Debated in Parliament on 5 Mar 2026.
Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what is the current uptake of the Hawkers' Productivity Grant; (b) whether NEA tracks the number of hawkers who have adopted automation and/or digital solutions; and (c) what plans are in place to increase the adoption of technological solutions that can help hawkers reduce overhead costs.
The National Environment Agency's (NEA's) Hawkers' Productivity Grant (HPG) provides co-funding to stallholders at hawker centres for automation equipment and digital service solutions. As of 31 December 2025, around 1,100 cooked food and 50 market stallholders have benefitted from the HPG. About two-thirds of all stalls now accept e-payment solutions.
In addition to the HPG, NEA's Productive Hawker Centres (PHC) programme facilitates stallholders' transition to automated solutions that raise productivity, such as centralised dishwashing. The programme provides stallholders with funding support of up to 70% of centralised dishwashing fees for four years in existing hawker centres, and up to 50% for two years in new hawker centres. As of 31 December 2025, all 16 new hawker centres built after 2011 and 10 existing hawker centres have implemented centralised dishwashing under the PHC programme. NEA will continue to review its programmes to support stallholders in adopting technological solutions.
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