Yee Jenn Jong
Singapore
“So, can the Minister of State confirm whether the gates are considered as doors and whether they meet the BCA Code? Finally, the residents that I have communicated with in this DBSS, have complained that when they took up the design issues with the developers, they were told, and I quote, "Everything approved by HDB".”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. In view of the frequent occurrences of algal blooms in the past and it has become almost an annual affair, are there studies to also see if it is perhaps due to the reclamation works or other projects affecting the environment either by Singapore or by our immediate neighbours?”
“Thank you, Madam. I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. First of all, condolences to those who have lost their loved ones at the recent Lufthansa Germanwings incident. I would like to confirm if this multi-layered cockpit security applies to all Singapore-based airlines, including the budget airlines?”
“I thank the Minister for the reply. Just a supplementary question. I would like to check if our Government agencies have conducted studies on how Singapore's hedging product market compares to those in other countries and also, especially on the usage by our companies.”
“Thank you, Madam. I agree with the Minister that the pre-school sector is fragmented and I support the idea of consolidation. My question is, can an application for POP be from a group of operators banding together, rather than from a single operator? This may speed up the process of consolidation.”
“Is there a way for the landowner to be given an indicative value of the land before the request is made for the Government to acquire it? Is there any cost the landowner needs to pay if such a request for indicative value is allowed? And what will happen if the eventual price differs significantly from the indicative value?”
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“So, can the Minister of State confirm whether the gates are considered as doors and whether they meet the BCA Code? Finally, the residents that I have communicated with in this DBSS, have complained that when they took up the design issues with the developers, they were told, and I quote, "Everything approved by HDB". I would like to understand what HDB does or does not approve. So, what are the areas that are approved by HDB?”
“Mdm Speaker, I have four supplementary questions for the Minister of State. First, I am not sure if the Minister of State had answered my question about the rate of complaints on the DBSS scheme for the flats that were completed over the last two years. I want to know also whether the complaints have been rising and, given the wide public backlash over many of the DBSS flats that came up recently, would the Minister of State say how DBSS has fulfilled its intent. And, I quote, the intent is "to meet the housing aspirations of higher income flat buyers for better design and finishes". So, do all these complaints signify that the DBSS has actually failed in its intent? Second, I want to know what is the comparison of the number of complaints for BTO versus DBSS flats, in terms of, say, per 100 or 1,000 flats that are completed. Third supplementary question is this: the 2007 and 2013 BCA Accessibility Code has guidelines for doors, especially manoeuvring spaces at doors. For the term "doors", I am not sure if it also includes gates, because one of the complaints, for example, at Pasir Ris ONE is that the gates at the opposite ends can almost touch one another when they are all opened. Page: 40”
“I thank the Prime Minister for the answer. I would like to ask the Prime Minister whether he is prepared to commit a minimum time period, say, at least six months from the publishing of the EBRC report to the calling of Page: 19 elections. I believe that it had been as short as one day from the report to the calling of elections in the past. A longer period would allow residents being moved out of their constituencies to be able to adjust to the changes. The second question I have is on the composition of the EBRC for future Committees. Prior to Singapore's Independence, the members have comprised of people that are outside of the Government, including representatives from various political parties. So, I would like to check with the Prime Minister whether in subsequent EBRCs, we can change the composition of the EBRC to involve non-Government representatives or for it to be chaired by a High Court Judge, like in the case of the UK. Finally, I would like to ask the Prime Minister: the completeness of the EBRC report seems to have been shrinking from the 1960s to the early 1970s. So, will the Prime Minister direct the Committee to provide better justifications for the changes because many of these changes do not seem to make sense to political observers and to the residents? Can the minutes of meetings of the EBRC be published so that they will be open for all to understand the decisions that have been made? Thank you.”
“Second, I would like to know how investors' education would be conducted with the launch of the Savings Bonds and how purchases can be made easily. I think the Bonds can encourage people with spare cash to save more for retirement in a safe instrument while maintaining the flexibility to cash out on the investments if needed. It would be a pity if the take-up rate is low due to a lack of understanding of the product and also due to maybe difficulties in purchase. The Bonds can be sold through existing financial institutions, as the Senior Minister of State has said. Are incentives attractive enough for banks to promote these Bonds, given that they may sell other instruments that may pay better commissions but may be riskier for investors? Furthermore, the Savings Bonds compete directly with FDs Page: 66 offered by the banks. So, banks may not be interested to market these. Third, I understand from reports that there is a cap on the amount that can be invested on the Savings Bonds by any persons. I would like to know how the cap will be set because, if it is set too low, it may not be attractive enough to encourage retail investors to bother with yet another investment to keep track of. If yields on the Savings Bonds are equivalent to the SGS 10-year bonds, may I know why there is a need to restrict the amount that can be invested by any one person? 3.49 pm”
“Not many understand the mechanism nor how to trade this on the secondary market, if they wish to cash out before maturity, and there may be capital loss when sold on the secondary market. In the search for better returns on savings in this period of low interest rates and high liquidity, many small investors have dabbled in risky investments or penny stocks without fully understanding the risks, with some losing a good part of their hard-earned savings while trying to beat returns from bank savings. The to-be-launched Singapore Savings Bond is, therefore, a useful new instrument that can help the average small investor save for the long term and get yields close to the inflation rate. Investors should keep the Savings Bonds to maturity to maximise the returns but can sell back to the Government at any time at a lower interest rate, depending on the durations that the bonds had been kept for. They act like FDs offered by the banks but have more flexibility in withdrawals. SSBs could push banks to work harder on making their FDs more competitive. I have three questions for the Senior Minister of State regarding these Savings Bonds. First, I would like to know what will happen should a person who owns such Savings Bonds passes on. The Bonds will form part of his estate. However, this Bill makes such Bonds non-transferable. These Bonds would then have to be sold back to the Government and the monies returned to the estate. However, the family members would then lose the advantage of the step-up interest rates. Can the Bonds be transferable in the event of death if one wishes to hold on to the Bonds received through inheritance? Are there special circumstances where the Bonds can be made transferable?”
