Singapore came through pandemic well without spending excessively: Lawrence Wong

Singapore came through the pandemic by mounting a strong response that saw $72.3 billion being spent over financial years 2020 and 2021. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Singapore fared well in saving both lives and livelihoods relative to other countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, and did so without spending excessively, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday.

Key to that was the trust that Singaporeans had in the Government to make the right decisions, and in one another, so as to endure the tough measures needed to tide the country over the crisis, he added.

In his closing speech on the Covid-19 White Paper debate, Mr Wong noted that Singapore’s Covid-19 mortality rate of 300 deaths per million was a fifth of Germany’s and 10 times lower than that of the United States, which had 2,980 deaths per million people.

The economy also bounced back quickly to pre-Covid-19 levels by 2021, with the employment rate today even higher than before the pandemic.

“You can use different indicators to track this, but it is quite clear that our recovery was faster compared to many others,” said Mr Wong, who is also finance minister.

Other achievements were not so easily quantified but no less important, he added. These included keeping schools open, businesses afloat, unemployment low and supply chains open throughout the crisis.

The Republic achieved these results by mounting a strong response that saw $72.3 billion spent over financial years 2020 and 2021, out of the more than $100 billion that was initially budgeted.

Based on estimates from the International Monetary Fund, this was neither the lowest amount nor was it excessive, said Mr Wong, when compared with countries such as the US, Britain, Germany and Japan, which had put out much larger fiscal packages.

“On the whole, when you look at these outcomes and what we have spent compared to other countries, we have achieved good value for the monies we spent – to stave off the most severe downsides of Covid-19, and to mitigate long-term economic and social scarring,” he said.

Responding further to Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa on whether public monies were spent well in Singapore’s response to Covid-19, Mr Wong said the resources deployed bought Singapore insurance and options, sometimes at substantial cost, such as when it moved quickly to secure advance commitments for vaccines.

“Not every insurance option will pay off,” he said. “But, in the end, we have to judge whether it is worthwhile to pay a bit more so that we can be in a stronger position to deal with the crisis and head off potentially very costly downside scenarios.”

One element that made the difference in Singapore through the pandemic was public trust, said Mr Wong.

He said the Government did not take this trust for granted: It was open and honest throughout the crisis, and shared information candidly, even when it did not have complete information.

Equally, if not more, important is that trust among Singaporeans has been strengthened, he said.

Mr Wong said many countries saw public health become politicised and individualised, which compromised and impaired their pandemic response.

Fortunately for Singapore, social capital and trust have been high over the decades, and a silver lining of the crisis is that social capital and trust have increased here, he added.

He cited a poll commissioned by the Ministry of Communications and Information that showed these markers grow over the course of the pandemic, and that more than seven in 10 Singapore residents felt their relationships with neighbours and friends remained the same or had become stronger.

A similar proportion of respondents were confident that the Government would know what to do in a future pandemic, and said they would help one another out when the next crisis comes.

The Government is heartened by these survey results, said Mr Wong. “This trust is precious. We will work assiduously to preserve and strengthen it, so that Singapore will always remain a high-trust society.”

Mr Wong said the road ahead will always be unpredictable and there will be other challenges, given the uncertainty in the global economy and financial markets, geopolitical tensions, super-power rivalry and climate change.

There is also no guaranteed formula to navigate these challenges, and lessons learnt, such as those from fighting Covid-19, should never be blindly applied from one crisis to another, he added.

“But if Singapore and Singaporeans take all that we have been through these past three years to heart, we will be able to overcome any challenges that come our way, and prevail as one united people,” he said.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.