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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“I thank the Minister for the answer. I would like to just look at the data. The Minister said that we are actually doing very well according to the data. But I also noticed a trend – the Minister said that it has actually been falling or has been steady since 2009. But actually it has been rising from 6.6% in 2011 to 7.4% today. It roughly translates to over 24,000 graduates under the age of 30 that are classified as unemployed. Also, in the earlier Parliamentary Question (PQ), we looked at the graduates' under-employment. This is also a figure that is rising among graduates whereas for other education groups, it has actually been falling. So, I would like to know that moving forward, does the Ministry feel that it is important to do further studies to determine if there is any mismatch between the jobs and the training in our tertiary institutions. This is especially so because we are expanding the number of degree places in the publicly-funded Universities, and more and more people are also taking on private degree programmes.”
“Thank you, Madam. Just a quick clarification from the Minister. The Minister stated that there are already over 300 centres in the community. I would like to know whether these are dedicated for student care services or do they also include tuition centres with only a limited space for student care. In the MSF list that I went through, many of the centres that are listed as student care providers are actually tuition centres. The other question I have is: what is the capacity in total of these 300 centres, in terms of the number of student care places?”
“I thank the Minister for the answer. I would like to know that for the rest of the Primary schools, which number approximately 70, that will not be having these school-based Student Care Centres (SCCs), does the Ministry feel that they do not have the need for such facilities. And is this backed by any extensive survey? I had also asked this question in the Parliamentary Question (PQ), but I do not think it was answered. The next supplementary question is: will the Ministry set a plan for a more ambitious target to have all Primary schools to have school-based SCCs and, if so, by when? Lastly, I would like to know whether there will be any plan jointly by MOE and MSF to look at how to encourage more operators and teachers into this sector. For example, there are some schemes in the pre-schools, such as training grants, set-up grants and fee subsidies for all Singapore parents. So, while there are some schemes currently in place for SCCs, would the Minister agree that the support level for student care is currently far less than what is given out in the pre-school sector, and it may be hard to encourage operators and Page: 21 teachers into this sector under the current arrangements?”
“I hope that these suggestions can be incorporated in the design Page: 69 of new M&A tax schemes in the future. Mdm Speaker, I support the Bill.”
“Next, under the changes proposed to tighten PIC claims to prevent abuse in section 371, I wish to seek clarification on what the Ministry would consider as PIC automation equipment to be "in use" so that it qualifies for cash payout. This is because, sometimes, businesses may invest in spare capacity, say, for disaster recovery use or for future anticipated use. Perhaps, it would be useful to clarify if situations such as these can qualify for PIC cash payouts. Lastly, for future amendments to the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, I would like to suggest that the Ministry look into more relevant packages to encourage more merger and acquisition (M&A) activities amongst our local companies, especially the smaller ones. I have spoken about this before in this House as well. Even as we try to encourage productivity amongst our companies, my concern is that we have many companies that are very small in size. Even with Government support for automation and productivity measures, it is often very difficult to extract significant increases in productivity if the scale of business is small. Hence, M&A is a way to encourage the amalgamation of businesses to provide the scale for automation and changes to business processes that could see our companies becoming more competitive on the global scale. The current M&A tax incentives are due to expire in March next year. My reservations over the existing M&A tax incentives are that they are structured in a manner that makes it unattractive or not very meaningful for smaller companies to tap on the schemes for M&A. Hence, utilisation of this scheme appears to be very low. Since I have already given suggestions previously in this House on my proposed changes to the M&A scheme, I shall not elaborate on this today.”
“This is especially essential if Singapore is to move into the next lap of having innovative companies that are competitive on the global stage. Compared to other categories of allowable claims in PIC, R&D expenditure does appear more difficult to claim under the cash payout. Companies may be tempted to take a more Page: 68 convoluted method if they really want to try very hard to claim PIC support, say, for original software development. For example, a company could place out their staff with another software company and get the software company to build the application and then sell back the completed system, with all intellectual properties (IP) to it, and then hire back the staff involved in the development. Or, perhaps, have the system charged as website development by a friendly third-party developer if the product is a web-based system. This may allow it to qualify for claims under IP or website capital expenditure. I do not think this is a scenario IRAS wants to encourage. Nevertheless, with the seemingly difficult experiences that some companies may have with qualifying under R&D support for PIC cash payout, some may, indeed, try creative methods to claim R&D work through another aspect of PIC that is more lax. While I appreciate that the Government wants to tighten abusive PIC claims, I hope that when it conducts its regular reviews of the PIC scheme, the Ministry can look into how R&D activities can be broadened in the PIC definition so that companies that genuinely wish to commit their staff towards building essential systems to support innovative new business processes can benefit from this scheme.”
“Mdm Speaker, I wish to declare that I own and operate businesses that are subjected to the corporate components of the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill. This Bill covers a large number of changes. I will focus on some aspects related to the PIC scheme and to also propose an item for the Government to consider in future amendments to the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill. First, on PIC. A survey of local companies released by PWC Singapore last month reported that only 6.3% of those surveyed intended to tap on the R&D tax benefits offered in the PIC scheme. The report suggested a mismatch in defining R&D for business and tax purposes. The report concluded that "what is clear from the results is that respondents are seeking more engagement via a two-way dialogue with IRAS in the R&D claim progress". Madam, I have spoken previously in this House about the extremely low utilisation of R&D support under the PIC scheme. The report is consistent with my own observations about the experiences of technology companies, especially the smaller ones that have found difficulties in claiming cash payouts under the PIC scheme for R&D. It seems that IRAS applies a very strict definition of what would qualify as R&D activities which makes it difficult for smaller companies to tap on PIC to help them in what they may consider as necessary R&D activities for their own development. It would be unfortunate if companies hold back on investing in R&D because of the difficulties in securing Government support as I believe that such expenditures are needed to make quantum leaps in productivity as new technologies, systems and methods can drastically change business models to great advantages.”
