SINGAPORE: How is corporate giving in Singapore like attending a traditional Chinese wedding?

Cash remains the preferred “gift” for many. And the bigger the ang pow, the better, many think.

Since the launch of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre’s Company of Good programme in 2016, we have engaged over 1,000 businesses in Singapore and gained insight into how companies think about giving back to society.

More of them understand why giving back matters. Companies profit from communities, and it is their responsibility to help communities when in need. Savvy ones also appreciate the benefits giving brings.

But misconceptions still exist, the most striking of which is the assumption that cash is king.

The common thinking is that a company that donates S$1 million has contributed more than one that gives only S$1,000. Think about how our society celebrates hefty dollar donation – with giant cheque-giving ceremonies and charity auctions rewarding the highest bidder.

READ: Singapore shows data can be a force for good, a commentary

WHEN CASH ISN’T KING

To be clear, there is nothing wrong if a company makes monetary contributions. In fact, many non-profits welcome the flexibility of cash.  

Problems start when society over-emphasises monetary giving, leading to narrow definitions of how companies can contribute

SMEs suffer most from this mindset, believing they have nothing to give. “We’re not the big boys. We can’t donate hundreds of thousands,” is a refrain we hear.

But volunteerism, offering assets like venue facilities, or cause advocacy matter just as much. Think F&B companies that educate customers on food wastage and plastic consumption. This social consciousness can be a differentiating factor for smaller brands.

Company size doesn’t matter when it comes to the quality of giving. Industries with a small number of employees have volunteerism rates on par with or even higher than those with larger employee pools.

With SMEs making up over 90 per cent of enterprises in Singapore, we need them to believe in their potential to contribute even if they lack deep pockets. It does not benefit Singapore’s giving if our charities remain stuck courting a tiny 1 per cent of large firms and multinationals. 

The thing is businesses are not rapacious beasts who give for cosmetic reasons. Our conversations with companies reveal sincere beliefs about helping those in need.

In fact, cash donations risk feeling transactional especially if they take the form of a CSR manager writing out a cheque without meaningful interaction with the charity.

This reduces the company to an ATM, and the giving becomes emotionally and strategically disconnected from the business. There is little reason to sustain it, especially during recessions when corporate philanthropy budgets come under greater scrutiny. And yet, bad times are when the poor need help the most.

READ: Can the rich be caring? Is there an empathy gap? A commentary

A BROADER VIEW OF GIVING

The good news is that Singapore’s corporate giving scene is gradually maturing. Of the over 700 companies surveyed in NVPC’s inaugural Corporate Giving Survey, a promising 52 per cent are engaged in corporate giving, and a further 31 per cent expressed interest to start.

While cash donations dominate, businesses are clearly exploring other ways of contributing.

Riding on this momentum, perhaps it is time to shift the narrative around corporate giving. Rather than rehashing the mantra of giving more cash, we should have more meaningful conversations around other ways companies can give.

FROM GIVING MORE TO GIVING IN OTHER WAYS

Just like how financial planners recommend a spread of investments, we can encourage companies to consider a diverse giving portfolio to reduce reliance on any one method.

While over 60 per cent of corporate givers still give through cash donations, there is healthy engagement in other ways including in-kind donations (37 per cent) and the purchase of goods and services from non-profits (30 per cent), which came in at second and third place respectively.

Potential givers also show a higher inclination toward volunteerism compared to current givers, with 30 per cent saying they would carry out hands-on volunteerism – the third most popular method, after cash and in-kind donations. 

This willingness to explore other forms of giving is a positive trend society should recognise and celebrate.

Already, we see examples of small firms thinking creatively. Social enterprise The Mindful Company collaborates with charities to create products with inspiring messages around mental wellness. The digitally-savvy team also gives its expertise by informally consulting charity partners on branding and content marketing.

Elsewhere, we have seen a boutique creative agency that not only does pro-bono work but has leveraged its relationship with media owners to secure advertising spots for an adopted charity – in effect, “giving” through its business networks. 

