REACH 198 - Balancing Budget is our cornerstone. Should we draw further into our reserves (SK)

26 Feb 2021 (11am - 7pm)

REACH

[10:51 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Job redesign, mindset change needed to better support older workers

More initiatives are needed to support older workers, such as redesigning jobs and pushing for a mindset change among employers and staff, MPs said on Thursday (Feb 25).

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/budget-debate-job-redesign-mindset-change-needed-to-better-support-older-workers

[10:51 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: New govt bonds should also be used to invest in 'human capital', says WP's Jamus Lim

Money raised from the issuance of new government bonds should not only be used to fund long-term infrastructure projects, but also be put towards research and development (R&D), reducing class sizes in schools and to implement unemployment insurance, Associate Professor Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) said on Thursday (Feb 25).

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/budget-debate-new-govt-bonds-should-also-be-used-to-invest-in-human-capital-says-wps-jamus

[10:54 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: President Halimah Yacob launches new after-school activity centre at Bukit Merah Secondary School

When she was a Secondary 1 student at Bukit Merah Secondary School (BMSS), R. Hanah Shakilaa often lacked motivation to do well in her classes.

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/president-halimah-yacob-launches-new-after-school-activity-centre-at-bukit-merah-secondary

[10:54 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: MOE flexible on students' use of learning devices after school: Lawrence Wong

Parents and students will have some flexibility in how they wish to use their learning devices after school hours, said Education Minister Lawrence Wong.

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parenting-education/moe-flexible-on-students-use-of-learning-devices-after-school-lawrence

[11:13 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Berries teacher tests positive for COVID-19, Yishun branch closes temporarily

A teacher at the Berries World of Learning School branch in Yishun was among two community cases of COVID-19 reported in Singapore on Thursday (Feb 25), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its daily update.

More: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/berries-teacher-covid-19-yishun-centre-closed-14282234

[11:53 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Welcome back! 😊

⏰ We will be opening the chat from 11.50 to 7pm today. ⏰

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[11:58 am, 26/02/2021] +REACH: 📢 Topic 📢 

💬 The discipline of balancing budgets is the cornerstone of our financial resilience.

What are your views about the drawing of past reserves for exigencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic to support businesses, employees and families?

To sustain economic relief amid an unprecedented pandemic, the Government will draw on its past reserves for a second consecutive year, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Tuesday (Feb 16).

This will fund the S$11 billion COVID-19 Resilience Package in Budget 2021, which is needed to tackle the immediate challenges that the pandemic presents, said Mr Heng in Parliament, adding that the measures are “extraordinary and temporary”.

He also emphasised the need for fiscal prudence and discipline, saying that the Government must “return to running balanced budgets” beyond this crisis.

👉 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/budget-2021-fiscal-position-draw-reserves-covid-19-14209004

👉 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/budget-2021-key-to-invest-in-future-without-drawing-on-past-14273138

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[0:10 pm, 26/02/2021] +Rama: This is unprecedented in our nation history and cannot be avoided. Fortunately,  our founding government had the foresight to put aside for a rainy day.

[0:23 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

1. There are increasing evidence that vaccination has started to curb the covid-19 pandemic.

2. Balancing the budget is important to Singapore as we have no natural resources.

Our only national resources are our financial reserves that we take pain to accumulate over times through the hardwork of our few generations.

3. Thus as far as possible, we should avoid drawing into our reserves if the covid-19 situation is stabilised.

[0:25 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-pfizer-vaccine-found-94-effective-real-world-14276192

Israel mass vaccination using Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - real data show:-

1. Curbing covid highly effective.

2. Effective against UK mutated strain.

3. Seem to reduce covid transmission - but detail data needed to confirm.

4. Opening up of economy did not indicate more infection.

[0:37 pm, 26/02/2021] +Stella Yip: I hope immigration dept will have data of citizens who have received the vaccine locally and issue new passports showing this.  The SG passport and healthcare is recognised worldwide, so I hope SG passport holders (business travellers, students studying abroad, tourists) will benefit when they travel abroad in the near future.

