Source:
https://scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3089932/singapores-next-leader-heng-swee-keat-says-jobs-are-top-priority
This Week in Asia/ Politics

Singapore’s next leader Heng Swee Keat says jobs are top priority

  • The deputy prime minister and finance minister said Singapore plans to preserve existing jobs and create 100,000 new ones, despite the downturn
  • His televised address speech caps a two-week public relations blitz involving six speeches by government leaders, amid expectations of an imminent election
Heng Swee Keat, a former top central banker, was selected as the de facto successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: Bloomberg

Singapore’s government has in recent weeks stressed that preserving existing jobs and creating 100,000 new positions in the short term are a “top priority” as the labour market bleeds – and its future leader Heng Swee Keat repeated that mantra on Saturday.

In the last of a series of six televised speeches by government leaders, the deputy prime minister said the employment situation was the administration’s “most urgent task”.

“Your job is our top priority because jobs are the most direct way for every Singaporean to improve our lives and support our loved ones,” said Heng, who in 2018 was picked by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) as the de facto successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The government’s aggressive plan to not only provide a short-term cushion but to restructure the economy in the midst of the worst downturn since the Great Depression “distinguishes us from other countries”, Heng said.

Heng Swee Keat, Singapore's deputy prime minister, speaks via video link at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, China, on June 18. Photo: Bloomberg
Heng Swee Keat, Singapore's deputy prime minister, speaks via video link at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, China, on June 18. Photo: Bloomberg

His speech caps an extraordinary two-week public relations blitz kicked off by Lee on June 7.

Since then, four key lieutenants in the PAP have spoken in similar fashion – in speeches broadcast live on television and online – to outline future plans such as the city state’s hopes to improve social mobility and champion free trade amid the current anti-globalisation zeitgeist.

While officials say the exercise is meant to brief citizens on the realities of post-coronavirus pandemic life, political observers and the opposition have suggested that the speeches are a form of early campaigning by the PAP ahead of an imminent snap election.

Like Lee and the four others who spoke ahead of him, Heng on Saturday did not mention the elections.

The 59-year-old – who is also finance minister – said he never expected that he would have to put out “four budgets, one after another, within 100 days”.

Heng Swee Keat, a former top central banker, was selected as the de facto successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: Bloomberg
Heng Swee Keat, a former top central banker, was selected as the de facto successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: Bloomberg

The government has mounted one of Asia’s most aggressive stimulus programmes, spending some S$92.9 billion (US$65 billion), or close to 20 per cent of GDP – part of which is funded by its vast sovereign reserves. A bulk of the spending was on wage subsidies for employers hard hit by the two-month pandemic-induced partial lockdown.

Latest forecasts predict the trade-reliant economy faces its worst full-year contraction since Singapore became an independent nation in 1965.

“We have committed almost S$100 billion (US$71.5 billion), with more than half from our past reserves. We are mounting a robust response,” Heng said. “Had we not done so, we would have lost years of progress and an entire generation.”

The former top central banker acknowledged that “despite our utmost efforts, some – perhaps even many – will lose their jobs”.

Earlier in June, he told parliament over 100,000 jobs may be lost in the island nation of 5.7 million people. The labour force is made up of 2.3 million resident workers and 1.4 million guest workers in sectors such as construction, shipping and domestic work.

Heng in his speech reiterated the scale of the government’s ambitious “jobs and skills package”, which entails up-skilling and re-skilling programmes as well as the promise of 100,000 new jobs. He said the government was “determined not to lose a generation of workers and youths”.

An “Emerging Stronger Taskforce” set up in May will help the government find growth prospects in areas such as robotics, e-commerce and environmental sustainability where higher paying jobs can be created. Some S$20 billion will also be set aside to support research in “high impact areas” such as climate change, artificial intelligence and health and biomedical sciences.

A worker delivers goods outside a shopping mall in Singapore as shops started to reopen. Photo: Xinhua
A worker delivers goods outside a shopping mall in Singapore as shops started to reopen. Photo: Xinhua

In power since 1959 and expected to easily retain its parliamentary supermajority in the impending polls, Heng sought to emphasise that the administration currently led by Lee and soon to be helmed by him was setting policy for the long term.

Heng became the prime minister-designate after an intense internal contest in the PAP, and is expected to succeed Lee – who has been in power since 2004 – some time after the elections.

“Our journey ahead is long, and our actions in the next five to 10 years will chart the course of our nation for decades to come,” Heng said. “Where there are winds of change, we must find new waves of opportunity.”

The culmination of the six-speech series on Saturday came as Singaporeans fanned out to public areas in large numbers, on the second day since the government further eased lockdown measures as part of a phased reopening of the economy.

Social distancing and the mandatory usage of masks in public was enforced by government employed workers. A digital check-in system called SafeEntry was used to log details of residents visiting establishments such as shopping malls and restaurants.

Political parties, including the PAP, began walkabouts in public housing estates while adhering to guidelines stipulating that people must only gather in groups of five or less.

People cross a street at the shopping district of Orchard Road as the city state reopens the economy. Photo: Reuters
People cross a street at the shopping district of Orchard Road as the city state reopens the economy. Photo: Reuters

Opposition parties are expected to make the government’s handling of mass coronavirus infections in foreign worker dormitories a key pillar of their criticism of the PAP during the campaign.

Still, political analysts expect a fairly comfortable victory for the ruling party.

A weekly tracking poll of over 1,000 people by the local polling firm Blackbox Research showed that 80 per cent of respondents believed the country was headed in the right direction in the week to June 14. The figure had dipped to as low as 76 per cent in April – after the partial lockdown was imposed – but has since rebounded.

With the restrictions eased, expectations are that Prime Minister Lee may soon make a request to President Halimah Yacob to dissolve parliament – triggering elections sometime in July.