Debated in Parliament on 8 May 2024.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) whether the Ministry actively solicits specific merchants' participation in the Community Development Councils' (CDC) hawkers programme in the 2024 CDC Voucher Scheme; and (b) given that NTUC Fairprice is participating in the merchants' programme, why are NTUC hawker groups, such as Foodfare or Kopitiam, not included in the Scheme.
The nationwide digital Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers Scheme, first launched in December 2021, aims to help Singaporeans with their daily expenses and support local heartland merchants and hawkers in their businesses.
Since October 2021, CDCs have been engaging hawkers and merchants in the heartlands and onboarding them onto the Scheme. CDCs also work closely with associations like the Federation of Merchants' Association, Singapore and Heartland Enterprise Centre Singapore as well as various merchant and hawker associations, to reach out to the merchants and hawkers.
CDCs will continue to reach out to a broad spectrum of heartland merchants and hawkers so that Singaporean households can benefit from more options to spend their CDC Vouchers.
PAPERCUTS