“Mdm Speaker, as the Senior Minister of State has explained, the amendment to this Bill is to prepare for the recently announced Government of Singapore Savings Bonds. The Senior Minister of State has also explained the mechanisms of the Savings Bonds. These bonds have a 10-year term with step-up interest and whose rates are linked to the long-term SGS rates. Unlike the existing SGS, the new Savings Bonds will not be transferable, hence, necessitating this amendment to the Bill. Madam, I support the Bill. Interest rates in Singapore have been low. The average member of the public has few alternatives to invest in very safe asset classes to meet their long-term financial goals and to save extra for retirement needs. Yields on bank savings have been extremely low. Fixed-term deposits, or FDs, with banks have slightly better rates but are of relatively short duration of up to around two years. Even with their better yields, fixed-term deposit rates from banks have lagged behind the inflation rate for many years already. Page: 65 Corporate bonds have better yields, but most required investments of $250,000 and above per transaction. More retail corporate bonds have recently been launched since changes to our policy on corporate bonds which have made it easier for companies to issue retail bonds. But the interest of companies to issue such bonds is still low. There are also risks in corporate bonds as they are primarily based on the financial stability of the issuing company. Ten-year SGS, whose recent yield has been between 2% and 3% per annum, can already be purchased in tranches of $1,000 and above. However, there appears to be low interest in SGS by retail investors.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the answers. I have three supplementary questions. The first is on the duration of 10 years for Phase 2. Ten years seem to be quite a long time. I understand that yes, there is a need for the investment to be recouped. But given that many cities have already moved on to large-scale commercial implementation, it means that these countries will gain the advantage of wide-scale EV implementations over us. Will we lose out in terms of building capabilities among our companies and also in our country's leadership in sustainable and liveable cities, if we wait 10 years before even implementing this on a larger commercial scale basis? And are EVs something that is important for us to invest in our economic development? The second question is on EV ownership. I would like to ask whether EV ownership can be factored into Phase 2's 10-year period when there has been sufficient infrastructure that has been built. Given the high cost of adoption, will there be incentives, such as Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and tax rebates, to encourage adoption so that we can have an even larger scale of implementation? Lastly, I would like to ask regarding other types of EV. Will buses and taxis also be factored into Phase 2, since they are also heavily used and have a shared fleet that can be maintained by an operator with rapid charging facilities? So, this will also give us that larger- scale implementation that we need.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. In view of the frequent occurrences of algal blooms in the past and it has become almost an annual affair, are there studies to also see if it is perhaps due to the reclamation works or other projects affecting the environment either by Singapore or by our immediate neighbours? And could the Johor Straits be not so conducive because algal blooms tend to happen in those areas and, perhaps, the flow of the water may not be so good? Also, on the target to achieve the 15%, we are still quite a distance from this. So, are we confident we can achieve this target and by when?”
“I thank the Minister for the reply. Just a supplementary question. I would like to check if our Government agencies have conducted studies on how Singapore's hedging product market compares to those in other countries and also, especially on the usage by our companies. Have studies been conducted to see whether, for example, our SMEs are using this appropriately and sufficiently?”
“Thank you, Madam. I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. First of all, condolences to those who have lost their loved ones at the recent Lufthansa Germanwings incident. I would like to confirm if this multi-layered cockpit security applies to all Singapore-based airlines, including the budget airlines? The next question I have is: how many years have these rules been in operation, both the two-men cockpit rule as well as the periodic psychological tests.”
“Is there a way for the landowner to be given an indicative value of the land before the request is made for the Government to acquire it? Is there any cost the landowner needs to pay if such a request for indicative value is allowed? And what will happen if the eventual price differs significantly from the indicative value? Can the landowner challenge the acquisition price of the Collector in the Courts? And if a challenge is allowed, it may be costly and with unpredictable outcomes. Would it not be better to allow the landowner an option to revoke the notice for compulsory acquisition? 5.16 pm”
“Would there be some form of Government assistance schemes that they can be provided with? Also, what if the land was leased to tenants and the tenants quit due to the temporary occupation? The business associated with the land is leasing. Are landowners able to seek compensation due to the loss of tenants when the main business of the landowner is to lease out the land? Next clarification pertains to the landowners requesting for acquisition. If the land owner is not happy with the compensation or other issues related to the temporary occupation, the landowner can ask for compulsory acquisition by the Government under Page: 121 clause 9. This is provided that the landowner has suffered a "substantial impairment of his rights in those lands", as defined by section 49A(8) of this amendment Bill. The definition of "substantial impairment" seems to require that no occupier can use the land for more than a year. So, the option to request the Government to acquire the space permanently is not always an option. Assuming that the landowner has met the criteria of substantial impairment, there may be potential problems with requiring the Government to permanently acquire the land. Under clause 7 of the Bill, the proposed section 49(3) states that, "Any notice under this section is irrevocable once given to the Collector." I am concerned about this wording as this seems to suggest that once the landowner requests for the Government to acquire the land, that offer cannot be revoked even if the price offered turns out to be substantially below what the landowner feels is fair value. What is the rationale for not allowing the notice to be revoked by the landowner?”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, as the Senior Minister of State had explained, the amendments to this Bill are to enable the Government to acquire a specific stratum of underground space or air space to develop public projects, instead of having to acquire the entire column of land. It also elaborates on issues of temporary occupation of private land for public purposes. I support the Bill. I have some clarifications regarding temporary occupation of land. Part VI – "Temporary Occupation of Land" is proposed to be repealed and replaced by "Temporary Occupation and Use of Land". Under clause 5 of the proposed Part VI, section 43(3)(a) of the Bill, financial loss resulting from the interruption of any trade or business carried out on any land cannot be taken into account in the assessment of any claim for compensation. I noted the previously stated Government position on compensating for business loss. The then-Minister for Law Prof S Jayakumar had stated in April 2007 in an earlier amendment of the Land Acquisition Act that the Government will not compensate for business loss because "it is a very difficult set of factors to assess business loss and loss of goodwill." While it is true that there are many factors affecting business loss or loss of goodwill besides the temporary occupation, business owners, especially the small business owners, can be adversely affected by temporary occupation. For example, if part of the land was occupied such that significant frontages of the land have been taken away or customers have to make big diversions to enter the business unit. I would like to ask how the Government would view requests from businesses that have, indeed, suffered loss of business and loss of goodwill from temporary occupation.”
