NEXT year's budget will provide new and enhanced programmes to support companies' efforts to grow, innovate and compete based on higher productivity, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The measures will reward firms which create new jobs over the medium to longer term, he told trade unionists and members at the NUTC ordinary delegates conference on Tuesday morning.
Said Mr Lee: 'In the longer term, we cannot prosper again and sustain our growth by keeping workers underemployed and unproductive. We have to pursue higher productivity and build better capability, and move workers from less competitive businesses into newer, expanding ones. We have to foster restructuring, not try to hold it back.'
PM Lee also announced that the Jobs Credit scheme will be phased out after two more reduced payouts next year.
'Keeping the Jobs Credit for too long will delay the necessary restructuring, and discourage labour and other resources from being redeployed to new activities where they can be most productive,' he explained.
On the global economic outlook, he said slower growth is expected in the next one to two years, 'but beyond that, prospects for our region are bright.' Singapore should also see modest but positive growth.
Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:45 pm