The definition of “pro-bono” has also gone beyond the legal profession, as tech companies give away complimentary digital and software services, and providing training to non-profit users.

READ: Three stories on why tackling poverty requires active listening, a commentary

GIVING STRATEGICALLY EQUALS GIVING BETTER

Another conversation we should have is whether companies are adopting a strategic orientation toward giving activities. While not necessarily giving more, are they giving more effectively?

Our survey suggests companies may be moving in this direction. 64 per cent of corporate givers currently integrate a giving element into at least one business function, chiefly procurement (30 per cent), followed by staff development, and marketing and branding (28 per cent each). It will be interesting to see if this momentum continues and grows in subsequent years.

A good number are also aligning their social and business objectives. 66 per cent of corporate givers that engaged in volunteerism were motivated by the positive knock-on effects for staff morale – where giving helps achieve goals like recruitment, leadership development and staff retention – while 43 per cent did it because it supported their business model. 

To use an analogy, these companies are making giving part of their “core curriculum” as opposed to a co-curricular activity.

An example is local firm Feng Ming Construction. After realising the limitations of conventional “cheque-book philanthropy”, Feng Ming has shifted towards having staff volunteer with non-profit AWWA to renovate homes for families-in-need.

Feng Ming reaps the benefit of motivated employees, who feel proud to use their skills for good. By relying on in-house expertise, the project is more efficient compared to if it had given the charity cash to hire a sub-contractor.

READ: Amid concerns over dollars and cents, is there no room for social responsibility? A commentary

MARRYING PROFIT AND PURPOSE

Companies generally agree that giving is good for business so it’s time to encourage businesses to think about giving differently to overcome perceived resource barriers.

It is a win if businesses can marry profit and purpose, and corporate giving teams are likelier to secure internal buy-in if their giving initiatives fulfil company goals.

The more giving is sustainable, the higher the chance of turning it into a corporate culture.

Once this happens, giving will become intuitive among staff and management, requiring less justification.  That’s something money can’t buy.

Jeffrey Tan is director of Knowledge & Advocacy at the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC).

SINGAPORE: When a lorry collided with Marcus Loke and two of his friends on West Coast Highway in 2016, he narrowly escaped death.

The first few days in hospital were “very difficult” for the then 17-year-old, who kept wondering about his friends Ong Zi Quan, 19, and Ang Yee Fong, 25. They had been riding to his grandmother’s home on their power-assisted bicycles.

When the police told him about their deaths, he cried, the pain in his heart coming on top of his leg injuries.

READ: West Coast e-bike deaths: Fatigue may have caused driver to fall asleep, says coroner

In April, the driver was charged in court. Today, whenever Mr Loke sees heavy goods vehicles approaching, his first thought is “move aside”. He said: “Sometimes I see those truck drivers and I think they drive a bit too fast.”

Certainly, heavy vehicles are claiming a disproportionate number of lives. They make up five per cent of the vehicle population but have been involved in three in 10 fatal road accidents in the last two years.

Last year, there were 764 accidents involving heavy vehicles, of which 34 were fatal.

In June, a chain collision set off by a lorry left one person dead along Tanah Merah Coast Road. Two months earlier, a lorry rammed into a father, daughter and their family friend near Yio Chu Kang Station, killing them.

Why are these vehicles turning the roads into sudden death traps? Are heavy vehicle drivers more reckless? As the programme Talking Point discovers, a vicious circle is at work in the industry, potentially putting other drivers and pedestrians at risk. (Watch the episode here.)

There are also solutions that can help to prevent accidents and make the roads safer, but more could be done.

DRIVEN HARD, WITH LITTLE CHOICE

The experience of Ravi (not his real name), a lorry driver for three years, is instructive. His normal working hours are 8am to 5pm, but the 31-year-old then works five to six hours of overtime to earn more money.

Driving for that long means he gets tired, as he has to keep pressing and letting out the clutch when there is heavy traffic. His concentration, for example on his blind spots, is gradually affected.