“Thank you, Madam. I agree with the Minister that the pre-school sector is fragmented and I support the idea of consolidation. My question is, can an application for POP be from a group of operators banding together, rather than from a single operator? This may speed up the process of consolidation. Also, is Page: 44 POP applicable to private or for-profit organisations? Because I think they play a role in offering diversity and innovation. Lastly, I like to ask about the student care sector. I noted the many training initiatives for early childhood, such as the skills framework, fellow schemes and PCP. Are there similar types of initiatives for student care? The Minister did not cover anything on student care in his speech at all.”
“Sir, I am glad to hear of the plan for more school-based student care centres (SSCs) last week. Even as we increase the number of centres, a concern will be the availability of dedicated and trained staff. Since 2000, the Ministry has made steady progress in attracting and training manpower for childcare. In comparison, there have been far weaker efforts for student care in these same areas. Staff training is not mandatory and the range of courses and number of training Page: 157 providers are far fewer for student care. We will need to act faster to drive up the level of competency and number of staff in student care. Fortunately, student care operating hours tend to be short, with most opened only in the afternoons as most schools are single sessions. There is scope to attract mothers who may wish to return to the workforce but want shorter work hours. We can target this group with training grants and incentives to join the sector. With more trained staff, we can hopefully increase the pace of more SSCs. Also, like preschool, it may be better to have a single agency to look after student care. We could have something like ECDA or change the name and scope of ECDA to cover student care. With a single coordinating agency driving a national priority to increase the capacity and quality of student care, young parents can work at ease and may not need to spend so much on tuition and on alternative care arrangements. Enabling Master Plan for the Disabled”
“Additionally, there should be an official support network for preschool educators who may get together to share ideas, support one another and, more importantly, have a collective voice to push for improvements to the sector. Finally, Singaporeans must recognise the professionalism of preschool educators. Better salaries and more incentives are certainly the way to go but there is more to it than money. Preschool teachers are not nannies and our society needs to understand that they do more than take care of children. They are setting the cornerstones at a child's most vulnerable stage of learning where anything he or she learns is easily soaked up, like water by sponge. They deserve more appreciation and recognition. At this juncture, I would like to take this opportunity to inform the Minister that there is an acute shortage of childcare centres in Nee Soon South. At every Meet-the-People Session (MPS), I have parents who come to seek help. In the last MPS alone, there were about a dozen of parents who came to seek help. Therefore, I would like to urge the Minister Page: 155 to build more childcare centres in Nee Soon, especially in Nee Soon South. Preschool Teachers and Educarers”
“We can constantly be creative and flexible to look for ways to raise productivity and quality through sharing of resources while keeping fees affordable. Page: 154 Motivate and Retain Childcare Educators Er Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon): Sir, the challenge to meet the high demand for affordable childcare services continues to be a major concern faced by parents. Good childcare services are integral to the development of a child in a preschool stage, especially in our society where both parents are working. It is certainly one of the factors that they will consider when they do family planning. To increase affordability of childcare services, it is time to look into placing a cap on the fees they are charged, otherwise each time the Government increases the grants, the operator will seize the opportunity to up their charges. Parents do not benefit. The shortage of skilled childcare teachers and childminders remains a thorny issue. If we do not attract sufficient talent, efforts to boost the infrastructure will not pay off. We must first explore the reasons, the interest and what discourage potential candidates from making a career in a preschool industry. A committee should be set up to engage the preschool industry and analyse the situation. In Australia which is also tackling a problem of preschool educator shortage, they find that a lack of social support is one of the major reasons. Teachers suffered from stress and burnout due to the long working hours and the mediocre pay and there were insufficient colleagues who are skilled and qualified to provide mutual support, advice and assistance. They found peer support, mentoring and professional network to be successful strategies.”
“Sir, I had previously called for the Government to go beyond anchor operators and bring more operators into schemes that provide better grants and access to new facilities, but in exchange for strict controls on fees charged. I am glad to see that the AOP participation has since been widened and we will now have POP, which I understand will provide more Government support for operators that commit to keep fees affordable. I had also previously suggested economic grouping and clustering of resources. I will list some ideas again. One, where feasible, old Government buildings or purpose-built facilities can be made available to be mega preschool centres, housing different operators under one roof. There can be shared facilities such as a large hall, common kitchen, and outdoor play and game areas. Two, promote the use of external central kitchens, so centres do not need their own kitchens and cooks, and can buy cooked food from such suppliers. Three, encourage centres to form economic grouping with common resources, such as curriculum, enrichment programmes and back office support. The degree of such sharing can be up to different operators, as some will want partial differentiation in curriculum for branding. We can devise schemes to encourage economic grouping to have better sectoral productivity and higher quality curriculum. Four, have common resources purchased by the Ministry for loan, such as costlier but useful learning resources, puppets and props for annual plays which preschools will usually need. When visiting Australia many years ago, I noted that the state provides such shared resources for loans. These resources can be kept with a lead preschool centre within a geographical area to manage on behalf of the cluster.”
