SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FUND (Particulars)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Liew Kok Pun asked the Minister for Finance, for the year 1980, (a) how much was collected for the Skills Development Fund; (b) how many applications for grants from the Fund were received and how many of them were successful; and (c) if he will give breakdown statistics of the number of successful applications in terms of (i) the amount awarded; and (ii) days/months taken from the submission of an application to the notification that the grant had been awarded.

The Minister for Finance (Mr Hon Sui Sen): Mr Speaker, Sir, the total amount collected for the Skills Development Fund in 1980 was $76.1 million. During the year, 716 applications for grants from the Fund were received. 299 of these were successful.

The total amount of grants awarded was $14.3 million. $10.3 million was awarded to the manufacturing sector, $1.4 million to the computer industry, $399,000 to the commercial sector, $491,000 to the transport, storage and communication sector, $93,000 to the finance, insurance and business services sector, and $2.1 million to the public sector and other training institutes.

The average time taken for the processing and approval of an application was about three months. The time taken for an application to be processed depends on how complete is the information supplied.

Mr Ng Kah Ting (Punggol): Sir, could the Hon. Minister for Finance inform this House how many applications are still outstanding, and what is the amount committed to these outstanding applications for the use of the Skills Development Fund?

Mr Hon Sui Sen: Sir, I am afraid I do not have the answer to that question right now. I will furnish the answer to him if he really wishes to have this information. I believe that the Skills Development Fund publishes data of this kind from time to time, but I will be quite happy to send him whatever information he wants on this.

Mr Ng Kah Ting: Sir, I asked the supplementary question because I expressed concern yesterday over the collection of the Skills Development Fund. Just now the Hon. Minister for Finance has indicated to the House that a sum of $76 million has been contributed. This is indeed a very big sum. Could he assure the House that this Fund will be used for the development of skills?

Mr Hon Sui Sen: Sir, I do not think there is any doubt about this. After all there is a Skills Development Act which has been passed by Parliament specially for this purpose, and I can give him the assurance that the Act will be implemented to the full.

Mr Tan Soo Khoon (Alexandra): Sir, in view of the relatively small amount that has been paid out by the Fund and the number of applications that have been approved, does it imply that the Fund has been too rigid in its consideration of applications?

Mr Hon Sui Sen: The answer to that is "No." I accept that the Fund has been a bit slow in getting started, as all new institutions must: but the applications are now accelerating and they are being dealt with more expeditiously. More staff have been taken. I am told the applications should be dealt with within two months in the very near future.

There are other schemes for use of the monies, such as grants towards the subsidization of interest on capital investments for improvement of skills. This will, I think, make pretty good use of the monies that are remaining, and I hope that the Member will soon see that the disbursements from this Fund will be much more than the numbers that are given so far.

Dr Tay Eng Soon (River Valley): I understand that the Skills Development Fund has been used principally for the provision of training for lower level workers and so on. Can the Minister tell us whether the Fund can be used for middle and higher levels of managers in firms? In view of our plan to go into higher technology, I think the middle and higher levels of staff are very important, and so whether the Fund can be used for that purpose.

Mr Hon Sui Sen: Sir, the Fund has already been used for those purposes. For example, in the case of applications for computer applications in firms, many of the people who are sent overseas for training are from the managerial or higher technical classes.