[1:11 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

1. In fact, we must have the resolved to repay back the $53.7 billion we have drawn from our reserves - once the covid pandemic is over and the Economy start to recover.

2. We must ensure that our reserves are properly safeguarded because :-

a. Reserves is our lifeline - that will save us in time of crisis. Hence we must ensure that our reserves are only use as "life saving for last resort" - and must attempt to rebuild it back once we recover.

b. Reserves must be accumulated to ensure that our descendants - have something to fall back on - in times of crisis. We must not let our descendants take on undue burden by depleting our reserves as far as we can tide over the pandemic.

3. Financial reserves and human resources - are the only 2 national resources that we have. We must safeguard them zealously as far as possible.

Thrift, hardworking, Financial Prudence - must be our values that we must treasure --- as these are the foundation that make Singapore successful and must pass on these values to our descendants.

[1:24 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

1. Some MPs are urging Government to implement National Insurance for unemployment.

2. In fact, I am of the opinion that such insurance will blunt our labour competitiveness because :-

a. Once a person have insurance money to fall back on - the person will stop to seek jobs when the going get tough - and stop working.

b. Unemployed people will not be motivated to seek jobs, or go for training in skillsets that are needed.

3. If more people do so, our labor force will  get depleted, investors and organisations will have less workers to tap on - where either employers will employ more foreign labours when our local workers stop working, or investors leave.

4. When this happen, Singapore GDP growth will be blunted and fall, as investors leave, more Singaporean workers will lose their jobs and our National Economy will be impacted.

5. Unemployment insurance is the sure way - to make Singaporean workers stop seeking work, lay back and give up looking for jobs - when they have unemploiyment insurance to fall back on.

ie. If I got money monthly from unemployment insurance, why work --- and Singapore Economy will suffer.

[1:39 pm, 26/02/2021] +Rama: Well said

[1:39 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Another thing to ask :-

1. If go for unemployment insurance, who is going to pay for the premium?

2. Singapore workers and employers are already setting aside money for CPF.

Are we expecting workers and employers to set aside additional money to pay the premium for unemployment?

a. If workers pay, then workers will have even lesser disposable income to take home.

b. If employers pay, then employers will pay less salary to our workers or they will prefer to employ foreign workers as they no need to pay extra unemployment insurance premium for the foreign workers.

This will further make our local workers uncompetitive in the job market.

3. If these MPs expect Government to pay unemployment insurance premium for our local workers, where will these money come from?

a. Expect to dig deeper and more from our reserves?

b. Or expect the Government to pay more taxes eg. GST, income tax, property tax, corporate tax from us?

4. I am of the opinion that Singapore government should encourage workers to set aside part of their savings to buy their own saving plan insurance as part of savings for their rainy day --- rather than a National insurance scheme.

5. Government should focus on :-

a. Help retrenched workers to find new jobs.

b. Get retrenched workers to get training (free of charge) and pay them allowances for training to finance their household training.

c. Place trained retrenched workers into new jobs.

6. This will in fact fulfil the philosohpy of :-

a. Giving "fishing rods" to workers to "fish for themselves" - rather than giving them fish.

b. Ensure workers will not get lazy and drop out from the workforce - and blunt our national labor competitiveness, reduced availability of workers for our organisations and investors.

c. Blunt our Economic growth.

[1:41 pm, 26/02/2021] +Rama: Agree on point 4 and 6 especially

[1:52 pm, 26/02/2021] +james: for all this talk about our reserves being important.. and they are.. i'm actually a bit concerned about what our reserves are actually held in. with the way that central banks around the world printing money like free... i surely hope that the bulk of our reserves are not held in these fiat currencies. cause the value of our reserves will plummet when the financial system finally crashes. and it looks to be relatively soon 😩

[1:55 pm, 26/02/2021] +Rama: An article long ago mentioned a basket of currencies

[2:04 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Singapore have 3 Sovereign Funds - each performing different functions :-

a. GIC - take a more conservative stunts - and invest in long term strategic assets.

b. Temasek Holdings - are more aggressive in investment as well as own strategic GLC assets.

c. MAS - is a Central Bank that manage our Monetary Policies - such as producing currencies, manage exchange rate, keep money supply for our domestic needs, trade such as imports and exports, develop Singapore as financial hubs.