“The Singapore Actuarial Society has observed that CPF aside, retirement schemes are a missing item in the typical Singapore employee benefit programme when compared to many other countries. I hope we can further explore the use of supplementary retirement Page: 144 provisions as additional options for Singaporeans. Thank you. Enabling Business Growth and Innovation”
“Sir, given the relentless rise in our cost of living, we should constantly explore new schemes that can help increase Singaporeans retirement savings and adequacy. One way could be corporate retirement plans which is currently provided for in section 5 of the Income Tax Act, but intended mainly for foreigners. Corporate retirement plans could be provided by employers on top of the employer CPF contribution and be a tool to retain workers, especially by large companies. To incentivise companies to offer the plan, the Government can mitigate the cost through tax breaks and rebates. We can also incentivise Singaporeans to contribute further to their own retirement by getting companies to match contributions that employees make. 6.30 pm How would such a plan work? Each employee could get a base contribution from the company and this base contribution would have vesting criteria. A typical criterion would be the length of service to encourage retention. Matching funds up to a cap could be used to encourage employees to make their own contributions. The exact details of each Corporate Retirement plan can be left to the employer as long as they have these two basic features. To implement this, we only need to tweak existing schemes. For employers with the necessary scale and expertise, they can run their own Retirement Trust. However, section 5 of the Income Tax Act would need to be changed to take into account new features like employee contributions and also allow for tax deductions for such contributions made by both employer and employee, just like contributions to CPF. Smaller employers or those who do not want the overhead of managing a trust can offer the same retirement benefits using SRS as the vehicle.”
“Madam, I have two clarifications for the Senior Minister of State. On the International Growth Scheme (IGS), I had asked in my speech about numerical targets for IGS as we have numerical targets set for the other schemes. So, I was wondering if there is any target set on the number of companies that will be on IGS over the next five years. Second is that it is good to know that the number of Singapore companies with more than $100 million in sales has been increasing. One hundred million dollars itself may not automatically mean that the company is globally competitive because they have to have critical market share and strong branding. A whole-of-Government approach involving multiple agencies and research institutions may be necessary to help the companies in this competitive world. I would like to know what sort of whole-of-government involvement can our promising local companies get outside of MTI, for example, say, in trade diplomacy, so that we can move beyond schemes into grooming specifically very promising global leaders from Singapore.”
“The number of companies getting IE-administered grants for cross-border M&As has been increasing but is still small at 32 last year. To encourage strong development of our brands overseas, can we have a lower tax rate for IP-related income from abroad instead of the usual 17% for corporate tax? I would also like to ask about the new schemes. Can the Double Tax Deduction (DTD) Scheme cover manpower expenses incurred to put Singaporeans overseas, such as kids' schooling allowances and relocation costs? For the International Growth Scheme (IGS), is there a target for the number of companies to be on it? We have targets for the other schemes, but what about IGS? How many years will be granted and what are the key conditions for renewal at expiry? For venture debt risk-sharing, do the schemes apply for overseas M&A? Helping Businesses Internationalise”
“It could also work with economic agencies like IE Singapore, EDB and SPRING to ensure that more aggressive support is given to firms with the most potential to become our global corporate champions. It could help bring partners together to exploit opportunities as well as Government co-investment. But support has to be conditional on delivering results – exports, revenues and spin-off benefits to the Singapore economy. In the early days of South Korea's industrialisation, then-President Park Chung Hee made aggressive government support available to the emerging chaebols, but conditional on the achievement of very aggressive export targets. Otherwise, the firms would be dropped from the programme. Looking at other countries with a similar population size to Singapore which have nurtured global champions – like Israel, Denmark, New Zealand and Norway – as well as looking at how a few of our promising local companies have made good progress globally, I am confident that if we adopt a results-oriented approach, we can help build this third pillar to our economy. Page: 160 Encouraging Internationalisation Next cut, encouraging internationalisation. Sir, we need to grow our promising local firms into globally competitive companies, but with their roots in Singapore. The new programmes such as International Growth Scheme or IGS and the Double Tax Deduction or DTD for Internationalisation are welcome steps in the right direction. These schemes can benefit companies venturing abroad, especially by organic growth. However, in some situations, acquisition may be more efficient. We can improve our ecosystem to enable our future world champs. We should encourage more companies to use Internationalisation Finance Scheme now that it can be used for mergers and acquisitions (M&A).”
“Mr Chairman, we have recognised the limitations of relying on multinationals to drive our economy. SMEs account for 70% of employment but contribute a much smaller percentage of GDP. I would like to call for a whole-of-Government approach to nurturing Singapore's global corporate champions, just as we had done so in our pursuit of foreign direct investment (FDI). Page: 159 This is an important national priority. We should create an inter-departmental secretariat to take ownership of the target to have 1,000 Singapore enterprises with revenues above $100 million by 2020 and even more ambitious goals. 7.15 pm This is similar to our approach to our National Productivity Council, which sets an overarching goal such as the 2% to 3% productivity growth target and then works with various agencies to set sector goals and monitor sectoral progress. For other urgent national priorities, we have committees such as the National Climate Change Secretariat or NCCS and the National Population and Talent Division or NPTD. Such a secretariat could work with MFA to ensure that the wish lists of the most promising Singapore firms be fully factored into our trade diplomacy. It could work with companies to identify R&D needs and coordinate with our tertiary and research institutes to help to focus important IP developments for global competitiveness. It could work with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to address issues related to funding and perhaps revisit the idea of an EXIM Bank which some of our competitor nations have. It could also work with all agencies to help improve access to Government procurement opportunities or special innovation projects in ways that are GPA-compliant.”
“Madam, I have two questions for the Minister. First, I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with the Minister that learning should not be for grades but for mastery. The Minister has said that these changes he spoke about go beyond schools. First, surely the Minister will agree that we will still need the school to implement the changes that we want and there may be some historical structures that may give a different message to what the Minister has said. For example, centralised GEP gives a certain elite status to the nine selected schools and will continue this perception in parents that these are the top and popular schools. So, should we be bold to critically examine historical systems that may have served their purposes and there may be different ways to achieve Page: 124 what it was set up for? My second question has been asked but I will ask it in a different way to be persistent. Would the Minister agree that the integrated primary to secondary schools will actually go very well with the Minister's own message that learning is not just for grades but for curiosity and mastery? It will let parents truly buy into the Minister's message for this option and to subscribe for such schools, so that they do not need to have the children chase for top grades in PSLE to get into the good schools. I have heard what the Minister said, but I feel that we can actually exclude the top schools from this exercise and leave the original pathways unchanged so that we do not transfer that pressure downwards, as the Minister has just said.”
