HEAD I - MINISTRY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUTH AND SPORTS

The Chairman: Head I - Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Mr Sin Boon Ann.

Social Assistance

2.45 pm

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, I beg to move,

That the total sum to be allocated for Head I of the Estimates be reduced by $100.

Sir, in his reply in last year's Committee of Supply, the Minister made the point that if one were poor, there is no place that we would rather be poor in than in Singapore. I cannot agree more. Many of us have travelled extensively all over the world. In almost all of the countries that we travel to, it would not be uncommon for us to come across the destitute and the homeless. We see this not only in less developed countries, but also in developed ones as well.

In Singapore, we are indeed proud of the fact that we hardly have homeless destitutes sleeping rough in our streets; nor do we have people going without medical care or people going to bed hungry without food. We provide shelter for the homeless and we consistently assured our people that there will always be a social safety net for them.

However, that does not mean that there is no room for improvement on our delivery of social assistance. In the course of our meet-the-people session, we would typically come across families and

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residents that are in great distress, financial or otherwise. Often, we would have to write to various welfare agencies to get financial or other assistance for them. And often, the help required is quite immediate. Unfortunately, our common experience on this score has been the relative tardiness in the delivery of help to them. Sure, ComCare allows the grassroots organisations to provide immediate relief. However, there is only so much help that the grassroots can extend. It is not uncommon for these agencies to take a while to respond; and even if they did respond, assistance rendered is often short term in nature and does not seem to address the deeper and longer term difficulties of the people in need.

Recently, I wrote on behalf of a resident who was poor and unable to help herself and members of her family, many of whom were school-going children. I could see that this resident was rather desperate and I thought that she would have required longer term intervention.

Unfortunately, it took a while for the agency to reply. Even in its reply, the response of the welfare agency was that the resident had already received some interim assistance earlier, particularly the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund and was no longer entitled to further renewal. The reply further indicated that the agency had written to other agencies and had not heard from them. There was no indication about what further steps are being taken to help the resident concerned. A copy of the reply was extended to me.

Sir, I was rather disturbed by the reply. Firstly, it took a while for the reply to come. Secondly, the reply merely gave the stock answer that the children had enjoyed the benefits of Straits Times Pocket Money Fund for the year and are

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therefore no longer entitled to further renewal. Nothing was said about whether the welfare of the children would be looked after despite the withdrawal of the benefit. Will the children be left to go hungry as a result? Thirdly, the reply merely said they had not heard from the other agencies they had written to and would be writing to them again. That is fine; my concern was for the family and what was going to happen to them in the meantime.

Sir, this episode led me to wonder whether in the context of our social assistance delivery, our agencies are mindful of the urgencies that confront many of the families and that it is not enough if they just merrily wrote to various organisations to ask for assistance while the family in need continues to wait. In law, there is a maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. In this case, I wonder if the welfare agencies are equally mindful that social assistance delayed is also social assistance denied.

I would therefore like to ask the Minister whether the Ministry keeps tabs on the performance standards of the agencies that deliver social assistance and whether these agencies are measured in respect of their performance and, in particular, the outcome. Perhaps, the Minister would also like to enlighten me if the Ministry has any scheme that calibrates the subvention that is given according to the performance of the welfare agency concerned.

Dr Lily Neo: Sir, many of the poor Singaporeans need long-term assistance. May I ask whether public assistance (PA) allowance is commensurate with inflation? Has there been any study done on the adequacy of PA allowance? Does it serve the needs of the recipients? Could MCYS review and ensure that PA recipients do not go through hardshi,p such as skipping one meal a day, just to make ends meet? Could MCYS be less stringent on the

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approval of PA cases in view of our widening income disparity in order to preserve our social fabric?

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Mr Chairman, Sir, I would like to ask the Minister what are the results of the review alluded to by Minister of State, Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, in reply to a question by the hon. Member for Jalan Besar GRC earlier. She gave a cliffhanger of a reply saying that there was good news pending a review.

The Budget provides some support for low-income to help cope with the GST increase, but how do we help those on public assistance? Can the Minister enlighten us on what is the level of subsistence that is required for this group of people at this time and age? What are the results of its review?

Sir, I am the advisor to the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily-Rated Workers Union. One of the union leaders there tells me that the estimated earning of a cleaner is about $800 to, at most, $1,000 a month. Many daily-rated employees from the public service, in fact, have to go for a second job to supplement their earnings. In particular, the ones who are struggling with their daily lives are the ones in families with single working parent, for example, the spouses are not fit to work and, therefore, the burden lies on the worker himself. For elderly daily-rated employees who are lucky to have children's support, this burden can be lightened. But while they get money from their kids, senior daily-rated employees above age 55, need more money to meet their medical needs, daily expenses and HDB mortgages and utility bills.

Sir, these people are struggling with $800 and now, with Workfare, they can get more help. Sir, I wonder how then can anyone manage on $260. Yes, it is true that people on public assistance get free healthcare and do not have to worry on that count. However, I know that many other costs have increased. Take,

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for example, the prices of essential products. As you all know, I work at NTUC FairPrice and, for obvious reasons, we keep a close eye on this as it is part of our social mission. In particular, our everyday low-price items are essential items. While we are generally cheaper than our competitors, we have noticed that prices for these are also trending up over the last three years.

In fact, as part of our social mission, we recently announced that we will be absorbing the 2% increase in GST for all our 400 everyday low-price items, ie, essential products for a six-month period from July. These essential items include oil, rice, instant noodles, sauces, canned fish. Sir, this is not an advertisement for NTUC Fairprice. Quite the reverse, it is to show that even in a cooperative which prides itself on being price-competitive, prices do creep up, a phenomenon which is beyond our control. And this will impact the people on public assistance for whom every cent counts. Given this, I urge the Minister to consider giving them a decent significant increase, echoing what Dr Lily Neo has been pushing for the last few weeks.

Sir, there are fewer than 3,000 people on public assistance in Singapore. This is a very small number compared to the more than 100,000 who are considered low-wage in Singapore. Given this small number, we can do a lot for them without greatly affecting our fiscal position. As I pointed out in my speech earlier during the Budget debate, a doubling of their allowance could have been done by not giving GST credits to those well-to-do and channelling it to these needy Singaporeans instead. Sir, I am not suggesting a doubling of the allowance, just a significant increase and on a timely basis.

ComCare

Mr Ang Mong Seng: ( In Mandarin ): [ For vernacular speech, please refer to

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**_Appendix A * _ .] ** Sir, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the ladies a happy International Women's Day.

Sir, last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the Government would set up the ComCare Fund to help care for low-income Singaporeans with financial difficulties. ComCare Fund has since helped many poor families who need urgent financial assistance. This is a good scheme, like the Chinese saying, “雪中送炭” [ xue zhong song tan ] - to send charcoal in snowy weather, meaning that it has provided timely help for the needy. Although we have achieved strong economic growth and created many new job opportunities last year, helping the less educated and older Singaporeans remains a great challenge for us.

During my meet-the-people sessions, I have come across at least 10 residents who are genuinely in need of financial assistance. Currently, the Community Development Councils (CDCs) have allocated $40,000 of ComCare Fund to each constituency, but this sum is still not enough. In this respect, I would like to suggest that the Government consider allocating a bigger sum of ComCare Fund to each constituency so that we can help the needy solve their financial problems.

At the moment, all financial assistance applications will be directed to CDCs for approval and this process can take a very long time. This is due to the large number of applications and hence the CDCs require a longer processing time. In this regard, many residents feel that “远水救不了近火” [ yuan shui jiu bu liao jin huo ]- distant water will not put out a fire close at hand, meaning that a slow remedy cannot meet an urgency. Therefore, I would like to suggest that the ComCare Committee of each constituency take over this role and function. They will examine

*Cols. 3447-3448.

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and assess these applications at their end. Through the Internet, they will keep in close contact with the CDCs so that financial assistance is given to those who need them in the most prompt and effective way.

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Chairman, Sir, like Mr Ang Mong Seng, I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all the lady Members in this House and all the ladies out there, a "Happy International Women's Day".

Sir, my first cut is on ComCare. Originally, I wanted to request the Ministry to make the ComCare database widely accessible to all the VWOs. However, after filing my cut, I received a circular from the MOS that the ComCare database now is available to 134 agencies. Sir, I believe this must be a pure coincidence. Anyway, as my question has been answered by the Ministry’s action, I have nothing further to comment on the ComCare.

I would just like to move on to my second cut, which is on the HOPE scheme.

Home Ownership Plus Education Scheme

Sir, I would like to first declare my interest as a staff member of the Chinese Development Assistance Council, which is an outreach agency of the MCYS for the HOPE Scheme. HOPE is the acronym for Home Ownership Plus Education Scheme.

The HOPE scheme was launched in 2004. I would like to request the Minister for an update on the progress of this scheme which has been implemented for about two years now.

As one of the outreach agencies, CDAC has made limited progress in the HOPE scheme, not, I think, because of the lack of effort, but mainly due to the rather stringent eligibility criteria.

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Sir, the CDAC has checked through its 2,500 bursary students to identify the potential families for the HOPE Scheme. Out of these 2,500 low-income families, only 20 families were found to be eligible at the first screening. After sending letters to these 20 eligible ones, only five had applied for the scheme. Those who did not take up the scheme said that the criteria were too stringent. I have been told that a similar situation is also facing other outreach agencies.

Sir, the aim of the HOPE scheme is to help the low-income families keep the family size small, and the Government will assist them to build a better future through a range of financial incentives. Indeed, the original name of the scheme is called Small Families Improvement Scheme (SFIS). I understand that the response to this scheme had been lukewarm and, hence, the MCYS had to revamp it and change the name to HOPE.

The eligibility criteria of the HOPE scheme are as follows:

(a) the mother's age must be 35 or below;

(b) with no more than two children;

(c) the monthly household income must be $1,500 or lower;

(d) the father must be working; and

(e) one of the parents must be a Singapore Citizen, and the spouse must be a citizen or PR.

I understand the rationale of setting these criteria as the HOPE scheme is specifically meant to help low-income Singaporean families to stop at two children. With the Government’s incentive schemes, they will receive a housing grant to ensure that they have a roof over their head, their children will receive bursaries

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to pursue their education, and the parents will receive training grants to upgrade their skills. The total quantum for each family can be up to a maximum of $100,000. All these are designed to help the needy family break out of the poverty circle.

Sir, we often hear that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. While we can have very sound principles and rationale behind any good scheme, if very few people are eligible to take a bite at it, the pudding will be left on the tray. It will become mouldy after a while, and needs to be replaced by another pastry called cake. The SFIS is like the pudding and the HOPE scheme is like the cake. If many people are also not eligible to eat the cake, the cake will become mouldy and needs to be replaced by another pastry yet again. Sir, if nothing is done to the cake now, I fear that the mouldy history will repeat itself.

Sir, I have learnt from a report in the New Paper in September 2006 that only 600 out of 6,000 families have joined the HOPE scheme and the Government is aiming to sign up 1,000 by 2008.

Sir, my questions are:

(a) Why is it that only 10% of people have signed up?

(b) Why set a low target of 1,000 by 2008 when there are about 6,000 families out there who can benefit from the scheme?

Sir, the HOPE is a good and generous scheme. The best thing is that, out of the $100,000, not all the money goes in the form of handouts, but also an investment for the future, as much of the money goes to home ownership, skills training fund for the parents, and education grant for the children.

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As only 10% of the eligible families have taken up the scheme, I hope the Minister can re-examine the eligibility criteria to see if they are indeed too stringent and not appealing to the target group.

Sir, due to the very strict criteria, we have seen how the Small Families Improvement Scheme has become "So Few Families in the Scheme". And now that this scheme has been replaced by the HOPE scheme, I really hope that the current criteria will not make this new scheme to become a "Handful Of People Eligible" scheme.

Charities

3.00 pm

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah): Mr Chairman, Sir, the charity sector is paying a high price for governance as a result of the NKF and Youth Challenge sagas.

Many charities, particularly smaller ones, are facing difficulties with governance and operational funding issues. I raised this in a previous Parliament session. Many face high cost of audits and few willing auditors. Today, donors are also more careful and insist that their donations benefit benefactors directly. Charities, therefore, have a difficult time funding their operational costs and paying their staff. This worsens the problem.

Sir, the Minister mentioned that measures are under way to simplify governance requirements and that it would take time for the market to come to equilibrium on the accepted prices and quality of service. My question is: how long are we prepared to wait? What measures is the Ministry considering to address the issue of cost of governance, lower funds raised for operational expenses and lack of willing suppliers to fulfill governance requirements?

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The recent move to improve social workers' salaries is also a welcome boost. However, this does not cover support staff who play important roles to deliver charity services. They number about three to four for each social worker. Due to low wages, their attrition rates are also high, negating the NCSS' efforts in training and building capacity to strengthen the charity sector. I urge the Ministry to benchmark and review the salaries of this group and provide sufficient funding for the sector to employ good staff to help our needy more effectively.

Sir, my third point is that the removal of the 80:20 regulations in the Budget to promote philanthropy and attract overseas NGOs is a welcome one. However, many charities also fear that this will result in greater competition for donations and human resources. Smaller local NGOs may not have the ability to compete on services as well as benefits. Perhaps the Ministry can look into levelling the playing field by levelling tax deduction benefits for small charities and other local NGOs in the people sector to help them compete for donations. For a limited period, the Ministry can also consider helping the sector with more development funds to bridge the capability gap and up-skill their human resources.

Many have referred to this Budget as one that will help to lift all boats, big and small. But let us not forget that there are others without boats or non-functioning boats who will otherwise sink or drown as the tide rises, unless we put together a stronger safety net by strengthening the charity sector.

Mr Baey Yam Keng: Sir, I need to declare that I work for CapitaLand which has a charity arm - CapitaLand Hope Foundation focusing on underprivileged children.

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With the recent episodes of NKF and Youth Challenge, it is timely that a Commissioner of Charities is appointed with the support of the Charity Council. It is necessary to require charities to practise good governance and provide transparency in order to reinstill confidence in the public.

In the spirit of the 3P approach where the public, private and the people sectors can all play a part, we need to find ways to encourage greater philanthropy in the society with the Government playing a leading or catalytic role. Based on a piece of research by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) on the landscape of giving in Singapore, over 18 months between 2004 and 2005, corporate philanthropy in the private sector constitutes a miserable 12% compared to individual and grant makers' contributions at 46% and 42% respectively.

In the list of about 2,000 registered charities, I did an estimate of the number of corporate charities crudely based on whether the names have a linkage to a company's name, I can only find not more than 10 names. This represents less than half a per cent of all charities.

NVPC's corporate giving survey in 2004 also shows that Singapore's corporate gave 0.22% of its pre-tax profit to charity, which is a lot lower than the 1-2% in the US, UK and Canada.

With many Singapore companies achieving record profits, we should find ways to encourage corporations to boost up the private sector on the 3P philanthropy pie. Companies contribute to charity for various reasons. Some have an altruistic desire to be socially responsible corporate citizens, some do it for good name, and others may be motivated by tax reasons, eg, the double tax deduction when they are registered as IPCs.

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There are also companies which set up their own charity arms where their own corporate financial resources are dedicated to philanthropic causes. In these cases, where no public money is raised, there should be less stringent regulations for these corporate charities. Sir, I do hope that the Ministry could look into ways not to impose unnecessary restrictions but to give greater incentives to encourage companies to be more proactive in corporate philanthropy.

The Chairman: Dr Loo Choon Yong is not present. Mr Wee Siew Kim.

Voluntary Welfare Organisations

Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre released the results of its study on institutions of public character (IPC) recently. Some of the IPCs' top concerns are donor fatigue and limited resources for a dedicated fund-raising staff. Will the Minister be looking into these concerns?

Depending heavily on volunteers is also a problem, as the report notes that there is a "lack of commitment from volunteers" and difficulty "sustaining volunteers' interest". One solution would be hiring more professionals to run operations. The needs of those we try to help require that our VWOs become more professional and improve their standard of operations. VWOs will require help from the Ministry to make the transition. Additionally, are there any measures to motivate the volunteers?

Government agencies must also pitch in. I have one example. I have a home in Buangkok which houses autistic children. Some of them need weeks to familiarise themselves with the dental chair before starting treatment, and the dentists have to be very patient. There are two private practitioner dentists that come in weekly.

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They have been asking for the assistance of nurses from the Ministry of Health without success so far. Not only are they patient with the autistic children, they too have been very patient with the Government agencies. Can the Minister have a forum where the VWOs can go for help, so that they can coordinate with all the Government agencies?

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): Sir, I have three points to propose to MCYS to better the social service sector in Singapore. They are to do with:

(1) Essential services;

(2) Cost of governance; and

(3) Volunteerism rate.

First, on essential services. In most countries, the state considers services to do with health, education and security to be "essential services", usually performed and managed directly by government or government-linked agencies. It is not so in Singapore, as charities take on quite a host of activities, like community hospitals, early intervention and even special schools.