MAS need to maintain a basket of foreign currencies to ensure our exchange rate is competitive - to facilitate our trade.

I think MAS has also signed quite a number of bilateral currency swap with many of our trading partners - to ensure currency stability to facilitate cross trade and investment.

MAS are unlike our 2 other Soverign Funds to focus on investment and grow our reserves wealth.

MAS is purely a Central Bank.

[2:11 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Besides MAS is holding only about $300 over billion for monetary policy.

The other 2 sovereign funds hold a substantial amount of funds for investment in global strategic assets.

[2:12 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: MAS has a bigger portfolio than Temasek . GIC has a  smaller profile

[2:12 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: ?

[2:15 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

GIC provide seed funds to Temasek and has the largest fund.

The amount is kept secret.

[2:16 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

In 2018, MAS has $382 billion.

Temasek has $308 billion.

[2:18 pm, 26/02/2021] +james: Thanks for sharing this. Very clear and useful 🙏🏼

[2:24 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: Read the FAQ ... thanks .

https://www.gic.com.sg/faq/

[2:26 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Can't find the fund capital.

[2:28 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: ?

[2:31 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Can't find GIC total fund capital.

[2:32 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: GIC a already stated that it is state secret .

[2:32 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: By providing the number , any financial person can deduce our reserve and it can be attacked

[2:33 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: Sovereign fund wealth institute estimate the fund is bigger than Temasek and MAS.

[2:34 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: Maybe .. but many felt it is the smallest .. due to the nature of their investment

[2:35 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

GIC provide the seed fund to Temasek.

Additional earnings from MAS are plough back to GIC and Temasek.

[2:35 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: Read the FAQ .

[2:38 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Well it doesn't reveal GIC fund is smaller.

[2:39 pm, 26/02/2021] +Leonard Lau: Haha .. if MAS and Temasek is both ends of investment spectum and GIC only invests in public projects .. what does it tell you ?  Will such portfolio give good returns ?

[2:56 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Wouldn't give good return doesn't mean the capital funds is smaller.

GIC is just being conservative.

[2:59 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

If we want to counter a sudden onslaught attack, will you keep your cashflow strong or keep it low by putting into long term investment that cannot pull back cash?

[3:15 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Nature advocates will be invited to take part in work studying ecological connectivity: Desmond Lee

Members of the nature community will be invited to take part in work to build a more comprehensive picture of Singapore’s islandwide ecosystem and connectivity, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee on Friday (Feb 26). 

More: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/kranji-woodland-nature-community-engaged-desmond-lee-14287442

[3:40 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: 13 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

More: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-moh-new-cases-feb-26-imported-community-14286122

[4:07 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

Our NIRC + fund return = $19.6 X 2 = $39.2 billion.

Temasek with capital fund = $306 billion bring about 5% return = $15.3 billion.

Which means $23.9 billion will be brought in by GIC.

If GIC return rate is lower than Temasek.

If GIC capital fund is not larger, how to bring in higher return than Temasek?

[4:17 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: 

If we work backwards by guessing a return rate lower than Temasek, with the fund return - we can roughly deduce how much is the capital funds for GIC - which is much higher than Temasek and MAS.

[4:31 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-first-shipment-february-14272652

Sinovac efficacy only 50%.

Also no data whether it is effective against UK, Brazil or SAfrica strains or not.

[4:31 pm, 26/02/2021] ☸️  Danny 心: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/pfizer-biontech-testing-3rd-dose-covid-19-vaccine-new-strains-14281276

mRNA vaccines more ready to tackle SAfrica and future strains.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are more suitable for us.