“This will foster interaction through joint programmes which will help develop the social and emotional learning of those outside of mainstream schools while helping students in the mainstream schools better understand their peers learning under a different education system. It will also provide some form of common Page: 76 education experience for both groups of students. Madam, the idea may sound radical, but I believe it is doable. Some schools have, on their own initiative, fostered partnerships with communities in their neighbourhood, including with disadvantaged children. I believe we can have a more structured approach on enrichment programmes to have schools partner on a regular basis, neighbourhood children outside of the mainstream schools. This will give more value to the Edusave contributions that we are now giving to this new group of beneficiaries. I hope MOE can study the feasibility of this proposal. Mdm Speaker, I support the Bill.”
“The enrichment providers sometimes also offer other types of programmes and services to schools outside of Edusave funding, so there is incentive for these providers to be as competitive as they can to sell a continuous stream of services to the schools. While the same amount of funding per child is now available to children in religious and private schools and those who are homeschooled, enrichment providers will not rush to offer services to them as the scale of business is small. Granted that, depending on the rules that MOE will establish, those who are homeschooled can attend enrichment courses by commercial providers individually, the costs will definitely be a lot higher per hour of learning. Hence, the yearly $200-$240 of Edusave contribution that the child will get will not go very far. More importantly, there will be the missing socio- emotional learning elements of learning together in a large group. I would like to suggest that MOE look into having schools open up participation, especially of Edusave-funded enrichment courses in their schools, to those who are homeschooled or are in smaller religious and private schools nearby. I would like to suggest that this can be a nationwide effort coordinated through MOE. Selected schools spread throughout Singapore can be satellite centres to partner students who are in the religious schools, smaller private schools and those who are home-schooled. Enrichment courses offered in the schools, especially those that are Edusave-funded, can be extended to these external students.”
“Mdm Speaker, I wish to declare that I run businesses that offer education services to students. This Bill will ensure that all Singapore Citizens aged seven to 16 who are not enrolled in mainstream schools will now receive the $200 to $240 yearly Edusave contributions by the Government. News reports have estimated that 20,000 more students will benefit from this. I believe that this is a strong signal to tell Singaporeans that there are many education pathways and Singapore's children who have chosen to be enrolled in madrasahs and other religious schools, private schools or home-schools or are studying overseas are part of Singapore and deserve access to the funds that are meant for activities to enrich their minds. Page: 75 The scheme, popularly known as Edusave was designed to provide yearly funds to students in mainstream schools to allow parents to use the monies to pay for enrichment activities for their children in programmes that are approved by the schools. Autonomy has been given to the schools to decide what activities are best suited to the students. This is something that is useful as schools can bring in programmes that can extend on their niches or programmes that they believe are best for their students. Over the years, students have used their Edusave monies for many sorts of programmes, such as speech and drama, sports, learning expeditions and camps, and even trips overseas. Enrichment programmes offered through mainstream schools are often competitively priced, as there are economies of scale from having a large number of students. Facilities within the schools are not charged to these service providers, so fees are much lower than that of similar programmes offered in venues outside of the schools that have to pay commercial rents.”
“Gambling sites internationally have devised all sorts of creative live-bets, such as the number of yellow cards in, say, the first 20 minutes of the game. This can lead to more bets being placed on each sporting event and it also raises the risk for match-fixing. Australia, which has laws regulating online gambling since 2001, moved last year to ban live-betting and live-odds on all sports events, with the exception of horse-racing. Their reasons, amongst others, for this move were to control excessive gambling and to prevent the sporting values of games from being distorted by gambling. I hope live-betting will not be allowed in Singapore. Mdm Speaker, I understand a reason for allowing exemptions is to allow enforcement through entities that we can better monitor. However, we need to tread this carefully as the ills of gambling are far-reaching, as we have already seen from our experiences with the casinos and other forms of legalised gambling. There need to be constant monitoring of the effects of remote gambling and to restrict participation by vulnerable persons and to also restrict the type of gaming activities allowed. While I support the broad principles of the Bill to ban remote gambling, I find there are many unanswered questions regarding the exemption provisions. I fear that once we open the floodgates to have legalised remote gambling, we may end up with very high social costs and other unintended consequences in the future. Hence, I also wish to ask for the Bill to be committed to a Select Committee to examine the exemption provisions in detail to convince Singaporeans why exemptions are necessary and, if so, how we can tighten our legislation to implement very strong safeguards. Page: 77 4.43 pm”
“With online gambling, one should logically first be registered with a login identity and to have financial details linked to the gaming operators to facilitate payments. If we have to go down the path of having exempt gambling operators, we will need a way to impose controls on the legalised gambling sites, such as exclusion orders, voluntary self-exclusion and limits to gambling tied to financial abilities. Page: 76 With the current exercise to strengthen SingPass security with two-level authentication, perhaps SingPass could be used as the means for authentication and financial background checks. At the very least, some form of strict authentication of the identity and background of the online gamblers at the initial creation of their account is important. Those on state-funded welfare programmes can be automatically excluded as such information will be readily available about the person. Those already on casino exclusion orders and are bankrupt should also automatically be excluded. Known financial details could perhaps be used to determine gambling limits. What forms of remote gambling would be allowed for the legalised exempt operators? I am glad to hear from the Minister that there will be no casino-style games as these are potentially more addictive, compared to other forms of gambling. It would also have allowed a loophole to let Singapore residents gamble on casino games without the safeguards of entry levies that physical casinos have. Another issue that we may have to look at in the implementation of online gaming is live-betting. With live-betting, one can bet on sporting events as they happen, with odds changing by the minutes or even seconds, as the game progresses.”
“While we are legislating remote gambling for the first time in Singapore, there are already some forms of remote gambling by our two state-run gambling operators. As the Minister has said, Singapore Pools already allows phone betting and Singapore Turf Club's MobileTote allows betting via mobile devices. Phone betting allows for the placement of lottery bets by following voice prompts and through data entry using the phone's number pads. It allows for Sports bets through speaking with a customer service representative. The MobileTote allows Telebet account holders to view race day information and place their racing wagers on their mobile phones. Users of these services must first be registered with the gambling operators. I trust that our authorities have been monitoring these existing forms of legalised remote gambling services. I would like to know if we have examined the frequency of usage of these types of remote gambling, such as the number of bets and amount of bets versus the traditional forms. Have we studied the gambling patterns of those who use these remote gambling services to see if the services had led to an increase in the number and overall values of their betting? What is the size of the existing memberships of these services? This information could be helpful to determine the extent of the danger for legalising online gambling through exempted operators and if these two existing state-owned operators should be granted exempt-status. With the exemption provisions in the Bill, it could open up the floodgates for these operators to be more aggressive in offering a wider range of services with greater convenience, which could inevitably result in more people becoming addicted to gambling. Next, on verifications and controls needed.”
