Singapore resilient in crisis
Nov 3, 2009
Everyone played a part, with flexibility and resilience all round
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Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam spoke at the Enterprise 50 Awards gala dinner at the Raffles City Convention Centre on Monday night, addressing the economic crisis issue. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA |
THE economic crisis has demonstrated how strong Singapore is and how resilient and flexible its people and businesses are, said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Monday night.
The Government's 'full-force fiscal intervention' - introduced in this year's Budget - has helped prevent huge job losses and limited fallout from the global crisis, but has been only one part of the story.
Speaking at the Enterprise 50 Awards gala dinner at the Raffles City Convention Centre, Mr Tharman said: 'Nothing would have worked if everyone had not played his part.'
He noted that companies retained as many workers as they could, with some even creating new jobs.
Instead of laying off staff, they reached for help from Government programmes such as the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or Spur.
Workers, too, made sacrifices in accepting wage cuts and shorter working weeks, and undergoing retraining, he said.
Banks continued to lend to viable companies with help from the Government-funded risk-sharing initiative, while grassroots and community leaders, volunteers and philanthropists went out of their way to help those in need.
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