SINGAPORE: Retrenchments rose in the first quarter of the year, driven by losses in the manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Thursday (Jun 13).
According to MOM, retrenchments increased from 2,510 in the previous quarter to 3,230 in the first three months of 2019.
This, the ministry added, was driven by manufacturing (from 380 in the previous quarter to 1,040) and primarily affected production and related workers from electronics.
Electronics formed 18 per cent of retrenchments in the first quarter, followed by services industries such as wholesale trade (16 per cent) and transportation and storage (10 per cent).
Overall, the labour market held up in the first quarter, said MOM.
Total employment rates climbed higher than that of the same period last year, growing by about 10,700, excluding foreign domestic workers.
The services sector was the main driver of total employment growth, while construction posted its first employment gain in three years, reflecting an increase in both public and private sector construction activities.
“The tightness in the labour market may ease, as job vacancies declined for the first time in two years and retrenchments rose in this quarter,” MOM said.
The resident unemployment rate held steady at 3 per cent, while long-term unemployment rate declined from 0.8 per cent in December 2018 to 0.7 per cent in March 2019.
Among retrenched residents, professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) continued to make up the majority (69 per cent), as they form a higher share of the workforce, and were more prone to retrenchments
The six-month re-entry rate among retrenched residents rose for the second consecutive quarter to 66 per cent.
However, citizen unemployment rate rose slightly from 3.1 per cent in December 2018 to 3.2 per cent in March 2019. Seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rates remained unchanged at 2.2 per cent.
MORE JOB VACANCIES THAN SEEKERS, DESPITE DECLINE IN VACANCIES
The seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies declined from 62,300 in December 2018 to 57,100 in March 2019, the first decline after seven consecutive quarters of increase.
However, in the first quarter of the year, there continued to be more job vacancies than job seekers, despite the seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons dipping slightly from 1.10 in December 2018 to 1.08 in March 2019.
SINGAPORE: If you haven’t heard about Jeremy Tong – the 29 year old Singaporean who successfully scaled up Mount Everest last month, then you should read about him. Stories like his often get romanticised, but his journey climbing the world’s tallest mountain was anything but rosy.
The path to the summit was full of challenges: Too windy, too cold, and surprisingly, there was alot of waiting. Tong spent more than an hour at one point hanging around in a “human traffic jam” for other climbers to move through a single rope-path on the Everest.
It’s not easy to climb a mountain given the unexpected turmoils, congested pathways and sometimes dangerous consequences on the journey to the summit. Tong’s experience is one example that many can learn from and not just those who intend to climb the world’s tallest mountain.
Most of us would have our own professional version of Everest to scale.
Like climbing the Everest, our journey to the peak of our career ladder will be filled with many challenges.
There are lessons from Tong’s experience that we could use to help us navigate our professional Everest.
LESSON #1 – GLORY DOESN’T COME OVERNIGHT
Years of work experience will help pave your journey up the career ladder. Every step can feel like a long slog but get clear about how this takes you where you want to be and don’t lose heart.
Tong may have taken 12 hours to reach his destination but his journey didn’t start from base camp. It started 15 years ago when he first started clocking his climbing hours.
It would have been impossible for Tong to finish the summit without training to prepare him for the harsh weather conditions and the mentally and physically tiring climb.
Jeremy Tong on the summit of Mount Everest. (Photo: Jeremy Tong)
Likewise, to “level up” in your career journey, you need to grow your “career muscle” by putting in the daily hours at the “gym”, strengthening your knowledge and skills in the field where you work, and gaining new, relevant experiences that can help you navigate obstacles.
Careful not to confuse the number of years you spent in your job as equal to the number of experience that you have.
Just because you have spent 10 years in the same role doesn’t mean you have 10 years of experience if you were just doing the same tasks over and over again.
To achieve truly relevant work experience, you would need to do way more than that, meaning volunteering for new projects and assignments, or putting your hand up when the overseas posting comes along.