“While the rates of problem and pathological gambling across the board are still considered relatively low, a local study funded by MSF has found that there has been an increase in the gambling participation rates among older adults aged 60 and above. This is consistent with other countries, such as the UK and the US, which also have similar trends. What is worrying about the prevalence of gambling participation among older adults from the study is that none of those identified within the problem gambling and moderate risk groups in the study was seeking professional help. As a result, while there are generally more people seeking help for gambling addiction, there still remains a significant group of people who do not do so, for various reasons, such as being unaware of the problem, or fear of being stigmatised, amongst others. This is a cause for concern not just because this group of people are around retirement age, but also because of the dire consequences that could Page: 75 befall their families if the problem is not addressed in time. When we legalised casinos in 2006, we enacted the Casino Control Act which has provisions aimed at protecting vulnerable persons and society at large from the potential harm of casino gambling. Yet we still saw individuals and families being destroyed by the scourge of addictive gambling. This has resulted in amendments to the Bill two years ago to offer further safeguards. I would like to know what are the lessons learnt from the operations of our legalised gambling franchises that our authorities intend to incorporate to control the negative aspects of addictive gambling. This is especially so when remote gambling is so much more convenient for the gamblers.”
“However, a worrying aspect of the Bill is that under Part 5, it provides for exemptions for Singapore-based not-for-profit operators with a proven track record of distributing monies to public, social or charitable purposes in Singapore and with good compliance track records with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. Our state-run operators, Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club have already been quoted in the press as saying that they will apply for the exemption certificate once the Bill is passed into law. Last year, it was reported that Singapore Pools is already looking to launch the first licensed gambling website that will be based in Singapore. The same report cited sources who said that Singapore Pools had already begun design for a website with online betting functions. In effect, this Bill will create a monopoly for legalised online gambling in Singapore for the existing operators. Madam, while it is good to have only compliant not-for-profit organisations with charitable outlooks to be considered for exemption, we must not forget that there are very real dangers of people and families that have been and will continue to be destroyed at our existing legalised casinos, turf clubs and betting outlets. According to a British gambling consultancy, H2 Gambling Capital, Singaporeans are the second biggest gamblers in the world and the average adult resident lost $1,189 in 2013. This ranks Singapore only behind Australia in terms of gambling losses per resident. Half of this amount was reportedly lost in the casinos, with the other half going to other forms of gambling, such as lottery, non-casino gaming machines, bettings and offshore gaming websites.”
“Mdm Speaker, online gambling is increasingly becoming a problem, both globally and in Singapore. In 2013, a news article reported an online survey by MHA which found that three in 10 out of 1,000 respondents had gambled online or through the mobile phone. The article estimated that the size of the remote gambling market in Singapore was $376 million. MHA had also estimated that the revenue of the global remote gambling industry was around US$35 billion in 2012. A survey conducted in 2011 with Singapore residents by the National Council on Problem Gambling found that 10% of the respondents had gambled remotely in the preceding year and those who did so said they often found themselves spending more time and money than they had intended to. With the wide penetration of the Internet and mobile phone and the increasingly technology-savvy population, remote gambling will rise rapidly, if left unchecked. Singapore currently has tough laws on gambling in real-world physical form, but has lagged behind that of other countries in imposing legislation on remote gambling, at least until now. Hence, I support the Government's move to impose tough legislation on remote gambling. Remote gamblers will now face fines and even jail terms, while those who facilitate remote gambling will be subjected to even heftier fines and up to five years in jail. Industry experts have said that we will have one of the toughest laws in the world against online gambling. While most countries would adopt one or two of the key measures Page: 74 to control online gambling, Singapore will adopt all three measures with the proposed regulations: one, ban advertisements; two, block access to such websites; and three, block payments to and from gambling sites.”
“Thank you, Madam. I thank the Minister for the clarifications. I just have one question which is actually from my speech. I would like to know what would be our Page: 66 Singapore Government and the Minister's expectations as to the Primary Person's responsibility. How do you define "taking all such measures reasonable to prevent, stop and reduce substantially such actions by the Secondary Persons"? The reason I am asking this is that it is very simple for large companies to insert clauses into their contracts with sub-contractors and then say that they have, therefore, safeguarded themselves. If a forest fire happens, they can then simply say it is the responsibility of their sub-contractor and, therefore, they have taken all reasonable measures.”