Sir, in the "outsourcing" of services to the charity sector, I suggest MCYS or PMO take the lead in developing a decision-making matrix on what might be considered "essential services" and what should be undertaken by state or charity. We must make sure that there is "mindful" instead of "mindless" outsourcing decisions.

Let me give one example. For many years, families and professionals were always speculating on services and service providers in the disability sector. Many made ill-informed decisions and inaccurate comments which led to wastage and negativity.

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A couple of years back, a very critical one-stop Disability Information and Referral Centre (DIRC) was set up to provide comprehensive information regarding all forms of disability services and service provider data like waitlists, fees and so forth - very important information. This important function was unfortunately outsourced to a charity organisation. Because that particular VWO does not have the clout or the influence to mandate other service providers to update it constantly, this centre has been under performing through no fault of the charity organisation or its staff - not excellent services, not very useful to the community it is meant to serve. This was clearly a function that is best run by one of the Government or Government-linked departments, which has a more direct access to data submitted and more authority to get updated information.

Sir, I ask that more mindful thought be given to what constitute essential services.

My next topic, Sir, is regarding cost of governance in VWOs, as mentioned by some of my colleagues here. It is a right direction to upgrade governance standards - no qualms about that. The Charity Act and the Charity Commissioner have their part to play. But this begs the question - who should pay for the cost of governance?

I ask, Sir, because the cost of governance cannot be loaded fully onto the VWOs. Many donors or funders pride themselves in funding only services that directly impact beneficiaries. This is a catch-22 situation. The bigger the operations, the higher the risks and the greater the need for a chief executive, auditors and a competent financial professional. And yet few funders want to pay for these costs. As a result, the VWOs spend their time trying to raise

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funds and less time is available for governance matters.

Sir, I propose that the Ministry and the agencies, like the NCSS, the Charity Commissioners and even NVPC examine the traditional funding mindset and help to co-fund the chief executive, the auditor, accountant or chief financial officer in some of the bigger VWOs. Before telling especially the bigger VWOs to shape up, value-add by footing the bill for some of these costs of governance for those which are larger than, say, $5 million in revenue or operating expenditure, and especially those performing essential services that the state decides not to take on.

The Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society is one example. The Moral Society runs a host of community services, including the Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital, Early Intervention Centre, counselling centres and the like. The CEO of this $30 million operation receives a monthly salary of $7,100 - I would say a charity pay for an operation of this size. We cannot afford the sorely needed financial chief nor internal auditor to oversee this vast operation. And the same can be said of many large VWOs. It will then make sense for Government or enlightened donors to defray some of these costs of governance. Sir, I hope the Ministry will be able to facilitate that.

The third area I am concerned about is the volunteerism rate in Singapore. The volunteerism rate in Singapore has hovered around 15%. This is much lower than that in developed countries, such as the United States, Japan, Britain and Canada. My prophecy is that things will get worse, as it is getting very difficult to get competent and committed professionals to sit on the boards of VWOs or to be volunteers.

I ask the Charity Commissioner and all the appointed sector auditors to help the

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VWOs and be careful not to end up witch-hunting and dampening the spirit of volunteerism amongst the professionals. If anyone were to look hard enough, I am certain you will find something that is out of line in most of the 2,000 VWOs in Singapore.

Sir, the Charity Act alone nor the Charity Commissioner and all their auditors may not be able to prevent the NKF-type frauds from happening again. Those of us who have sat on even corporate boards know that there is no way a director can know in-depth the business operations of a firm through quarterly board meetings - not even when you are in a Audit Committee. Only attracting and retaining the right executives and volunteers, with both character and competence, can we prevent another NKF saga.

Sir, let us not discourage them. Help us. Be careful not to witch-hunt.

Person with Disability

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, we want to build a Singapore society that is fair, just and inclusive. It must be a society where everyone, no matter the colour of his skin or his belief, must feel that he or she is a member of; and this must include those among us who, whether by birth or otherwise, are disabled mentally or physically.

We have come a long way in accepting disabled persons as equal members of our society. For many of us, we have handicapped friends whom we are proud to be associated with. Personally, I know a number. I can think of my old friend, Henry Ho, not much older than I am but who is a polio victim. Henry did not allow his polio condition to affect him in any way. It did not stop him from living life to the full. He swam, learned to cycle, and graduated from our local university. His physical condition did

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not set him apart from my other friends. In his zest for life, Henry was inspirational.

There are others who are even more inspirational. I can think of David Lim, our very own Singaporean who led the first Everest expedition. David was paralysed by a rare nerve disorder and upon his subsequent recovery, made him a disabled person. That condition did not stop David from attempting to climb the highest peak in the Americas, which he did in February 2000.

Henry and David are but just two of the many examples that all of us are able to recount of the handicapped Singaporeans who were able to overcome their physical limitations and lead fulfilling lives. Their journeys were no doubt fraught with much difficulties and obstacles, and their effort made more challenging because of their conditions.

3.15 pm

Unfortunately, for every Henry and David out there, there are many who are not as fortunate. For them, life is a constant struggle. Being handicapped is often a condition that has prevented them from finding gainful employment and to lead meaningful lives. While society may learn to accept the handicapped socially, it is still struggling to accept them as working colleagues.

Indeed, it is still a challenge for the handicapped to find fair opportunities at employment, both with respect to getting past that door for the interview and being given a fair shot at promotion. Beyond the recognition and acceptance that our handicapped fellow Singaporeans may be different, we must be prepared to engage them without discrimination and accept them as they are.

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The Government, to its credit, started a number of initiatives to help the disabled in our society. One key initiative is the Enable Fund which is aimed at providing persons with disabilities equal opportunities in the job market. Equally, I noted with much satisfaction last month when we were updated of the initiatives of the Government to form the Enabling Masterplan as part of the overall ambitious approach by the Government to deal systematically with the needs of the disabled from education to employment opportunities.

I applaud the Government for these initiatives. However, we do know that we are still some distance away in educating our society to be open and broad-minded in our approach and treatment of the disabled in Singapore. I do hope that the day will soon come where we will learn to accept our disabled brethren equally as a member of our family, where they will be judged not by their physical appearance or mental ability but by the strength of their character.

I would like to ask the Minister, therefore, whether there has been any significant improvement in employment of our disabled Singaporeans since the commencement of the Enable Fund and whether he is able to share with us some of the major initiatives that the Enabling Masterplan Committee is contemplating at the moment.

Caregivers' Allowance

Dr Lam Pin Min (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Chairman, Sir, Jane, a 45-year-old mother of an eight-year-old boy was doing well as a secretary in an American MNC nine years ago. But at age 36, she left to become a full-time homemaker and care-giver of her 82-year-old mother who is bed-bound after suffering from a major stroke six years ago. Her husband is the sole breadwinner making $2,500 per month, barely enough to make ends meet. Jane is torn between the desire to return

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to the workforce to supplement the family's income and her love for her mother and duty as a daughter. Money is a constant worry for Jane and her family.

Jane's story is typical of many care-givers in Singapore. The care-givers are mostly female, aged 30 and above, with secondary education, married, unemployed and looking after a sick aged parent. They also belong to what is known as the sandwich generation. With the high standards and cost of living in Singapore, most of us need a regular paying job to support our families and ourselves.

However, there are many families amongst us with elderly sick or disabled family members who require special attention and care. The care of a disabled family member and the elderly can be emotionally and physically challenging. Often times, care-givers have to quit their jobs to care for their dependent loved ones at home. Home-based care not only provides the ideal cost-effective long term care of the elderly frail and disabled in the family, it also helps free up limited vacancies in rehabilitation centres, day-care centres and old folks homes for families who genuinely require such services.

Other arguments supporting payment of care-givers' allowance include recognition of work provided and promotion of autonomy of people living with disabilities. It offers some financial support to care-givers who may find themselves without immediate and long-term financial security. Without financial support, the sustainability of the care-giving relationship may be threatened or strained. Many countries have already embarked on providing care-givers with monetary allowances designed to compensate family care-givers for their unpaid effort and stress.

Take, for example, in the United Kingdom, the care-giver would receive a

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weekly allowance of about 47 pounds, or just $140, when he spends over 35 hours a week to take care of a person with disabilities. In Osaka city, Japan, care-givers are paid an allowance of 100,000 yen a year for providing nursing care to the elderly family members. Other countries that provide allowances for care-givers include Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Estonia. I know it may be potentially difficult to administer, but I believe this hurdle can be overcome by studying how the other countries do it.

I would, therefore, like to urge the Minister to consider providing an allowance to care-givers in Singapore or even extending the Workfare scheme to them so that their sacrifices and hard work will not be left unrecognised.

Elderly Care

Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang): Mr Chairman, Sir, it is by coincidence that my colleague Dr Lam Pin Min talks about care-givers because what I want to talk about is actually the legal protection for the elderly suffering from dementia - an important area, but often neglected because these elderly people are kept at home and out of public view.

Over the past 50 years, there has been much recognition of the discrimination against mentally-ill adults, both nationally and internationally. Human rights and the rights of people with mental and physical disabilities have been given greater importance. Yet, in Singapore, the understanding and regard for the rights and needs of these people are still severely lacking. They and their care-givers are at risk of social exclusion because of the nature of their illness and as a result of people's negative attitudes even amongst many professionals.

People with dementia gradually lose their abilities to make effective decisions.

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They cannot understand speech and words, cannot communicate, make mathematical calculations, and perceive risks, and lose memories of recent events and decisions, and cannot recognise places. As a result they put themselves in physical danger, make bizarre decisions regarding finances and related matters and sometimes even commit crimes.

In the perspective of violence, caring of elderly people with dementia stretches the care-givers' patience to the limit. The potential for abuse by care-givers is always there. Apart from the usual physical and emotional abuse, it is also common to hear of financial abuses.

Would the Ministry therefore consider rallying some institutions, such as the HDB, banks, Legal Aid Bureau and medical systems, to link up to inform and protect the interests of these dependent elderly? Can the elderly go to a tribunal to lodge a complaint of abuse, be it physical, emotional or financial, and let the tribunal intervene?

Many people are still unaware of the care-giver support services now available. Anecdotally, families often do not comprehend dementia and feel that their elderly relatives are making life difficult for them, hence, straining relationships. If households struggling with such an elderly member could reach out for help, say, at an FSC, a proper assessment of the condition could be facilitated. They could be advised on constructive ways to manage the demented person's condition and link them to support services at the same time.

Sir, given that there is an increasing trend of elderly living on their own, it is therefore important to have a "community watchdog" such as the one recently set up, ie, the ComCare Local Network, to serve as a lookout for them. We cannot

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neglect public education. Unfortunately, care-givers are unlikely to come out on their own due to a lack of awareness, and dealing with elderly depression, very often accompanied with dementia, is very time-consuming and emotionally exacting. For those living on their own, a community of support is crucial.

Elderly and Ageing Issues

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, that we are a rapidly ageing nation is undeniable. Singapore has experienced below replacement fertility since 1975. In 2005, our fertility rate was 1.25, and it seems that if our total fertility rate continues to remain at 1.5 for several years to come despite our various efforts, it is unlikely that our public policies in its current thinking are likely to raise the level significantly or at least above our replacement requirement. This low fertility rate, coupled with increasing life expectancy of our people, makes for an ageing society.

By 2030, one in four persons in the society will be over 65 years of age, and they will be considered elderly by our standards. In 2000, there were 10 workers supporting every elderly person. By 2030, there will only be 2.2 persons to support every elderly person in Singapore. Quite clearly, with an increasingly ageing profile, Singapore cannot afford to let the burden of looking after the elderly fall disproportionately on the younger members of the country. There is a growing recognition that the elderly may have to continue working to support themselves well into their sixties. Indeed, we are now talking about raising the retirement age to 65 in order to ensure that elderly Singaporeans remain financially viable and independent. Unfortunately, in the face of globalisation, the choice of wanting to remain in employment is not a choice for the elderly alone to decide. It would be interesting to see how we will still be able to continue to find sustainable and, above all, meaningful employment for the elderly

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in the years to come. In this regard, I hope the Minister can share with us how the Ministry is looking at dealing with this issue.

Besides financial security, one issue that is fast becoming a feature in our neighbourhood is the presence of elderly couples or elderly persons living on their own. This is an outcome of our society having smaller homes in HDB estates and children leaving the roost when they leave to set up their own homes. This is a concern, as loneliness can affect the mental and emotional well-being of those who are affected. These days, it is not uncommon to read of old people dying alone in their flat and it could take days before the neighbours realise it. This is a sad and tragic end for anyone living in Singapore.

Sir, what is heartening perhaps is the fact that our Government has come to recognise the growing problem of the elderly in Singapore, and this has come about with the formation of a Ministerial Committee on Ageing and Elderly Issues under the leadership of Minister Lim Boon Heng. This is a significant and major attempt at tackling the issue of ageing at a most comprehensive level. While we are talking about early days for the committee here, I believe the Minister in charge has indicated what plans he has with the rest of the committee. I should like to take this opportunity to ask the Minister whether he could give this House any further indication of specific challenges that we are going to be faced with beyond the broad concerns and the plans he hopes to recommend to the Government on this issue.

Eldercare Homes

Mr Ong Ah Heng: ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] The Community Centres (CCs) and Residents' Committees (RCs) organise yearly visits to old folks' homes

*Cols. 3449-3452.

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during the Chinese New Year and other Chinese festivals. I visited a home for the aged last year. And this year, I have participated twice. Each time I visited an old folks' home, I have an intense feeling of sorrow and sadness, because many of them are weak and feeble and they need nurses to feed them. Even if you give them an ang bao , they are weak and they need nurses to receive it on their behalf. Most of all, I am saddened by their expressionless face. On two separate occasions, I asked two elderly people what will make them happy. One of them replied that he wished his children could visit him since they have not been coming for a long time and he would be very happy to see his son. The other elderly person wished that he could see his grandson whom he vaguely remembers to be eight years old now. Because his son never brings his grandchildren to visit him, he has no idea how his grandchildren look like.

Sir, our society has been emphasising the importance of tenderness, kinship and relationship, but I feel that these qualities have thinned. As such, it is necessary for us to come up with a solution, otherwise it will chip away the pillars of our society and we become less humane. Therefore, I would like to suggest that the Minister consider making it compulsory for the children to visit their parents who are admitted into nursing homes. This can be made mandatory in the application process. For instance, unless they agree to visit their parents at least once a month, or once in two or three months, their application will not be accepted by the nursing home. To make it effective, we have to lay down hard and fast rules, even if it means forcing them to do so. It is like the saying “用真情买假爱” [ yong zhen qing mai jia ai ] - to reciprocate true feelings with insincerity. We have to resort to doing so, if need be. Otherwise, we will face the same situation five years later. In that regard, we are not a warm society that we think we are.

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Day-Care Centres for the Elderly

On another point, I would like to talk about the day-care centres for the elderly. There are about 30 day-care centres for the elderly in Singapore. These day-care centres look after the elderly and engage them in constructive activities such as social dances, karaoke and handicraft-making, etc. As you might be aware, these day-care centres and nursing homes are run by voluntary welfare organisations. And their role is to provide supportive help to the targeted group, which is the bottom 20% of low income earners.

Currently, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will do means-testing to determine the applicants’ ability to pay and this includes looking into the number of family members, family income, etc, before it decides whether a subsidy should be given. The purpose is to make day-care and nursing services more affordable to the low income earners. However, not everyone can afford to send their elderly to the day-care centres or nursing homes. For instance, the middle income group will definitely not meet the means test criteria, as they are likely to exceed the quota by $200 to $300. Therefore, I would like to ask the MCYS to consider giving the upper middle income group earning between $1,500 and $1,800 a month some form of assistance, for example, giving them 50% subsidy instead of 100%, so that those who do not meet the means test will nonetheless still enjoy a subsidised rate for day-care and nursing services.

According to feedback from day-care centre operators, I was informed that the cost per head per month is at least $500. And the transport charges from home to the centre will cost about $120.

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However, many day-care centres are charging less than $300 for the fees and $80 for transport. Although the centres are eligible for subsidies from MCYS, the subsidy does not cover all items. From my knowledge, it is just like the NTUC Eldercare, where it is heavily subsidised by the Government up to over $100,000 each year. As a result, it has to organise fund-raising events every year. The question is that many activities at the day-care centres are organised by voluntary workers and, as such, the quality and standard vary.

Having said that, I think we should give the voluntary workers proper recognition for their dedication and effort. Hence, I would like to suggest that MCYS consider giving more aid to the day-care centres. Apart from giving subsidy to keep fees affordable to low income earners, more can be done. In this regard, I would like to suggest that the Minister consider giving assistance to day-care centres for organising constructive activities for the elderly, so that more enriching programmes can be organised for the elderly and not just mindless activities such as clapping of hands and dancing. This, I believe, will greatly enhance the old people's quality of life.