“Madam, several Members, including myself, have spoken previously about a greater level of sports engagement for our pupils and to increase the number of sports on offer by schools. Active participation in sports from young can hopefully help Page: 103 students develop a culture of active sports in the future. I wish to suggest how we can add to schools' efforts to provide more sports engagements for students. Number one: introduce more fun competitions for sports within schools, which can be tiered so students who are at a lesser skill level can move up to a higher level when skills have improved. Number two: introduce the concept of a minor co-curricular activity (CCA) where students who want regular exposure to various sports can sign up for as a second or even third CCA. The time commitment may not be as intense as a regular CCA, but it will allow students to try out more sports. CCA points would be correspondingly lesser. Number three: recognise and award CCA points for the achievements of students who participate regularly and competitively with external training providers outside of school hours, even if the school does not offer the sports as a CCA. This might encourage students to pursue sports of their interest at a serious level when schools are not able to find the resources to offer that sport as a CCA. Lastly, allow international schools to join in the local inter-school competitions to increase the level of competition, a point that was also just raised by Nominated Member Dr Benedict Tan. Revamp of Schools' Sports Day”
“Madam, I agree with bilingualism being a cornerstone of our education system. All students in our primary and secondary schools now have to offer a Mother Tongue Language or MTL. In a recent Parliamentary reply, MOE had said that around 3.5% of students are exempted from MTL at the PSLE yearly. I accept that there are genuine reasons for exemptions, such as those who join our education system mid-way without prior learning of the MTL or there are medical reasons that adversely affect their ability to cope with MTL. In another reply, MOE cited that on average, over the past five years, 178 MTL exemptions were given at PSLE in the five schools with the highest exemptions. This is 35.6 students per school, which is around 15% to 17% of the PSLE cohort in an average school. This is high compared to the national average of 3.5%. Has MOE examined the reasons why there are wide variations in MTL exemptions across schools? Has MOE or have the principals of schools with high exemptions sought to interview applicants to probe further into the reasons for seeking MTL exemptions? Seeking exemption based on medical reasons is costly. Is there a strong correlation between MTL exemptions and the socioeconomic status of parents? I hope students will not find ways to opt out of MTL even if they find the subject difficult or parents worry that offering MTL may pull down their children's PSLE T-Score. Page: 101 Regulating Private Special Schools”
“Madam, it has been 31 years since we started the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). Each year, about 1% of the cohort is picked for GEP through a series of national tests for abilities in English, Mathematics and Science at the end of Primary 3. I had previously called for MOE to review centralised GEP and, in its place, provide support for as many schools to develop their higher ability students so that their students would not need to relocate to one of the nine GEP schools at Primary 4. There are many forms of giftedness, not just in language, Science and Mathematics. Some are gifted in the arts or in sports. The current definition of GEP is narrow. We can encourage all schools to have various forms of deep, specialised enrichments and engagements. When we need skills, we can tap on the school cluster system or work through existing institutions with strong expertise in Science, the Arts or Sports. For the very rare pupil with extreme giftedness, who will even find the current GEP un-engaging, we can tap on our universities. Some non-GEP schools have developed their own gifted classes to encourage their best students to stay with the school rather than relocate to a GEP school. We need not have this competition. We can spread the programme developed for GEP across more schools and also widen our definition of giftedness. 1.45 pm Lastly, after 31 years, has MOE done longitudinal studies to track GEP graduates into their careers and can these studies be made public? I hope the public can have more data on the outcomes of GEP to examine its continued relevance. Language Ability”
“Madam, this is the fourth year that I am speaking on the topic of through-train schools from primary to secondary. If I seem persistent, it is because I truly believe that in a suitably diverse education landscape, Singaporeans should have access to such a publicly-funded education option. Such through-train schools would not require the pupil to go through the PSLE. It will allow the schools to develop holistic education for a longer period with the pupils, allowing time to work on their character and values, as well as other aspects beyond examinations. From results seen in other countries and in private schools that offer such a through-train system, academic achievements need not be compromised. I previously outlined broad ideas on how we can start with eight of such schools distributed throughout Singapore and exclude all top schools from being part of such a pilot. I call for this to be implemented gradually and on a pilot basis because majority of Singaporeans may not yet understand how an education system can work without the PSLE. Nevertheless, I am convinced that there is a sizeable minority who would be prepared to let their children go through 10 years of education in the same school, even if it means their children would find it difficult to enter the existing top schools without the PSLE. I call upon the Ministry of Education (MOE) to seriously study the option, conduct public surveys to gauge the level of support of parents of such pilot schools and to publish these results, so that we can have a meaningful conversation on this education option. Tuition Culture”
“Where possible, we can also bring in the expertise of industry associations to help plan and validate internship programmes. Targeted Sector to Help Students' Career”
“Madam, internships will play an increasingly important role as we move to a more skills-based economy. I have spoken on this topic before. While I am happy that there will be more internships and we are told that they will be structured, I remain concerned about how industries will be engaged to ensure that internships are meaningful even as we ramp up the number of such places. I have taken interns over the past 15 years and I have spoken with others who have as well. From the perspective of companies, the supply of interns has been somewhat unpredictable. Some institutions give longer period of notice of incoming interns and some Page: 46 are as short as two weeks before commencement. Sometimes, we are allowed to interview and select interns but often we are not. It will be difficult for companies to plan for a meaningful project if the supply is unpredictable and if the existing skills of interns are not properly matched to what companies need. For projects to be even more meaningful and realistic, where possible, it will be better if there could be continuity across different internship intakes from education institutions. We can encourage projects commenced during internship to continue, as, say, a final year project when the intern returns to school. This year, we have a new Earn and Learn programme with generous funding support. I hope to see internship funding support for companies that take in a minimum number of interns a year so that they can dedicate resources to meet internship rigorously akin to a sort of apprenticeship. I also hope there can be close coordination between companies and supervisors in schools so that projects would be useful to companies while the internship experience will result in the learning required by the school.”
