ST Forum

Create more job openings for seniors

on helping the pOOr: Tharman

Leong Wee Keat

weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

Instead, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam felt activist states will be best equipped to tackle this issue. “Activist states which intervene with spirit to promote social mobility, especially amongst the pOOr, that promote opportunity for their people, that free up competition and that are able to sustain optimism in the future.”

Speaking at the Economic Society of Singapore Annual Dinner — and on the topic of achieving inclusive growth — Mr Shanmugaratnam noted that growing income inequality has been a worldwide trend in the past two decades.

Singapore, too, has not been spared. The Gini coefficient — a statistical measure of income inequality — has risen from 0.41 in 1990 to 0.48 currently, even with various Government assistance schemes to help the less well off.

While the Government aims to increase median income by 30 per cent in real terms the next decade, Mr Shanmugaratnam said: “We are very serious in wanting to ensure that incomes for the bottom 20 per cent keep growing in real terms and it means providing opportunities across the board and investing in every Singaporean — their skills, their attitudes, their abilities to operate.”

He outlined three strategies which the Government has undertaken and will continue to do.

They are investing in education, making the labour market a safety net for workers and encouraging self-reliance among Singaporeans.

Mr Shanmugaratnam said the Government will also look at further incentivising philanthropy and bringing wider community partners in to help build social cohesion.

He added the Government would “keep evolving” and “avoid dogma” in its quest for inclusive growth. So, rather than merely focusing on social transfers, the Government will also look to improve Singaporeans’ skills and build up their assets that the market driven economy provides.

“Not a small-minded government, but an activist Government — focused on helping the pOOr and building up their capability and assets, and always remaining pragmatic because we could never get it right for all time,” Mr Shanmugaratnam said.

We are very serious in wanting to ensure that incomes for the bottom 20 per cent keep growing in real terms (by) providing opportunities across the board and investing in every Singaporean.

Finance Minister

Tharman Shanmugaratnam— The solution to address the twin challenges of income inequality and social cohesion in a post-economic crisis world may no longer just be found solely in either economic schools of thought based on capitalism or socialism.

DBS  is  POLE-DANCiNG

to  SHAREHOLDERS

and STi  ? ? ? ?

nickyng      ( Date: 31-Jul-2010 10:10) Posted: err..so wat's ur message here????  pharoah88      ( Date: 30-Jul-2010 16:17) Posted:

mOre  WRITE OFFs

for  DBS  ? ? ? ?

RECALL  MM LEE's  Banking Hint ? ? ? ?

UOB  to  take  over  DBS  and  OCBC  ? ? ? ?

MERiTOCRACY

WiNNER  TAKES  ALL

You have to ask the External Auditors of DBS on why they are signing off yearsof financial statements without impairing the goodwill, and of course they will argue with you on the criteria for impairment of goodwill under Singapore FRS 36, it's all in the accounting standards i.e. Corporation Law..cant do much, a boy used to ask why only the goalkeeper is allowed to use hands while the rest of the soccer players can't do the same thing? I told him this is soccer, unless someone powerful enough to change the law of game

u want boyikao to show u a visual demonstration rite?

don't be shy la..hahahaha

Hulumas      ( Date: 30-Jul-2010 16:08) Posted: What does ERECTION mean here? boyikao3      ( Date: 30-Jul-2010 14:30) Posted: An erection also takes time to grow....