LABOUR chief Lim Swee Say coined the phrase 'Singapore Unlimited' on Friday when he mapped out the journey ahead for the country.

In a rallying call to Singaporeans, he set out two goals for the nation. One, it should not be contented to just be 'cheaper than those who are better' or 'better than those who are cheaper'.

Two, it must aspire to do better than more advanced economies. In short, be better than those who are better than Singapore today.

To achieve these goals, he identified two overriding requirements in his 'Singapore Unlimited' strategy.

Firstly, the country needs to pull together all its resources to climb out of the recession and continue growing.

The other requires an all-embracing approach in which multinational companies and foreign workers are as important as local enterprises and workers.

Boosting economic, social and political capital was the central theme of Mr Lim's speech. It wrapped up five days of parliamentary debate on how the economy, political system and social safety nets should be recalibrated amid the uncertainty of the global downturn.

A total of 61 MPs, including the Prime Minister and seven ministers, spoke on the President's Address delivered on May 18. It mapped out the priorities of the remaining legislative term of the 11th Parliament, prorogued last month for the Government to take stock of events following the global financial crisis.

One outcome in this second session is a new Economic Strategies Committee, announced by Prime Mniister Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday. Chaired by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, it will look into building a more diversified corporate landscape of global, regional and local companies.

On Friday, Mr Lim, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, gave the thumbs up to the committee's plans, including its intention to study how best to woo global talent and create good jobs for Singaporeans.

Read the full report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.