LESSON #2 – BE PREPARED TO DEAL WITH LESS COMPETENT COLLEAGUES
During the climb to the submit, Tong recalled seeing mountaineers who were clearly inexperienced trying to scale Everest.
He did not say if weaker participants had contributed to the delay to his journey to the summit but in the corporate world, lesser colleagues could delay your journey up your career ladder. Colleagues in a more senior position may hold some sway over what you do.
If you realise your manager appears “weak” or “incompetent” in his or her job, despite their accomplishments and credentials in their past roles, you’re not the only one.
This phenomenon, observed by Laurence J Peter who developed the Peter Principle concept, highlights that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their “level of incompetence”.
In other words, an employee is promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level where they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to those needed in another.
Tong traversing from base camp to camp 1 (6,000m). (Photo: Jeremy Tong)
But don’t let your less incompetent but senior colleagues stop you from going up the career ladder. Don’t let your perception of them and angst over where they have gotten to cloud your focus.
It is important to work with colleagues regardless of their strengths or weaknesses. Your relationships with them may give you the unexpected support you need to press on up your career ladder.
LESSON #3 – RESPECT THE ONES THAT ARE GIVING WAY (AND LEARN FROM THEM AT THE SAME TIME)
To keep things going along his pathway, Jeremy flattened himself along the tight rope so that descending mountaineers could pass him easily. It is a gesture of mountaineering respect accorded to the ones who come before him.
During your climb up your professional Everest, you may come to a point where those at the top are stepping down, and it is important that you give them the space and respect when they do. Doing so may help you get some useful tips and advice on what’s ahead.
If given a chance, take the opportunity to form a cordial relationship with them as it would allow you to tap on their past experience and get valuable input. They may offer valuable insider nuggets of knowledge that you can only tap on after you have invested time to develop a good working relationship with them. See them as mentors who can aid you.
Even if your professional environment doesn’t have such a structure in place, it doesn’t stop you from pursuing a mentorship.
More than 300 people have died on Everest since expeditions to reach the top started in the 1920s AFP/Phunjo LAMA
Personally, I have mine in the form of Steven Seek, the former MD of JobsDB Asia and now certified business and leadership coach.
I was then caught between the choice of beginning a HR tech startup versus a corporate career service role in a tertiary institution. Instead of comparing between the two, he got me to focus on comparing what’s next after each of these roles. That helped me make a better decision.
LESSON #4 – FAMILY SUPPORT IS CRUCIAL
One of the key motivation for Tong is his wife. Without her moral support, his achievement might not have happened.
Indeed, family support is crucial in a journey to career success.
In a sharing session in Nov 2018, local blogger, Mr Brown shared how his formative years, when he had decided to become a professional blogger, were tough on him. He said there were many times when he thought of giving up, but thanks to his wife’s support behind whatever decision he made, he was able to keep going.
There is a famous African proverb: If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together.
Mount Everest was first ascended in 1953, but the route to the top is still as deadly as ever: eleven people died during the 2019 climbing season AFP/PRAKASH MATHEMA
Your professional Everest will likely be a marathon rather than a sprint, and may seem to take forever to complete. There may also be a temptation to step on other shoulders to reach your goal, but what’s the point if you have to celebrate alone?
The journey to the top will require help from the people around you, your family, friends, and even your colleagues.
Even Tong had his trusted Sherpa guide, Pemba, to high five him on the summit.
Adrian Tan is supporting the APAC expansion of PeopleStrong, an enterprise HCM SaaS solution provider. The co-creator of Singapore HR Tech market map, he also writes regularly on HR Tech at adriantan.com.sg.
SINGAPORE: Mr Arfan Awaloeddin was suffering from Hepatitis B for about 30 years, but in May this year, he was cured.
All he had to do was stop taking his medication.
The 49-year-old Indonesian is part of a National University Hospital (NUH) study that seeks to find out if Hepatitis B patients carrying a low amount of the markers of the viral infection have the best chances of being cured by stopping medication.