The migrant worker said he has not been involved in any accident but knows of other drivers who have, owing to fatigue and carelessness; for instance, they did not keep a proper lookout for pedestrians.

Ravi is working longer than the limits set by law, which is 12 hours a day and 72 hours of overtime in a month for employees like him. Beyond that, companies must apply to the Manpower Ministry for an exemption.

He understands that is the law, but he said: “Not only I, but many people are working long hours.”

When Talking Point asked other drivers, they too said they sometimes work 14 or 15 hours a day. One of them, who has occasional headaches and back pains as a result, said:

Sometimes I take a tablet (Panadol), sometimes an energy drink.

Another driver, when asked how his boss would respond to complaints of fatigue, cited threats to send him back to his home country.

Their long working day is a “pretty common theme” among migrant workers, said Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, the president of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2). “These workers don’t have much of a choice.”

With drivers, she noted, the safety issue concerns not only them but also others. She cited a recent case of a driver who told TWC2 that he was forced to work despite having a medical certificate.

“Because of that, he got involved in an accident. So this is something that’s unfair to him,” she added.

The employers have the balance of power. The law is actually clear about the maximum working hours (and) overtime a worker can do, so they should abide by this.

INDUSTRY ISSUES

Mr Daniel Chew, a corporate consultant at the Singapore Logistics Association, agreed that the legal requirements as well as the fatigue drivers experience are well known in the industry.

The reason that overwork is still “quite widespread”, he said, is that “many companies are struggling” with a lack of drivers. So they “circumvent” the law by running split shifts.

Workers would start as early as 6am and work for about six hours, followed by a break, before finishing another six hours. “It’s still within the law because the actual working hours are 12,” he added.

“The unfortunate thing is that (during) the four hours in the middle of the day for these drivers, they don’t really take a lot of time to rest. Sometimes they do other work, or they’re involved in other things.”

It is a recipe for disaster, he agreed.

Just a split-second kind of negligence can result in a very serious accident, especially when the vehicle is very big.

The way drivers are paid is another problem. To save money, some employers keep basic salaries low, between S$1,500 and S$2,000 a month. But drivers can increase their income if they make more trips.

To do that, they “must drive fast”, admitted one driver. That is why Mr Chew has previously called for a revamp of the traditional incentive structure, suggesting three alternative models.

These are: Pay by distance completed, regardless of the number of trips made; pay by teams instead of individuals, to reduce the drivers’ competitive nature; and pay by conformance, by rewarding those who drive below the speed limit.

Drivers themselves recognise the current problem, besides the fact that there are those who are reckless. Said one: “Honestly, (being paid per trip) is more dangerous.”

SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

How else can the roads be kept safer? By installing safety devices, as logistics service provider Bok Seng Group has done for its fleet.

READ: Trucking along: Logistics companies invest in tools to improve road safety

Besides gadgets that monitor for speeding, there is anti-fatigue technology, such as an in-vehicle camera pointed at the driver to detect any dozing off. It would make a beeping noise, and he would be jolted awake by a vibration.

A signal would also be sent to the office. If he nods off again, a response centre from the safety technology’s Australian company would call Bok Seng’s health and safety department about the fatigued driver.

“Then we’d call the controller to please check whether this driver is having some problem like drowsiness,” said Bok Seng Group health and safety senior manager Steven Tan, 43.

The installation cost per vehicle is around S$4,000, and the company spent over S$200,000 last year on safety devices. “The cost is a bit pricey, but we can’t compare the price against the cost of a life,” he added.

The result: A 33 per cent drop in cases of driver fatigue within six months, on top of speeding incidents coming down by 80 per cent over the past four years.

Three other companies have speed-tracking devices on trial in 30 vehicles until this month, in partnership with the Traffic Police, which aims to find a technology to complement or replace the speed limiters in heavy vehicles to curb speeding effectively.

READ: Speed-tracking devices for heavy vehicles on trial until August

The combination of speeding and fatigue can have disastrous consequences. Fatigued drivers can suffer from tunnel vision – seeing what is in front but not vehicles or people on the sides.