“We will need strong attitudes in our people to aspire to be the best, to be resilient and to be hungry for success and to want to constantly innovate. The lifelong learning programmes that SkillsFuture will create should not stop at helping people acquire more knowledge and skills. While these are important, we can also include programmes that transform thinking and challenge our people to have higher aspirations. Working hand in hand with developing skills across all sectors, new transformative attitudes can help transform our enterprises to achieve the breakthrough that this Budget seeks to spark off. I share in the vision of this learning journey. 2.06 pm”
“To have a culture of innovation, our young will have to read widely, consider different perspectives, think out of the box and venture deep into subjects that may have no clear right and wrong answers. People will have to dare to question norms and find new solutions to old problems. They will need to dream big from young. Madam, I am glad that this Budget has put the spotlight on developing Singaporeans through SkillsFuture. I am all for investing in our people. It will take some time to reap the benefits as strong skills will take time to build. It has been all too tempting in the past for companies to hire instant workers from overseas to fill gaps in skills. For Singapore to succeed in the long term, we need to look inwards and invest heavily on building our people. The journey may be long but I believe we need to persevere in the journey. The programme is called SkillsFuture. For too long, we have chased knowledge and assigned too high a value to the proof of knowledge earned early in life. It is apt that we should strive to deepen skills across all segments of our population. We can and should aim to move even beyond developing skills. Knowledge is important as it lays the foundation for what one knows. Skills are even more important as they allow one to put knowledge into practical actions. But I believe higher in the hierarchy is having strong and positive attitudes. With a positive attitude, one will make effort to acquire knowledge where it is required. The person will find ways to learn Page: 51 new skills where they are needed but may be lacking. So, we have "A" for Attitude, "S" for Skills and "K" for Knowledge, or ASK for short. We can build this ASK-ing spirit in our people.”
“We need to continue the process of critical examination of our current system to see where competition may have become too excessive and where messaging may have been going against this concept of meritocracy of skills that we wish to strive for. We need to question if education has become just about scoring the right grades to graduate so as to get the passport to get on to the next phase in life, or if we are Page: 50 succeeding in imparting to our students a genuine love for lifelong learning. One of the big words used throughout the Deputy Prime Minister's speech is "innovation". Innovation is not just a process. It is also a mindset. Singaporeans cannot suddenly become innovative when they enter the workforce. It should be a mindset that we instil in our children from young, throughout the education process. It is not something that we can teach in a subject called "innovation" and expect people to become innovative. Wanting to promote innovation in schools is not new, too. We have creativity as a buzzword in education since the "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" thrust from 1997. How do we push for something like creativity and innovation which are not easily measurable, in a big and sustainable way in our education system where, in general, people still value good grades above all else? Yet, innovation is so critical to Singapore's future. We have achieved high averages in education performance internationally, as measured through test scores. I believe we will next need to work on developing innovation as a mindset in our students. It is hard to measure how we have succeeded in this, but we will need to build this mindset nevertheless.”
“I, too, believe collaboration amongst our local companies is very important for success overseas, but such collaboration has been generally weak, not just compared to Germany and Switzerland, as cited by the Deputy Prime Minister, but also against our Asian neighbours, such as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. I believe there will be scope to look at incentives to promote economic grouping and franchising. Certain industries can also benefit from shared resources, such as shared kitchens for the F&B industry, or prefabrication factories for those in the construction sector. Even in the service sectors, such as preschools, it is possible to have shared curriculum and teaching resources and even shared facilities. Next, on developing Singaporeans for the future. I wish to declare that I own businesses that supply education programmes. The Deputy Prime Minister had said that we must become a meritocracy of skills, not a hierarchy of grades earned early in life. This is definitely a very worthy goal to strive for. There will be many challenges as we work towards this goal. After decades of having schools compete with one another in ranking, many high-stake examinations to sort students into academic streams and schools and the increasing use of scholarships in the public sector to pick talents, it is hard to reverse the mindset of people. We do need some competition and pressure to motivate people. There is a place for scholarships as well. How do we achieve the right balance? How do we convince parents that there are many pathways to success when they feel convinced that they should spend enormous amounts of money to provide tuition to their children to get better grades to enter what they consider are the better schools? There are no easy solutions.”
“In conjunction with M&As, we can also encourage the acquirers to invest in automation of their acquired businesses to achieve greater productivity and to change old business models. This could take the form of more generous PIC incentives, for example, valid only in the first year of acquisition or special grants for productivity improvements. I am also happy to see a greater push to create globally-competitive Singapore companies. I will speak further on this during the COS debate. Even as we look at encouraging our local companies to venture abroad, a strong base locally is important. In this respect, I hope to see greater confidence in our public sector projects in local companies, particularly the promising and innovative smaller companies. Page: 49 Some promising and globally-competitive Singapore companies could be formed if we have confidence in our local solutions and allow such start-ups to prove themselves locally so that tried and tested solutions can be sold abroad. We can create more test-bed projects to incubate solutions from local start-ups. Smart and Sustainable Urban Solutions has been identified as one of the five growth clusters of the future. Many of these will involve public sector projects. I believe we can see more promising local companies emerge with exciting and globally-competitive solutions if we look at what our small but innovative companies can offer. The Deputy Prime Minister spoke about deepening collaboration amongst companies in our industries, industry by industry.”