“Indonesia has remained the only ASEAN country not to have ratified the Agreement, with some officials citing the need for detailed protocols to guarantee Indonesia's sovereignty. As the Minister and others had also pointed out, the haze, unfortunately, affects ordinary Indonesians even more than it does to their neighbours, as those in Riau and Kalimantan are where the most intense fires are. Our diplomacy efforts can extend towards helping Indonesia achieve their stated aim for a more sustainable agro-industry. Last year, the Minister shared about Singapore's collaboration with the province of Jambi. He had termed it as one of our more successful efforts that saw a greater reduction in the number of hotspots in Jambi Province during our years of collaboration, compared to other fire-prone provinces in Sumatra. He attributed the success to the strong support given by the then Governor of Jambi, Pak Zulkifli Nurdin. The collaboration was not renewed, unfortunately, after 2011. I believe our officials must be hard at work trying to build up that same level of close collaboration that we had back then with Jambi province and with other Indonesian provinces. This is a tireless effort that must not stop. With the signal of support sent by President-elect Mr Joko Widodo to have greater ASEAN collaboration on various environmental issues, let us hope the Minister can soon share more success on this front of preventing fires at the frequent hotspot areas. Mdm Speaker, notwithstanding the challenges to operationalise this Bill, I am pleased that we now have the legislative means to allow us to do more in the fight for our right to clean air. 3.27 pm”
“Good evidence is needed, given the complex nature of the ownership and operations of plantations in Indonesia. Last year, in the midst of the haze, several large plantations were flagged out publicly as possible culprits. The press reported that several of the named companies said that they followed strict no-burning policies, demanded their contractors to do the same and had, in fact, worked to put out fires in neighbouring areas. They also stated that while the permits for lands may be listed as belonging to them, they were not conducting activities on these concessions, or the permits have expired, or were not under their control as parts of the land may be occupied by others. Regional cooperation. While having this new legislation is good for signalling Singapore's strong intent to fight transboundary haze, we will still have to rely heavily on good old-fashioned diplomacy and extending our strong support to our neighbours to help them prevent and fight forest fires. We also need their cooperation to ensure that prosecution and the enforcement of punishment can be carried out. In this respect, it is very encouraging that Indonesia's President-elect, Mr Joko Widodo, who also happens to be a forestry graduate, has backed our plans to impose heftier fines on transboundary polluters, but with the caveat to respect the sovereignty of Indonesia. Ultimately, the fires are burning in a sovereign foreign country. We need to have accurate and up-to-date land concession maps in order to have evidence against the companies implicated in unlawful forest fires. Most of all, it is best to be able to prevent these fires from starting. Page: 47 An important step to solve the regional haze problem is for Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.”
“For the purpose of clarity to the public, I would like to know the processes which the Government had used to arrive at these figures. Were other methods of computations for caps considered? I feel it is important for the Government to have a principled basis for these figures so that there will be greater acceptance of this Bill by our regional neighbours. Enforcement. The Bill provides for the Director-General of Environmental Pollution or an authorised officer to give notice to any person, whether within or outside of Singapore, to furnish information or documents. The challenge is to get the cooperation of contractors Page: 46 or sub-contractors, when the persons or corporations do not have a presence in Singapore or are not even managed from Singapore. Large plantation companies often work through contractors. Our Courts will need to have concrete evidences if we wish to prosecute these plantation companies. Would this make it vulnerable for prosecution under this Act to fail due to the lack of evidence because of the lack of cooperation? There are provisions under sections 4, 6(3) and 6(4) for "extraterritorial application". Singapore currently does not have any umbrella extradition treaty with Indonesia. If the accused person fails to appear in Court, a warrant of arrest is issued under section 17. This will likely have little or no effect if the person is not in Singapore. We have many examples of such cases in other aspects of our laws. For example, in divorce-related maintenance issues, there are many cases that have stalled for indefinite periods at this stage of the legal process because the accused is in a country which Singapore does not have an adequate extradition treaty with, such as Indonesia.”
“Even assuming that a foreign entity does all these things and is acquitted, there is no provision for it to recover its expenses or legal costs, since this is a criminal proceeding. A challenge will be that some foreign entities may not be interested to clear their name at their own expenses in Singapore. Next, on the defences provided in the Bill. The Bill provides as defence to condoning haze pollution that if the accused Primary Person proves on a balance of probabilities that the Primary Person took "all such measures reasonable" to prevent or stop or reduce substantially such conduct by the Secondary Person, if the haze pollution has already happened. It will be good for Parliament to clarify what standards of behaviour are the Primary Persons expected to implement to constitute a good defence. It would be a perverse policy outcome if Primary Persons are able to get away by simply inserting clauses in their contracts with their supplier Secondary Persons that the Secondary Persons must not engage in conduct that causes haze, and with the rights to terminate their contracts in the event of a breach. Should we expect a higher standard of behaviour to be met before the clause can be invoked, such as for the Primary Persons to conduct regular audits of their contractors, plus provide resources to fight fires once they have broken out and to do everything possible to prevent and fight haze fires? The Bill provides for a fine of $100,000 per day if a party is found guilty of causing haze, plus $50,000 per day for failing to comply with preventive measures, up to a cap of $2 million. This was an increase from the earlier draft for caps of $300,000 to $450,000. The Minister had said that we need to increase the overall level of deterrence.”
“In addition, foreign entities also team up with local entities to get de facto rights to the land, making it unclear as to who is the actual entity that is in charge of activities on the land parcels. Given the state of affairs, how reliable would land maps from Indonesia be? Do the Indonesians themselves accept their government maps as accurate? This may call into question the reasonableness of the presumptions under clause 8(4). Besides clause 8(4), the rest of clause 8 also places the burden of proof on a suspected entity to disprove its guilt. Clause 8(1) presumes that haze pollution in Singapore is caused by a land or forest fire outside Singapore if the meteorological data suggest so. Clause 8(2) presumes that an owner or occupier of the land alleged to have caused haze pollution in Singapore had engaged in conduct that caused or condoned the haze pollution. Clause 8(3) presumes that if any entity is believed to have caused or condoned haze pollution in Singapore, any other entity that participates in the management of the first entity has also caused or condoned haze pollution in Singapore. While presumptions have been used in Singapore laws before, such as in the Misuse of Drugs Act, shifting the burden of proof to persons is likely to be more demanding, and even Page: 45 more so when the evidence is overseas. Where a legal presumption operates against an accused, it is not sufficient for the accused to cast a reasonable doubt on the prosecution's case; instead, the accused has the burden of proof to rebut the legal presumption on a balance of probabilities. In order to do so, the accused entity is expected to bring its witnesses and documents to Singapore and foot the expenses of such.”