Ageing Population

3.30 pm

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang: ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Sir, the family has always been the cornerstone of the Asian society. We face today an ageing population and thus it is important for us to fortify family cohesion. Globalisation brought a new wave of competition and challenges to our economy. Due to the lack of interaction among parents and children, family ties are much weakened. As a result, increasing numbers of the elderly are choosing suicide to extricate themselves from depression. There are more and more

*Cols. 3453-3454.

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elderly people seeking love and concern from their families and society.

According to a NUS survey carried out from 1991 to 2000 on 712 elderly suicides, it showed that those who committed suicide were aged 65 and above, the older they were, the higher the suicide rate. The Chinese elderly have the highest suicide rate, followed by Indians and Malays. Results of the survey also show that the Malay community has a higher degree of family cohesion. Even though they do not know their neighbours, they will still help one another. This is something lacking among the Chinese community. Another NUH survey shows that depression is the main cause leading to elderly suicides. The main reason being that their children are busy with work; as a result they have less time to communicate with their parents. Therefore, it is much easier for them to slide into depression.

Apart from the ComCare elderly scheme, we hope to see more of such concrete and systematic approach to cope with the problems of our ageing population. To achieve this, we need to strengthen the physical and mental health of our people, family ties, as well as the society's cohesiveness. Efforts to help the elderly people include encouraging our elder workers to stay employed, granting them more medical benefits, setting up of more eldercare centres and old folks' homes, etc. Having said that, is it possible for MCYS to follow the example of Hong Kong? The Hong Kong government has launched a systematic eldercare scheme, whereby they provide 24-hour homecare services for the needy elderly people. This is something Singapore can learn to build a happy home for our elderly citizens.

The Chairman: Order. I would like to take the break now.

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Thereupon Mr Deputy Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair again at 3.50 pm.

Sitting accordingly suspended

at 3.30 pm until 3.50 pm.

_Sitting resumed at 3.50 pm _

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Matthias Yao) in the Chair]:

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Matthias Yao) in the Chair]: Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Matthias Yao) in the Chair]

Head I (cont.) -

The Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Dr Vivian Balakrishnan): Mr Chairman, I thank Members for their probing questions and excellent suggestions.

Sir, the primary focus of my Ministry is to ensure that Singapore society remains united, cohesive and resilient, even as we face the full impact of globalisation. Consequently, in 2006, my Ministry paid special attention to those who are most vulnerable, that is, the families of low-income Singaporeans, senior citizens and those with disability. In the interest of brevity, I would like to refer Members to the handouts, which I believe have been circulated . There are two of them. The first one called Annex 1 gives an update on the key initiatives, which I announced last year. And I hope after reading it, you will agree with me that we have substantially delivered on all our commitments made last year. In fact, if I am totally successful at that, I could

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actually sit down now and achieve my ambition of the shortest ministerial Committee of Supply speech. Since we are running so far ahead of time, I think I better do justice to my staff and go through the rest of my speech.

My Ministry is guided by four principles. First, and this is one which I have repeated several times in this House, Singapore will not have a permanent, unconditional, needs-based social safety net. We will not have such a system because we believe that it will erode our work ethic, it will damage our competitiveness and even, more importantly, it will bankrupt us in the long run. And many societies which currently try to run such schemes are storing up big problems for themselves and, more importantly, for those who are most vulnerable in their societies and the future. The second principle is that all our schemes, initiatives and projects will be very low on entitlement so that people do not come to your MPS and bang the table and say, "I'm entitled to this help. You give it to me now." Our schemes will have very low entitlements, but it will emphasise the concept of mutual obligation, it will emphasise the role of families and it will emphasise self-reliance. The third principle is the fact that we will focus on children because children represent the future, and they are the best hope for families to escape the poverty trap. The fourth principle is that work remains the best form of welfare and the best form of the social safety net. And that is why all our schemes empower people to take charge of their lives, make decisions for themselves and enable them to fish in the sea of opportunities, rather than merely give them stale fish.

Mr Sin Boon Ann has quite rightly, in his usual way, focused on outcomes, and he has asked after all these things, "What has happened?" For financial year 2006,

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the ComCare Fund, which is one of our key pillars, expects to disburse a total of $43 million and this $43 million has gone to some 64,000 needy families. The money has been spent in three ways.

First, under the pillar which we call ComCare Self-Reliance, my Ministry has launched the Work Support programme in July last year. This has so far helped more than 4,400 families who have been looking for jobs or are in low income jobs. One in two job seekers on this scheme have been able to find work within six months of coming on to the programme. This scheme has also helped them increase their monthly income by an average of $560 a month.

The next pillar, which we call ComCare Grow, obviously focuses on children. Sir, last year, we enhanced the kindergarten and the childcare financial assistance schemes. You will remember that these schemes have now helped more than 15,000 children attend pre-school. And some 95% of children of kindergarten age today actually do attend pre-school.

But between MOE and MCYS, we have targeted that by the year 2011, we want to ensure that 98% of all children of kindergarten age will attend pre-school.

4.00 pm

Finally, the third pillar under ComCare is called ComCare Enable. The number of households receiving public assistance has remained stable at about 3,000 per year. The question you should ask me is "What is your index of success?" Should we be aiming for a larger number or a smaller number? My index of success is to keep that number of families, ie, people with no family support, those who are unable to work for the long term, as small and as tiny a proportion of our population as possible. So far, I have been happy with the fact that it has remained at about 3,000.

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Mr Sam Tan asked about the home ownership scheme and, in particular, about whether our qualifying criteria were too strict. Members will also remember that, last year, we liberalised the qualifying criteria for this scheme so that it would now include those who have gone beyond just three "O" levels, in fact, those who have achieved post-secondary education qualifications but still seem to be unable to move themselves up onto higher planes of employment. In addition to that, we also now have an appeals committee chaired by my MOS, Mdm Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, and this committee will consider cases which are on the margin, or cases whom you refer to us and, if it is possible to give them the benefit of the doubt, we will do so.

But having said that, we cannot change the fundamental criteria, because this is not an assistance scheme. This is an incentive scheme to keep family size small so that these families can focus their limited resources on these children and give them the best chance in life. That is why we cannot compromise on the number of kids. It has to stop at two. Although we may be able to exercise some slight flexibility on the income threshold, we cannot go much beyond that because, if we do that, we will be targeting the wrong group of people. So let us just remember that, yes, we will be flexible, but we cannot be absolutely so.

In August last year, we appointed the five voluntary welfare organisations and the self-help groups, and that was what Mr Sam Tan was referring to, because we felt that there was a need for more effective outreach. For this financial year, we expect to see at least 230 families sign up for HOPE. Each of these families, as Mr Sam Tan has alluded to earlier, in fact, stands to benefit from a package worth about $100,000. We expect to pay out about $9 million in HOPE benefits for Financial Year 2006, and this reflects the Government's commitment to the

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scheme. As such, at this point in time, I do not feel that it is necessary for us to make further relaxation in the eligibility criteria. In total, we have 706 beneficiary families as at December 2006.

Let me just quickly move on to the seniors' scene with respect to 2006. Members will recall that there was a committee on the ageing issues, which came up with 39 recommendations. Of these 39 recommendations, a committee, which is co-chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, has monitored the outcomes and they have reported to me that 32 out of these 39 recommendations have been implemented and the other seven are being studied seriously by the various Government agencies with a view to possible implementation as well.

Let me move on to the charity sector last year. In response to Mr Baey Yam Keng, Mr Zaqy Mohd, Ms Denise Phua, and I think also Dr Loo Choon Yong's concerns which he expressed during the Budget debate, I wish to highlight, and I think Members of the House do not really need to be reminded, that the major plank was, first, the transfer of the Office of the Commissioner of Charities from the Ministry of Finance to my Ministry.

Secondly, Members will recall that a short while ago, when we passed the amendments to the Charities Act, yes, these changes were a reaction to an unpleasant situation. Yes, these changes do lead to higher regulatory oversight over the sector. But even as we do this, I think it is worthwhile remembering that we made these changes because we want to restore public confidence and trust in this sector. That is the objective. We have no intention to engage in petty witch-hunting. I can assure the House on that.

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There was a very valid question about the cost of governance because, clearly, as you make the regulatory regime stricter, there will be some increased costs. And Members have quite rightly asked who should pay for it. I believe that, in this particular model, we need enlightened donors, donors who need to understand that when you donate to an organisation, not every single cent can go directly to the beneficiaries. You need an organisation, systems, governance, professionals and paid employees. So what we need to do is to educate the donor public that if we want higher quality, reliable, trustworthy voluntary welfare organisations, then we must be prepared to also do our bit to pay for it. Secondly, because Government subsidises or co-funds many of the programmes of the VWOs, in effect, Government will also have to bear its fair share of the higher regulatory burden.

But having said that, I also want to assure the House that we are not working on a one-size-fits-all model. Consequently, large institutions of public character or charities that raise large amounts of funds from the public must, and I am sure you will agree with me, be subject to higher regulatory requirements. But smaller charities or, as Mr Baey Yam Keng has said, corporate arms, which are really only raising funds from themselves and not engage in public fund-raising, we can afford to be a bit more flexible, less onerous but still have some basic minimum in place so that we can be assured that everything is kosher and working well.

But I think it was also Ms Denise Phua who emphasised that we can have all the regulations in the world, it will not prevent abuse. In the end, it depends on people. We need good-hearted, strong-minded people as employees, board members and members of that organisation. I would

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ask this House, therefore, not to be too quick to arrive at judgment as to whether our regime is too strict or too lax. We have gone through a hard time. Let us give it some time for this system to settle down and see how it evolves and, with time, we can make further changes.

The removal of the 80:20 spending rule will give charities greater flexibility in the way they manage their expenditure versus building up of reserves. The fact that we now have a more transparent system and the charities have to declare how much they are raising and how much they are keeping away in reserves, gives us the assurance that even when we relax this rule, people will raise funds and build reserves and spend money responsibly. The key thing here again is transparency and having the right people in the right place.

There was also some concern expressed that local charities may lose out to international charities. We believe that our local charities are becoming more sophisticated and more professional. I believe that, ultimately - and it will be in a short time - there is no reason why our local charities cannot compete on a level playing field even with the international charities. At the end of the day, if you are raising funds from Singaporeans, we are now in a climate where Singaporeans want to know where their money has gone and how it is being spent. I see no reason why our local charities cannot attract funds from Singaporeans and spend them in worthwhile ways within Singapore or, indeed, even if they are going to spend them overseas, they will still have to do so transparently. Singaporeans' generosity, as we all know, from the way we responded to the disasters in our neighbouring countries, does extend beyond our shores.

So I would reassure this House that this is not a zero-sum game. We can create a situation where more charities,

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voluntary welfare organisations and more management of charity funds occur in Singapore. That will benefit all of us.

Let me now come to the strategic trends which I believe set the context for our work in the future. After that, you can look at the Annex which lists our plans for the coming year. There are four trends.

The first is globalisation. I do not need to belabour that point. Fundamentally, that means increased competition and increased income inequality. With respect to my Ministry, my key objective is to ensure that we do not allow a situation where an increasing income inequality leads to a segment of our population feeling that they are unfairly and permanently deprived of a seat at the family dining table. That is why we keep saying we must make sure no one gets left behind. That is why we have made Workfare a key pillar of our social safety net so that we can tell everyone to get a job, any job, and we will still help you make it worth your while, still help you and enable yourself to look after your families with the money that you earn out of honest good work. We will also provide more assistance to the needy to cope with the higher costs of living. We will invest more in the children to enable them to break out of poverty. So, that is the first trend - globalisation.

The second trend that we need to be mindful of is demographics, and many Members of this House have already alluded to that when we talked about the fact that we are on the verge of becoming a rapidly ageing society, we still have low fertility. In fact, the proportion of seniors in our population will increase from about 10% this year to 19% in 2030. Since we are all politicians in this House, let me translate it into votes. In 2030, there will be 800,000 seniors. That is about equal

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to between five to eight GRCs and all of them have votes. So this is a significant constituency that we need to be mindful of. But even as we prepare ourselves for this, we must not view the old merely as a burden, a problem and an electoral lobby group. We need a complete change of mindset and, because of that, the Government has now decided that Minister Lim Boon Heng will chair the Ministerial Committee on Ageing and Minister Lim will speak afterwards and he will share the details on what our strategic plans are for the seniors, going forward.

Sir, let me move on to the third trend that affects our policies, and that is the fact that racial and religious harmony still cannot be taken for granted. Terrorism continues to be a potential threat to us, camouflaged under religion or religious extremism, and it seeks and has a very real potential to undermine our social cohesion and to cleave us again on the basis of race, language and religion. A terrorist incident in Singapore would put great strain on our social fabric. Consequently, we must continue to prepare now before anything happens by working on policies, structures, institutions to promote greater interaction and trust among Singaporeans of different races, languages and religions. Sometimes, it is contrived. But better to be contrived and have those interactions and reservoirs of goodwill and trust built up now rather than scramble the morning after an incident.

The fourth key trend is that of community participation, and many Members have already referred to that. I am not sure if I agree with Ms Denise Phua when she predicted that volunteerism will go down in the future. The reason I do not agree with her is that, just from my observation of young Singaporeans, and indeed young people all over the world want to get involved, make a difference and have a stake. If

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we look at the figures, people are coming forward to give time, money, and that is why they are speaking up about it and get very angry about it when things do not get done or do not get done right or quickly enough or money gets mis-spent. So, I take a more optimistic view. I believe that community participation is going to increase. Our job is to give more space for people to get involved, adopt their causes, organise themselves and push the boundaries and make things happen and, ultimately, to leave a legacy.

4.15 pm

Those are the four key trends that are, in a sense, the themes behind the programmes which you see in our Annex of our plans going forward. Let me just quickly sketch out a few of the more salient programmes in the years ahead.

First, we have to talk about money. The Government has been increasing social expenditure over the last few years. This latest Budget, with an increase in GST and social transfers, clearly means that even more resources are being injected into this sector. Frankly, some of you have come to me and said, "We want to ask for more money from MCYS." Frankly, I am not in the mood to ask for more money, because my greater concern, and I think that of the majority of this House, is how is that money being spent, how are we organising ourselves and how effective are the delivery mechanisms. That is what I have told my staff that we should focus on now. Take the money, almost as a given, but how do we make sure we spend it in the most and best effective way?

Our priority, as I alluded to earlier, obviously is again, the low-income and the needy. The ComCare Fund programmes will be increased by $6 million annually. In five years, that means, $30

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million extra on ComCare. The Government will also set aside an additional $10 million over the next five years for the CCCs, VWOs and the self-help groups. We will increase the subsidies for low-income families to send their children to kindergarten, childcare and student care. You know these schemes as KiFAS and CFAC.

The KiFAS subsidy will be raised from 75% of the kindergarten fee to 90%. What that means is that the average subsidy for each child will be increased to about $80 a month. That means for many children, going to a kindergarten will cost them no more than $10. Frankly, even if the families have trouble paying that $10, I know many Members of this House will gladly find ways to give that additional assistance. So I can honestly tell all of you that money will not be a limiting factor as far as access to pre-school is concerned. We will also be increasing the assistance provided under the Centre-based Financial Assistance Scheme for childcare. This would be enhanced by an additional $40 a month and this will benefit 5,200 children annually. For KiFAS that I mentioned earlier, 10,700 students currently benefit from this.

Dr Lily Neo and Mr Seah Kian Peng would be pleased to know that Public Assistance rates will be adjusted. It will be adjusted with effect from July 2007. We make sure that when GST kicks in, the additional assistance also kicks in. PA recipients can expect to receive an increase of between $30 and $115 a month, depending on the household size.

Let me give you a few examples. An elderly recipient, living alone, currently receives about $260 a month. We will increase that to $290 a month. A recipient family, with three school-going children, will see their assistance increased from the current rate of $825 a month to $940 a month. On top of this,

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PA recipients also have access to free medical care and financial assistance for their children's programmes. We can debate about whether this sum is too little or too much or just right. But I just want to make one additional simple point, which is, that there must be a difference between the amount that we give in Public Assistance and the amount that a working poor person earns from his job and what we give him in Workfare. There must be a difference. If there is no difference, you are creating a disincentive to work.

I cannot agree with Mr Seah Kian Peng - maybe I misheard him - but that is a very dangerous argument when he said that since it is only 3,000 families, we can afford to be more generous. Yes, we can afford to be more generous but the greatest danger there is that you take away the incentive of the much larger number of Singaporeans who are working hard albeit in low-paying jobs. There will have to be a difference.

In response to Mr Ang Mong Seng's point, I am glad to say that MCYS will top up the CCC ComCare funds by an additional $5 million over the next five years. And, for some constituencies, which have got an increased number of old or needy people, as Dr Lily Neo will be able to attest, which come to us, if need be, we will top up their funds on a selective basis. But I can safely assure Members in this House that not a single constituency is short of CCC ComCare funds. We will also provide the self-help groups with an additional $2 million grant over the next five years so that they can help families cope with the increased GST. Finally, because we recognise that the increased GST will also mean higher cost for VWOs, my Ministry will also commit an additional $3 million over the next five years to Government-funded VWO programmes.

