EXIT OF MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS BY US COMPANIES
Dennis Tan asked how does the Government intend to help Singapore companies mitigate the effects of the manufacturing move back to the US by US companies.
Lim Hng Kiang said that Singapore must maintain our economic competitiveness. He explained that existing schemes like the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs), EDB’s Home Strategy, and the Research and Enterprise 2020 plan (RIE 2020) are designed to improve productivity, technological capabilities, innovation, and skills. However, he did not address how these will help Singapore companies mitigate the effects of the manufacturing move back to the US by US companies.
Read the full exchange here.
ABANDONMENT OF NURSING HOME RESIDENTS
Leon Perera asked for the number of residents in nursing homes that were abandoned by their next-of-kin and how many were unable to pay their bills. He also asked what the procedures the nursing homes follow in such cases and how they are assisted by the Government.
Lam Pin Min did not provide the numbers but said that in the event of such cases, nursing homes try to re-establish contact with their family members. She also explained that Government provides subsidies of up to 75% of nursing home costs for residents who could not pay their bills and they could also tap on financial assistance schemes such as Medifund and also tap on charitable donations.
In a supplementary question, he further asked if the Ministry is aware of any cases where the residents could not continue to reside in the nursing home due to the inability to pay and if there is any procedure for what the nursing homes should do in such cases.
Lam Pin Min did not address the supplementary question. He repeated the answers given earlier to the original question posed.
Read the full exchange here.
GUIDELINES FOR ECO-LABELLING ON PRODUCTS
Leon Perera asked if the Ministry will introduce guidelines for the eco-labelling of products to prevent consumers from being potentially misled by non-governmental sanctioned eco-labelling initiatives and if there is anything in the law or elsewhere that would stop a private organisation from doing so.
Masagos Zulkifli said that there are no other credible bodies in Singapore other than Singapore Environment Council (SEC) which takes guidelines from internationally well-established organisations such as the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and he urged consumers to use the same credible bodies to make their choices. He did not explain if there are laws to prevent misleading eco-labelling initiatives.
Read the full exchange here.