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that affects the liver and was estimated to have been present in 180,000 people in Singapore in 2010, according to the latest figures available.
Of the 23 people enrolled in the study that started in January, Mr Arfan is the first to be cured. The majority of them are men.
Mr Arfan was diagnosed with the disease in 1992 or 1993 in his home country, and started getting treatment in Singapore in 1996.
Speaking to the media at a sharing session in NUH on Wednesday (Jun 12), Mr Arfan said that he was initially scared to stop his medication.
“I stopped medication on my own without asking my doctor in around 2000. I stopped for two to three months. I felt unwell, and after that I had to take medication again,” he said.
But he was reassured when his doctor, senior consultant in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Professor Lim Seng Gee, told him he would be monitored.
Mr Arfan, who owns a hospital in Indonesia, said his father also suffered from Hepatitis B for 10 years before dying of liver cirrhosis in 2005. His three children, however, have been vaccinated against the disease.
It is a new life now for Mr Arfan.
“I feel good. I don’t have to spend money, I don’t have to take medication every morning. I feel free,” he said. He was spending about S$4,000 annually on his condition for consultation and medication, he said.
Mr Arfan will be monitored monthly for the first year, in the three-year study.
HOW STOPPING MEDICATION WORKS
Typically, chronic Hepatitis B patients have to be on long-term medication, which could mean taking tablets daily.
Prof Lim, the lead of the study, told the media said that when the medication is stopped, the virus will return. The patient’s immune system will then work to beat the virus.
The virus becomes something new to the body although it has been carrying it because while the patient was on medication, the body did not recognise the virus as foreign, he explained.
“When you stop treatment, suddenly, the body realises the virus is foreign, attacks it and clears it That’s what we think is the mechanism,” said Prof Lim.
When asked if that means they did not need therapy to start with, he said no.
Professor Lim Seng Gee, a senior consultant in NUH who is leading a study on stopping medication to cure Hepatitis B and Mr Arfan Awaloeddin, the patient to be cured. (Photo: Jalelah Abu Baker)
“We can’t say that, because originally, they were started on treatment because they needed it. But after 10 years, 20 years of treatment, is it time to stop? That really is the question,” he said.
How the immune system is able to clear the virus when it was not able to before is something that researchers are still trying to find out, he said.
Studies overseas have also shown that stopping medication cures Hepatitis B, but these did not focus on the amount of infection markers as a factor to find out which patients would benefit most from stopping medication, Prof Lim said.
The trial in Singapore is the only one that is targeted at patients with low levels of infection markers.
MINORITY WILL QUALIFY FOR STUDY
In order to qualify for the study here, patients have to fulfill three criteria.
Their infection markers have to be below the level of 100, they cannot have liver cirrhosis and they have to be on oral medication, said Prof Lim. Mr Arfan’s infection marker level was just two, much lower than the cutoff of 100, when he was enrolled.
Typically, patients have levels that go into the thousands.
While it is not known how many patients have such levels of markers, Prof Lim said it would be a minority who would qualify for it.
The cutoff was based on other studies. Testing for the level of infection markers is relatively new, quite expensive and not in routine use, but patients can get tested for free as part of the study at NUH, Prof Lim said.
“We do not know how common it is, so I would encourage patients to go and get it tested,” he said.
The study, which will also start in Singapore General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Changi General Hospital, received S$1.5 million in funding from the National Medical Research Council.
It will aim to enrol 150 patients. Of these, 50 will continue taking their tablets, so that the effectiveness of stopping medication can be compared against them.
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) on Tuesday (Jun 11) introduced the Army’s latest armoured asset – a next-generation vehicle that promises to be deadlier, faster, and safer than its predecessor.
The Singapore-made Hunter Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) is the Army’s first fully digitalised platform and will replace the ageing Ultra M113, which has been in use since the 1970s.