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With the GST offset package, the ComCare Fund spending will rise from the current level of $43 million in FY2006 to $67 million in FY2007 - $43 million to $67 million in one year. I think Members in this House will agree that this is a significant increase in expenditure. But MCYS does not only spend money through ComCare. We also provide other social services - community care homes, homes for the aged and other social infrastructure, family care centres, etc. These cost us another $53 million a year. So, all in all, my Ministry currently spends $96 million, almost $100 million a year, on social services for the low-income and the needy. And this figure will increase to $140 million in the coming year. While help is available, and while the absolute sums of money are available, I come back to my earlier point that we should focus on the terms and conditions and the way we decide who is eligible and the way the people access these assistance schemes.

There has been some debate both within this House and outside the House about what to do with people who do not want help and do not know how to access help. Let me try to answer this with a couple of examples.

You will remember that last November, there was a Zaobao article on a Mdm Lim Huai Mei. She was explaining how she managed after she became a widow with two young children. Through her own efforts and support of her family, her community and church, she upgraded her skills and found a job as a childcare teacher and was able to put two children through school. She gave a wonderful quote. Unfortunately, I cannot speak Mandarin so I am not going to mangle it. But I hope the press would repeat her quote in Mandarin. Let me give you the English translation of it. She said, "To live life freely with self-confidence and self-respect, we must learn to fish instead of asking for fish. Rather than to rely on others for help, we should help ourselves.

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Instead of fretting, we should learn to adapt." I am sure it sounds even better in Mandarin. But Mdm Lim's spirit and determination is most admirable. We need to be very careful that we do not inadvertently undermine the spirit and determination of the many people like her currently in our society. We need to encourage and support them in their quest to be self-reliant.

Let me also cite you another two examples. Ms Tan Sai Siong is an ex-journalist and I think many of you would know her. On New Year's Day, she emailed PM. PM is here, so he can attest that this is a real email. I would read excerpts of her email to him on New Year's Day. She said:

"I have in mind a small group of people in Singapore who are at the bottom of the bottom most, not because there aren't safety nets for people like them. There are plenty. But because of the way they are wired, they are just unable to understand what is available, what is for their own good to accept and then continue to suffer the saddest deprivation in the midst of plenty when it is all so unnecessary. This group, to-date, falls out of all good Government intentions and facilities, such as Workfare. And I think it would not do for those like me who know about their plight to shrug their shoulders and say, "Well, they do not accept public help. What to do?""

In fact, this is the origin of Mdm Ho Geok Choo's comment the other day.

She went on to say:

" I know a handful of such cases, one of which was a subject of a longish exchange between Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and me a couple of years ago. Although Dr Bala was most kind and MCYS was most helpful, the man in question had two sisters who undertook to look after him which they failed to fulfil. It also did not help that the man himself, though of unsound mind, he was an ex-IMH patient,

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was allowed to decide that he did not want to attend daycare. In the end, he died of malnutrition and neglect, alone in his one-room rental flat and would have been undiscovered if I did not alert MCYS to his disappearance."

After she alerted us, we sent someone to check and that was when we found that he had passed away, alone.

Going on to quote her, she said:

"What struck me as ironic in this case was that, apart from everything else, the Government had just spent thousands of dollars upgrading his flat, changing doors, windows, grilles, floorings, bathroom fixtures, tiles and even switches that were embedded in the walls, making it an abode that I would have been glad to call home even if I did not fall on hard times."

The Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Dr Vivian Balakrishnan): 4.25 pm

Just think about that example. She went on to cite another case, a more current case. She said, "He is an old man called Ah Beng [no kidding, that is his real name] who tries without much success to hawk souvenirs made up of used drink cans. He stands outside the old NAFA Building at the junction between Middle Road and Victoria Street, diagonally opposite the multi-million dollar National Library. He can be found daily until 3 or 4 pm. One can buy his wares."

Tan Sai Siong said that she did not buy because she was a bit squeamish about the hygiene.

She said:

"I could spare him some money for a meal. I do that because that is the easiest thing to do, or buy him food. But the harder thing is to persuade him to get some long-term community help because he is stone deaf or maybe not there at all, or perhaps poor nutrition. I got one of the Breadline volunteers

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to speak to him. Apparently, he turned down an offer of help."

After she emailed PM, PM promptly emailed it to me. I got my officers to visit the man. Tan Sai Siong does not let go. She then went to check whether her email had made a difference. Another two emails later, she wrote to me.

She said:

"I am writing to express my appreciation and thanks for the care and support that has been extended to Ah Beng. I received the good news from one of your officers on Friday. The Central CDC has applied for a one-room HDB rental flat and supplemental financial help from the Breadline Group. In addition, the CDC has requested the Singapore Association for the Deaf to consider him for Befrienders' services as well as sponsorship for hearing aids. And as he has missed out on the deadline for applying for Workfare, the CDC will help him to apply for the next tranche."

Think of these two examples - the man who died alone and the family was not there, or this man who does not want help but continues working. Many of you would have seen, as you drive round Singapore, old men and women pushing carts, recycled cans or cardboard boxes. What I want Members to ask yourselves is: how should we respond? Should they be objects of pity? Should they be people whom we round up and put in Pelangi Home, feed them, clothe them, nurse them and take away their independence? Or should they be people whom we admire and respect, because even in their old age, and sometimes, despite ill health, they continue to want to work and be independent? I think both those extremes are not quite right.

Even if we accept that they want to be independent, and they want to make a living, and I say "we" now, I do not just mean Government, but I think the Tan Sai Siongs, the VWOs like Breadlines, the

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CDCs, the civil servants from MCYS who responded to an email from one concerned citizen. I think we all have to respond collectively and say,

"Look, how can I best help you? Is your family performing its duties? Do we need to use the Maintenance of Parents Act perhaps a bit more aggressively? Do we need to make sure that all the schemes that we have put in place you take advantage of?"

4.30 pm

I have always wondered. They are essentially self-employed people. In this Budget, we said that if the self-employed put $20 into their Medisave Account, the Government will put many multiples of that into their CPF and other assistance schemes. We need a whole of society's response. We need many, many more Tan Sai Siongs. But what I do want to say is that I do not believe we need a whole army of bureaucratic civil servants. That is why I cannot fully agree with Ms Denise Phua. She also said that Government should do more - I can agree with that part. But I want to make the point that Government cannot and should not do everything. Individuals have a role, families have a role, voluntary welfare organisations have a role and a responsive Government. All of us, because we are on the ground, run our own, in effect, social organisations called grassroots. We all have a role as well.

Having said that, there are still ways that we can improve the on-the-ground network. That is why we have launched the ComCare local networks. These serve local platforms for the CDCs, the grassroots organisations and other social organisations within the same locality to provide integrated help to people like Ah Beng.

My Ministry and NVPC have also launched the ComCare connection. This is a scheme to match VWOs - a

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corporate organisation. I think Members will soon hear organisations come knocking on their door - to ask Yam Keng for help. And we believe that this will create meaningful partnerships and opportunities for corporates who are so inclined to engage in philanthropy and volunteerism.

Mr Sin Boon Ann brought up the example of delayed help. He said that help was not forthcoming on an urgent basis. The way it should work is that urgent interim assistance should come from the CCC ComCare Fund. But all cases which need long-term assistance must be evaluated by CDCs, and that does take time. But even as of now, I believe the CDCs can process 90% of such cases within six weeks. This is already a marked improvement from the situation a few years ago. And I am sure if we speak to all the Mayors, they will all commit to improving this ratio further. If Members like, maybe I can follow Mr Khaw Boon Wan's example and publish statistics of each CDC's response to the assistance, but that will make me unpopular with the Mayors. They are already looking a bit aggressively at me!

I agree with Mr Wee Siew Kim that we need to have more volunteers and more interested professionals, and that is why NVPC called this programme E-Match, which matches professionals who are willing to spare time, using their professional expertise with organisations that need them. For instance, we have got many lawyers, doctors, nurses and other professionals who have contributed their expertise to building the community and getting involved with projects. Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon will elaborate on this later on in her speech.

I want to quickly touch on the social sector professionals. Several Members have asked about whether we are treating

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professionals, and indeed I think Mr Zaqy mentioned even the non-professionals also, the staff of these organisations, properly with respect, to be uplifted and given more opportunities for growth.

On the Social Workers' Day earlier, I announced a $1 million social work professionalisation package. This is for social workers. The package aims to maintain a high standard of social work by offering these professionals more opportunities for growth and learning.

But in addition, we have also revised the funding norms for VWOs to the tune of an additional $11 million per year. I hope this will address Ms Denise Phua's and Mr Zaqy's concern. I expect the VWOs to implement appropriate upward salary revisions for their staff, both the professionals and non-professionals. But overall, I believe that these initiatives will help the sector attract good competent people with competitive salaries and thereby improve the delivery of social assistance to people who need help.

Ms Denise Phua also asked how the Commissioner of Charities can help charities. We will budget $45 million over the next five years to support training, consultancy and IT facilities for charities and VWOs. This will help uplift their management and operational capabilities. We will call this fund the VWO Charities Capability Fund - nothing very imaginative in the name. But it is real money, it is on the table and it is available.

MCYS is also reviewing the regulation of cooperatives. Our objective is to bring the cooperatives' level of accountability in line with the higher expectations of their stakeholders. Cooperatives are business entities with social purposes. They are regulated by the Cooperative Societies Act. Some of them have grown considerably larger than they were at the start, and we want to make sure. There are no problems. Basically, I do not want

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another scandal breaking out. So I thought better act prophylactically rather than wait for problems to arise.

However, we will not do this unilaterally or with a heavy hand. Mr Seah Kian Peng can vouch that we have engaged in very extensive consultations with the stakeholders, and we will not rush the legislation through.

The points on seniors will be covered by Minister Lim later on. So I do not want to go into details. There is only one point that I want to share with you, and that is, I agree with Ms Ellen Lee that our seniors, especially those with dementia, need greater protection. I believe Dr Fatimah Lateef observed, yesterday or the day before, that the number of people with dementia, unfortunately, is going to increase. We are therefore considering legislation that will provide a legal framework for individuals to voluntarily make advance plans should they lose their mental capacity in the future, and we have tentatively called this the Mental Capacity Act.

Let me just elaborate a little bit on this. Currently, we have a Mental Disorders and Treatment Act. Under this Act, the High Court can appoint a Committee of Persons or Estate to handle the personal or property matters of people who have lost their mental capacity. But the point is that it is in the past tense. You have to lose your mental capacity first before a Committee of Persons or Estate will be appointed.

Sir, in contrast, this new legislation, which we are considering, is to allow you to appoint in advance - this means before you lose your mental capacity, you can decide who are your trusted relatives or friends who can be relied on to make decisions for your financial and personal welfare if you are so unlucky as to lose your mental capacity at some point in the future. So it is advance planning.

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This legislation allows seniors - actually, it is not just seniors but all of us - to make advance plans before they are struck by dementia or other mentally incapacitating illnesses. I believe this is to give us some reassurance. It will also cater to the parents of disabled children, because one of the abiding fears of the parents is who will make decisions on behalf of these children when they are gone. Again, this legislation enables a higher level of reassurance to such parents.

As this is a significant piece of legislation, we will conduct extensive consultations with stakeholders and with the public. We are also studying very carefully the experience of other countries, because I do not want to rush this through. There is no need to ram this down anybody's throat. This is enabling legislation. This is totally going to be opt in - no question of opt out and other forms.

As regards the draft Bill, I hope we will have the first draft by about May this year or later. I promise Members that we will then begin consultation in earnest thereafter.

Let me now quickly move on to the disability sector. Many Members have asked on progress. First, I am very glad MOE preceded us yesterday. So I checked with Ms Denise Phua. She is very happy with what MOE is doing on the education front for children with disabilities. Let me cover the other aspects of it.

One of the key recommendations of the Enabling Masterplan was to set up an office on disability. As announced by DPM Wong on 12th February, a new Standing Committee on Disability will be set up to address this. It will be chaired by the Permanent Secretary of MCYS. The Standing Committee will also include

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representatives from other Ministries, NCSS, VWOs, employers and other stakeholders.

The Enabling Masterplan basically took a life-stage approach. As I said just now, we have covered the education bit with MOE. So we will look at the other aspects. Under my Ministry, we have to look at early intervention services.

My Ministry will work with the VWOs to start two new early intervention centres by the middle of this year. This will raise the capacity from the current 700-odd places to 1,250 by the end of the year. I do not want capacity to be a limiting factor. In addition, MCYS and NCSS have worked with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to start a new advanced diploma course to train early intervention teachers. This will help increase the supply of intervention teachers and also enhance the skills of these teachers. And study awards will be introduced to attract more teachers into the early intervention sector.

The Enabling Masterplan Committee also recommended that employment of persons with disability should be based on business merit - their ability to work rather than just charity considerations. I think this is a principle we can all accept. But they also suggested that it is not enough to just state the principle. We need to have initiatives to enhance the employment of persons with disability and I commit to working with the Ministry of Manpower, the WDA and the employers on this proposal.

With effect from May this year, the Enable Fund will be renamed the Open Door Fund. This is a fund which will be used to help companies redesign their workplaces or redesign their jobs so that it will be suitable for someone with disability, who will be able to work on his

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or her own merits and perform a useful service for which he or she deserves an honest day's pay. Companies will qualify for this fund as long as they meet the minimum number of four persons with disability based on existing and new disabled employees.

The Open Door Fund will also be open to companies with outsourced jobs. Furthermore, an employers' network comprising employers who will champion the employment of persons with disability will be launched. This network will be chaired by Mr David Wong who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive of South East Asia ABN AMRO Bank. So we have got an employer with a heart, business savvy and experience who will help us oversee this.

MCYS is also working on the three employment initiatives that the Enabling Masterplan Committee proposed. First, we are in discussion with SPRING to set up a food manufacturing training centre for persons with disability.

Second, my Ministry is also working with IDA and with the Society for the Physically Disabled on an infocomm accessibility centre, which aims to equip persons with disability with the necessary IT skills for jobs in the IT industry. MCYS has committed $2 million to fund the apprenticeship component of this scheme.

Third, we are in discussion with NTUC Learning Hub and other relevant agencies to look into providing vocational training curricula in special education schools, so that children with special needs will be trained in specific skills set while at school. This will be followed by examining the possibility for direct job placements under NTUC's existing job seekers' programmes, such as place and train programmes. I hope Ms Denise Phua and Dr Teo Ho Pin will be reassured that we are making some steps in the right direction.

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Dr Lam Pin Min asked whether we would consider giving a caregiver's allowance for those looking after the disabled and their older relatives. I am afraid I would still have to disappoint him on this point. We will not be giving a caregiver's allowance.

The more important question which we need to ask ourselves is whether caregivers performing filial or family obligations should be paid as if they are individuals performing paid jobs. I think this is something

Prof. Kalyani Metha has also raised. The other way of looking at it is to say that there are families who need help and support. And let us make sure that our schemes provide help to the family and then that family makes the decision. Should one of them stop work, should I get a maid?

Should I put the person in a daycare centre or even on full-time institutional assistance? My preference at this point in time is still the latter model. That means to look at this as a family responsibility and a family that needs additional help.

4.45 pm

So what are we doing for families with disabled family members? There are already various tax reliefs and financial support for such families. These measures include the aged parent and grandparent relief, handicapped spouse tax relief, handicapped siblings relief. The foreign domestic worker levy concession is also given to households with a senior aged 65 and above.

As a response to the Enabling Masterplan Report, the Government will also extend the $95 foreign domestic worker levy concession to families with disability. The concession will apply to disabled Singapore citizens who cannot perform one or more of the basic activities of daily living independently and hence need a full-time caregiver. I think there

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have to be some criteria. So we have set the criteria as the inability to perform one or more of the basic activities of daily living. This includes activities like washing, bathing, toileting, feeding, transferring and moving around. Eligible families will therefore save $3,420 over a three-year period from this concession alone and it will cost the Government a total of $16 million in revenue forgone. This levy concession of $95 is on top of the general $30 levy reduction that Ministry of Manpower announced. So there is significant help and assistance being provided.

