APPLICATION SYSTEM FOR HAWKER STALLS

Encik Harun bin A. Ghani asked the Minister for the Environment whether his Ministry has any plan to change the application system for hawker stalls.

The Minister for the Environment (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Sir, vacant hawker stalls are rented out to the public through a tender system. The Ministry has no plans to change the current method of allocating stalls to the public.

Encik Harun bin A. Ghani (Hong Kah): Sir, could the Minister reconsider his decision so that the lower income or hardship cases have a chance to tender for a hawker stall? Otherwise, they would not have a chance to obtain a hawker stall because the present tender prices are very high.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the tender process is open to everybody. There are two sectors of stalls available - one is the market produce stalls and the other is the cooked food stalls. We have about 70 market produce stalls and 25 cooked food stalls being tendered out every two months. So far, for the market produce stalls, the take-up rate has been about 70%. I would suggest that the hardship cases, if they are really interested in having a stall, should try to participate in the tender programme for the market produce stalls where the likelihood of their being successful would be pretty good.