The new vehicle, developed in a collaboration between the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), ST Engineering and the Singapore Army, will make its public debut at this year’s National Day Parade, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on Tuesday.
Important features of the Hunter – the Singapore Army’s first fully-digitalised platform. (Graphic: MINDEF)
Speaking at the commissioning of the Hunter at the Armour Formation’s 50th anniversary parade at Sungei Gedong Camp, Dr Ng said the SAF places “considerable investment” in building up its Armour Formation.
“The Hunter replaces the Ultra M113 but represents a significant step up in all areas – better firepower, mobility and protection,” Dr Ng added.
“The Hunter fleet will require less manpower to operate, but with increased potency through the use of advanced technology.”
FASTER, BETTER, STRONGER
Armed with a 30mm cannon and anti-tank guided missiles, the Hunter features an automatic target detection and tracking system, improving the crew’s ability to detect and engage targets.
It is also the Army’s first AFV to be equipped with an integrated combat cockpit, which allows its commander and gunner to both operate the vehicle with a common set of controls.
The Hunter’s external cameras provides its crew with a 360-degree view of its surroundings.
The AFV comes with drive-by-wire capability, enabling the vehicle commander to take over the driving functions from the driver when necessary. In addition, the vehicle commander is also equipped with an independent sight, allowing him to detect other targets while the gunner is engaging a target.
To maximise crew protection, the Hunter is designed to be operated close-hatched, with a series of cameras on its exterior providing a 360-degree field of vision to its crew while in the vehicle. A Laser Warning System will alert the crew when they are being targeted by an enemy.
A SMART HUNTER
But more critical is the Hunter’s advanced suite of digital systems. The Hunter comes equipped with the Army Tactical Engagement and Information System (ARTEMIS), which will allow efficient wireless information exchange between various military formations and vehicles.
“The Hunter can also be integrated with unmanned platforms, including robots,” Dr Ng said.
“For example, the Hunter crew can mobilise unmanned aerial and ground vehicles (UAVs and UGVs) to gather reconnaissance and surveillance information remotely, with obvious advantages for stealth manoeuvres and its own protection.”
The Hunter boasts an advanced suite of digital systems.
As a digital platform, the Hunter is equipped with a Health and Utilisation Monitoring System (HUMS), which will help the crew maintain their vehicle.
The AFV also has several inbuilt safety features, such as audio and visual alerts to prompt the crew about vehicle anomalies, potential system failures as well as hazards during movement and when stationary.
There is an emergency stop, and safety distance markers embedded on the driving camera displays.
In the late 1990s, the Army’s first locally-made armoured vehicle, the Bionix, was developed to fight alongside the M113.
In 2008, ST Engineering substantially overhauled the Leopard 2 main battle tanks to develop the local Leopard 2SG variant.
“From time to time, even though the Hunter is born and bred locally, I expect the Hunter to make overseas ‘hunting expeditions’ to Australia and other training grounds,” said Dr Ng.
SINGAPORE: The newly launched S$20 note to commemorate Singapore’s Bicentennial has seen “strong demand” since it was made available on Monday (Jun 10), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a media release on Tuesday.
“Some bank branches have given out all their allotted supply of the note,” MAS said.
Issued by MAS, the S$20 notes represent the country’s journey to nationhood and pay tribute to forebears who laid the foundations for modern Singapore.
Two million pieces of the S$20 notes were made available at the branches of nine major banks on Monday. Each person was allowed to exchange up to 20 pieces.
The notes were out of stock at all DBS and POSB branches by Tuesday afternoon, according to a DBS spokesperson. UOB also added they had run out of the notes as of Tuesday.
As of the end of Tuesday, there are “limited quantities” of the notes at the following banks and their branches, MAS said.