A tired brain also causes lapses of judgement, like not being able to judge one’s speed or braking distance and turning too early or going too fast while turning, said Singapore Safety Driving Centre operation group leader Low Kar Yoong.

From her conversations with heavy vehicle drivers, Talking Point host Diana Ser thinks more must be done “to address what appears to be a systemic flaw”.

“Some of our heavy vehicle drivers are downright exhausted, and companies need to be held accountable. After all, one death on the road is one too many,” she said.

Watch this episode of Talking Point here. New episodes every Thursday at 9.30pm on Mediacorp Channel 5.

SINGAPORE: It would be “unproductive” to play up expectations of homeowners due to the recently announced Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS) – a scheme to take back old Housing Board flats before their leases end, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (Aug 21).

“All of us, including the media, (have) to make sure that we don’t play up expectations of the market or … get people all excited and too overly exuberant … thinking that this will help to prop up the resale market,” he told reporters at the sidelines of a REACH feedback forum.

They should also avoid speculating in the market hoping for a “big payout at the end of the day”, he said, adding that the Government will try its best to manage expectations.

READ: Owners of old HDB flats now know ‘there is some future’, say experts

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had announced at the National Day Rally on Sunday that the Government will take back some Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats starting from when they reach 70 years old to redevelop the housing estates.

Homeowners will get to vote on whether they want to move out and will receive compensation if their flats are taken back, Mr Lee had said. However, details of the scheme are still being worked out and it will only be implemented in about 20 years’ time.

Mr Lee had also announced that each Housing Board flat will be upgraded twice under the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) II.

READ: Scheme planned to redevelop more old HDB flats before leases end

On Tuesday, Mr Wong added that the Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) will continue to run its course until all remaining sites with high development potential have been cleared.

According to the HDB’s estimates, only about 5 per cent of flats are suitable for SERS.

“There are still more to go but we will eventually reach the limit … once we do that, we will transit to a VERS programme,” Mr Wong said.

He added that the Government will be seeking more feedback on proposed changes to housing policies before the schemes are finetuned.

READ: ‘It would be rash to rush into details now’: Lawrence Wong on new housing policy VERS

Mr Wong was speaking to reporters after a feedback session conducted by REACH on the National Day Rally. The evening’s discussion,  which attracted more than 130 participants, ranged from concerns about the cost of living, to housing and foreign relations.

Addressing the concerns of a forum participant about social divisiveness which could arise when polling is done for VERS, Mr Wong said: “I acknowledge that in this case, stakes are higher … but we have some experience and we will have time to study how to work out the exact mechanisms and how to go about doing it without causing too much division or without creating acrimony within the block itself.”

READ: New VERS scheme could bring about ‘acrimony’ among residents, warns Alex Yam

Leadership renewal for the Government was another area highlighted at the forum chaired by Mr Sam Tan, REACH chairman and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and for Social and Family Development.

A forum participant asked whether the long-term plans laid out during the National Day Rally can be fulfilled by the next prime minister.

In response, Mr Wong said it is “quite unique” that Singapore is able to plan so far into the future.

“I don’t know of any other country that is planning and thinking about urban rejuvenation at the scale that we are talking about. So this is indeed a long-term plan. It has never been done anywhere in the world. It is going to be more challenging than our first phase of building HDB,” he said.

“But we have a plan and now the key is for the Government and the people to work together to bring about and realise these plans,” he added.

READ: Lease Buyback Scheme to be extended to all HDB flats

On the Lease Buyback Scheme, which was recently expanded to include all HDB flats, Mr Wong said that the take-up rate is “not very high” but it gives elderly homeowners peace of mind should they need to unlock some value from their property for retirement.

“It’s not really about the numbers because not everybody may want to take up this option … But making the option available to every flat owner will … give assurance that whatever happens … there’s always this option that you can exercise,” he added.

SINGAPORE: Jackie Fang has had to undergo four surgical operations in the past two years and now requires the aid of a walking stick to get around, but she remains dedicated to rabbit welfare – even though it has come at the expense of her own.

