Singapore GE2020: Competent government will inspire investor confidence, says PM Lee

Emergency Covid-19 relief cannot be sustained indefinitely. The more fundamental solution is to turn around the economy and create new jobs, and to do so, Singapore must attract new investments, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

This means maintaining confidence in Singapore so that companies will not lose faith in the country during a crisis, he added.

During an online rally yesterday, PM Lee drew parallels with the 1985 recession, when Singapore lost its competitiveness and its annual gross domestic product shrank for the first time since independence.

He was then tasked to chair the economic committee to reposition the country's economy for the future, and drastic measures such as cutting Central Provident Fund contributions were taken.

The younger ministers held many meetings with union leaders and workers to persuade them, and founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had used charts and tables during the National Day Rally that year to explain to Singaporeans what they had to do to get out of the recession.

"We did not just make one speech or hold a press conference, and expect people to simply swallow the bitter pill," he said.

"People said that Mr Lee sounded like a professor giving Singaporeans an economics lecture, but Singaporeans understood the message and supported the tough measures. The measures worked and within a year, our economy was growing again.

"That is what political leadership is about."

PM Lee called into question the opposition's ability to get the country out of the downturn, grow the economy or create new jobs, saying that some of their proposals are unrealistic and fiscally unsustainable.

"They prattle on about a minimum wage or a universal basic income. These are fashionable peacetime slogans, not serious wartime plans.

"How will a minimum wage help somebody who is unemployed? It will just add costs to employers, and pressure them to drop even more workers. How will we pay for a universal basic income? All the GST (goods and services tax) increases in the world will not be enough.

"Do you really want to vote for parties who in a crisis come up with nothing better than old recycled manifestos?"

The Government has rolled out four Budgets since February, totalling almost $93 billion, and drawing up to $52 billion from past reserves.

But governing is not just about writing cheques indiscriminately, said PM Lee.

"We need to understand who is hurting, who needs help most, how to help them, what works and what doesn't. In the past months, we have done this systematically," he said.

This includes rolling out the Jobs Support Scheme, which subsidises wages so that firms can retain workers, and giving extra support to households and those who have been more affected, such as the self-employed.

Emergency legislation was also passed for rental and contract waivers - an "unprecedented move", said PM Lee.

Spelling out the dire consequences had this not been done, he added: "Contractors who missed project deadlines because of the circuit breaker would have had to pay liquidated damages. Tenants who could not do business would still have had to pay rent.

"Couples who could not hold weddings would have forfeited their deposits for their wedding banquets. Many individuals and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) would have been hurt, and many good companies would have gone under."

PM Lee spoke about the race against time to put together the relevant Bill in nine days, with Parliament then passing it on a certificate of urgency, going through all three readings in one day.

This was repeated with a second set of emergency measures two months later.

"This is the difference that a highly competent government can make to your lives," he said.