Preparing for future economy, meeting social needs on the minds of S’poreans for Budget 2016

SINGAPORE — Should employees pursuing SkillsFuture courses be given some leave each year to do so? How can Singaporeans be better equipped to tap passive or alternative income streams, while they undergo training to adapt to changing needs of the economy?

These were some questions raised by about 70 participants at a pre-Budget 2016 dialogue session organised by REACH and the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday night (Feb 17).

The 2.5-hour session was structured according to four themes: Developing our people, growing companies through innovation, helping vulnerable groups and building a cohesive community. Participants were asked to share their views on how businesses could take better advantage of new technologies, how the Government and community could partner each other to provide better help to vulnerable groups and what could be done better to encourage people to donate and volunteer.

Some participants noted that the vulnerable could refer to a diverse range of people, while others wondered if a more positive term could be used to refer to those who need help.

Others felt the Government’s criteria to evaluate those who qualify for assistance schemes should not be too rigid, and the lack of awareness among the needy to schemes available remains a significant challenge.

While some felt residents’ committees should step up to help those in their neighbourhood, a participant pointed out that each member of the community had a role in helping their neighbours.

On getting companies to innovate and adopt new technologies, and equipping Singaporeans with new skills, participants — made up of homemakers, professionals, business owners and retirees in their 20s to 70s — were just as animated and opinionated.

Singaporeans can be too focused on simply doing their jobs and raising their families, at the expense of recognising other opportunities available, one participant said. Employers should be more open to their employees moonlighting and making use of other skills they possess, she said. Another participant, however, pointed out that it could dilute the employees’ focus on their jobs.

Others felt the Government could do more to make professions lacking in manpower more attractive – pitching programming as “the closest thing to magic”, for instance, to tackle the shortage of programmers.

Speaking to reporters one the sidelines of the dialogue session, REACH chairman Sam Tan said the top three concerns the government feedback channel has received ahead of this year’s Budget are the state of the economy and job stability, regional geopolitics and more protection for families, retirees and single-parent households.

“So they are concerned with the state of the economy and they hope that the government can come up with something while addressing the long term future economic development and challenges,” said Mr Tan, who is also Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and Manpower. “They hope that the Government can also spare some time to work out short-term economic packages that can help the companies to survive the economic downturn time should it happen.”

Social concerns include the fact that housing grants for single-parent households do not match that of households with married parents, he said.

Ms Indranee, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law, said the economy and social issues are areas the Government has always looked at. Longer-term economic measures are being studied by the Committee on the Future Economy led by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, she added.

On the dialogue session, Ms Indranee said: “My big takeaway is that you need to pay attention to how you connect the demand and the supply, whether the demand and supply is economic or whether it’s social.”

Dialogue participant Mr Kuok Minghui, 33, said he hopes to see measures to help those with intellectual and mental disabilities in this year’s Budget. The healthcare attendant also hopes to see “more leeway for people to develop themselves” in order to transit to a different field of work — such as engineers who aspire to join the creative industry.

The public can visit the REACH Pre-Budget 2016 site to submit their views until Feb 26. A Q&A session will also be held on Feb 22 from 12.30pm to 2pm on REACH’s Facebook page.