A group of 70 school-going youth aged 15 to 20 quizzed Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports on everything, from rising taxi fares to the need for more help for the disabled, at a youth forum yesterday.

The hour-long forum was part of the launch of the Junior Reach Ambassador Programme, the youth spin-off of Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home (Reach).

Reach is the feedback gathering and citizen participation network that was set up to replace the Feedback Unit in October 2006.

Seventeen-year-old Kwan Jin Yao, from Hwa Chong Institution, wanted to know why the disabled did not get a bigger hongbao in the Budget.

Dr Balakrishnan's response: There is a need to promote 'self-reliance and family responsibility, and the community and Government coming in to help you help yourself'.

At the same time, though, the Government would improve transport facilities, for example, and other schemes, like employer subsidies, would help get them gainful employment.

Others asked why the goods and services tax (GST) had gone up by two percentage points to 7 per cent, and why so much was saved, as opposed to being spent on at-risk groups.

Dr Balakrishnan's response: Singapore's GST rate was low compared to other developed countries, including the United Kingdom.

Besides, it is crucial for Singapore to have a 'safety net of financial reserves', he added.

'We have no oil, no tin, no rubber and no rice... so having the reserves is like having an oil well for the future,' he explained.

Dr Balakrishnan, who is also Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, had some advice for these youth ambassadors as they try to inspire their peers to get 'involved with the process of policy formulation now rather than later'.

Know why and how Singapore came to be the way it is, and also decide what you believe in, value or want to achieve, and speak honestly, rationally and constructively, he said.