HAWKERS' LICENCES FOR NON-CITIZENS (Relaxation of policy)

Mr Low Guan Onn asked the Minister for Health if he will consider a relaxation of the policy not to issue hawkers' licences to non-citizens, in the case of those non-citizens who have resided in the Republic for more than ten years, in the light of (i) the decision of the Government not to grant citizenship freely, and (ii) the large number of non-citizen workers, who will become unemployed with the run-down of the British military bases and who may wish to take to hawking as a means of livelihood.

Mr Chua Sian Chin: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Hawkers Re-organisation Programme began in February 1966 with the objective of registration of all hawkers in streets by constituencies, it was then that the policy of not registering non-citizen hawkers was strictly applied.

The following are the numbers of "non-citizen hawkers" who had been given notices to cease hawking, as well as the numbers of "citizen hawkers" registered by constituencies ---

Mr Speaker: if you are going to give the figures for all 58 constituencies, would it not be better to circulate the figures to Members and cause them to be printed in the Official Report?

Mr Chua Sian Chin: I am only going to give the figures for six areas. They are: Constituency Non-citizen Citizen hawkers not hawkers registered registered Geylang West 54 as against 540 Anson 75 as against 493 Tanjong Pagar 15 as against 342 Telok Ayer 41 as against 772 Part of Geylang Serai/Joo Chiat 8 as against 419 Hong Lim 22 as against 908 --- ----- Total 215 3,474 === =====

Further, there are at the moment an estimated 20,000 hawkers still unlicensed in the Republic, and it is not possible at the moment to determine what proportions of these are non-citizens. Owing to the serious situation in regard to employment, the policy of this Ministry is to register and license our own citizens who want to take up hawking as a means of livelihood and to accommodate them in the limited sites which are available.

In view of the above, it is not possible to relax this policy of allowing only our own citizens to hawk legitimately in the Republic.