The problem is that caregiver allowance is what, in policy circles, we call "deadweight funding". It means you are going to have to pay a lot more money, a lot more than what we are putting out here - spread out over a very large number and the real families who need help on a family basis will actually receive less than the current approach, which is a more targeted approach. We can argue this at other forums, but I just want you to understand why we have made this decision not to have a caregiver's allowance but having said that, we are not ignoring caregivers. MCYS will set aside a budget of half a million dollars over the next five years to fund a caregiver training grant for families with persons with disability, and we will continue to monitor this situation and make adjustments in the future. I totally sympathise with the concerns of parents with disabled children over their long term financial security. Earlier in January, we announced the establishment of a taskforce to set up a one-stop umbrella body to enhance the financial security of such persons with disability. This taskforce will be chaired by Ms Christine Ong, who is the Managing Director and Country Head of UBS AG. Members of the taskforce will bring with them leadership, passion and relevant financial and legal and corporate expertise to help

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the disabled community, and I look forward to working closely with this taskforce as we think through sustainable long-term solutions which will give families that reassurance that their children will be taken care of for the long term.

In the interest of time, I am not going to cover the comments on youth and sports because Members have not spoken on it yet, and I have got Ser Luck to deal with it. The only perhaps one announcement that I need to make is this. I think Members all will know that we closed the tender for the rebuilding of the stadium just a few days ago. I cannot share with Members the details of the plans because we have to protect and respect the intellectual property but what I can say is that all the three designs that have come in are spectacular, and it will make a huge difference to our ability to host large and exciting sports and other entertainment events. I am really excited by it because I see this as part and parcel of our total transformation of the infrastructure in Singapore to host business, social, sports and cultural activities. In due time, after we have made our decision, we will be able to share it with the public. I think Members will all agree with me that this has been a major development. So, on that note, let me stop here and invite Mr Lim to share with you details on the Ministerial Committee.

The Minister, Prime Minister's Office (Mr Lim Boon Heng): Mdm Chairman, many Members have spoken about the ageing population and I think the facts are quite well known already. So I shall not repeat, except to point out that the baby boomers, whom we are going to deal with, will be better educated, more affluent and have better health when they hit 65 years old in the Year 2012. With longer life expectancy, the baby boomers have more time, more money and would

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want to be meaningfully occupied and enjoy life. So how do we meet the needs of the current cohort of seniors as well as the aspirations of the baby boomers? How do we face up to the challenges of this demographic shift and harness the opportunities of the Silver Revolution?

Mr Sin Boon Ann asked about the Ministerial Committee on Ageing. The Committee will build on the work of past committees on ageing issues. The three basic pillars for successful ageing are: participation, health and security. To achieve this, the Committee will pursue four strategic thrusts - employability and financial security, holistic and affordable healthcare and eldercare, ageing-in-place and active ageing.

The work that we will do will be premised on the family as the foundation of society because from the older person's perspective, having close family bonds is vital to their emotional well-being and family bonds remain strong in Singapore. A survey on the frequency of contact between adult children and their parents shows that 70% have contact on a daily basis and 20% have contact at least once a week, which was in Handout 1, but as Mr Ong Ah Heng alluded to, we cannot be complacent.

Several other MPs have also noted some weakening of family ties during the debate on the Budget Statement. Mdm Cynthia Phua, Dr Lily Neo and Dr Maliki have said that the elderly should remain close to the family and children be encouraged to look after their elderly parents. I agree. Our housing grants encourage children to live close to their parents. Prof. Kalyani Mehta, Mr Seah Kian Peng and Dr Lim Wee Kiak have asked for some financial assistance, even possibly a 'golden' bonus, for children to support their aged parents. While we will see how to help needy families cope with the added costs of supporting aged parents, our major thrust would be to

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have programmes that strengthen family ties, and better services to support the family to care for their seniors. Having said that, we must also note that there is a growing number of singles who will need the support of the extended family and the community and for them, we will explore other solutions.

The major function of the Committee is to coordinate our national response to ageing. Relevant Ministers are in the Committee and we will invite resource persons, including Members of Parliament, to join workgroups to develop specific issues. The Committee will benefit from a wide cross section of views and experiences, including learning from the experiences of other countries.

The first key thrust is to enhance employability and financial security and on this, there has been quite an extensive debate during the past few days and including the debate on the Ministry of Manpower's budget, so I shall not repeat. I am glad that many Members have expressed their concern for the continual employment of older persons. But, as pointed out, we have made progress in the past year. Because of the booming economy, the target of the Tripartite Committee on Employment of the Elderly was met in a year. So a new target of 65% employment rate for those between the age of 55 and 64 is being set for the medium term.

I would also like to highlight another point to support what has been said and that is, women on average live longer than men. So there is naturally concern about financial security of women in their senior years. We must again maintain family support for them. We would need to increase the opportunities for employment for women so that they will be able to achieve greater financial security in their old age. Our problem today is that the current cohort of women have much poorer education compared to men and,

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therefore, the types of work which they will be able to do would be of the low skill kind. Therefore, I urge Members not to regard the increase in employment of jobs that are of the low skill type as something wrong. I think these are jobs that such people would be able to do and, if they can find employment, I think it is a good thing.

The WDA, NTUC and SNEF will work to promote age-friendly employment practices, the training of older workers to make the necessary adjustments to continue working longer and changing public perceptions towards older workers. The more progressive firms will rework their HR packages to retain employees beyond retirement age. Indeed, retirement should become a thing of the past as more of us continue to work well into our golden years. We should work as long as we can and as long as we want, and that is why our focus should be on the employment rate and not on the retirement age.

The second key task for the Ministerial Committee is to support the family in its care for the elderly and two strategic thrusts - ageing-in-place and affordable healthcare and eldercare - aim to allow seniors to live with their families and within the community for as long as possible. Work on accessibility has been progressing well and the physical environment to support ageing-in-place will be a reality given time. And, on this, Ms Grace Fu mentioned about what the BCA and LTA have been doing to make accessibility a reality within a few years.

On affordable eldercare services, I would like to first say that we need to strengthen support services within the community. The delivery of step-down care services, like nursing homes, rehabilitation services and day-care centres, can be improved. We would put in place the infrastructure for services to ensure they are accessible and affordable.

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We want to attract more private sector players to provide a wider range of care services and options to meet varying needs and circumstances of families. It is equally important to establish community networks of mutual support and this will lower the cost of care for the elderly. On ageing-in-place, the physical aspect is only one part of the solution. The other part of the solution is the community support that is provided to enable the family to look after the old.

Appropriate training will be provided to staff in the elderly sector to ensure better programmes for seniors. Currently, this is a nascent part of the work but the Social Service Training Institute has some courses already for caring for the elderly. But we will need to develop a systematic training framework for eldercare staff so that they can develop and deliver better quality programmes and services. And I must stress that we also need to train the family members. On Mr Ong Ah Heng's idea of using professionals as a professional network to promote hobbies among the seniors is an interesting one and I will ask MCYS to study it further as it is complementary to the efforts to enskill and professionalise the Eldercare sector.

5.00 pm

Several Members have asked for more financial assistance for things like daycare centres and sheltered homes, particularly Mr Ong Ah Heng, who had operated the NTUC ElderCare for a few years, and I myself am very familiar with it because I chair the Cooperative. But for this, the MCYS has a subsidy ranging from 50% to 75% of the costs for the families at the bottom 30th household income percentiles, and it is the lowest 30% of households. And if you need somebody to be sent to such a place, then the subsidy level, depending on the family income,

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varies between 50% and 75%. So this already shows that the Government is committed to help the needy seniors and their families. But help must also come from the community as well. So the VWOs operating the eldercare services do assist the families by waiving part, or even all, of the fees in exceptional cases. So this many-helping-hands approach serves us well.

As Mr Ong Ah Heng pointed out, there is still quite a substantial amount to meet. We can lower the cost of such services by getting the service providers to work together, encouraging them to share experiences and resources. Perhaps, too many of them are actually operating on the sub-optimal mode. And we should try to bring them together so that we can reap the economy of scale, lower the cost of operation and therefore lower the charges that these centres need to levy on those who use the services.

Of course, the seniors who are poor and without family will be taken care of by the state and the community. On that, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan has already given his assurance about what MCYS has been doing. But we need more volunteers. We need to set up more Seniors Activity Centres and Befrienders to organise social activities for seniors and ensure their well-being.

We also agree with Mr Yeo Guat Kwang that preparing for the ageing population involves enriching social and family life. So one of our thrusts is to keep the seniors healthy, physically and emotionally well and to be as independent for as long as possible.

So to focus on active ageing, we will form the Council of Third Age by June this year. The Council will harness the wealth of experience that seniors possess. The Council will champion active ageing and imbue positive perception of ageing and the elderly.

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The Council will be supported by a Centre for Third Age, or C3A for short, its operational arm. The C3A will catalyse innovative programmes, including sustained inter-generational programmes, play an aggregator role, work with corporates to provide better value packages of products and services for seniors; and provide the platform for seniors to network and form new friendship.

The C3A would reach out to seniors in the heartlands too. The C3A would work with organisations like the People's Association and the NTUC to create more opportunities and engage seniors in active ageing. The People's Association offers a comprehensive range of programmes at the Community Clubs and Residents' Committees, from healthy living to lifelong learning, social, recreational and cultural pursuits, to meet the various needs and interests of seniors. The NTUC has established, what it called, the "Silver Collar Dragon Boat" which means the pooling of resources of its constituent organisations, to provide more services and activities for seniors to reach out to more of them. As an idea of what these two organisations already reached out to, 150,000 older adults aged 50 and above are members of PA's Passion Card and there are over 400 Senior Citizens' Clubs in the PA network. The NTUC itself has nearly 10,000 retirees in its third chapter organisation. So the C3A would reach out to more seniors through PA and NTUC networks.

The lifestyle of our seniors is getting more sedentary. The C3A will work with the Sports Council to customise exercise programmes for seniors and motivate passive older people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Sports, like PA's programmes, alleviate loneliness, get seniors together and build social networks among them.

The challenge for the Council for Third Age is to reach out to the unconverted. The C3A will administer the Golden

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Opportunity!, or GO! Fund, and seed new programmes, especially targeted at the unconverted. The GO! Fund will also support programmes that promote inter-generational bonds and extended family ties to ensure that seniors' well-being is embedded on strong family values.

The Council will consult seniors through regular dialogues. I agree with Ms Eunice Olsen's suggestion that we should get feedback from seniors. The Council will work with REACH on its first public consultation with seniors. We will focus on garnering ideas on active ageing and building social networks. Selected seniors from the public consultation process will form seniors workgroups to develop potential ideas further. Greater participation by seniors to develop and plan programmes for other seniors will improve the perception by others towards ageing and the aged.

On healthcare, I think that is being well covered by Minister Khaw Boon Wan. So I shall not touch on that. I think we are proceeding in the right direction.

In five to 10 years, seniors will be a large consumer group. In the US, Japan, Korea and Europe, businesses have tailored their products and services for seniors fueling the growth of a "silver industry". While Singapore as well as Asia experiences rapid ageing, the same phenomenon will occur in our region. The baby boomers have had the benefit of good jobs as Singapore's economy took off, and we would have a substantial savings and a reasonable level of disposable income, especially if they continue to work. Future seniors will spend on pursuing interests like travel, learning, sports and fashion. I have also provided a handout that indicates some of these things.

The Silver Industry Committee chaired by Mr Philip Yeo, Chairman of A*STAR,

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will heighten awareness of the business potential of the silver market in Singapore and Asia and facilitate the growth of the private sector in developing a variety of products and services. The sectors that we can grow are healthcare and wellness, travel and leisure, financial learning and assistive technology.

I have circulated some photographs to illustrate exciting possibilities which ride on the use of technology. In Japan, an elderly can do basic medical measurements at home and transmit them to the local doctor. Nintendo has developed a Brain Training Game to keep seniors mentally agile.

Learning, travel and leisure are also growing sectors. Reputable educational institutes, such as the Harvard University, offer the Summer School Programme for seniors. Our education institutes do some of these, but can do more. From 2001 to 2005, 16% of tourists coming to Singapore are 55 years old and above. As the other silver industry sectors take off, most seniors could come to enjoy a wide range of services and amenities here. Our seniors here will benefit. The larger regional market ensures that there is a critical mass so that more goods and services can be offered.

A developed silver industry would generate considerable economic multiplier effects for Singapore's economy and create jobs for Singaporeans. For instance, retailers would want older service staff who can understand the requirements and psyche of seniors. When the baby boomers enter their 70s, there will be increasing demand for care products and services. Jobs suitable for seniors will be created and fueled by the demands of the silver market. Employers will find an age-diverse workforce makes business sense as this will reflect their customer base.

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We can now look forward to ageing in a vibrant environment in Singapore. Over the next five years, policies and programmes will be put in place to ensure that ageing in Singapore will be exciting, that more jobs will be created for seniors, age-specific products and services made accessible and affordable, to meet the demands and aspirations of seniors. Our seniors will lead healthy, active and productive lives and have strong family ties. For those who are frail, families will be supported to care for them in their own homes and in the community. Just as Singapore is a good place to bring up families, Singapore will be a good place to grow old in. As pointed out by Mr Sin Boon Ann, it is early days yet. Perhaps, in the months ahead and the next COS, we will be able to give a more comprehensive report about what the Committee has done through the various Ministries.

Social Enterprise

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Madam, indeed, charity is fishy business. I cannot agree more. We want to teach people to fish rather than give them fish. This is an appropriate observation and one should embrace as we approach the issue of longer term welfare assistance for needy families, and to encourage sustainability of welfare in charitable work.

I suppose the impetus for this drive for social enterprise came with the recognition of the work of Prof. Mohammad Yunus whose initiative in micro-financing for the needy won him a Nobel Prize.

Closer to home, I note that social enterprise initiatives have indeed been on the rise. I recently note that the North West CDC has started a community kitchen with the hope of providing needy residents with the opportunity to make use of community provided infrastructure to supplement their family income through baking and cooking on a commercial

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basis. This is an excellent idea as it helps residents to acquire additional income while mitigating some risks associated with running the business. This risk may include rental, marketing or even distribution and debt collection. To the extent that outside support may come in to help these budding entrepreneurs succeed, it goes a long way in ensuring that there is a more than even chance of them succeeding.

Equally, over at the North East CDC, there were also a number of initiatives that were started to encourage the needy residents to be independent rather than to be dependent. One project that I thought was worthy of mention was the effort to get our residents to acquire soap making skills. This was an initiative that came with the belief that one way for cottage industries to survive in costly Singapore is not to start cottage industries that would put us squarely in competition with lower cost countries in the region, but rather to produce items that would differentiate itself from what the others had to offer and thereby carving a niche that would give these residents a more than even chance of succeeding.

Sir, social enterprise, while an age-old concept, is a logical way forward to help needy residents to be independent. It requires much resources and help from the various agencies to get it going. These can range from providing the business consultancy advice to providing residents with the right contacts and opportunities to help them develop this business. One thing that we need to be clear about is that it is not the responsibility of Government agencies concerned to ensure the success of these enterprises. That is not the point. The spirit of social enterprise is to provide every opportunity to create employment and to encourage the repatriation of profits back to the community. It is a grassroots initiative that is motivated by the people and for the people. Once our

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people recognise that doing business with these social enterprises is not for personal gain, but for the benefit of the community, the complexion of the relationship will inevitably change.

I believe that our Government also believes in the spirit of social enterprise. I also believe that there is more that our Government can do to promote this initiative in Singapore. We should not just give money and provide preliminary advice alone. We can and should actively promote grassroots social enterprise initiatives.

For instance, there could be inter-agency approaches to promote cooperation between Government departments and Ministries to encourage these initiatives.

5.15 pm

My question to the Minister really is: what further measures is the Government taking in promoting social enterprise further? Are we working with agencies like SPRING Singapore to enhance our capability and capacity in this regard?

Miss Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Madam, this Government cares for its citizens. In fact, for all matters from cradle to grave, and that is fantastic. But is this sustainable? With an ageing population, rising income gap and an increasingly educated and demanding population, MCYS will certainly face an uphill task, if it goes it alone. Hence, I agree with the Minister that the social gaps can only be closed effectively with the many-hands approach.

In fact, I agree with everything that my colleague, Mr Sin Boon Ann, has said, and I would like to also supplement my call made during the main Budget debate to make serious investments into the making of social entrepreneurship (SE) and socially responsible enterprises (SRE). We should make them the two very strong helping hands in Singapore.

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Sir, the Budget announcement to make Singapore the philanthropy hub of Singapore will be a booster to civic organisations, such as SEs and SREs. In fact, it represents a golden opportunity for us to position Singapore as the hub for such activities. In fact, if we think about it, Prof. Mohammad Yunus, who was mentioned by Mr Sin, Mechai, the Thai condom man, Jack Sim, the Singapore toilet man, are all Asians. Yet, there is no single Asian institution like the Ashoka, Skoll Foundation or the Schwab Foundation for SE in this part of the world. I believe we can make a serious effort and investment into this area and become the hub which will complement the philanthropy hub that we are trying to build. The question, of course, is then: do we have enough interest on the ground? I think we do.