“It was in an open space, and when the rabbit was running about I tried to catch it,” recalled Ms Fang of a routine rescue in 2016. “I thought I was still young and did a goalkeeper dive. It slowed down the run of the rabbit and my rescue partner managed to catch it. We had a rescue plan, but the dive wasn’t part of it.”

During the rescue, she injured her spine, her neck and her right knee, seriously aggravating an old injury. Ms Fang continues to feel the effects today and has lost some of her mobility.

But this isn’t going to stop her or Bunny Wonderland Singapore, her private rabbit rescue group, from carrying out their mission. Established five years ago, 15 volunteers aim to save and find new homes for pet rabbits which have been abandoned or surrendered.

“Bunny Wonderland’s primary objective is to rescue the neglected and the sick animals – we will nurse them back to health and we will put them up for adoption,” said Ms Lynne Tan, who founded the group with Ms Fang.

Since its inception in 2013, Ms Tan estimates that Bunny Wonderland has rescued between 350 to 400 rabbits and found new homes for many of them.

However, Bunny Wonderland isn’t the only volunteer rabbit rescue group in Singapore. The House Rabbits Society of Singapore (HRSS) is a non-profit group dedicated to rabbit welfare and education about the animals.

The group rescues over a hundred rabbits a year, said vice-president Jacelyn Heng. 

“Just because you don’t see them, it doesn’t mean that they are not there,” said Ms Heng. “If rabbits are abandoned, they will hide first because they are prey animals. They only come out twice – in the early morning when they search for food and in the late evening. These are the two timings we go out to rescue them.”

Rabbits are usually left abandoned in parks, said both rescue groups. A number also have been left in HDB estates, either in cages or wandering among void decks and car parks.

“When people abandon rabbits intentionally, they don’t want them to be found. So they choose very secluded parts of Singapore like parks,” said Ms Tan.

“We had a couple of rabbits found in rubbish bins, people knew about it when they heard rustling sounds (from) inside the rubbish bin. One of them was even wrapped up in a plastic bag and you could see a head popping out.”

HOPPING AWAY FROM RESPONSIBILITIES

Some people purchase rabbits because they think that the animals are not only cuddly but easy to care for, said Ms Tan.

“It’s quite common for people to walk by pet shops and see very cute rabbits. Of course,  when you see cute things, you just want to have them,” she added. “There’s a misconception that rabbits are small and cute and easy to care for, which is typically what they are marketed as – pocket pets or starting pets for children. It doesn’t take long for people to realise that it is all false, because rabbits will grow.”

Rabbits can also breed very quickly, leading to problems when owners find themselves with an unwanted litter of babies and no means to care for them.

“Two rabbits can easily give birth at the age of five months and every litter could be four to eight rabbits and they could have babies every twenty-eight days,” Ms Tan added. “That’s their gestation period … the poor little rabbit could give birth over and over again. So if you don’t control the population (of your pets), it just grows exponentially.”

VULNERABLE TO ATTACK

When unwanted rabbits are left to fend for themselves in the wild, these domestic pets have no chance of survival, said Ms Heng, who has been part of HRSS for fifteen years.

“Rabbits may just be bitten by cats, dogs or predators,” she stressed. “Abandoning them is like sending them to a slow and painful death.”

This has been witnessed first-hand by some of the Bunny Wonderland personnel such as Ms Fang.  

“There was a rescue in Sembawang. We knew about the case and when we rushed down, the two rabbits were already dead. I suspect that they met predators,” she recalled. “Sometimes, it is sad to say – and this is not only in Singapore – that quite a lot of adults don’t recognise that animals are also living things. They treat them as toys.”

The condition that the abandoned rabbits are found in also varies. Some are in reasonably good shape, due to owners taking care of them for an extended period of time before giving them up.

But others which come from breeding farms or from overbreeding cases may not be so lucky.

Ms Fang, who works in the oil and gas industry, estimates that she forks out close to $100,000 annually from her own pocket on medical bills for the rescued rabbits. Bunny Wonderland also raises funds on its Facebook page.