“There will be much controversy surrounding clause 8(4), which presumes the accuracy of land maps obtained by the Singapore Government from the foreign government or any person requested by the Singapore Government to furnish a map. If the Singapore Government decides to rely on that map, it is presumed under clause 8(4) that the entities reflected on the map as occupying particular geographical areas will be presumed to be doing so unless the entity proves otherwise. Is this presumption from a map reasonable? Therein lies a potential minefield. Experts in agrarian land laws have cited the complexity of the law relating to land in Indonesia and the need for reforms in land registration. There are reportedly ambiguities in land rights between the customary law or "adat", which deems land as belonging to communities, and the formal law called the Basic Agrarian Law giving individual title to land. There are thus unregistered but valid land rights which would not show up in maps as they are generally not recognised by the State. A further complication is that, under the Basic Forestry Law of 1967, all forest land is deemed to belong to the State, even when communities recognise their customary rights to the forest land among themselves. The Basic Agrarian Law of Indonesia recognises four types of land tenures that can be registered: (a) the right of ownership; (b) the right to use; (c) the right to exploit; and (d) the right to build. Different entities can hold the four different rights to the same piece of land. Many of the rights given to the urban and rural land in Indonesia have not been registered.”
“Mdm Speaker, I rise in support of the Bill. Since 1991, Singapore has endured recurring haze episodes resulting from land and forest fires in Indonesia, with last year's being the worst ever. While I appreciate the efforts of our officials over the many years in trying to find workable solutions with our ASEAN neighbours on this issue, I have been concerned about our lack of ability to take more actions that are within our control. Hence, two years ago, I had asked the Government to consider legislative measures to allow us to prosecute companies found guilty of causing haze in Singapore through illegal burning, even if the acts were committed outside of our shores. This Bill now gives us a new legal lever to exercise our rights to clean air, covering both criminal and civil liabilities for commercial entities responsible for land clearance if their actions outside of our territorial boundaries cause haze pollution in Singapore. This Bill signals Singapore's seriousness in combating this issue. Agricultural companies that wish to do business with Singapore or have their operational headquarters here will have to think seriously about their practices if they are not already practising good land clearing practices. My speech will focus on some details of the Bill and the potential challenges to put it in place, which the Minister and other Members had also pointed out. Presumptions. First, there is a string of sweeping presumptions under clause 8 of the Bill which we need to especially convince our regional neighbours that these are fair and reasonable. Page: 44 Clause 8 contains a series of legal presumptions to assist the prosecution to pin guilt on entities.”
“Madam, I join the Minister in offering condolences to the families who had lost their loved ones. I would like to ask the Minister what sort of internal expertise is there within CAAS to evaluate flight risks and to gather intelligence and whether there are plans to strengthen this particular department. The next supplementary question is whether there are other Singapore Government agencies that are proactively evaluating risks over conflict zones and sharing this information actively with CAAS.”
“Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I think it is a good initiative for MOE to strive for every school to be a good school, yet we still see long queues every year for Primary 1 places in certain schools and also the huge pressure during the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) because of the desire to enter certain academic streams and certain schools. I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State how is the Ministry tracking how we are moving towards this goal of achieving "Every School A Good School". Are there any KPIs that MOE is using to measure how they are achieving this goal, especially in getting the public to buy into this message?”
“The academic research, industry output, patient advocates' filing, demographic and epidemiologic data that go into the decision-making process are freely available. In conclusion, MediShield Life is a step in the right direction to ease the worries of Singaporeans on large healthcare bills. I hope the Government will examine all ways possible to contain healthcare inflation so that healthcare will be affordable to all. Mr Deputy Speaker, I support the Motion. Page: 107”
“Telehealth can provide timely care for stroke patients who may have difficulties travelling to hospitals. I understand that telehealth is currently being piloted in Singapore. We will need to move to an agreed-upon reimbursement model. If doctors cannot be compensated for tele-consultations, they will likely fall back on the traditional mode of getting patients to visit them in their clinics. If patients cannot use Medisave or be covered by insurance for telehealth, they may opt not to have telehealth even if it can be more suitable for them. I would like to see greater adoption of telehealth through better infrastructure and changes to reimbursement models or regulations that inhibit telehealth. Finally, the Committee has recommended that the Government build up capabilities to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of medical practices, technologies and drugs. I wish to understand what measures the Government has put in place to ensure that new practices, technologies and therapies that are cost-effective in achieving a good treatment outcome are covered by Medishield Life. What will be the measures used to define cost effectiveness? What will be the frequency of such evaluation so that good treatment methods can be covered as soon as practical? Will there be a formal institution that will be set up to make these decisions in a transparent manner and to evaluate appeal on decisions? For example, in the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is government-funded and exercises independent and binding decision-making on what the health services need to offer. Crucial to the Institution's independence is its transparency in decision-making.”
“We should have all healthcare providers on board the same system. This will let patients have the choice to move on to other healthcare providers with full portability of records. The information will also allow the Government to measure the performances of healthcare providers and, if necessary, to even effect changes to payment models, such as to pay for health outcomes rather than just to pay for treatments. I would like to know if there are timelines in place for NEHR to be used industry-wide. Healthcare has been a laggard in the exploitation of ICT. As we move to provide wider healthcare coverage for all Singaporeans through MediShield Life, how will NEHR play a role in providing more efficient healthcare? Also on technology, telehealth or telemedicine offers opportunities to enable the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management and self-management of patients remotely. Telehealth can include the home monitoring of chronic diseases, time-sensitive assessments in accident and emergency (A&E) departments by medical specialists in another hospital, video conferencing between patients and healthcare providers, and Page: 106 store-and-forward technologies, such as for X-rays and photographs to be captured and transmitted for analysis by doctors later and remotely. Expanding the use of telehealth has the potential to reduce healthcare costs, increase the level of convenience for patients and to improve patient outcomes over traditional methods. Home monitoring of chronic diseases has been shown to lead to reduced hospitalisations. A patient in the A&E department, for example, can receive care by video conferencing with a specialist in another hospital and, thus, may save a transfer to that hospital.”