Since the Minister's open support for social entrepreneurship last year, we have seen a lot of activities on the ground. But I think we need to build on these activities and create a really good critical mass. Unlike building a hard and cold statistical-driven economy where MNCs are the rage, building our own SMEs and even MNCs must take priority. Why? Simply because this is the people sector, the social sector where the three "Hs", ie, the head, the heart and the hands, that set the ethos for the society, bonds for a social fabric, and cement our social compact. But, of course, we must do this learning the best practices from local and overseas, and adapt the models that will suit our local context.

Two, we must create a supportive eco-system. This is currently being built under MCYS under the stewardship of Mr Philip Yeo. To do this, I would suggest focusing on a few areas.

(1) The legislative framework. First, we must encourage a certain degree of

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risk-taking culture because not all of it will succeed. So, our funding model and so on should be a little bit more generous and encouraging;

(2) A fiscal and funding framework where we can devise schemes for SREs and SEs;

(3) We can also best-source some of these blue platforms to the current SEs that are already doing very good work on the ground and in fact go further to create a directory of SEs and SREs and provide a sort of demand flow for them, in other words, get them to do the jobs that are under MCYS currently so that we can give them business as well as boost their morale;

(4) Create the E-platform, ie, community platform, that is real and not just a website. This would give them accessibility and an increase in productivity and, of course, raise awareness level by creating a social enterprise day with the Government also taking some lead in social entrepreneurship and becoming a socially responsible enterprise.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Madam, Mr Philip Yeo likes to say that to be a socialist, you first have to be a capitalist. This statement is quite applicable to a social enterprise. Social enterprise is not set up for the purposes of profit. But it gains the ability to help the needy by operating a viable business. Some social enterprises provide direct employment to the needy disadvantaged, as Minister Lim Boon Heng has mentioned. Their employees include ex-offenders and single parents with no other forms of family support. They may also employ disabled persons who are high functioning. These social enterprises serve a very useful purpose. But the number of social enterprises in Singapore is not high and they do face a tremendous amount of difficulty.

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First, on funding. Under the ComCare Enterprise Fund, MCYS currently funds up to 80% of capital expenses for new social enterprises and the first year of operating expenses, up to a total of $300,000. This support is helpful and I would like to thank the Ministry for making it available. However, one year is really too short for any business to show results, let alone a social enterprise. Having operated the scheme for some time, I hope MCYS could consider providing funding for up to three years. This can be done on a sliding scale, more in the first year, but less in the second and third years, subject to reasonably good performance. I think this will give the social enterprises a real opportunity to gain a firmer footing.

May I also ask MCYS to consider providing funding to existing businesses that wish to employ the needy disadvantaged? Besides supporting capital expenses, I hope MCYS could also include support for softer aspects, such as training their co-workers to be sensitised to working with colleagues with special needs.

Madam, it is hard enough to start a business when you also have to worry about counselling workers and making special arrangements for them. The challenges are very daunting indeed. This is especially so when the social entrepreneurs do not have direct experience running businesses. As such, I would like to urge the Ministry to work with economic agencies like SPRING Singapore to set up a business support system. A business support system should include corporate secretarial services to help social enterprises fulfil their obligations under the Companies Act. It should also provide affordable access to consultancy in areas, such as marketing, branding and product design. But this support system should be kept flexible and be able to respond to varied needs, eg, if it needs help with staff training or counselling.

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In conclusion, social enterprises have charitable hearts but they also need hard-nosed business skills. Our approach should be two-pronged. If they have a heart but not the skills, then let us help them acquire the skills. If they have the skills but not yet the heart, then let us encourage them.

Assistance to Lower Income

Mr Wee Siew Kim: Madam, I am pleased that this year's Budget has provided offset packages to ease the burden on the lower income groups. Rebates to offset the increased GST provide a one-time relief while a Workfare Income Supplement Scheme will help improve the employability of older low-wage workers and increase their take-home pay. However, many of our less-skilled and older residents continue to face great difficulties in finding employment. Many of such residents see me again and again looking for assistance in helping them find jobs. They want to make an honest living and be self-reliant. With jobs difficult to come by, many seek to be small-time vendors or work as hawkers. But our current system and rules impede such micro-entrepreneurship. The tendering process for hawker stalls is economically driven, with space going to the highest bidder. Vendors need to come up with deposits and pay for space to sell their wares. There is hardly any chance for these low-income residents to be successful in bidding for hawker space or afford to even set up shop.

Can the Minister look into allowing this group more opportunities to be economically independent by facilitating access for them to become hawkers and small-time vendors? The other group of residents that I see in my constituency who needs help are the much older low-income parents who had their children late in life. For this group, their age does not

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qualify them for the HOPE scheme. With similar needs, housing, children's education, employment, basic utilities, healthcare, etc, they do need a package of comprehensive assistance that has been extended to young, low-income families and their children. Is there any avenue for them to secure assistance? Can their needs be directed to a multi-agency forum, as these require inputs from different Ministries, or can the HOPE scheme be extended to this group too? We surely can extend some hope to this group to help them break out of the poverty cycle.

Child Care

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang: ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] "A child's life is determined at the age of three." The most important phase of intellectual development of children is from 0-6 years old. Hence, it is important that we give them a good start by placing more emphasis on pre-school education. Currently, we have about 16,000 maids in Singapore. This figure shows that we have not devoted enough attention to the pre-school education of our children.

We have about 700 nurseries and childcare centres in Singapore, but about 50 to 60 of them close down every year. This is due to unattractive salary packages and career prospects for the nursery teachers; as such, they have difficulties attracting qualified people to join this industry. In view of a declining population, it is thus critical for us to invest more on our pre-school education.

The Ministry of Manpower Labour Force statistics show that 44,000 people join the workforce every year. In the next 10 years, this figure will decline to 24,000 people. Our country is expected to observe a troubling shrinking labour

*Cols. 3455-3456.

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force for many more years to come. Therefore, investments in pre-school education must be seen as an urgent and daunting task, since children are our future, and people are our only resource. The cost of employing a foreign maid is relatively lower as compared to childcare expenses. The cost of childcare services is more than $560 per month. Currently, the proportion of children in pre-school education in childcare centres is not higher than 75%.

In Hong Kong, the Government has introduced several measures to encourage women to have more children, as well as to finance pre-school education centres. Kindergartens are given utility subsidies, rental reliefs, etc. Every centre will be given a HK$2 million subsidy to improve the quality of pre-school education and facilities. In this regard, we can learn from the experience of Hong Kong. In China, the government also issues land rights to operators for construction of childcare centres. Therefore, we can consider implementing the same measures when working on our pre-school planning since it will improve the quality of our pre-school education and give a better future to our children. Improving the quality of our people will also enhance our future so that we can create more economic miracles and improve Singapore's future prospects.

Mr Wee Siew Kim: Madam, may I take the two cuts together, please?

The Chairman: Yes.

Latch Key Kids

Mr Wee Siew Kim: Madam, I am concerned with the emotional care of latchkey children. There is more to providing a roof over a child's head and assistance with school work. Children need their parents to understand them and help them deal with growing-up issues in the right way. Loneliness is the

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cause of many vices among our youths - sex, alcohol and drug abuse.

MCYS should now consider expanding resources on children's emotional "comcare". The Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme mentoring scheme was implemented to promote inter-generational integration. Would MCYS consider linking its student care arrangements with schools and other volunteer groups to provide interaction between latchkey children and other student and youth volunteers? These volunteers should be selected based on their moral discipline and emotional strengths. Being in the same generation, their views and advice at times will weigh more than an hour's lecture by any adult.

Adoption

Currently, there are many couples and single persons who would like to adopt children for various reasons. Some for medical reasons; some, though single, are ready to be parents. We should encourage genuine and qualified couples and individuals to adopt children, whether from Singapore or foreign countries. We should facilitate the process and simplify the rules and procedures for them.

The Government can provide financial relief or incentives for adoption, such as a one-off subsidy, not unlike a baby bonus. More importantly, the Ministry should review the current process so as to simplify and shorten the time for processing paperwork for adoption. Presently, this can take anything between 10 and 18 months.

We should welcome these new additions to our Singapore family, raising and nurturing them as our own.

Single Mothers

Mr Siew Kum Hong (Nominated Member): Madam, the Government's long-

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standing policy is that an intact family unit is the ideal environment for a child to be raised. The Government, therefore, does not encourage mothers to remain unwed. This is why certain maternity benefits, such as Government-paid maternity leave, are withheld from unwed mothers.

Madam, I agree that intact families are ideal, but we live in an imperfect world. The unwed mother is very often a victim of circumstance. She does not choose to be unmarried. Chances are that marriage is not an option. The father may be married, he may be gone, he may simply not want to marry her. In these cases, the choice is not between being a single unwed mother and being a married mother. The choice, a very stark one, is really between being a single unwed mother and having an abortion. And I doubt if the issue of maternity benefits, like Government-paid maternity leave, cross the mind of women grappling with whether to be an unwed mother.

5.30 pm

A 2004 Cornell study concluded that children of single parents can do as well as children of dual parents, if the single parent is able to provide a sufficiently supportive environment. Withholding support from an unwed mother could end up disadvantaging the child. Should we penalise the child for the sins, if there are indeed sins, of the mother? I would, therefore, ask the Ministry

to refine its policy. If the aim is to avoid encouraging women to choose to be unwed mothers, then, perhaps, maternity benefits, like Government-paid maternity leave that is for the ninth to twelfth week, can be provided for the first child, but not subsequent ones. This would not penalise single mothers by circumstance while still sending the message that we discourage unwed mothers by choice.

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The Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon): Madam, to be a first-world nation, we need to build up not only our economic and intellectual capital, but also our social capital. Today, I will focus on the two pillars of our social capital - the community and the family. We must ensure that the community is fully engaged in helping the less fortunate in our society. We must also ensure that family ties remain strong. These are the cornerstones of a resilient society.

Let me start with ComCare. We have put in place a Government social assistance system that is effective and flexible. Our Community Development Councils, or CDCs, now process almost 90% of social assistance applications within six weeks. In contrast, prior to the launch of the ComCare in 2005, it was only about 40%. This is a significant improvement. At the same time, the CDCs have also ensured assistance is given only to the genuinely needy. This strengthens the spirit of self-reliance in our people.

Madam, next, ComCare has focused on increasing flexibility in the delivery of social assistance. This is because we recognise that for some, even six weeks may be too long a wait. Hence, we set up the CCC ComCare Fund so that the grassroots can provide help more flexibly. We should thank PA, CDC officers and CCC volunteers for doing this difficult and important job so well.

What is the next step? As Members are aware, ComCare is short for community care. Going forward, we will increase community engagement in helping the less fortunate: first, we will support the many helping hands; second, we will grow social enterprises; and finally, we will catalyse the growth of a ComCare Volunteer Movement.

Why are the many-helping-hands important? A few months ago, I visited

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the Ang Mo Kio Community Care Network, or CCN. This is a local help network comprising grassroots leaders and VWOs. I was introduced to the case of Mr James Soh. He was suffering from a disease that made his skin itch and peel. He lived alone in a dirty one-room flat, surviving on $300 a month from his brother. He was ashamed of his condition, and only left his home when he had to eat.

A member from the CCN, Mr Bhajan Singh, chanced upon him at a hawker centre. He and other members of the CCN managed to coax Mr Soh into allowing them to clean his flat and changed his mattress, which was full of bedbugs. Another volunteer visited him regularly to coach him in personal hygiene. With their help, Mr Soh has managed to integrate back into the society.

Recently, MPs like Mdm Ho Geok Choo have called for the state to play a bigger role. The intentions are good. But can the Government do what the many-helping-hands did for Mr Soh? Even if we have enough civil servants to reach out to people like Mr Soh, we would lose a great deal in the process. The passion of people like Mr Singh, the human touch they bring, and their capacity to befriend and help those truly in need - we would lose all these. So, instead of replacing the many-helping-hands, my Ministry's plan is to support them. We will do so by making the system more client-centric and increasing coordination between the helping hands.

During the Budget debate, Mr Michael Palmer has asked whether it is difficult for the needy to seek help. Let me emphasise that the needy do not need to know the specifics of each assistance programme. They only need to approach their CDCs, grassroots organisation, CCCs or the Family Service Centres. These touch points will diagnose the problem, identify

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the solution, and help put together the right package of assistance.

We will also step up our efforts to create greater public awareness. For example, we will set up a ComCare hotline to serve as a convenient first-stop for those seeking help. We will announce the hotline number later this year.

To increase coordination between the many-helping-hands, we have set up a ComCare database. Just now, MP Sam Tan said that I have sent out a note to encourage advisors and CCC ComCare community to use this database. Over the next year or so, MOE, MOH and other organisations will be coming on board to share data on the needy they help. We will also consider allowing interested VWOs that administer means tested programmes to join the database.

Next, we will build up the ComCare Local Networks, or CLNs. Like my Minister has explained just now, we want to create even more partnership with the grassroots to reach out to and help the needy. Dr Faishal Ibrahim has suggested this. We will also take up Mayor Zainul Abidin's suggestion to step up training for grassroots volunteers involved in providing social assistance. I am sure Members also know that one month ago, I had announced a funding of $1 million from MCYS to PA to train their grassroots leaders to carry out this duty in a more efficient way.

Let me now touch on another important social capital, ie, social enterprise. Through social enterprise, we can build up our social capital by using business methods to achieve social goals. Mr Sin Boon Ann and Miss Penny Low have asked about our plans to support social enterprise. Since 2003, MCYS has supported 62 social enterprises through the ComCare Enterprise Fund. We have also commissioned a study on the state of social enterprise in Singapore.

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To further develop social enterprises in Singapore, MCYS has formed a Social Enterprise Committee, chaired by Mr Philip Yeo. It has two strategic goals: firstly, to promote the employment of needy disadvantaged Singaporeans, in social enterprises and other businesses; and secondly, to create a culture of social entrepreneurship in Singapore.

To achieve this, the Committee will actively seek the views of social enterprises, and the private and people sectors. The Committee is targeting to complete its recommendations after mid-2007. I would like to thank my colleagues, Miss Penny Low, one of the pioneers of social enterprises in Singapore, and Mrs Josephine Teo for being part of this Committee and contributing to the sector.

Let me explain our plans in more detail. Social enterprises provide employment and training opportunities for those who find it difficult to get a job. One example is the case of a patient in Simei Care Centre who suffered from mental illness. Simei Care Centre gave him a job at their social enterprise, Rejoice Printing. With the training and mentoring that this printing business provided, he did well and regained his self-confidence. He even went on to find a better-paying job as a banquet waiter at a hotel.

To create more job opportunities for the needy and disadvantaged, the Committee will develop a comprehensive funding framework and business support system for social enterprises.

As Mr Wee Siew Kim has suggested, some Singaporeans have difficulties in finding a regular job. Setting up a micro-business may be one way for them to become more self-reliant. Because many of them will need help with business expertise and other relevant skills, the

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ComCare Enterprise Fund has funded a number of social enterprises to help them start micro-businesses.

We agree with Mrs Josephine Teo that we also need to provide more support for regular businesses that want to hire the needy and disadvantaged. There are already many companies that do so today. We will encourage more companies to do this.

Our next strategy is to promote community involvement in helping the needy by strengthening volunteerism. Madam, quite a number of my colleagues have mentioned this. We agree with Mr Wee Siew Kim that the social sector would benefit from having more volunteers with professional skills. The ComCare Connection, launched last month, will help increase the flow of volunteers with private sector expertise to the social sector. It will do so by creating partnerships between companies that want to contribute more than just money, and VWOs that can benefit from the company's expertise. There are already 12 companies in the pipeline, including StarHub and ABN AMRO. I am sure we will encourage more companies to come forward. Maybe Mr Wee Siew Kim, who is in the private sector, can also encourage more companies to join this.

But we must look beyond professionals. When I visited Tokyo's Edogawa ward last year, the mayor told me that each and every resident in the city was a volunteer. I am inspired by Edogawa, but because of time I cannot tell a long story. I join Ms Eunice Olsen in wanting to see a movement to make volunteerism a way of life for all Singaporeans.

For this to happen, we must recognise that each of us, rich or poor, has something to contribute to our fellow

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citizens. Small acts of kindness, like passing used textbooks to the needy family upstairs, or dropping in on an elderly neighbour once a week, can make a big difference to the lives of others. Take, for example, Mdm Monah Binte Selamat, a 72-year-old public assistance recipient living in Queenstown. Despite her age and poor health, she cooks for other needy elderly at Lions Befriender events and also checks in on elderly neighbours regularly. We will work with NVPC and other organisations to attract more volunteers like Mdm Monah.

Madam, even as we volunteer to help the less fortunate, we must not forget those who are close to us, ie, our family and friends. So, strengthening the ties that bind us is very important. They, too, form a vital part of our social capital. In the past, our family members lived under the same roof and our friends lived in the same kampung . These days, our friends and family members are scattered all over the island and even the world. Yet, these relationships continue to be important as a source of strength in difficult times.