OCBC Bank
Citibank Singapore Limited
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Limited Singapore Branch
Ang Mo Kio, Holland Village, Paya Lebar, Punggol, Sembawang, Simei
HSBC Bank (Singapore) Limited
Alexandra, Bukit Timah, Collyer Quay, Holland Village, Jurong, Marine Parade, Orchard Dhoby Ghaut, Raffles Place, Serangoon Garden, Suntec City, Tampines
Those looking to get their hands on the notes do not need to be customers of the bank to get them, MAS added.
The back of the note showcases eight pioneers who made significant contributions to nation building. (Image: Monetary Authority of Singapore)
The note, launched by President Halimah Yacob last Wednesday, was designed by local artists Mr Eng Siak Loy and Mr Weng Ziyan.
Also available are 5,000 limited edition numismatic sets available for sale. Each set comprises an uncut sheet of three S$20 commemorative notes.
Pre-orders can be placed with The Singapore Mint from Wednesday to Jun 13. The numismatic currency sets will be allocated by balloting if they are oversubscribed and will be available for collection from Jun 20.
SINGAPORE: It was a tough reality check for new Lions head coach Tatsuma Yoshida as his side were beaten 2-1 by Myanmar in an international friendly at the Singapore Sports Hub on Tuesday (Jun 11).
Winger Gabriel Quak’s second goal in as many games looked to have been enough for a draw for the Lions, but a double from striker Kyaw Ko Ko gave Myanmar the win and handed Yoshida his first loss as head coach.
In Yoshida’s first game in charge on Saturday, the 160th ranked Lions beat Solomon Islands (139th) 4-3, courtesy of goals from Faris Ramli, Shahdan Sulaiman, Quak and Hariss Harun.
Singapore’s Fadli Kamis jostles for the ball. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
Singapore’s M Anumanthan holds on to the ball. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
Backed by a vociferous Myanmar crowd, the away side, one place behind the Solomon Islands in the rankings, took the lead as early as the 5th minute when striker Kyaw finished tidily into the bottom corner after good work on the left from Myanmar.
But the Lions fought their way back into the game and found the net close to 20 minutes later. A chipped through ball from Huzaifah Aziz found Quak, who tucked home a finish at the second time of asking.
The goal seemed to stir the home side into action, with Quak and Irwan Shah posing problems for their opponents with their neat interplay.
The Singapore side, which only contained five of the last game’s starting 11, fashioned the first chance of the second half. Midfielder M Anumanthan attempted a piledriver from outside the box, only to blaze the shot over.
But some slack defending from the Lions in the 67th minute played Kyaw onside, and he made no mistake with a calm finish past Lions’ goalkeeper Hassan Sunny.
Faris Ramli gets tackled. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
Yoshida threw on Hariss, Amri and Shahdan in an attempt to change the game, and veteran Amri almost made an instant impact, but his header was directed just over.
With three minutes to go, the final chance of the game fell the way to Shahdan, but he could only drill a free kick just wide.
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Bicentennial S$20 notes are being resold for as much as S$988 on online marketplaces such as Carousell and eBay, as banks run out of stock one day after the launch of the commemorative notes.
A check by CNA on Tuesday (Jun 11) found more than 400 listings for the Bicentennial note on Carousell and eBay. At least 380 listings for the notes were on Carousell, while eBay had about 35 listings.
The majority of listings were priced between S$25 and S$30, although several notes with auspicious serial numbers were priced at hundreds of dollars.
One listing on Carousell showed a note with the serial number AE159888. The asking price? S$988.
A S$20 note commemorating Singapore’s Bicentennial is on sale for S$988 on Carousell. (Screengrab: Carousell)
Another seller on Carousell was asking for S$88,888 for his bicentennial notes. In his listing, he asked interested buyers to send him a private message and noted that the bicentennial notes would “go to the highest bidder”.
In a collector’s shop in Chinatown, Fang Zheng Trading told CNA it was selling the notes at between S$26 and S$30.
“There are people interested, but it depends on the price,” said trader Ms Fang, adding that she had yet to sell a single note.
“So far there are only people looking.”
