Live Blog: Singapore Budget 2016
Ricky L • Remove
The Budget 2016 - target sector by sector, industry by industry ---- is a right move - as the money will provide more targeted, pin-pointed and specific effects to each industry - and this will help sector and industry to transform more effectively.Reply
Ricky L • Remove
Also with targeted sector-by-sector approach and industry-by-industry approach in which Budget 2016 is focusing on - it will not only help the companies in each sector to survive, growth and thrive - it will also help companies to scout the right talents to fulfill its manpower needs.
And the manpower tool that have been put in place is as follow :-
Saturday, January 9, 2016
ricky l
The WDA job portal provide a bird eye view of the job opportunities as well as the job applicants for the entire Economy (not all will be captured because some companies will still go through private portal or employ through their own means).
But WDA job portal is a useful tool for Economic planning, skillset planning, manpower planning, sector-specific planning etc to resolve job unemployment problem if use effectively.
Ricky L • Remove
The keyword is :- sector-specific planning.
Economists describe Budget 2016 as a counter-cyclical Budget that provides support to businesses, yet ensuring something for everyone.
- Posted 24 Mar 2016 22:24
- Updated 24 Mar 2016 23:48
SINGAPORE: A counter-cyclical Budget that provides support to businesses, yet ensuring something for everyone – this was how economists summed up Budget 2016.
The support to businesses came in the form of near-term measures to help firms ride out the current downturn, as well as longer-term initiatives to transform the economy into one with a greater emphasis on innovation and value creation.
On the social front, there were higher payouts for low-wage workers, grants for families, and increased support for the elderly and the disabled.
“While social issues have somewhat taken a backseat in this budget, there were still a wide array of measures to help cushion Singaporean workers against the negative impact of softening labour markets, and to cope with the cost of living,” said DBS senior economist Irvin Seah, citing Adapt and Grow, a programme targeted at raising the skills of the workforce, and a one-off GST voucher as examples.
After taking into account net investment returns contribution, the Budget position was a surplus one. (Source: Ministry of Finance; Infographic: Linette Lim)
TARGETED MEASURES, BUT “NOT EARTH-SHATTERING”
“I would call it a targeted, supportive Budget,” said ANZ economist Ng Weiwen. “The support for businesses, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, were in line with expectations.”
Characterising it as a “targeted and considered” Budget, Mizuho Bank’s senior economist Vishnu Varathan said that there were no big shakes, noting that “80 to 90 per cent of the Budget is adaption (of the previous Budgets)”.
Agreeing with Mr Varathan’s assessment, Credit Suisse economist Michael Wan noted that the announced measures were “not earth-shattering”, with the continued focus on many of the themes from the previous Budgets, such as innovation, and raising the skills of the workforce.
The centrepiece of Budget 2016 is a S$4.5 billion Industry Transformation Programme which, in Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s words, is aimed at driving longer-term economic transformation and taking Singapore to the next phase of development.
This is a change from more recent Budgets, where the focus was on social policies, such as the S$8 billion Pioneer Generation package announced in Budget 2014.
But this shift away from social spending and households was already widely anticipated, with Mr Heng describing it as a “prudent” Budget with a strong focus on the economy in the lead-up to his Budget speech in Parliament on Thursday (Mar 24).
LARGER-THAN-EXPECTED FISCAL SUPPORT
According to economists, what is new, or surprising, about Budget 2016, is that the fiscal support provided was larger than expected.
Given that Mr Heng had set expectations for a “prudent” Budget, some economists like Credit Suisse’s Mr Wan, were expecting total spending to rise 4 per cent from the previous Budget.
The Budget statement, however, showed that total spending will be 7.3 per cent higher in 2016, compared to 2015.
Government spending over time. (Infographic: data.gov.sg)
“Taking into account the higher expenditures and additional measures announced in this Budget, our projection is that this will amount to a positive fiscal impulse of slightly over 1 per cent of GDP,” said Mr Heng on Thursday, when he unveiled the Government’s expansionary fiscal stance.
This larger-than-expected spending, according to ANZ’s Mr Ng and DBS’ Mr Seah, was made possible by contributions from net investment returns, which included contributions from Temasek for this first time.
The net investment returns contribution – at S$14.7 billion – boosted the overall Budget position to a S$3.45 billion surplus, amounting to 0.8 per cent of nominal GDP. Economists say this overall surplus position will give the Government the fiscal space to enact off-Budget measures, should the economic outlook deteriorate significantly.
“Without the contributions from GIC and Temasek, there would have been a primary deficit of almost S$5 billion. This is bigger than the S$2.3 billion deficit in the post-financial crisis Budget in 2009, and the S$4.25 billion deficit last year,” said Mr Ng.
Net investment returns contribution over the years. (Source: Ministry of Finance; Infographic: Linette Lim)
What else is new, is Mr Heng’s “surgical”, industry-specific approach, said Mizuho’s Mr Varathan.
“One thing that stood out was Mr Heng’s gumption about becoming very industry-specific, choosing for example, to exempt the Marine and Process sectors from levy increases for Work Permit holders in these sectors for a year,” he said. “He’s probably a lot more surgical about it.”
REFRAMING SINGAPORE’S PRODUCTIVITY PROBLEM
Economists also observed that the emphasis on labour productivity growth – a key focus in recent years – has been softened.
“You’d realise that Mr Heng didn’t dwell as much on productivity, especially labour productivity,” said DBS’ Mr Seah, adding that the focus this year is on raising productivity via innovation, value creation, and internationalisation.
In his speech, Mr Heng acknowledged that productivity growth has not been as strong as the Government would like. “Productivity growth has remained relatively flat over the past three years. We must keep working on this,” he said.
This softer focus on Singapore’s productivity problem is a matter of concern for Mr Wan from Credit Suisse, who noted that Singapore could become “increasingly uncompetitive if current rates of labour productivity growth persist.
“It doesn’t sound like there’s going to be any ground-breaking policies that are going to be introduced, which worries me a bit,” said Mr Wan.
“The evidence we’ve seen over the past five years is that suggests that we haven’t really seen the results on our productivity drive, and if the same trend continues, Singapore could become increasingly uncompetitive.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Now that Mr Heng has delivered his speech, members of Parliament will file “cuts” on what they would like to speak on in the Budget and Committee of Supply debates, which will take place when Parliament sits on April 4.
After the debates, which will last for almost two weeks, Parliament will vote on the Supply Bill. When the Budget has been approved, the President needs to give his assent to the Bill before it can come into effect.
- CNA/ll
No comments:
Post a Comment