Committee of Supply − Head S (Ministry of Manpower)

[Deputy Speaker (Mr Lim Biow Chuan) in the Chair]

Mr Chairman, I agree fully with the first part but not the second part. The first part, the Member talked about, for example, some of the retrenched workers who may have their own options in terms of becoming entrepreneurs and so on; that I fully agree. In fact, just recently, a business entity approached MOM and came up with this idea. His idea was whether under our PCP, besides converting a person from one profession to another, or within a sector, whether we can also allow someone to be converted from a profession to become an entrepreneur. His organisation – at this moment I am not ready to disclose any information – is prepared to step forward to play a role. Because when a person becomes an entrepreneur, there are many things he needs. He may need advice on how to run a business, capital to start his business, and so on. So, I would say that this is an idea worth exploring. As I said, I fully agree with the Member's first part.

The second part is about insurance and so on. I have explained earlier. Our belief is that right now, given the context that we have, low long-term unemployment, high incidence rate of paying retrenchment benefits, I think our priority right now is to help them to go back to work as quickly as possible. In the future, hopefully, we can also include this entrepreneurship as one of the alternatives, something that I am very keen to work on.

Thank you, Minister Lim. That is about the time that we have for clarifications. May I ask Mr Patrick Tay whether you wish to withdraw your amendment?

Sir, in closing, I thank my fellow Parliamentary colleagues who have filed 27 cuts and shared their thoughts, views, suggestions, ideas and recommendations. I believe this MOM COS debate has thrown greater light on the manpower challenges that we face as a country and the right things we must do to stay ready, relevant and resilient. We know the workforce has to adapt and grow. Companies not just have to stay lean and productive, but also have to be "triple strong". If I may quote Minister Lim Swee Say's famous proverb: "You need to be not just better but betterer and betterest" in terms of our tripartite relationship, labour management relationship and building a Singaporean Core.

I would like to thank Minister Lim Swee Say and Ministers of State Mr Teo Ser Luck and Mr Sam Tan as well as the Permanent Secretary, Deputy Secretaries and the MOM staff, including the Statutory Boards, who have been busy doing a lot of the work behind the scenes. So, thank you very much. With that, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The sum of $1,779,000,700 for Head S ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.

The sum of $13,324,200 for Head S ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.