Don’t waste it away by spending it at home because there are lots of activities happening around the island to enjoy with your friends and family. Weekends will never be the same again with this weekend planner.
REDEEM FREE SCOOT TICKETS AT WISMA ATRIA MALL
Scoot is holding The Yellow Converter at Wisma Atria Mall this Oct 18 to 20, where you can get free air tickets, discount vouchers and merchandise.
Apparently, the colour yellow is seen as a form of currency by the company and can be used to pay for flights.
At Scoot, yellow isn’t just a colour. It’s a CURRENCY that you can now use to pay for flights! Say WHAT?! 😲
BEIJING: Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Thursday (Oct 17) reiterated that Singapore is not at the stage where extraordinary measures are needed, even as the country’s economy avoided a technical recession in the third quarter of this year.
Mr Heng announced that the Government intends to hold more extensive consultations with business leaders in the coming months as it maps out measures to weather the storm.
Singapore has not been spared from the economic fallout as the US-China trade war continued.
The economy grew at 0.1 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter, at the same pace of growth in the previous quarter, which was the slowest in a decade.
“We are at a state of the global economy where there are significant weaknesses,” said Mr Heng, who was speaking to Singapore media in Beijing.
“We have been monitoring this very closely over the last few months already and there are a number of things that we can do.”
“Budget 2020 is coming up in a few months’ time and we will continue to monitor the state of the global economy and there are many sectors in our economy that are still growing,” added Mr Heng.
“So you see, while overall there is weakness, you see fairly uneven performances across the different areas. But we are not at the stage where we need to amount to extraordinary measures. So what we need to continue to focus on, is on structural policies.”
The country’s industry transformation maps are an important part of this and Mr Heng said that launching this early has given Singapore a head start.
This is because people now have a better understanding of the opportunities offered by technological advances.
“I think that the fourth industrial revolution is coming – we are at a very early stage. But the earlier we prepare for it, the better we are able to ride this wave of growth,” said Mr Heng.
“What I am hoping to do is to get businesses and business leaders to be much more involved in thinking about these issues and working together even as they compete with one another.”
US-CHINA TRADE RELATIONS
On Thursday, Mr Heng met Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who has been China’s lead negotiator in ongoing trade talks with the US.
Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (right) in Beijing during a four-day visit to China on Oct 17, 2019. (Photo: MCI)
Mr Heng said that Mr Liu shared Singapore’s view that the US-China trade conflict is bad for both countries and the world and an early resolution would benefit everyone.
He added that it was not realistic to expect all issues to be resolved in a few meetings.
“Being able to agree on a number of key areas will be important progress and in turn that will provide for greater confidence to investors, not just in the US and China, but all around the world,” said Mr Heng.
“I think the restoration of global confidence is important for investors. It is important for us to tackle these longer-term challenges and important for us to harness the use of better technology in the coming years.”
FOURTH GENERATION LEADERSHIP
During his four-day visit to China, Mr Heng travelled to Chongqing, Tianjin and Beijing.
He was asked about the relationship between Chinese leaders and Singapore’s fourth generation (4G) leaders.
Mr Heng told reporters the various members of the 4G leadership have been involved in various bilateral and business councils for several years and have become more deeply involved as they rise through the ranks.
“So you take for example Minister Desmond Lee. Yesterday was my first visit to Tianjin but it was his third visit. He’s been there because he’s been a deputy for some of the meetings already. So he’s not alien to them,” said Mr Heng.
DPM Heng Swee Keat and the Singapore delegation in Chongqing on Oct 15, 2019. (Photo: MCI)
This is the case for other ministers as well.
“They’ve all been involved in various ways. So the engagements did not just start,” said Mr Heng.
Moving forward, Mr Heng added that Singapore must stay relevant and see how it can play a role at various stages of the country’s development.
PAP HAS “FAIRLY GOOD SLATE” OF CANDIDATES
Turning to domestic issues, Mr Heng was asked how 4G leaders are preparing for the next General Election, which has to be held by April 2021.
Mr Heng said that preparations have been made “all along” and the party has been interviewing a range of candidates.
“The party has a policy of regular renewal of our Members of Parliament and political office holders, so we have been searching and interviewing a whole range of candidates,” said Mr Heng.
“I would say we have a fairly good slate, but of course until the election itself, we will continue looking for candidates so we can have a stronger team in the coming years.”
If you’ve never had the chance to visit or see some footage of Haidilao’s so-called “smart hotpot restaurant” in Beijing, hoo boy.
With massive screens adorning the walls, robotic arms preparing orders in the kitchen, and wee droids sending sliced meats to tables, it’s a technological and culinary fever dream.
While Singapore might not be able to support something as opulent as that, hotpot heads will soon be able to experience something that comes pretty close. In an unexpected team-up between a local telco and a billion-dollar hotpot chain, M1 is getting involved in Haidilao’s upcoming robot-run restaurant at Marina Square.
Yishun may have the horses in the back, but over at Bukit Panjang, it’s wild boar city.
The residential district that has had a fair share of wild boar sightings faced its biggest hog yet when a massive porker was caught on camera strutting towards the Bukit Panjang Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and Market. Indeed, this not-so-little piggy did go to the market.
