Debate on Annual Budget 2008

Mr Speaker, Sir, like several other Members of the House, I share the same concern over the lack of what NMP Ms Olsen calls "budget marksmanship" of Government. Certainly, a variance of $7.1 billion is not easy to explain away. Thankfully, the variance leans towards the positive side and we now have a happy problem of a substantial Budget surplus.

However, I urge our civil servants not to over-compensate in the face of this allegation of forecasting inaccuracy and adopt a knee-jerk reaction of now rigidly sticking to an outdated Budget even if there are reasons to change it in the course of the year. The Government Budget is after all an accumulation of the budgets and plans of different Government Ministries which all have differing financial proficiencies and operating environments. Singapore is an integral member of a dynamic global economy. We are not cocooned in a silo - how would we know that we would bag the bid for Youth Olympics last week? Does it mean we cannot now factor the fiscal impact of that successful bid into the Budget? Government must not react with a knee-jerk reaction to preserve Budget forecasting accuracy for accuracy sake.

Nonetheless, Sir, I would like to suggest, like major corporations, for Government to consider releasing of more regular financial results and KPI performances of each Ministry. Where necessary, like the corporations, issue surplus or deficit warnings so that Singaporeans understand better the context for major national policies and are less surprised at the end of the fiscal year. It also reduces the hype surrounding the annual Budget and minimises any unrealistic "goodie bag" expectations.

In addition, good forecasting is not just about financials. Because we operate in an eco-system in which one part affects the other parts of the system, the Government needs to also exercise rigour in forecasting the impact of one Ministry's policies on the others, and the non-financial impact of its actions. For example, in outperforming the KPI of the number of jobs created by the Manpower Ministry, there is a corresponding need to forecast the pressure that success adds to the current transport, recreational and accommodation needs of the foreigners needed to fill the gap of unfulfilled jobs.

Sir, on a positive note, the unexpected FY2008 Budget surplus does provide Government the means to further both immediate and longer-term goals of our country.

I would like to ask the Government to consider measures that are within its control to address the needs of specific segments of the population. This is against the backdrop of alarming inflation or, worse still, a stagflation - rising inflation in a potential economic slowdown.

Sir, on the special needs community. The special needs or disabled community appears to have been forgotten in this Budget. The problems faced by the average citizen are magnified in the lives of those with disabilities. Many moderately to severely disabled citizens are already facing discrimination and difficulties in the areas of education, healthcare and employment. Not only are early intervention and education support expensive for the younger ones, those who are older are themselves affected by rising costs in basic essentials, transport, healthcare and potential displacement by lower-cost and able-bodied foreign talents.

In basic healthcare, children with special needs are excluded from national healthcare schemes for medical problems arising from their disabilities. In employment, even our capable people's union - the NTUC - does not consider the disabled workforce a priority to represent.

I urge the Minister for Finance, especially during Budget time, to keep this group of Singaporeans within the radar of the Government. MCYS Minister Vivian Balakrishnan recently expressed fear at a youth forum that the more cash is given to the disabled, the more people will label themselves as disabled to qualify for the cash. But, Sir, we must not let the fear of being taken advantage of, prevent us from doing what we know is right. This fear can be alleviated if proper measures such as clarity of eligibility criteria and proper certification from approved doctors are applied.

Sir, here are a few measures that I wish the Government had considered for the disabled when planning for the distribution of the Budget surplus for the year:

One, adopt a less stringent qualifying criteria in existing means-tested social service programmes, such as early intervention for children with special needs and day activity centres for the disabled. Families with young children requiring early intervention are now suffering further as MCYS continues to implement means testing over these few years by raising the income ceiling bar for subsidies.

Two, exempt VWO-run community hospitals, day activity centres and special schools from having to apply GST on the fees they charge their clients. Currently, GSTs are applicable once the VWO providers show more than $1 million worth of revenues in their books. There is no reason why VWO with the vision and capability to grow their operations to serve more people should have to charge their clients more due to the kick-in of GST once it exceeds $1 million in size.

Three, consider a one-time top-up to the Minimum CPF Sums and even the recently announced Trust Fund for the Disabled to help build up their financial security for the future.