The shop will also consider buying the notes from sellers, depending on the condition of the notes and their serial numbers.
“We need to see the notes, and see our demand,” Ms Fang added.
Issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the S$20 notes were launched to commemorate Singapore’s Bicentennial and represent the country’s journey to nationhood.
Two million pieces of the commemorative notes were made available at the branches of nine major banks on Monday.
Each person was allowed to exchange up to 20 pieces of the S$20 notes.
Long queues for bicentennial commemorative notes outside DBS Bank at Toa Payoh on Jun 10, 2019.
On the first day of the exchange, snaking queues began forming outside several branches of Singapore’s major banks from as early as 8am.
By mid-day Monday, at least 15 OCBC branches had run out of the notes, while more than half of DBS and POSB branches had run out of the notes before the end of the day.
By Tuesday, most of the nine retail banks had given out their allocated supply of the notes.
A bank customer counting bicentennial commemorative notes at a bank on Jun 10, 2019.
The MAS said in response to queries from CNA that while the law does not prohibit a person from selling the commemorative notes online, it would advise against doing so.
“We encourage Singaporeans to collect the SB (Singapore Bicentennial) notes as keepsakes as they are a one-off issue to commemorate Singapore’s Bicentennial,” it added.
SINGAPORE: Singapore and Cambodia have reaffirmed longstanding ties, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Tuesday (Jun 11), adding that the two countries are committed to “strengthening mutual understanding and pursuing cooperation, dialogue and friendship”.
Lieutenant-General Hun Manet, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Commander of Army (COA), is making his introductory visit to Singapore in his capacity as COA from Tuesday to Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, he called on Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.
“Lt Gen Hun Manet and the Singapore leaders reaffirmed the longstanding ties between Singapore and Cambodia, and our wide-ranging and substantive cooperation which has benefited both countries and the region,” MFA said in a press statement.
“SM Teo and Lt Gen Hun Manet welcomed the strengthening of our defence and economic relations. They discussed ways to enhance military exchanges and public service transformation.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan meeting Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Commander of Army Lieutenant-General Hun Manet. (Photo: MFA)
Dr Balakrishnan and Lt Gen Manet welcomed the inaugural Singapore-Cambodia MFA-to-MFA bilateral consultations, which will take place on Jun 19.
“This initiative will promote mutual understanding and exchange of views between our two MFAs at the working level,” Singapore’s MFA added.
Writing on his Facebook page, Dr Balakrishnan said the two countries are “old friends and our wide-ranging cooperation has benefitted both sides”.
“We had a good discussion on the emerging security challenges in the region, and agreed that it was important to cooperate both bilaterally and within ASEAN to tackle these issues,” said Dr Balakrishnan.
The COA will call on Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on Wednesday, before leaving Singapore on Thursday.
SINGAPORE: Hypoxia, a condition where your body doesn’t receive enough oxygen, is just one of the many health risks that pilots face on the job. In a safety critical industry like aviation, such health complications can cost many lives.
To support the health needs of Singapore’s aviation workforce, a new centre was launched at the Changi General Hospital on Tuesday (Jun 11). It will cater to pilots, air traffic controllers as well as ground support staff.
Called the Changi Aviation Medicine Centre (CAMC), it is Singapore’s first aviation medicine centre to be established within a government restructured hospital.
The Changi Aviation Medicine Centre (CAMC) opened in the Changi General Hospital on Jun 11, 2019. (Photo: Corine Tiah)
Speaking at the launch, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Health Lam Pin Min highlighted the need for a “centre of excellence” in aviation medicine.
“With the anticipated traffic growth, we need to provide better support for aviation professionals who are at the centre of the aviation enterprise,” he said.
“Aviation professionals need to cope with and adapt to increasing complexity, workload and pressures. Each vocation faces unique sets of work demands and stress.”