The exact date of this porcine incident is unclear, but the footage went viral on WhatsApp and Facebook when it was shared earlier today.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday (Oct 17) confirmed that Putrajaya will proceed with the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link between Johor Bahru and Singapore.
Speaking at a press conference following the launch of the National Transport Policy, Dr Mahathir said the Malaysian government has however asked for some time from Singapore.
“For the RTS, we will proceed, but we will take some time,” he said, without elaborating.
The RTS will connect Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru to Woodlands in Singapore, and is expected to serve 10,000 passengers per hour each way. It was meant to be completed by 2024, but is now behind schedule.
In May, both sides agreed to suspend works on the RTS, which would address the cross-border traffic congestion, until Sep 30.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said when announcing the 2020 budget last week that Putrajaya “intends to proceed” with the RTS as a longer-term solution to address cross-border congestion.
Mr Loke said he would contact his Singaporean counterpart Khaw Boon Wan after obtaining the Cabinet’s approval on the matter.
Separately on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR), Dr Mahathir said it “will be postponed for two years”.
“The reason we postponed it is because of the high costs. We can’t afford it as our debts are too big. We are using all our money to pay up the debts left for us by the previous government.
“If it weren’t for those debts, the HSR project would be up and running now.”
Malaysia said they will review the implementation of mega projects such as high-speed rail link to Singapore. (Photo: MyHSR)
During the suspension period, both countries would “continue to discuss the best way forward for the HSR project with the aim of reducing costs”, according to a joint statement issued at that time.
At the rate that malls are sprouting up in Paya Lebar, the district might just become the new Orchard.
There are currently six shopping malls in the vicinity, namely: Kinex (formerly OneKM Shopping Mall), Paya Lebar Square, SingPost Centre, City Plaza, Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ) and Tanjong Katong complex.
In fact, one of our colleagues was surprised to hear that the newly-opened PLQ even existed.
Malls are being built faster than we can keep track, while older shopping centres are fading into obscurity.
So much so that we bet there are some you haven’t heard about, both old and new.
SINGAPORE – A new research by the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that the type of housing owned by Singaporean parents, along with the city-state’s housing policies, can significantly influence the next generation’s economic status.
According to the study, children from low-income families, defined as those with parents in the bottom 60th percentile nationally, show upward mobility in housing wealth, mainly due to Singapore schools being located close to HDB towns.
In contrast, children from middle-income families with parents in the 60th to 80th percentile ranks, are worse off than their parents in housing type, because government subsidies motivate them to buy into more affordable public housing.
Meanwhile, children born to the wealthiest top 20th percentile of families, keep closest to their parents’ wealth levels, but are nonetheless worse off in absolute rank, in part because there is less room for them to surpass their parents.
When ex-national athlete Eileen Chai left her sports career, she thought she would never find her footing again.
She was a sports prodigy: At seven, she became the youngest artistic gymnast who qualified for the 1985 SEA Games, and went on to compete in another four SEA Games in gymnastics, track-and-field and springboard diving, for a decade.
But the multiple emotional and physical setbacks made her put an end to competitive sports in 1995. She was 17 then. What she didn’t know was that she was suffering from social performance anxiety, a mental disorder.
Of her early life, Eileen, now a musician and music teacher, recalls: “My anxiety probably began when I was training gymnastics in China. The training was tough and I put a lot of pressure on myself.”
That anxiety followed her into adulthood. When she entered the National University of Singapore (NUS) and started playing the violin with the NUS Symphonic Orchestra, she was often on edge, worrying and overthinking.
Her bouts of anxiety became so overwhelming that she found it hard to leave home without bursting into tears, for no reason.
Yishun’s a district known for the wild wild west antics that (for some reason) takes place yonder frequently, but nobody expected it to be a literal one-horse town.
Netizens jockeyed for pole position in the comments section of a viral Facebook post yesterday (Oct 16) made by a man who goes by the name of Honda William. The pictures who posted were surreal, to say the least — a horse being led through a carpark in the middle of an HDB estate. How’s that for actual horsepower?
The equine sighting took place in Yishun, the “best place to stay” for being an “adventures town”, noted Honda. The steed had been led down from a truck (they really got the horses in the back!) and brought somewhere unknown, with Honda having no idea why it was there in the first place.
But pictures gotta be taken for the social media clout, of course.
SINGAPORE – For 39 years, Mr Marn Chuan Lee paid respects to his grandmother’s grave at least once every three months; keeping the grave tidy and even installing garden lights by her tombstone.
However when the grave in Choa Chu Kang Chinese Cemetery was exhumed in August this year, he knew it did not belong to his grandmother as it contained stuffed toys, colour pencils and a necklace he did not recognise.
The 50-year-old was shocked. “I thought I was going crazy. It felt like some one kidnapped her and we had no idea where she could be,” he told The Straits Times.
He informed the National Environment Agency (NEA), which on Oct 2 exhumed two unclaimed graves adjacent to the one that supposedly belonged to Mr Marn’s grandmother.
Based on the agency’s analysis, the tombstone of one grave was misaligned, which led to other adjacent headstones being wrongly tagged to grave plots.
But the adjacent graves contained men’s clothing, and nothing resembling his grandmother’s belongings.
Mr Marn finally found his grandmother’s remains on Oct 11, after the NEA exhumed five more graves.