“There will be limitations in increasing labour productivity through improving efficiencies if companies cannot find big new revenue sources through change in business processes or from new markets. Hence, I am happy to see many of the measures in this Budget, some of which I had called for previously. First is on Merger and Acquisitions (M&As). The domestic economy is serviced by more than a hundred thousand companies, of which, the vast majority are small and micro companies. It is challenging to make quantum leaps in productivity on small operating scales. I had called for the M&A schemes to be greatly improved so that it will incentivise companies to amalgamate. Companies can acquire to buy market share or to absorb unique expertise that may be available in smaller companies to allow the acquirers to better compete. Also, as we strive for companies to look overseas for revenue, it is important for our companies to have the right scale and basket of expertise to compete. Good strategic acquisition can see our companies acquire the right know-hows, market access and people to help bring about more successful internationalisation. I hope the improvements to the M&A scheme in this Budget will just be the start. It will signal to companies to seriously consider M&A as a way to stay relevant and competitive. We should closely monitor its effectiveness to drive up M&A activities and study what positive effects can come out of these mergers. Some future enhancements to this scheme can include expanding the definition of M&A to also cover the purchase of operations and businesses of SMEs rather than outright share sales, as some acquirers are wary of the potential liability associated with the acquired businesses.”
“Mdm Speaker, I will cover two aspects of the Budget in my speech. First is on developing our local companies. Next, I will touch on developing our people for this new economy. I wish to declare that I own and operate local companies classified as SMEs. I have spoken various times in this House about the importance of developing local companies, especially our SMEs. I have been concerned about our heavy reliance on MNCs and on Government-linked Companies to drive our economy. I acknowledge that we do need to be a relevant destination for MNCs as they provide a good source of employment and economic activities, as well as bring expertise into Singapore and open our access to new markets. We need to complement the strategy of foreign investment with growing a sufficient base of strong local companies who are global leaders in their fields. The persistent lack of ground-up home-grown global leaders is rather worrying as we become a high-cost base where some MNCs will shun away from. The recent productivity data is quite telling. Productivity growth has been good for export-oriented companies and for those in the finance sector, but it is negative for those focused on the domestic economy. Since our restructuring drive started in 2009, total cumulative labour productivity growth till today is 13%. However, the growth had come in just the two years when we were recovering from a severe downturn. In those two years, with good revenue growth, even those servicing the domestic economy had good productivity growth. Page: 48 I believe we can conclude a few things from the data. Strong revenue growth is needed to achieve jumps in productivity.”
“Mdm Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State for the very comprehensive answers. I just have a couple of supplementary questions. The first is on the Gateway Process. I understand that other governments, such as the Australian government, also have some sort of a gateway process, and their cut-off is at $30 million for projects and $50 million for programmes. I was wondering if our $500 million threshold is set a little too high. Also, for those projects below $500 million, I understand the Senior Minister of State said that some projects are also subjected to a similar process. Given that there are some projects that are above $100 million that have also significant budget overruns, is the current process effective without this Gateway Process, and should we extend the Gateway Process to maybe a lower threshold? Lastly, on the Value-for-Money Review Office report, I was wondering if it is possible for certain sensitive information to be de-sensitised. For example, tender prices and so on may not have to be put in, but perhaps the key lessons learnt so that public projects could be more accountable to the public and for people to look at to see what are the learning points for everybody. Page: 15”
“I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. I have a few supplementary questions. One is on the viability of bids that are low. There have been some fairly prominent national infrastructure projects that have been stalled because the contractors may have gone bust. And some industry observers have called these "suicide" bids. So, is there any observation about the correlation between project failures or substantial delays due to low or unrealistic bids? Second, I would like to ask about the weightage that is allocated to productivity factored into the consideration for tender awards. The Senior Minister of State said that there are some considerations in terms of productivity. Generally, how much would this be factored in, like a certain percentage of the weightage, and how does it vary from project to project? Lastly, I would like to ask if the Ministry provides some sort of incentives for contractors to employ higher productivity methods for the public sector projects.”
“Thank you, Madam, just a short clarification for the Minister. Yes, I understand and I agree that we need to minimise disamenities and disorder while balancing the needs of the population. The Minister shared quite a bit of statistics today. To help my understanding in the implementation, I would like to know what sort of evidence do we have of rioting and serious hurt incidents in the coastal parts, for example, East Coast Park. Have there been many complaints regarding this sort of areas about drinking?”
“That is, the presence of liquor with the person in a public place but who is not at that point consuming the liquor, this is not an offence if the liquor was purchased earlier in a licensed premises or during the allowed sales period. Second, I seek confirmation that while a foreign employee dormitory is deemed to be a public space under this Bill, it is only for the purpose of being drunk as defined by section 14(1) of this Bill, that is, it is not an offence to drink in a foreign employee dormitory after 10.30 pm unless the person becomes drunk. Finally, I would like to seek an update from the Minister that with this Bill and the designation of Little India as liquor control zone, what will happen to the measures that had earlier been imposed on Little India in the aftermath of the riot and subsequently, with the Public Order (Additional Temporary Measures) Bill on Little India. There are still a couple more months before the expiry of the Public Order (Additional Temporary Measures) Bill. Will the restrictions be immediately superseded by this Bill when it takes effect? What were the key lessons learnt on the ground from the imposition of the restrictions on Little India? Mdm Speaker, in conclusion, whilst I support the principle of this Bill, I would like to urge the Minister to review the scope and the regulations to leave more flexibility for the sales and consumption of liquor in areas that are far away from private residence. 3.06 pm”
“So, we have the means to take action against drunkards and those behaving in unruly manners. I believe this will lighten the administrative load of having to grant consumption permission for events in areas where drinking is unlikely to cause problems. During weekends and on public holidays, it is common to find many of the barbecue pits in popular public spaces occupied. How responsive will the processing of permits be? Will we have enough security personnel to patrol these areas to enforce the "no drinking" rule? Is it necessary to have the Police patrol such public places to catch people drinking? Already, we have heard during the Committee of Inquiry (COI) on Little India that our Police force is understaffed and highly stretched. Paragraphs 196 to 198 of the COI Report Page: 39 had called for more officers but this issue had barely been addressed. The then Commissioner of Police Mr Ng Joo Hee closed his testimony before the COI with a plea for another 1,000 more officers to be added to the Police ranks. Given this situation, how ready are we to enforce this "no drinking" rule in all public places across Singapore? If enforcement of the Bill is weak, it will not reflect well on our law enforcement officers. Next, I would like to seek some clarifications from the Minister on the Bill. First, there is some public disquiet over what may seem to people as excessive powers to search individuals for any container of liquor and to search premises. I would like to seek clarification that an individual who was consuming liquor in a licensed premises and who leaves the licensed premises with open and unconsumed liquor in a container during the prescribed "no drinking" period has not committed any offence under this Bill.”
