'With globalisation, our Gini coefficient has widened. The people at the top are getting more because their skills, their knowledge, their abilities, their expertise command a premium.

The people at the bottom have to fight against the cheap labour costs of China, Vietnam, India and the region.

We are trying to overcome that by giving them support in housing, education, their utility bills and other things to make up.

I do not see this problem being solved quickly because I think it will take some time for wage rates in China, Vietnam and India to go up and not be so devastatingly competitive. Maybe it will take five, 10 years.

Our MPs meet their constituents once a week. We know that there are now more problems with the people at the bottom of the scale.

We help them in different ways. We don't want to go the way the West has gone. In other words, I give you what you were last paid and then they don't look for another job. Then, the welfare support system becomes a big drain on the budget.

So we say, you take a job and we'll give you extra. We call it Workfare. You work, we give you this. You don't work, you don't want this work because you say not enough, so you get nothing. Take the work, we give you the extra to top up.

The important thing is not to get our people to expect something for nothing.'

MM LEE