“Many negotiating Page: 105 countries have raised concerns about the Intellectual Property (IP) rights chapter in the TPP which reportedly seeks a much more stringent level of IP protection than the World Trade Organization (WTO) standards. Fears are that these new rules will strengthen the drug monopoly of big US pharmaceutical companies by altering existing patent laws in their favour. The Committee has recommended using generic drugs as far as possible to lower costs. We need to guard against the TPP drastically changing IP rules that may delay drugs becoming generic. Next, on electronic health records. I believe information transparency will allow the Government to monitor the performance of healthcare providers and to track if appropriate and cost effective treatments are provided. Readily available comprehensive medical data will allow the Government to better manage cost across the entire healthcare sector. This is especially so for the private sector. The Committee had highlighted concerns about "high professional fees" in the private sector. Some 10 years ago, MOH made it as one of its priorities for the healthcare sector to adopt ICT for health and to set up a common Electronic Medical Record system. Much has been invested in the National Electronic Health Record system (NEHR), and international experts have been brought in to help implement the system. I understand that, today, a version of the system is used in the public healthcare sector. However, the vast majority of those in the private healthcare sector and those run by VWOs are not yet adopting the system. For NEHR to help better manage the industry efficiently and effectively, I think it will be necessary to have the private sector and VWO providers adopt the NEHR system as well.”
“One in three people are diabetic by the age of 70. A recent study by NUS' Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health forecasted that by 2050, Singapore may have as many as one million diabetics, with one in two being diabetic by the age of 70. Around 24% of adults in Singapore now have high blood pressure or hypertension. What is needed will be to prevent those with chronic illnesses from developing complications. Diabetes itself may not be scary, but it can lead to kidney failure, or the patient becoming blind or needing amputation. A person with high blood pressure may feel healthy, but the ailment can develop into stroke or a heart attack if the situation is not controlled. Our lifestyles are increasingly becoming unhealthy. We can put more effort to focus on those who are already diagnosed as unhealthy and invest in preventive care for them. We need to give the best care possible and to monitor the proper taking of medication to prevent complications from developing, which can be life-threatening and are very costly to treat. While we currently already have schemes like CHAS and various subsidies for medicines, it is frightening to note that we are currently having four new cases of kidney failures every day and two cases of limb amputations are performed each day due to diabetic foot complications. We should constantly monitor the schemes to see how they are working and what else we can do if the results are not as good as what we want them to be. Drugs are another area for cost control. I am concerned about the potential impact that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) may have on the cost of drugs. TPP is currently being negotiated among 12 countries which include Singapore.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I welcome the move to improve protection against large hospital bills and against expensive chronic treatments, as well as to cover those with pre-existing conditions. My colleagues have touched on and will be touching on various aspects of MediShield Life. I wish to speak today about keeping healthcare costs manageable. The Committee reported that in the recent five years, our total healthcare spending has risen close to 10% each year on average. Medical inflation has been rising much faster than Page: 104 inflation in general. The healthcare industry has little incentive in itself to contain costs. If this medical inflation trend continues, it can be worrying as to how much MediShield Life's premiums will be in future, as well as the cost of smaller medical bills which are not covered by MediShield Life. The report touched on some areas that the Government can look into to contain costs. First, I would like to understand how we can keep claims reasonable. I would like to see a robust framework to detect inflated claims or frivolous treatments by healthcare professionals. Inflated claims can come in the form of prescribing treatments beyond what the patients need or from the over prescription of drugs. How will the Government track claims to ensure that even as we strengthen our insurance framework, we will not have inflated claims and unnecessary treatments that will push up healthcare costs, as we have seen that happening in some other countries? Another way to keep costs manageable is for people to stay healthy. That is easier said than done. Many people in Singapore today are already not healthy, being diagnosed with various chronic illnesses. For example, 11.3% of Singaporean adults are diabetic.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the answer. First, I would like to ask whether the Ministry agrees with the staff paper that was recently published by the Ministry that REITs do not impact the rents in the retail sector. Secondly, is there any target that the Ministry is setting to try to keep the retail rent rises to a more manageable manner? Is there any internal KPI that the Ministry is planning to achieve with all the measures it is taking?”
“The first part will be: can we totally do away with co-matching? Of course, if the reason for co-matching is that you want the parents to participate in the programmes, for those who can afford it, maybe we can create some other schemes to reward them for putting more into the account. But for the lower income families, in order to help them, can we not have co-matching at all?”
“I thank the Minister for the reply. I would like to ask whether it is still relevant to insist on co-matching. Can we find other ways to encourage those who can afford it to put more into their children's education by, say, having higher interest rates for co-matching the amounts that they put in? Is it possible for us to remove this co-matching criterion totally, so that we can help the lower-income families?”
“I thank the Minister for the answer and I noted that the Ministry does not track the adoption by income level. I hope that there could be more data tracked on this because we want to understand how the lower-income families have participated in this programme. I would like to ask the Minister if the Ministry has evaluated what are the key reasons why people do not take up this programme and what more can be done.”
“In terms of attacks, we have not seen any attack on the SingPass accounts in the past, but there have been one or two breaches, especially in the applications of Work Permits and MOM discovered it even before the latest breach and they have cancelled these immediately. Obviously, people out there are trying to get into the accounts because it leads to some things which they want and we have to continue to strengthen the infrastructure.”
“I would like to ask the Minister: SingPass is used by 3.3 million users for over 340 Government e-services. So, it is rather worrying that it has been for so long supported by just a single level of authentication. I would like to ask: (a) Has there been any detected attack on SingPass in the past and did any breach happen? (b) What is the timeline for the implementation of the two-factor authentication and whether there will be any costs that would be borne directly by the users because of additional hardware that it may need? Page: 26 (c) What is the status of the One-Key National Authentication Framework Programme that was launched two years ago? Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: On the last question regarding the One-Key National Authentication Framework Programme, I do not have the latest figures. I would be happy to update the Member on the adoption rate for the one-key programme. I agree with the Member that it is worrying that we are having a lot of transactions and we have not adopted second-factor authentication. That is why IDA has, in fact, been working with the various agencies to mandate it and to make it a possibility. In terms of the timeline, I had mentioned that everything should be in place by the third quarter of next year. [Please refer to "Clarification by Minister for Communications and Information", Official Report, 7 July 2014, Vol 92, Issue No 7.] In terms of the cost, we do not think there will be any cost on the part of the user. There will be a cost, of course, on the part of the operator and the various agencies involved.”