And, four, reduce the administrative jungle which beneficiaries have to go through in order to sign up for subsidies or help. Although tools such as the Central CDC's signposting booklets which are very good and the MCYS' ComCare hotline is meant to help, needy citizens still have to approach different agencies after that, who all seem to have different application forms and inclusion criteria. As per the corporate sector, we should consider assigning an account or a case manager at one primary base agency, eg, the CDC or a Family Service Centre, and have all agencies agree to one Master Application Form so that the poor beneficiary does not have to approach so many agencies and complete so many forms and interviews. In this respect, I want to commend the leaders of the VWO MILK Fund, who were wise and gracious enough to agree to share and accept their beneficiaries' case files, where reasonable, to reduce the administrative burdens of clients.

We can even take it one step further and use information technology to make a shareable master case file web-accessible with password protection to save the completion of so many forms.

Sir, Singapore ranks second in the world for the ease of paying taxes, says a report by the World Bank's IFC, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In helping the needy, I am sure our Government can do better for a more efficient and more effective case assessments and follow-up system.

Sir, on the second segment of population for the Singapore workforce, I fully agree with the Minister's focus on training and innovation and propose some additional ideas to assure our long-term competitiveness.

Sir, there appears to be an increasing number of talented young people opting for non-engineering and liberal arts subjects at tertiary levels. If this trend is true, I suggest that the Government analyse the situation and look into ways to ensure that we do not become lopsided in our expertise base in our country.

And, Sir, instead of always relying on companies like Temasek Holdings and GIC to add to our economy via its returns on investments, we should look into building more local companies that can be scaled and compete in other countries. Companies that other people admire and companies that other people would like to buy or invest in.

To do that, we will need to build real bench depth in management and execution capabilities in both public and private sectors and especially in local SMEs which have the potential to grow. We should learn from the best practices of global firms which not only train their entry level staff rigorously in many things - in critical thinking, problem solving, budgeting, marketing, scenario planning - but also ensure that these skills are aligned with the workplace practices and can be applied upon return to the workplace.

Government should also refrain from the temptation to seduce all talents to join the public sector through high pay and benefits packages that Government bodies with deep pockets can afford. To ensure a vibrant economy and so a cohesive society, there is a need to ensure a balance of talents in all the public, private and people sectors.

For the long-term competitiveness of the Singapore workforce, the Ministry has been spot on in its strategy of making innovation pervasive in our economy. However, looking at the experiences of many successful and innovative global firms, it does not appear that the current incentives offered on individual R&D projects are sufficient to make innovation or creativity pervasive in our country. A more sustainable route for the Government's consideration is perhaps to help develop a culture of innovation in Singapore amongst as many Singaporeans as possible in schools and workplaces. In the book "The Elegant Solution - The Toyota Way", it was reported that the Toyota organisation implements one million ideas each year. It further describes that innovation requires pre-requisite skills like critical thinking and learning at all levels of employment at Toyota, and that humility is the base of learning. There is much we can learn from great global firms such as Toyota before Singapore can spawn great firms of its own.

In conclusion, Sir, national budgets are merely allocations of resources to help realise the vision and aspirations of a country. Just like a house does not make a home, neither does the economy make our country, although it is important.

I was at an international conference just two days ago, on a Sunday, watching a fast-paced video promoting Singapore to foreigners. It was a very busy video clip describing Singapore - a city state complete with integrated resorts, Singapore Flyer, skyscrapers, financial institutions, good-looking shops with good-looking women buying good-looking bags. It looked just like another international or modern metropolis city. The Singapore I love was not depicted in the video - the melting pot of different races, different religions, different abilities, our HDB flats, our rich culture, our penchant for food, our Asian family values, our clean and green garden city, our schools and our struggle to help catch those who are risk of being left behind as we march on to become a corporate powerhouse in Asia. I wish we have more pride to show these unique aspects of Singapore to the world.

This year's Budget with its conservative - what Bee Wah says is "xi sheng jing shen" (牺牲精神) and octopus-reach, especially to help Singaporeans who are at risk to catch up, reminds me of the Singapore I know, the Singapore with many faces.

Sir, with that, I support the Budget.