Responding to CNA queries on how the medical issues faced by aircrew are different from those of the general population, director of CAMC Brian See said: “Whilst pilots are like any other persons, their job also takes them to unusual and physiological stressors in the flying environment such as hypoxia, pressure changes in the body, etc.”
Treatments that cause side effects such as drowsiness may also not be suitable for pilots, he said.
“What CAMC strives to do is to work with Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to make sure that pilots … can quickly go back to their duties in a medically safe manner,” said Dr See.
The CAMC is also able to provide medical examinations customised for aviation professionals, such as the Maddox Wing test, that checks for squints or lazy eyes. This is important as peripheral vision is crucial to pilots.
The Maddox wing test. (Photo: Corine Tiah)
Examinations like these are conducted by aviation medicine specialists who understand the health complexities faced by pilots.
The centre will consolidate the expertise of these specialists, all of whom have expertise in other disciplines such as psychiatry, cardiology and mental health, to provide the aviation professionals with “holistic care”, said Dr Lam.
The centre will also support the industry by providing programmes to enhance operational safety in aviation, such as for sleep disorder and fatigue management, and it aims to help to improve the standard of patient care for aeromedical evacuations.
In his speech, Dr Lam highlighted the Collaborative Health Achievement and Motivation Programme (CHAMP) that was developed by the centre to address alcohol use disorder in the community.
“CHAMP offers aviators a highly customised and supportive programme involving the multidisciplinary expertise of a healthcare team comprising aviation medicine specialists, psychiatrists, counsellors, medical social workers and psychologists to achieve the best rehabilitation outcome,” Dr Lam said.
“The programme also provides close monitoring and support by the healthcare team and peer para-counsellors to help aviators stay in remission.”
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore tightened rules on alcohol abstention for pilots in March, after Singapore Airlines was forced to cancel a flight from Melbourne to Wellington when the pilot failed an alcohol test.
“CAMC will be able to provide holistic medical care to our aviation professionals, which will, in turn, benefit companies and the aviation system as a whole,” said Dr Lam.
SINGAPORE: From Tuesday (Jun 11), those looking to buy a balance flat from the Housing and Development Board (HDB) can view the online listing at any time of the year and book a flat as early as a day after making an application.
This new option of an “open booking”, first announced by National Development Minister Lawrence Wong in February, would allow more home buyers to move into their flats earlier, said HDB in a media release on Tuesday.
Previously, potential home buyers would have to wait for the twice-yearly Sale of Balance Flats or Re-Offer of Balance Flats exercise to purchase unsold Build-to-Order flats.
Under the first open booking, a total of 123 flats will be available, comprising 105 flats in mature towns such as Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh and Bukit Merah, as well as 18 flats in non-mature towns like Bukit Batok and Jurong West.
Details are now available on HDB’s website and interested home buyers can apply from Jun 18.
“The one-week period gives interested applicants time to gather information on the flats offered, before submitting their application,” said HDB.
“Applicants will be able to select and book a flat on a first-come-first-served basis. During the flat selection appointment, applicants will be assessed for eligibility before they book a flat.”
How to apply for unselected ROF flats. (Graphic: HDB)
A fresh supply of Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF) will be made available for open booking twice a year – in February and August. To allow time for preparation, online applications will be suspended for about two weeks before each injection of new flats.
“During each suspension, HDB will publish the dates for the next inject and when it will start accepting online applications, so that home buyers can plan ahead for their purchase,” said HDB.
The ROF exercises, introduced in 2017 to help young couples get their first home sooner, have been popular with buyers.
HDB’s different sales modes. (Graphic: HDB)
Since August 2017, almost 3,400 units have been offered in ROF exercises, with about 3,000 households booking a flat. Of these, 1,850 households, or 62 per cent, have already collected the keys to their flats, HDB said.
“The new open booking of ROF flats, together with the existing sales modes, will provide more options for home buyers to find a flat that meets their budget and needs,” said the housing board.
“HDB will continue to monitor the response and make refinements to our sales processes where necessary.”