“The initial courses that they take are certainly very helpful for them, as part of their engagement process. It is about how we monitor them. We monitor them very closely in the sense that we want to make sure that the communications with the patient is done properly as part of the care process. I want to assure the Member that we actually monitor them and we take this seriously because at the end of the day, we want our patients to be well cared for. For interpreters, as I have mentioned in my answer earlier, at the end of the day, it is about working together, and how we can serve the patient better. We have found that by working together with the different nationalities, and those who are fluent in certain Page: 14 languages, we have found that we are able to cope. As a result, we do not need as many interpreters as what the Member mentioned earlier. We find that it is not necessary, but we do have interpreters in a few of these institutions that require them.”
“I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for the answers. I have three supplementary questions. The first is whether MOH has done any study to see what percentage of time is spent by staff who have to partner others to help with the interpretation duties and whether that has impacted their work because it is added to their workload. The second question is: in a previous Parliamentary Question reply, MOH stated that the language training programme is about 30 hours long spread over a few weeks. Is there evidence that the healthcare professionals will be equipped with sufficient language skills to communicate with non-English speaking patients after this 30-hour course? And whether there will be some proficiency tests that are conducted for healthcare workers, especially those who do not attend these language courses at all. Lastly, I am not sure if there was a reply to the part about the full-time interpreters. I would like to know how widespread is the practice for full-time interpreters to be in hospitals. Thank you. Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Madam, I would like to thank the Member for the questions. I do not have the figure with regard to the time spent by the staff on language coaching. It is part of the work process. I would like to share with the Member that many of our staff look at it as part of the process of working with each other. If you look at nurses in the public healthcare or the nursing communities, it is a vibrant group of people working together to see how they can care for the patient. Even though it is about 30 hours on average, as what the Member mentioned, but I am happy that beyond this, the whole group of nurses will help one another. Many of these foreign nurses or healthcare workers will pick up from the job, from the interactions.”
“I am all for constructive debate in the contest of ideas, conducted with decorum. I believe that debate should be measured and not personal. At the same time, I believe there should be an environment where politics is seen to be fair and important institutions are independent, so that we can encourage the development of constructive politics. I do not mean constructive politics just in this House, as Mdm Speaker herself had observed that "we do have quite a constructive Parliament". As the Secretary-General of the Page: 63 Workers' Party, Mr Low Thia Khiang, said yesterday, to achieve constructive politics in a diverse and open society, everyone across society has their part to play. Since I started my speech on the topic of education, I would like to repeat a call I had made in my maiden speech in this House, which is to have political education in schools, so that we can train up a new generation to be able to participate in constructive politics. Political education can be about learning how to handle diversity and disagreement in views. It can help students understand our Constitution, the role of various institutions, citizenry rights and obligations, as well as the rationale behind these rights and obligations. It can provide them with platforms to air their views on policies and learn how to handle differences in opinions. Our education system should allow students to engage deeper into subjects where there are ambiguities, where there are not always clear right and wrong answers. Such education programmes can help our future generations to be more confident to deal with the diversity of views in the public spaces when they grow up. This will allow Singapore to move towards more constructive debates in politics as the country matures. 4.33 pm”
“In 2012, there were nearly 49,000 students in Primary 6 versus less than 39,000 students per level in Primary 1 and Primary 2 – a difference of 10,000 students a year. In contrast, the number of teachers is increasing. It has grown from under 30,000 in 2009 to 31,800 in 2012, and it is projected to grow to 33,000 by 2015. I understand some of these increases have been, and will be used by schools to decide how teachers will be flexibly deployed in specific situations, such as for learning support programmes and, sometimes, there are two teachers in a class of 40. The best time to do planning for smaller class sizes is now. With increasingly smaller student enrolments, we may not need a lot more teachers than what MOE had already planned for. We can start moving towards smaller class sizes, say, starting at 30 students per class from Primary 3 and 4, and then gradually moving towards that ratio for Primary 5 and 6. [Deputy Speaker (Mr Seah Kian Peng) in the Chair] That would necessitate some redesign of physical infrastructure in schools to have more classrooms. The smaller class sizes will also allow teachers to better understand individual students, which will be essential as we move towards a more holistic character and values-based education system. It will also help make classroom management easier for teachers, who may otherwise not be able to pay attention to the weaker students. In my Committee of Supply (COS) speech last year, I had cited studies which noted that large class-size reductions can have significant long-term effects on students' achievements and these effects seem to be largest for students from less advantaged backgrounds. Finally, I would like to add my thoughts on the topic of constructive politics which the President had spoken about.”
“This created a huge billion-dollar-a-year private tuition industry for those who could afford to seek additional help for the children to give a boost to their academic results. A disproportionate effort is being spent on chasing academic scores over and above other forms of academic development. I hope to see pilot neighbourhood schools that offer 10-year Integrated Programme from Primary 1 to Secondary 4, or even from kindergarten to Secondary 4. These schools will allow for holistic development of students without the distraction of high-pressured sorting and streaming examinations. It will allow students of mixed abilities to develop together in the same school throughout the 10 years in an environment that is more representative of our mix and society and real life. We will also need to constantly guard against developing a gap in resources between schools and between programmes. The widening income gap amongst Singaporeans has manifested itself in a variety of ways – the so-called branded or elite schools which have larger alumnus or networks may be able to offer more expensive and more comprehensive learning programmes. I also wish to reiterate my call for smaller class sizes, especially in Primary schools. More schools in Singapore have a class size of around 40, while Primary 1 and 2 classes have 30 students. This is large, compared to the OECD's average of 21 per class. MOE has consistently emphasised that teaching quality is more important than going for small class sizes. I agree that teaching quality is important. However, it does not mean Page: 62 that we cannot move towards having general class sizes that are smaller. With falling birth rates, it appears from MOE's statistics that the cohort of students in primary schools is getting smaller each year.”
