The 2014 Budget remains much like last year’s, with more generous topping up of perks. Nonetheless the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) is encouraged to hear about the Pioneer Generation Package. The hard work of the older generations in building up modern Singapore is finally being recognised. This recognition is long overdue. The SPP looks forward to the details that the government is expected to unveil later.
Going beyond GST vouchers
There is nothing new with the GST vouchers – we have them almost every year. While this is a good initiative, the SPP feels that at this point in the evolution of the socio-economic needs of Singaporeans, the government must take a step to go beyond subsidies and small-scale redistribution of money.
Instead the SPP feels that it is the government’s accountability to its people must be based on the following indicators:
- the percentage of Singaporeans employed in newly created jobs;
- the median pay of Singaporeans versus our foreign counterparts;
- what incentives are in place to motivate companies to help meet the indicators above.
Going beyond acronyms
Every year, the government introduces many new initiatives that are accompanied by a slew of acronyms. This year, there is “iSPRINT”, “IPG” and many more interesting names. Besides them being easy to remember, these names need to go beyond that. We need to look closely and examine the follow-through of these initiatives. We need to know if they have been successful or not in terms of what they set our to achieve. We cannot coin new acronyms annually on to be forgotten in the end.
For example, a few months ago, it was announced that more than $400 million was to be set aside for the Future of Manufacturing initiative. The SPP would like to know what is the outcome of such exciting initiatives rather than to see new initiatives being introduced.
Singapore vs the world: how advanced are we actually?
The Finance Minister raised the example of the success of the online tailoring company, Marcella. We applaud Marcella’s successful business model. But in reality, online tailoring businesses, and other interesting retail ideas, are not new and unique to Singapore. Many countries with an even more innovative and competitive retail sector have already developed such business ideas at least 5 to 7 years ago.[1]
What we like to stress is that Singapore needs more substantial and substantive innovation breakthroughs to eventually match the capabilities in other advanced economies. We may even have to take the hard decision to change our mindsets and restructure our economy to become more robust and dynamic to compete in today’s world.
This brings us to the idea of how we need to urgently address the concerns and worries of Singaporeans today.
Our vision: Look further ahead to meet Singaporeans’ needs today
Solving the issues Singaporeans are now grappling with – finding jobs, dealing with the high cost of living, overcrowding – boil down to one thing, economic transformation.
Budget 2014 does not address this elephant in the room – how does Singapore transform itself economically and socially in order to survive the next 50 years? The Finance Minister assumes that some economic sectors can transform themselves effectively, away from an over-reliance on cheap labour. This does not seem to be the case.
Our suggestion would be for Singapore to encourage more productive, innovative and cutting edge foreign companies to come in to collaborate and encourage local companies to build up our productivity through competition. There will then be limited growth for companies that are overly reliant on low wage foreign labour. We have a few of these companies in the marine industry, for instance.
To dream of a Singapore that will last beyond the next 50 years, we need to build on what we always had – our human capital. We need to continue to invest in our people and educate them for the future. Our education system has to be robust and dynamic to meet the challenges ahead.
The SPP’s Policy Group will continue to look at the Budget, especially the rolling out of the Pioneer Generation Package. Our NCMP Mrs Lina Chiam will be making our fuller response to Budget 2014 in Parliament next week, and after the details of the Budget are explained further during the Committee of Supply debate.
LOKE HOE YEONG
Asst Secretary-General,
Singapore People’s Party (SPP)
[1] One such example is Cad and the Dandy, a UK based online tailoring company. The other is Shoes of Prey, an online shoe company that customises the designs of your shoes.
Source: http://www.spp.org.sg