovery. As a result, our exports to these countries will decline and the investment flow from these countries into our economy will also slow down. With the increase in oil price, the cost of providing public utilities, transportation services and manufacturing of commodities which use oil-related products as inputs will also rise. These will no doubt adversely affect the competitive edge of our exports and raise our cost of living. Mr Speaker, Sir, in the midst of this grim situation, however, there are certain hopeful developments in the international scene. Firstly, the United States President has announced his economic plan; he has proposed to inject US$30 billion into the American economy so as to cut the unemployment rate and to stimulate economic recovery. Secondly, there are renewed efforts by the United Nations, the United States. West Germany and France to seek a peace settlement in the Middle East. If the break-through could be achieved this year, oil embargo and substantial oil price increase could be avoided.”