“Parents can have the option of topping up the CDA up to $10,000 for each child if they wish to, to earn higher interest offered by the CDA as a way of earmarking savings for the child's education. Second, I repeat my concern that student-care facilities in schools should expand at a faster rate. Student care is an excellent way to help weaker students through care and coaching programmes within the schools, before and after school hours. Demand is very strong across all schools that offer such services. Even with the expansion plan by MOE, more Page: 61 than one third of all schools will still not have school-based student care by 2016. The impact is felt most strongly by young families where both parents need to work and alternative care at home or from extended families is lacking. The demand for student care mirrors the strong demand for childcare facilities that have caught the Government off-guard and from which we are ramping up the supply of places and teachers now. We need to put more attention and resources into student care right now. By reassuring parents that every school will have sufficient and affordable student care places within the school, many young parents can be more assured to have children, and the need for private tuition will be reduced. Next, I wish to reiterate a proposal I presented several times in this House. We currently have a competitive system that relies mainly on academic results to sort out students into Secondary schools and academic streams. While MOE repeatedly stated that every school is a good school, parents know which schools and which academic streams are most desired. Secondary schools are today highly differentiated and resourced differently.”
“However, the definition of meritocracy is premised mainly on good examination results which, in turn, do not reflect structural disadvantages that working class families may face, such as not being able to afford good tuition or academic enrichment classes. Taken together, this trend should compel us to critically examine how we can strengthen education's role as a key facilitator of social mobility. I will list a few areas for review. First, there are subtle trends of class stratifications within the education system. The practice of dollar-for-dollar top-up of the Child Development Account (CDA) is one such example. Here, parents who allocate more funds to their child's CDA will get more public funds than parents who cannot afford to allocate as much. This is up to $6,000 each for the first two children, $12,000 each for the third and fourth child, and $18,000 each for the fifth child and beyond. Such a practice has the effect of rewarding higher income households while withholding funds from lower-income households. The CDA is often used for preschool education courses and, therefore, gives children a leg-up. Yesterday, I was quite alarmed to hear from the Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Hawazi Daipi that since 2001, only 64% of the CDA's budget allocated was actually used. No breakdown was provided by the Senior Parliamentary Secretary yesterday. But it will not be surprising to anyone that the lower-income group which should be using this scheme for their children's education are not drawing on the CDA's budget. I wish to propose that the funds be allocated to the CDA automatically and that the quantum be standardised to $10,000 for each child.”
“Given the current Primary 1 admission rules, it will mean that those in the higher social classes will continue to have preferences to enter popular schools. A second worrying data that suggests the reproduction of class is a profile of the Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship holders. In 2008, the PSC revealed that 47% of the PSC scholarship recipients that year lived in HDB flats and 53% lived in private housing. This is an over-representation of the private housing, as up to 85% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats. Another set of data that also showed class stratification is the profile of students entering Universities. In response to a Parliamentary Question from Member Ms Sylvia Lim in 2008, it was revealed that students from 5-room and private housing were more likely to enter University. MOE tracked the 1990 to 1992 Primary 1 cohorts until they reached ages 22 to 24 in 2007 to ascertain levels of University participation according to household types. According to MOE, "One out of every eight undergraduates comes from poorer families who live in 1- to 3-room flats when compared to the distribution of households of Primary 1 Page: 60 cohorts. Students whose parents are more successful are more likely to make it to university". From the data, only 13% of those living in 1- to 3-room HDB flats made it to University although they had formed 23% of their Primary 1 cohort. In contrast, 19% of those in private housing made it to University when they formed only 12% of their Primary 1 cohort. MOE's reply stated that, "admission to a publicly-funded university is strictly on the basis of merit. All those who qualify will have a place regardless of social economic status".”
“Mdm Speaker, I will be speaking on education and social mobility. And, yes, I believe that constructive politics should be concise and I will be so in my speech. I will finish well within the allotted time. I wish to declare that I own businesses that provide services and products to schools. Education is a key factor for social mobility. It is often presumed that access to education will level the playing field for students of different backgrounds, thus creating an environment where individual merits can be identified and rewarded. Indeed, it has been so for a good number of Singaporeans as our country move from Third World to First in a relatively short time. Today, I wish to warn of dangers that can compromise our ability to achieve social mobility through education. First is the danger of education perpetuating class stratifications instead of levelling the playing field. It has been acknowledged, both by politicians and scholars, that entry into branded schools in Singapore is a reflection of parents' social class than of students' merits. Entry into the more prestigious and popular Primary schools, for example, is based strongly on factors, such as the location of the family home and parents' connections to the school. Former Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew had observed that admission to Primary schools is based on the social class of parents. In a Parliamentary reply in 2012, it was revealed that only 40% of the students in six of the most popular Primary schools lived in HDB flats. This contrasts greatly with 80% of all Primary school students residing in HDB flats. MOE had replied that this reflected a mix of residential housing in the vicinity of these six schools.”
“Thank you, Madam. I thank the Second Minister for the answer – one supplementary question. Last year, the Indian government officials have publicly stated that Singapore's curb on foreign manpower had possibly violated our bilateral CECA Trade Pact. I am concerned whether there will be any agreements in our current negotiations with ASEAN that will be too loosely worded that may lead to misunderstanding in future. So, I would like the Minister's assurance that all these will be factored in and that the definitions will be very clear.”
“What is the timeline that MOE and MSF have for finalising the plans, and whether there will be, within the plans, grants for fees, like in childcare, because it is financially unattractive to run student care? Page: 48”
“Thank you, Madam. I have two areas of clarifications. The first is that I have not gotten any answers for my Budget speech and COS cut on KiFAS. I want to know exactly how many new centres have we added to the schemes. Is it only the five MOE kindergartens added to the 235 already-qualified PCF centres? That is 240 out of 500 existing centres. Previous KiFAS qualifying criteria required operators to be non-religious, non-racial, non-profit, and with more than $5 million paid-up capital. Has this changed, because the three new anchor operators include one Christian non-profit organisation and two private operators? Can religious, racial non-profit organisations and private operators be included under the new KiFAS consideration? What are MSF's new criteria for selecting eligibility? I did not see that there was any call for new players recently. The second area of clarification is in student care. The Minister said that the childcare of today will be the student care of tomorrow. I wish we could wait till tomorrow, but the fact is many of the childcare users have already graduated to become the users for student care, and the demand has far outstripped the supply. Many of the large capacity centres in schools are already full —”