Just now, if you have listened to the hon. Members, all of us emphasised the importance of family. The most important relationship is with our families. I am heartened to note that the Singapore family continues to be strong and healthy. More than 90% of respondents to a recent MCYS' survey said that they have a close-knit family. However, there are worrying trends. People are marrying later or not at all. They are having fewer children. More marriages are ending in divorce. The level of family support is decreasing due to smaller families, an ageing population and more transnational families.

Globalisation, better educational and career prospects have given our people more opportunities and lifestyle choices. Values such as individualism and freedom run counter to the unselfish, long-term

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commitment associated with marriage and parenthood.

Women, in particular, face a dilemma - to start a family or pursue a career. Achieving both would involve juggling the roles of wife, mother, daughter and worker. Moreover, there is a lack of viable work options, like flexible or part-time work, and good home support. The recent discussion on super mums highlighted this challenge.

To address these challenges, my Ministry will continue to do three things: promote a pro-family environment; facilitate work-life harmony; and inculcate in our young the right values.

First, we will promote a pro-family environment. The Government has in place a holistic package to support parenthood. Since 2001, more than 130,000 babies have benefited from the Baby Bonus scheme. We extended Baby Bonus usage to MediShield and Medisave-approved insurance in 2005. Soon, usage will be extended to medical-related expenses.

Parents have access to a range of childcare options. To enable home support, we have the Foreign Domestic Worker levy concession and Grandparent Caregiver tax relief.

My Ministry ensures a continuum of quality and affordable care options. Mr Yeo Guat Kwang has asked about this. Childcare centre fees have remained stable. Parents can use their Baby Bonus to pay for fees of childcare centres and kindergartens. Infant care and childcare subsidies are also available for working mums. We will continue to encourage childcare centres to provide flexible programmes to cater to the diverse work timings and care arrangements of parents. We encourage them to extend their operating hours and also offer flexible care for the parents.

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MOE and MCYS have been working together to enhance the quality of early childhood education and to make sure that the supervisor, the principal and the teachers are properly trained.

5.45 pm

Mr Wee Siew Kim asked about facilitating the adoption of children. Last year, about 400 Singaporean couples adopted children. Given the small numbers, adoption will not solve our population challenge. To protect the interests of the child, we need safeguards like the Dependant's Pass and Security Bond. Therefore, they need to take a vow to go through this process.

Mr Siew Kum Hong has asked whether benefits such as the third month of paid maternity leave and Baby Bonus could be extended to single mothers so that their children are not disadvantaged. Single unwed mothers are not a large group - about 500 children are registered without the father's name annually. Single mothers are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave under the Employment Act, of which eight weeks are paid for by the employer for first and second births. They also qualify for Foreign Domestic Worker Levy Concession, Childcare Leave, and can rent or buy a HDB flat with their parents, or as a single if they are aged 35 and above.

Their children are eligible for centre-based childcare and infant care subsidies. They pay the same school fees, enjoy Edusave grants and qualify for the same scholarships and bursaries. No Singaporean child will be denied an education due to the circumstances of his birth.

The Marriage and Parenthood Package is an incentive for married couples. It is not a financial assistance scheme for children. So the Government cannot and should not be the surrogate father.

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To encourage marriages, my Ministry partners universities, the community and businesses to facilitate social interaction opportunities for singles. SDU is professionalising the dating industry to ensure standards remain high with the entrance of more private sector players.

To provide greater assurance to singles, I am pleased to announce the formation of the Accreditation Council to advise on accreditation standards and processes, and to be the approving authority for dating companies and practitioners seeking accreditation. The Council is chaired by Assoc. Prof. Paulin Straughan, Vice Dean of NUS' Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Details of the accreditation framework will be announced later this year.

SDU launched the Partner Connection Fund to seed fund creative private sector initiatives for singles to meet that special someone. SDU has received some interesting proposals, and three have been approved so far. I thank Ms Eunice Olsen for serving on the Fund's evaluation panel.

Besides encouraging people to get married, we need to strengthen marriages. The National Family Council (NFC) is working with partners to explore setting up marriage resource points, starting with one at the Registry of Marriages. Information on marriage preparation and enrichment programmes, and counselling services will be provided in an informal setting.

Indeed, building a pro-family environment cannot be done by my Ministry alone. We need the support of the people, private and public sectors, or a 3P approach. Like the National Family Council, many have joined us in this endeavour - there are over 1,400 Family Life Ambassadors made up of businesses,

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unions, and NGOs, 84 Family Life Champions and over 850 Deputy Registrars of Marriages in the community. More than 250 institutes offer the School Family Education and Parent Education in pre-school programmes. And over 2,500 business outlets have adopted the Pro-Family Business Pledge. So it is really a many-helping-hands approach.

This Pledge is an innovative idea of the people sector led Pro-Family Business Initiative, which Ms Penny Low is a member of. Businesses are encouraged to cater to families. We believe this is the first of its kind in Asia. In addition, the Pro-Family Business Mark was introduced last October. This is a national assessment to give recognition to exemplary organisations. In January, my Minister announced the $2 million Pro-Family Business Grant to encourage more businesses to be pro-family. There is value in catering to families as a key customer group.

As the public sector, Government agencies should be mindful of the impact their policies have on families. I am sure creating family-friendly infrastructure is part of the Housing and Development Board, the Land Transport Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority's planning considerations.

To facilitate work-life harmony, I think this is a very new area. With more dual-income families, fathers should lend their support to childcare and household responsibilities. Thus, having work-life harmony is necessary for women and men alike.

A recent survey conducted by my Ministry found that respondents wanted flexibility in terms of when they work, where they work and the ability to work part-time. I think sometimes we always give excuses that it is very difficult to implement. But during the SARS period, quite a number of companies were very

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innovative and they carry out flexible work. The study concluded that organisations that help staff harmonise their work, family and personal responsibilities see increases in staff productivity and retention. So it is a win-win situation. I am glad Mdm Halimah and the NTUC have launched the "Back-to-Work" programme to encourage flexible work arrangements, part-time jobs and working from home.

Presently, work-life strategy at workplaces is being promoted by the Tripartite Committee chaired by Mr Hawazi, of which MCYS is an active member. Together, we will continue to engage employers, particularly CEOs and HR directors, and the unions. MCYS will press on with equipping individuals with the skills to achieve personal work-life effectiveness.

Madam, I will now speak in Mandarin about inculcating our young with the right values.

( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] I have earlier mentioned in my speech the challenges faced by dual-income families attempting to achieve work-life harmony. Having said that, I shall not elaborate further. I will now discuss the development of "heartware". The Government has invested heavily to promote family values among our people and encourage them to set up families. The problems that we have earlier discussed relating to elderly care, childcare, marriage, etc, can only be solved when we build a strong foundation for our family. Therefore, I feel that it is a daunting challenge for us to instill the right value system in our youths. I will speak on the following three areas:

Firstly, how the families, schools and society can work more closely together to inculcate in the young with the right family values.

*Cols. 3457-3460.

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Secondly, to review existing policies and adopt new strategies, for example, to work with voluntary organisations to organise pro-family activities. The purpose is to allow the young people or students to be imperceptibly influenced by what they see and hear since young. Due to shrinking family size, there is lesser chance for the youths to participate in the care of younger siblings. Hence, through such events, the youths can experience the warmth of family life, and thus better appreciate the joy little children bring to their families.

Thirdly, to encourage family members to lend greater support to the youths as this will help give them the confidence to set up their own families. Parents, grandparents, the elderly and relatives in the family can play a positive role in supporting youth and strengthening families.

Apart from hardware support, it is also important for us to look into the other aspect, which is the development of the "heartware". In the past, the Chinese said, "成家立业" [ cheng jia li ye ] - marry and embark on a career, but it is now the other way round, "立业成家" [ li ye cheng jia ] - embark on a career and then marry. Twenty years back, when we talked about getting married and starting one’s career, we did not think about housing issue, whether we could afford to buy a house, whether there would be a Baby Bonus, and whether we could afford a baby. Having a family was what life was all about, hence, getting married and having children was a natural progression.

Today, in the face of growing affluence, this has unfolded arrays of opportunities for the younger generations. After seeing so many foreign media reports on the posh and carefree lifestyle of young bachelors, the young have been imbued with values such as individualism,

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liberalism and self-actualisation, etc. Of course, as a utilitarian society and motivated by survival needs, we should not be blamed for being materialistic. We should not further reinforce these values but rather our parents and schools should encourage youths to retain traditional values such as "天长地久，山盟海誓" [ tian chang di jiu, shan meng hai shi ] - a solemn pledge of love that is everlasting, and "克尽父母天职" [ ke jin fu mu tian zhi ] - it is the bounden duty of parents to raise their children. Thus, it is important for us to start from the family, to inculcate the right values in the young a sense of love and devotion to your family. Many parents may not feel comfortable to advise their children because their children receive better education today. But, as the Chinese saying goes "吃盐比吃米多" [ chi yan bi chi mi duo ] - I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice, meaning the parents are more worldly-wise than the children. Therefore, parents and grandparents should not give up but continue to play their roles to instil the young with the right values.

Mr Wee Siew Kim has earlier on expressed the same concern about the emotional needs of latchkey kids. The family must imbue the younger generation with the right value system including pro-family values and moral values, and not achieve this through the instrumentality of somebody else.

Besides imparting knowledge and living skills, the school can also play a role in reinforcing right family values. As mentioned, we are living in a materialistic society motivated by survival needs and imparting our students with knowledge and living skills is not sufficient. It is also important to emphasise the right moral values and values such as patriotism. In this regard, I am happy to learn that the Minister for Education and Second Minister for Finance, Mr Tharman

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Shanmugaratnam, has agreed that the Ministry of Education and MCYS will work together to expedite pro-family activities. Although we can teach others what to do, sometimes it is more effective if one can experience it personally. "I Love Children" is thus a means to achieve this end. The role of the voluntary organisation "I Love Children" is to encourage more couples to consider having more babies. The Chairman of "I Love Children" has once told me that they have produced a TV clip on children and the clip seems to have evoked maternal instinct in women viewers. Some young people decide to have babies after watching the clip. Therefore, I hope that the "I Love Children" project will be extended to all schools. And, earlier on, Dr Amy Khor has said that it is an easy task.

That aside, "I Love Children" is planning to launch a themed bus to publicise happy families and parenthood. For example, we can bring young infants to junior colleges, universities, and community centres and let young people carry them, so that they know babies can be very adorable. Through reality role playing, it gives students the chance to act different roles such as a brother or sister’s role, or mother, bride and bridegroom, etc. This will help to simulate the joy of being a family.

You may find it quite amusing. Recently, a lady interviewed on a TV show said she and her husband do not like children. But one day after helping the dog whelp the puppies, she suddenly became aware and overwhelmed by the beauty and loveliness of life. After that, she got pregnant and gave birth to a baby. As you can see, this can be an effective way to evoke the maternal instinct of young women.

On my third point, parents, grandparents, the elderly and relatives in the family can play a positive role in supporting youth and strengthening

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families. With changes in the nature of family structure, increasingly contracting from extended to nuclear families, it is impossible to turn back the clock to the days where we housed several generations under one roof. But, there is still a role for the traditional big family. One of our unique points is that we are a small country with an accessible transport system. Hence, we can encourage the set up of more "neighbourhood families", meaning to encourage family members and relatives in big families to stay near each other. In this way, the family members can form a supporting network and help to look after one and another.

Next, let me quote an example to further illustrate the importance of adequate support from Government and grandparents. I know a grassroots leader who is working in the civil service, and she is a mother of two kids. After giving birth to the first baby, she has requested for flexi-working hours so that she can have more time to look after her child. After giving birth to the second child, the organisation has granted her no-pay leave to stay at home. And now she is staying with her parents and they are helping to look after her kids. Although her parents have retired, they are working on part-time projects at home. In that way, the parents have at least some form of supplementary income. As such, this grassroots leader is able to look after her children, cope with her work, and yet offer voluntary services at the community. Now that her husband is posted overseas, her organisation also encourages her to get a posting so that the family can be reunited.

Therefore, to create a pro-family society, the Government, employers, schools, voluntary organisations, etc, must work hand in hand. With various forms of support, I am confident that we can work towards a pro-family society.

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6.00 pm

( In English ): Madam, the decision to start a family, the number of children to have, and the division of household responsibilities are personal decisions to be made by each Singaporean. On the part of the Government, we will work towards bringing more joy and less stress to parenthood to give couples the confidence to manage family and career. With the public, private and people sectors working together, I am confident that we can create a family-friendly nation and Singaporeans will make wise decisions.

So let me come back to the big picture - social capital. Madam, even though social capital cannot be seen or touched, it is everywhere - in our homes, schools, coffeeshops, workplaces and community. As we forge ahead as a nation together, we must continuously invest in this important foundation. All of us must play our part to support, strengthen and develop this foundation.

Youths

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Madam, the post-independence generation has come of age and in recent time, has come under the spotlight in our discussions. This is rightfully a concern for us as this generation of Singaporeans grew up at a time of relative peace, comfort and stability in our society. Their childhood experience is often said to be the envy of those who grew up in the earlier generation.

The earlier generation of Singaporeans faced much uncertainty, particularly when there was great political turmoil, characterised by strident internal political strife with the communists, the racial riots, the uncertain economic future that confronted Singapore and faced with an extremely hostile environment in South East Asia that was perpetuated by our

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immediate neighbours. Fortunately, we pulled through those difficult years. And as we move further and further away from those moments, it would be an interesting challenge for us to preserve the memories of the times. We need to preserve these memories. It is important as it is the external challenges in those early years that, I would argue, serve as a crucible that holds us together as one united people, determined to shape the outcome of our own destiny. These memories are still vivid in the minds of many of us - the pre-65 generation - today. It is the events of our early struggle that helped to define who we are in this nation and what we are as a people.

For the younger generation, the events that we speak of are but stories that they read about in the story books and National Education seminars. There is little correlation between what they read about and their personal experiences. Indeed, some even question the relevance of such attempts to teach them the history of our country. Recently, I was told by some teachers that National Education lessons in school are often not given the same priority that it deserves, and it is often seen as an unnecessary distraction from the "real" lessons in school.

Sir, as a nation, we need to ensure our continuity from one generation to the next. The values that we hold dear at our founding - meritocracy, multi-racialism, incorruptibility, hard work and respect for the authority - must find a way of being passed on. It is, as one would say, our cultural "DNA" that defines us as a people, of who we are and what we represent, that are important to us. The next generation must know this. To be sure, we are not expecting our youths to look and have the same interest as the previous generation. Equally, I think it would be far-fetched to expect the

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grandfathers and even the parents to play LAN games, blog or watch MTV. Their interests may differ. However, at the core, there must be the same enduring values that define us as a nation.

How do we hold the next generation of young Singaporeans together as a people to share a common destiny? Education may be seen as one possible approach. However, as we have seen, education alone is not sufficient to push up the level of commitment to or passion for this place. We want to put a feeling of being Singaporean in the hearts of our youths. To do this, we need to engage them more actively, hear them out more closely and give them a greater sense of belonging and purpose as a citizen of this country. We are also anxious that our youths are also able to understand our fears, our concerns, our hopes for the future, without being seen to be too imposing as many parents are in a habit of doing.

How do we strike a balance? Certainly the goals that we have set out are obvious ones to adopt. The question is, what new strategies do we have? Do we have any grand plans moving forward in this regard? How do we ensure that our youths of today and adults of tomorrow will continue to stay committed to our vision and ideals and have a sense of belonging here? Part of the remit of MCYS is the continual engagement of our youths. In fact, we have gone out of the way to find a space for them to express themselves. We have the Youth Parks in the heart of our city which is proving reasonably successful. For the youths who feel left out of the race for material success, we take great pains to assure them that life's achievements come in many forms, including those who may have spent time in institutional care. Youths of all walks of life must feel that they are a part of the inclusive society here in Singapore.

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I would like to ask the Government, therefore, how much has been done in this regard and what further plans the Ministry has to effectively address the challenges of looking after our youths.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for National Development (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman): Madam, over the past few years, there is much call for us to reach out to the young. Often times, we hear of the comments from the older folks that the young in Singapore are having it easy, that they have lived sheltered lives, not knowing what hardship is, that they are only thinking of themselves and not for the society or the country. Our response has thus far been multi-pronged - giving them opportunities through the community, services through CIP programmes in schools, overseas community projects through youth expedition projects, and engaging them to garner ideas and encouraging them to act upon their ideas.

Madam, we must give our young a greater sense of ownership of Singapore's future. In doing so, we have to acknowledge that the youth population is very diverse. From the mountain bikers and the skateboarders to the passionate arts enthusiasts to the cyber gamers to those who spend hours jamming in music studios, and the list goes on.

It is important for us to assess how our current strategies are reaching out to these different segments, making them feel that they matter to us. Madam, I would like to ask the Minister: how have our efforts to engage and encourage greater youth activism been showing results, what were the KPIs set by the Ministry and have these KPIs been met? Can the Minister also share future plans of the Ministry in further engaging our young? Are there specific plans to reach out to the youths at risk?

