Financial support for retiring hawkers who pass on skills

Retiring hawkers will be given financial support while they coach new hawkers to take over their stalls, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) yesterday, in an update on the hawker succession scheme.

The scheme, which was first announced by NEA last month, matches retiring hawkers with entrants to the profession.

This makes it possible for older hawkers to teach their recipes to aspirants, as their own family members might not be interested in continuing the trade.

Currently, only hawkers who have their rentals subsidised can assign their stalls to non-relatives.

Under the scheme, non-subsidised hawkers will also be allowed to do so under relaxed rules.

NEA said the scheme will be piloted in the next two years with just "a handful of veteran and aspiring hawkers" as close facilitation is required.

Retiring hawkers will be paid a nominal stipend for guiding those who aspire to the profession, said NEA, adding that more details will be released at a later date.

Under the scheme, NEA will assess the culinary skills of aspiring hawkers before pairing them with retiring hawkers. The former will then be mentored for a few months to learn how to run the business.

If the aspiring hawkers can pass a food tasting test assessed by NEA, their hawker mentors, as well as an independent panel, they can proceed to take over the physical hawker stall and its brand name. "Aspiring hawkers who pass the food tasting test will be subject to certain conditions pertaining to the stall's brand and signature dishes for a period of time, to ensure that the veteran hawker's legacy is sufficiently safeguarded," said NEA.

The agency added that the scheme is not intended to replace commercial arrangements, for instance, hawkers who wish to sell their recipes and brands.

Mr Anthony Low, vice-president of the Federation of Merchants' Associations, Singapore, said older hawkers might be sceptical about young hawkers being able to pick up the culinary skills that they themselves have spent decades honing, in just a few months.

"For this to work, the younger hawker must be passionate and willing to spend more time to learn the craft, and retiring hawkers must be willing to share their expertise," he said in Mandarin.

Mr Goh Peng Huat, 59, and his wife Chia Gek Kee, 53, both hawkers, said they would be keen to join the succession scheme. Said Ms Chia: "Our grown-up daughters are not so keen to take over our hawker stall. It would be a pity if our recipes and cooking techniques were lost when we retire."

Their fishball noodle stall in Marine Parade - Nam Kee Teochew 70's Heritage Katong - has been around since 1976.

The hawker succession scheme was introduced shortly before Singapore's hawker culture was officially added to the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Dec 16. Singapore will have to submit a report to Unesco every six years, showing the efforts made to safeguard and transmit hawker culture to future generations.

To celebrate the successful inscription, NEA launched SG HawkerFest - a series of online games and a webinar - for the public to learn more about hawker culture.

It started yesterday and will run until Jan 11. Dining vouchers in denominations of $2 can be won by solving online quizzes.

More details can be found at https://go.gov.sg/sghawkerfest