LONDON — More will be done to strengthen social safety nets as the Government continues to rebalance towards helping people “level up” and improve their quality of life in Singapore, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Mr Lee said with work already beginning on the MediShield Life review as well as the Pioneer Generation Package, there will be “a few more pieces to come”, after Parliament prorogues after the April 14 sitting. It will reconvene in May.
Mr Lee was speaking to the media as he wrapped up his trip to Europe, which began last week in the Netherlands and ended yesterday (March 29) in London at Singapore Day,
At the National Day Rally last year, Mr Lee had announced a “shift in balance”, for the community and the Government to do more to support individuals. Recently-announced efforts to provide greater social support include enhancing healthcare subsidies for the lower and middle income groups, and the review on MediShield Life to provide better protection against large hospital bills, with the assurance that lower and middle income groups with have permanent subsidies to help them cope with higher premiums. The Pioneer Generation Package, introduced to honour the first generation of Singaporeans post-independence, is also structured so that the less well-off benefit more.
Asked how far Singapore was from achieving the balance between striving for free market capitalism and growth and social security — a goal he set out in his speech when he received the Freedom of the City from London’s Lord Mayor last Thursday — Mr Lee said it is a “dynamic balance” that is changing as situations change.
“We are making a gradual shift, calibrated, controlled, step, by step in order to strengthen the social safety nets while doing our best to maintain that sense of initiative and personal responsibility and family responsibility,” he said. “There are a couple of other significant things we need to do but it’s as much a shift in our mindset as it is in the individual policies.”
He added that there is no “final end point” as the balance will shift with the times. Asked to elaborate on the “significant things” to be done, Mr Lee declined to comment, quipping: “Today is too cold to talk about these things.”
The current Parliament was sworn in in 2011. Parliament traditionally takes a mid-term break, and Mr Lee said last year that when Parliament sits again, it will establish a “fresh starting point for the rest of the term” and “set a direction”.
Mr Lee’s presence at Singapore Day at Victoria Park — accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu — drew an enthusiastic response from the 9,000-strong crowd, many of whom surrounded him to take “selfies”.
“I am very happy with this event … the volunteers have worked very hard as well as organisers and NPTD (National Population and Talent Division) and when they asked me to come and I looked at my schedule and managed to fit everything in and I think it’s a very good climax to my journey.”
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