Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat stressed that everything that the PAP Government does to protect, re-open and grow Singapore’s economy, it does for the sake of Singaporeans.
In his Ministerial Statement in Parliament earlier this week, DPM Heng outlined how the government will gradually reopen our economy over the next six months, as well as its longer-term plans for economic recovery.
“We strive to secure a way for Singapore to continue to make a good living, so that Singaporeans can have a good life. This is our guiding principle.”
Here are five points that you should not miss in his statement:
- Saving 155,000 jobs
The economic support measures that the PAP Government has rolled out during the crisis could save around 155,000 jobs over this year and the next, cushioning the rise in the resident unemployment rate by about 1.7 percentage points this year.
More than half of the jobs saved are due to the Jobs Support Scheme alone, DPM said.
- Preventing our economy from contracting
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has estimated that the four combined Budgets will prevent the economy from contracting by a further 5.6 per cent of Singapore’s gross domestic product this year, and 4.8 per cent next year.
- Continuing support for households, businesses and workers
DPM assured Singaporeans that support for workers and businesses will not taper off too sharply. The Government further enhanced several support schemes to help firms in hard-hit sectors, as well as those which are growing. These include extending enhanced training support package for hard-hit sectors for another six months till June 2021 and extending bridging loan programme for eligible businesses for another six months till Sept 2021, at reduced levels.
- Paving way for future economic growth
The Government plans to remake Singapore as a Global-Asia node of technology, innovation and enterprise, foster inclusive growth, and invest in economic resilience and sustainability to create better lives and opportunities for Singaporeans.
- Government has worked out steps to further re-open Singapore safely