“Mdm Speaker, I echo the position presented by my Party colleague, Mr Pritam Singh. While I welcome additional measures to better manage unwanted and rowdy behaviours caused by drunkenness, especially in residential areas, I am concerned if some parts of the Bill are too far-reaching. The Bill makes it an offence to consume alcohol across Singapore during the prescribed "no drinking" period, which is currently planned to be between 10.30 pm and 7.00 am. The exception would be to drink at licensed premises, or, if consumption permission has been applied for and granted, to an event organiser prior to an event. Madam, I am of the view that there are public spaces where the consumption of liquor can be permitted without disturbing residents. An example would be in areas popular for barbecues and gatherings, such as the Changi Beach, East Coast Park and West Coast Park. I live near one of these parks and would often go there in the evenings. The people at the parks, even those who have been drinking, are generally well-behaved. Many are the occasional social drinkers. They are far away from any residence, so, there are also no disturbances caused to households. I believe we can relax the Bill to allow the Minister to designate areas where drinking can be allowed at all times. If there are frequent undesired incidents related to drinking in these areas, the Minister can publish an order in the Gazette to restrict the drinking period or totally ban drinking in that area, just as the Minister will be able to do so for liquor licence holders under this Bill. In any case, under existing laws and also under section 14 of this Bill, we have powers to deal with drunkenness in public areas at all times and against behaviours that cause public nuisance.”
“I understand that there are various teaching schemes, so this 17%, can I just clarify is specifically for General Education Officers?”
“Thank you, Madam. I would like to thank the Minister of State for the reply. I would like to ask regarding the 17% figure, are they at the General Education Officer level or it includes other forms of teachers that are under some kind of supplementary schemes? And I would also like to ask, since MOE started drastically reducing the number of new teachers hired last year, does it mean that it will be more challenging for non-graduates to become General Education Officers moving forward?”
“Madam, I would like to thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. Yes, I am aware that Singapore did overall score quite well in the Mercer Index, but the point was that on the adequacy requirement side, we actually scored 56.4, which is below the global average of 63, and adequacy requirement is something that is very important to Singaporeans, given rising costs. I would like to ask specifically about section 5 of the Income Tax Act which provides for this sort of corporate retirement plans. There are reports saying that there are only about 20 companies in Singapore that currently implement such plans. I would like to know, given that this scheme was there since 1994, why is the take-up rate so low, and is there a way to use corporate retirement plans to supplement our CPF and SRS schemes? And is there a study to see whether our companies are not taking up these section 5 plans? Is it because maybe the tax benefits are not good enough or it is not widely known and publicised to the companies?”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to thank the Senior Minister of State for a very detailed reply, especially on how Singaporeans can cope with the cost of living. I noted that in the previous replies by the Ministry on this topic, they said that they did not track the reasons for non-redemption. There were also various reports, some of which I have cited, that quoted industry players saying how pawners were using their valuables to get cash for casinos and gambling, as well as to cover cost of living. I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State if the Ministry would like to more conclusively reply to all these comments by having a more detailed study about the reasons behind all these non-redemptions and about the profile of the pawnbroking industry.”
“Mdm Speaker, there is very little data available on the profile of pawners. The Ministry has said that it does not track the reasons for non-redemption of pledges. While the overall percentage is small at 5%, 5% of four million valuables pawned in 2012 works out to around Page: 57 200,000 items that were unredeemed and had to be sent for auction. We do not know the reasons. We do not know how many of these 200,000 items were from pawners who repeatedly failed to redeem their valuables. We also do not know the reasons for these non-redemptions. I would like to call for a more detailed study on the profile of pawners and on the industry. In particular, we should look at those who do not redeem their valuables, to understand the underlying reasons. In order not to become a society with excessive pawning, the study can also look into the appropriate number of outlets in each neighbourhood, and whether the level and content of advertising should be subjected to some form of controls. I believe better data would be helpful to help look into the underlying causes of the rapid rise in the pawnbroking trade and how we can tweak the Pawnbroker's Bill in future to continue to keep pace with this industry's changing landscape. 3.21 pm”
“This Bill seeks to update the Pawnbrokers Act which was last amended in 1993. Amongst others, it removes the existing auction system, requires pawnbrokers to provide an indicative value of a pledge to the pawner at the point of pawning and at the end of the redemption period; and raises the minimum paid-up capital of pawnbrokers for the first outlet and for each subsequent branch. Mdm Speaker, I support the Bill. I am concerned though about the rise in the number of pawnshops and in the total value of pawnbroking loans in recent years. The number of pawnshops has grown from 114 in 2008 to 217 as at June last year. The value of pawnbroking loans rose more than three times, from $2 billion in 2009 to a peak of $7.1 billion in 2012. Many of the pawnshops are in the HDB heartlands. In an earlier Parliament reply, we were told that HDB does not generally limit the number of shops of each trade and leaves it to market forces to determine the trade mix of shops, including for pawnshops. Market forces have, indeed, led to the rise of the pawnbroking industry. In our geographically small island state with some 217 outlets, access to pawnshops for a quick loan is easy. This has prompted some journalists to cast the spotlight on our pawnbroking industry which now has three publicly-listed pawnbrokers as key players in the market. A Bloomberg report in June last year titled "Rolex for casino cash fuels Singapore pawnshop growth" highlighted stories and statements by industry players about the rise in pawnbroking activities driven by gambling. The report, as well as other reports, also pointed to soaring living costs as another reason for Singaporeans to turn to easy credit sources, such as pawnbrokers, to cover their living expenses.”