“Owners typically may not know the health of their rabbit – they would tell us that they are fine but when we bring the rabbits to see a doctor, we realise their livers are infected, their kidneys are malfunctioning, they are dehydrated and they are not well. We end up uncovering all these for the owners instead,” added co-founder Ms Tan.

At Bunny Wonderland, the rescued rabbits are nursed back to health at Ms Fang’s home – which is affectionately known as the same name by members of the group. The landed property hosts close to 30 rabbits, most of which are housed in individual play pens where they have space to exercise.

Most of the rabbits are housed in an airy open area on the ground floor, while others reside in three different spaces upstairs. There is a quarantine room for rabbits which have just been rescued, another where rabbits are kept which require special care due to old age or other issues, and Ms Fang’s bedroom – the ‘Intensive Care Unit’ for rabbits with more serious disabilities such as head tilt.

“Jackie’s home – what she calls Bunny Wonderland – is the primary place where we keep all our rescued rabbits,” said Ms Tan. 

“Typically, once a rabbit is rescued we have no clue what’s going on within them. So we quarantine them, and typically this is done at a vet’s clinic where they can receive the treatments. Then a few days later, we bring them to foster homes and Jackie place is the primary foster home. In times where we need more capacity, we will look out to our volunteers and they are typically the (other) foster homes for our rabbits.”

At both Bunny Wonderland and HRSS, the goal is to find new homes for the abandoned rabbits. While both rescue groups say that the number of abandoned animals continues to hold steady, they take comfort in the fact that attitudes towards rabbits seem to be changing.

“The numbers of abandoned rabbits are not dropping but I do see more rabbit ‘parents’ improving the welfare of the rabbits as the years go by,” said Ms Heng. “They treat their rabbits as more precious (pets) now.”

“We see more people talking about sterilisation of the rabbits, more stepping up to support them choosing adoption over buying a pet,” added Ms Tan. “That itself proves that what we are trying to advocate is heard. We do this because it’s what we are passionate about – it is just part of our life.”

Ask Ms Fang if she could go back to that rabbit rescue where she was injured to do anything differently, and her answer is an emphatic one.

“To me there are no regrets, because I love them.”

SINGAPORE: After the announcement of the new Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS) for HDB homes, some questions have emerged about it, including how much home owners might receive and whether all flats will be eligible for it.

“It would be rash to rush into details now when some of these things can only happen decades from now,” said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (Aug 21) in an interview with Channel NewsAsia’s Talking Point team.

“Let’s not get too excited about what is going to be in the VERS package or which flats will get VERS or speculate unnecessarily,” he said when asked about details of the scheme. 

The housing scheme was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his National Day Rally speech on Sunday.

Under VERS, the Government may buy back older HDB flats before their 99-year leases run out, and compensate residents whose flats are taken back early.

Residents, who have to vote for VERS, can then use the proceeds to buy a new flat. The scheme will only start in about 20 years, Mr Lee said, when some flats reach 70 years old.

READ: NDR 2018 – Scheme planned to redevelop more old HDB flats before leases end

“Obviously there is a lot of interest in what the details would be but this is a very long-term commitment and we will have to study how the implementation is to be done, and how it can be done in a way that is sustainable financially as well,” said Mr Wong.

The rationale for introducing VERS is to allow more HDB households to benefit from redevelopment before their 99-year leases run out. The issue of lease expiry has been a cause for concern among some home owners recently, and Mr Wong revealed that the Government has been looking into the matter for the past two years.

When asked for his response on whether the VERS announcement was a way of “fobbing off questions on housing” ahead of the next general election, Mr Wong said the Government owes it to Singaporeans to share its plans for the future.

“On the one hand there have been many requests for the Government to share some of its thinking about what roadmap for public housing will be,” he said.

“If we were to hold back and only reveal or announce VERS when the details are ready, that might be 15 years from now, so people might be living with 15 years of uncertainty.”