Madam, when we speak of youths, we tend to focus our attention on school-

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going youths. But there is this segment of young working adults who are still very youthful at heart and mind. They are a very important group that we should focus our attention on. They also have very different sets of competing demands and priorities, compared to their schooling counterparts. In this regard, I would like to ask the Minister what are his Ministry's plans to engage this group of young people to enhance their activism and participation in the community.

Ms Ellen Lee: Madam, MOE had announced yesterday several measures that it would take to further reduce the school dropout rate and keep it low. This is good, and I hope this means that both MCYS and MOE will closely collaborate with each other to keep the rate low.

They will have to collaborate with each other to identify potential out-of-school youths (OSYs) and how to go about helping them before they drop out of the system. Procedures must be set up for the schools to identify, follow up or refer these OSYs to MCYS or community organisations trained to intervene, so that the issues accompanying them could be resolved. Madam, not all OSYs are delinquents or potentially so. We must avoid stigmatising them just because they have dropped out of school. Obviously, those who play truant are indeed recalcitrant due to related issues such as rebellion, no interest in studies, peer pressure, drugs or glue sniffing, rioting, etc. However, there are those with genuine family and individual issues due to marital break-ups of their parents, unstable family conditions and others. Youths also dropped out when they do not find school a caring and supportive environment.

We have read success stories of how OSYs are making good and crediting their schools for their success. Caring principals, teachers and peers rank highly and

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sources of stability are reasons why youths choose to remain in school even if they are not academically inclined. Of course, there are also many outside influences not within our control, which, unfortunately, often place OSYs at risk, that they are not so rooted to an institution and, very often, not to their family, and expose them to lots of undesirable influences and, therefore, higher risks. Once they leave the system, it is very hard to track them. Hence, knowing and getting to them early is very critical.

The group that we should be concerned with are not the ones who exhibit behavioural problems in school and are picked up by the system. The ones that we should be worried about are those who have quietly slipped through the system and reappear in society eventually, either through the juvenile justice system or, perhaps, as adults in the bottom 20% of our society, who have to struggle to make ends meet due to low education, low skills and being in a disadvantaged position in today's competitive and globalised environment.

Madam, I applaud MOE and MCYS for their efforts and programmes in reaching out to these OSYs. However, while step-up programmes may be the way to go, we must scrutinise to see if the programmes have successfully reached out to them. How do we measure the success of these programmes and what are the positive case studies that we have? Prevention is always better than cure and when both MCYS and MOE collaborate together to track these students' progress and attendances and follow up on the referral and intervention processes, we can save these OSYs and prevent them from becoming delinquents.

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Volunteerism

Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Column: 3427

Madam, it is widely believed that volunteerism is fundamental to the development of social values among our youths and serve to strengthen their individual ties with the community where they live and serve. It creates a platform for youth and working adult alike to develop their role in society and contribute to the community in active citizenry.

In a recent parliamentary question which I asked the Minister, he mentioned that the volunteerism rate for young Singaporeans between the ages of 15 to 24 years old has been rising over the past five years, specifically from 17% in 2002 to 28% in 2006. As a follow-up to the question, I gathered feedback from fellow Singaporeans and youth activists and I sense that more could be done to engage volunteers in the age group of 25 to 35 years old. There are concerns that this group might constitute a smaller segment of the volunteers in the volunteer circles. This could partly be due to their work and family commitments. However, I believe that this group has a lot to offer and can play a greater role in society. The majority of them are likely to have started to work and a large segment would be married and some would have children. They have the potential to contribute to the society and to miss this opportunity would be a great waste to the society.

I would like to call upon the Ministry to explore innovative ways to engage this group of youths. We should make it easier for them to contribute the little time and energy they have left for the society. This could be in the form of niche and specialised interest groups and encouraging voluntary work which relates to their profession or family. I am pleased to hear the Minister's announcement that the Ministry will reach out to companies and organisations to promote volunteerism.

Madam, may I ask the Minister about the participation rate of volunteers in the age group of 25 to 35 years old? Have there been any studies done to understand the attitudes of this group of people towards volunteerism? This would give us a better understanding of their aspirations and challenges, thus enabling us to engage them better. Finally, are there measures taken to further engage this group and improve their volunteer participation rate in community service?

Youth Space

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Madam, the scape infrastructure plan in Orchard Road is a good start in MCYS' efforts to create spaces for youths in Singapore. scape was an interesting idea to city street hangout but I ask that the *scape concept be replicated in the heartlands for youths to interact and organise themselves nearer to home. Our modern estates have limited play space and I suspect that, in future, it is only going to get even worse as the Government plans for an island population of 6.5 million. Today, HDB housing blocks are too close to play areas. Space is often limited and activities are restricted for fear of inconvenience to residents. Kids today come to me saying they have a lack of space to play. They play under linkways, they get scolded; they play in void decks, they get scolded. They play in the street soccer courts; they get scolded too. So we need to create spaces for our youths to grow in the heartlands and develop their sense of identity. Such facilities should allow activities such as indoor sports and recreation, perhaps, visual performing arts, entrepreneurship activities, mobilising themselves for community projects and even providing youth resources such as counselling and youth engagement of youths at risk in areas such as sex education. Maybe even Mrs Yu-Foo could consider putting kits in this space for these youths to play with. Such facilities can be built up and

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enclosed - one for each precinct - to complement the community clubs that we have today.

Sporting Culture

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo: Madam, I applaud the increased focus for sports in Singapore and investments to build world-class infrastructure. The Sports Hub is clearly an example of this. The drive to promote sporting excellence and supporting and developing our athletes with goals to achieving medals and competitive success is heartening. All this is good to heighten and motivate sports in Singapore and the promotion of Singapore as a sporting hub. I would have, however, also asked for an equal focus on building a sporting culture. The support and strategy to work with National Sports Associations (NSAs) is a good one in the move to building a sports culture and greater participation in sports in Singapore. However, in 2007, what we are seeing is that NSAs are getting less funding to support their initiatives. Although there is an expectation for NSAs to garner private sector sponsorship, many are struggling to do so as sponsors too are keener to support the more prominent sports.

6.15 pm

In the pursuit for gold and excellence, we run the risk of elitism in sports and we will miss out on all the other benefits of broad-based sporting participation. The same trend can be seen in schools where we have to take part in certain sports or CCAs. There is a need for making the qualification. Here, again, the focus is on competitive sports.

Let us not forget the fun in sports. I can understand the business case for focusing our limited resources to promote sports excellence and goal. However, our KPIs cannot just be on this as this will lead to an imbalance, and we need both the hardware, the great sporting facilities

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and infrastructure like the sports hub and the sports stars to be role models. However, the software is also necessary to fill these sporting facilities and to be able to promote the appreciation of sports.

The Chairman: Ms Tan, your time is up. Mr Seah Kian Peng.

Sports

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Madam, one of Singapore's greatest strengths lies in our magic in attracting people from all over the world to come here and stay. And one of our greatest vulnerabilities is that many of these foreigners do not yet see Singapore as their home. In the review process of the foreign sports talents scheme, there is an agreement that we should help these talents integrate into our society and prepare them to be self-reliant citizens after their competitive years are over. I am sure all Members of this House have watched our sportsmen and sportswomen winning medals. There is a great moment of celebration of pride and joy, when they step up to collect their medals, and a greater moment of discomfort when the Singapore National Anthem is played and the athletes look lost. How many of the sports persons who played under our flag do not know how to sing the National Anthem? At some recent sporting events, I cringed when I saw some of our athletes looking forlorn and lost, and I know many Singaporeans share the same view.

Although I do not think that not knowing how to sing the National Anthem implies that they have no sense of nationalistic pride, there is certainly more that can be done to raise their nationalistic pride on the part of these athletes. Sir, I want to ask: can the Minister outline the current schemes and

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plans in store for these athletes, specifically tell us if any part of the budget has been set aside to assimilate and localise the sporting talents to better gel with the rest of the population? One of the key issues, I believe, is the learning of English. If a fund can be set up for English lessons for foreign sporting talents, I believe it will be a great step forward.

Still on the issue of sports, but for a different part of Singapore, the elderly. It is a well-known fact that engaging in regular physical exercises and sporting activities have a positive impact on improving the quality of life, life expectancy, physical and mental well-being and self-esteem. As more of Singaporeans join the golden years group, it is a logical step to encourage the elderly to take up regular physical exercises and sports. In Israel, games for the elderly is a new addition to its sporting calendar. Their competitors aged 60 years and above can compete in a variety of events, including track and field, swimming, bowling, badminton, table tennis, and so on. Its Director of Health Promotion, Mr Yusifar, explains, "Competitive sports among the elderly communicate the fundamental message that elderly people are just like any other group. They can compete, they can win, and they can be proud. A sense of pride and self-esteem are essential to the health and well-being of the elderly as well as their ability to participate."

Madam, I am sure it will be a progressive step for us to adopt similar initiatives on a local level to engage active participation amongst the elderly, to foster and maintain their sense of pride, health, self-esteem and quality of life in our society.

The Chairman: Mrs Jessie Phua, you might like to take both your cuts together.

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Land Lease for National Sporting Associations

Mrs Jessie Phua (Nominated Member): Madam, land lease for National Sports Associations (NSAs). Presently, these are valued at current market rate making it financially sapping for the NSAs. The extension of these leases can even stretch to the region in excess of a million dollars. Jack Neo's "Money No Enough" is very real for sports promoters. It is ironical for the NSAs who are already facing the perennial problem of inadequate funding annually to then seek financial assistance from the MCYS. This transferring of money from the left pocket, in this case the MCYS, to the right pocket, the SLA, is such a waste of time and resources. Indeed, if an NSA is capable of raising, say, a million dollars on a sustainable basis, would it not make better sense for this money to be channelled into developing and growing the sports, instead of paying the SLA, not to mention that in the light of lesser funding requirement for this NSA, MCYS can then redirect some of its limited funds to the other NSAs which may not have the same marketing ability? I hope the Ministries involved can look into the possibility of reviewing this with a view of pegging land leases and their extensions at preferential rate for these national causes.

Whilst on the subject of land leases for sports facilities, it may be worthwhile to look at how to build a nationwide network of sporting facilities without exerting more demands on Government fundings. Would the Government consider offering incentives to developers to build sports facilities, for example, badminton, basketball courts, etc, in shopping malls? Incentives could be by way of higher plot ratio, somewhat akin to URA allowing higher built-up to developers for housing VWOs. This is a win-win for all - less Government funding requirement by NSA for sports facilities and for the developers, not only the benefit of higher plot ratio

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but, more importantly, to be recognised by the community as being socially responsible corporate citizens.

National Sports Associations as Institutions of Public Character

Advancement of National Sports Associations as Institutions of Public Character (IPC). The FY 2005 Budget, with its theme of creating opportunities, building community, brought much cheer to everyone in the sporting fraternity. It signals, in no uncertain terms, our Government's resolve to help and aid the development of sports in Singapore. It is with a heavy heart that some two years have gone that I have to draw this House's attention to the fact that the sports fraternity has yet to benefit fully from this initiative. Why, we asked? Could one of the biggest stumbling blocks in this progress be that only one of the three thrusts of sports is eligible for this charitable status billing? Only the "Sports for All" pillar, in other words, high participation, qualifies. The FY 2005's initiative definition of "sports" is "one that advances the health of individuals and promoting healthy lifestyle for all."

Madam, I believe the Ministry's finance interpretation of that to mean only Sports for All is somewhat flawed. The spirit of this initiative is lost in its implementation. Just as Tiger Woods single-handedly change the image and appeal of golf worldwide. In Singapore, we too need our local sporting icons to excite and draw the young, and not so young Singaporeans, to pick up their table tennis paddle, badminton rackets, or even bowling ball. Ronald Susilo, Li Jia Wei and Remy Ong are the result of many, many years of grooming under the NSA's Sports Excellence Trust. They inspire the seven-, the 15- or even the 25-year- olds into the world of sports. Understandably, a good percentage of these aspiring athletes may never attain super-sporting star status, but their involvement and participation

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would have made enough significant impact for them to regard sports as a lifestyle.

More people coming into sports means more coaches or training centres are needed. Along with this increase, we can also look forward to a sizeable corresponding growth in its related industries, like sports retail business, sports medicine and sports science service providers, advertising, just to name a few. These, in turn, help to build up a vibrant sports industry in which it then attracts sponsorship dollars to fund and aid sports development. It is naive to believe that our nation can reap the full benefits of sports through only the Sports for All pillar. Without marketing, in this case our sporting icons groomed under our Sports Excellence pillar, there will be limited success for the Sports for All pillar. And without appeal of sporting icons or market reach, in this case both sports participants as well as spectators, can we possibly bring in the money for the sports industry pillar to grow the sports?

The point I want to drive home is that the three thrusts of sports - Sports Excellence, Sports for All and Sports Industry - their lifelines are intertwined. Only collectively driven can sports thrive. I urge the respective Ministries to revisit the FY 2005's initiative and give sports a fighting chance to continue to win even more for Singapore, but not just for more medals at international sporting meets but, more importantly, for a nation of fitter and healthier Singaporeans.

Sports School

Mr Ang Mong Seng: ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] The Singapore Team has done extremely well in the recent SEA Games and Asian Games. However, if we

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compare ourselves to other athletes from the Southeast Asian countries, Singapore only ranks sixth. This is worthy of our concern because it is Singapore's turn to host the SEA Games in four years' time in 2011. At that time, our athletes need to achieve breakthrough performances, so that we can clinch more gold medals and, most importantly, to move up the ranks. We must be the first, if not the first runner-up. To achieve this goal, we need to plan ahead and take action now to cultivate and train our athletes for all sports and not just in sports that are given more emphasis by the Singapore Sports Council. In that regard, we should continue to work closely with the National Sports Associations by producing more sporting champions to achieve top honours for our country.

The Singapore Sports School costs about $75 million to build. It was officially launched by the then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 2004. The Sports School’s primary mission is to nurture and train more outstanding athletes to participate in regional and international competitions such as the SEA Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Olympics, etc, so that they can achieve good results and bring honour to Singapore. Currently, the Sports School only trains athletes in a number of sports that are being offered. On this, I would like to ask if we are being too conservative. This is because we have not fully utilised the facilities of the Sports School to train our athletes. Therefore, we should encourage the National Sports Associations to set a target, and pool the wisdom and efforts of everyone, so that we can strive for a breakthrough in our performance. In addition, we should lift the present restrictions on the Sports School, and actively groom players to become national athletes. Therefore, I would like to suggest that the Sports School consider increasing the number of sports that are being offered in the Sports School and the National Sports Associations, so that we make full use of

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the facilities to train our athletes in sporting activities such as Chinese and Malay martial arts, etc. This will definitely help to ensure the development of a flourishing sports arena, as well as to encourage our athletes to achieve glory for the nation.

*Cols. 3461-3462.

Disabled Athletes

Mr Michael Palmer (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Madam, in the recent response to a Question for Oral Answer posed by me, the Parliamentary Secretary for MCYS said that "Singapore's disabled athletes have consistently performed well over the last few years and broken several records in the process." In our drive to make Singapore a Sports Hub and a sporting nation, we must not forget our athletes with disabilities, both physical and intellectual. They too are athletes who strive to be the best they can be for our country.

Project 0812 is a special project which is driven by the Singapore National Olympic Council and supported by the Sports Council at MCYS. The goal of the project is for Singapore to win medals at the Olympic Games of 2008 and 2012. $7 million is being put into the first phase of this project. We are investing these resources in 22 of our nation's top athletes. What about our athletes with disabilities? They have performed admirably with very much less support and resources. In the 2006 Pacific Games, our disabled athletes returned with seven Golds, five Silvers and five Bronzes. Theresa Goh is also a recognised potential paralympian medal winner. At the top end of the spectrum, what are MCYS and the various agencies doing to invest in the development of these athletes? Is there a project akin to Project 0812 for them? If not, why not? Should MCYS not be establishing a plan to raise the level of participation in high profile

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competition in the long term, just as we are doing for our potential Olympians?

Constructing barrier-free access to buildings and facilities is one tangible way in which the Government is committed to supporting and helping less able Singaporeans cope with additional challenges they face in their daily lives. For those disabled athletes who have shown their talent, grit and determination in pushing themselves to compete and excel in the sporting arena, should we not also give them the support and help that they deserve in their quest to achieve glory for Singapore?

What about intellectually disabled athletes? The needs of intellectually disabled athletes come under the auspices of the Special Olympics Singapore, which is a registered charity. Should MCYS not also pay attention to the needs of the intellectually disabled athletes? Further, over the last few years, MCYS has, through the Singapore Sports Council, focused on the goal of Sports for All. This is admirable and I commend it. But may I therefore ask whether MCYS has any intention of widening its scope for Sports for All to include the disabled community and, if so, what plans it has for doing so?