[4:34 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: About 500 direct telemedicine service providers declared to meet MOH's measures, added to listing

Close to 500 direct telemedicine service providers have declared to meet the Ministry of Health's (MOH) process and governance measures and have been listed on its website as of Feb 22.

More: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/telemedicine-service-providers-meet-moh-measures-listed-14288260

[4:43 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Raising productivity the only way to keep improving jobs and lives, says DPM Heng

Raising productivity, where firms transform in ways that bring workers along as they develop, is the only way to continually improve the the jobs and lives of Singaporeans - which is the ultimate goal of the country's economic growth, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Friday (Feb 26).

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/budget-debate-raising-productivity-the-only-way-to-sustain-improvements-in-jobs

[4:44 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Stay active while exploring Singapore on foot with the SingapoRediscovers edition of GameOn Nila!

Sport Singapore (SportSG) and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will be launching a new edition of GameOn Nila!, a community game that will be part of the ongoing SingapoRediscovers campaign.

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/stay-active-while-exploring-singapore-on-foot-with-the-singaporediscovers-edition-of-gameon

[4:45 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: NLB launches new digital literacy programme for seniors

A new and free digital literacy programme aimed at seniors was launched by the National Library Board (NLB) on Friday (Feb 26).

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/consumer/new-digital-literacy-programme-for-seniors-launched-by-national-library-board

[4:47 pm, 26/02/2021] +Alvin: Drawing past reserves should be done in the most dire situations like Covid19 etc. however we should also know when to stop it should the situation not improve. It may be a bottomless hole we are trying to fill using our past reserves. If there is a need to choose, focus on employees and families. There will always be some organizations that will NOT survive this pandemic and we have to let them shutdown while investing in new startups or enterprises that are being set up. My 2.14 cents

[5:10 pm, 26/02/2021] +james: Apart from thinking about reserves and topping it up, I say we need a rethink about how we need to value life in our nation. And start seeing human capital as what’s truly valuable that will help Singapore tide over any crisis in the future. Both in terms of upping our TFR, but also allowing our people to flourish and thrive.

The true strength of a nation lies in the abilities, strength and resilience of its people regardless of the size of the financial reserves that nation may have.

[5:11 pm, 26/02/2021] +Rama: YES! There's more to just dollars and cents

[5:26 pm, 26/02/2021] +Girl wave hand: ESG needs to give priority to job redesign projects benefiting mature workers. Previous workpro grant has good initiatives whereby mature workers benefit from these projects as well through salary gains on successful implementation of projects which boost productivity, simplify work or enable work to be less strenuous for them, so that they can continue to do their jobs as they age.

[5:27 pm, 26/02/2021] +Girl wave hand: a higher grant quantum will also encourage more uptake for such projects

[6:06 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: S'pore clinics must issue digital pre-departure Covid-19 test certificates for outbound travellers from March 10

 Clinics authorised to conduct pre-departure Covid-19 tests (PDTs) for outbound travellers will have to issue digital test result certificates from March 10 onwards, instead of the current physical certificates.

More: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/spore-clinics-must-issue-digital-pre-departure-covid-19-test-certificates-for-outbound

[6:46 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Dear Contributors,

⏰ We will be closing the chat in 15 minutes ⏰

Thank you very much for being part of our WhatsApp chat and participating actively.

Goodnight!

Megan

[6:53 pm, 26/02/2021] +Bobby Tan: Good night Megan

[6:56 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: New academy to offer public services officers more digital skills training

A new academy will be launched in the second quarter of this year to help public service officers build up digital skills in areas such as data analytics and cybersecurity.

More: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/digital-academy-public-officers-digital-skills-smart-nation-14287998

[7:01 pm, 26/02/2021] +REACH: Dear Contributors,

We will be closing the chat for today.

Thank you very much for being part of our WhatsApp chat and participating actively.

Goodnight!

Megan 😄

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