Mr Wong added: “We have been studying this for some time. Not quite ready with all the details and still a lot more work that needs to be done to work through the operational details and the implementation details.

“But we thought that given concerns that have been raised, we do owe it to Singaporeans to explain at this stage, at the very broad level, our thinking about how we think the next phase of public housing will unfold over the coming years and decades.”

READ: Owners of old HDB flats now know ‘there is some future’: Experts on new housing schemes

HOW WILL GOVERNMENT PAY FOR VERS?

When asked about whether the Government will ask the President to tap into the accumulated reserves to fund VERS, Mr Wong would only say that the scheme needs to be fiscally sustainable.

“It is a significant fiscal expense and whatever we do we will have to make sure that fiscal arrangements for VERS are sustainable, and do not put a heavier burden on the next generation. So those are part of the details that we are working on,” said the minister.

He added: “When we look at policy options, when we review policies, nothing is sacrosanct. You can always look at all the different options – there will always be pros and cons attached to any particular proposed measure, so we will have to review all of the possibilities and eventually work out what is best way forward.”

Mr Wong also touched on the review of CPF rules to provide more flexibility for buyers of shorter-lease flats.

On a suggestion if authorities would consider having CPF restrictions kick in only when there are 30 years left on the lease, instead of the current 60, Mr Wong said: “Well, anything is possible.

“We know what the concerns are, there are many possibilities to address the concerns so I wouldn’t rule out anything at this stage until we have done a proper study, completed the study with the CPF Board.”

Currently, if the remaining lease of a property is less than 60 years, there are restrictions on how much CPF money can be used to buy it.

A home owner can use CPF money if his age plus the number of years left on the lease is at least 80 years – but subject to restrictions.

However, if the remaining lease is less than 30 years, CPF cannot be used at all.

Mr Wong cautioned: “I’m sure Singaporeans know that there is balance to be struck (with CPF retirement adequacy) so we are taking in all the considerations and seeing how best the rules can be updated.”

Catch the interview with National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Thursday, Aug 23, at 9.30pm on Mediacorp’s Channel 5.

SINGAPORE: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are still grappling with the adoption of digital technologies will soon receive additional help with the return of the annual 99%SME campaign on Tuesday (Aug 21).

Started by Singtel and DBS, the campaign – named 99%SME as SMEs make up 99 per cent of businesses in Singapore – is into its fourth year.

To help SMEs further digitalise their operations, Singtel and DBS will partner the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to enhance the e-marketplace on the 99%SME portal from next month.

The e-marketplace, which allows SMEs to list their products for free, is currently powered by online retailer Lazada – a tie-up that was announced last year to help SMEs venture into e-commerce.

With the enhancement, SMEs, especially those that do not know how to set up an online presence, will get instant connection to an e-commerce platform hosted by 99%SME, said DBS group head of SME banking Joyce Tee.

SMEs can also look forward to a separate business-to-business (B2B) marketplace where they can sell their goods and services to large corporate and multinational companies.

Developed by DBS and expected to be launched by the end of 2018, the new platform will also give SMEs access to supply chain connections, financing and payment solutions that are usually only open to large corporates or MNCs.

The development of this “industry-first” portal will be supported by 99%SME partners Mediacorp, Mastercard and Singtel, added Ms Tee.

Speaking at the launch as the guest of honour, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said the digital economy allows SMEs and small countries like Singapore to transcend geographical size and natural resources.

However, he stressed that SMEs should go beyond digitalising current work procedures.

“The great SMEs don’t just digitise their current processes. They use digital services and platforms to transform the way they analyse their markets, design their products and restructure their production processes,” said Mr Chan.

“These are the things that will allow our SMEs to achieve the quantum leap in terms of capabilities.”

Mr Chan also urged MNCs to work alongside local SMEs in going global and innovating work processes, as well as for SMEs to spread the word on embracing the digital economy.

“If we all embrace the digital economy together, we will not only benefit as a SME or individual company (but) we will have the synergy to compete on the basis of Team Singapore.”