Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Tuesday unveiled a new S$33 billion budget primarily focused on providing jobs and helping to tide workers and businesses through the “difficult period” of COVID-19.
“The central focus of this Budget is jobs. This Budget will continue to support workers and businesses who remain affected by border closures and safe distancing measures,” Keat said.
“We aim to enable workers and businesses to go through this difficult period together in a synergistic way,” he added.
The Fortitude Budget, which is Singapore’s fourth of the year, aims to help businesses and workers adapt, transform and seize new opportunities in order to emerge stronger.
This comes as Singapore prepares to reopen its economy in three phases, following a “circuit breaker” period which has spanned almost two months.
“As we open up progressively, we will continue to give more support to businesses which are not yet ready to reopen, and workers who are still unable to resume work. The key is to reopen safely, and this needs to be done carefully,” Keat explained.
Keat, who is also Finance Minister, had previously announced support measures to help tide businesses, workers and households through the COVID-19 outbreak.
Apart from the annual Budget speech in February, there were the Resilience Budget in March and the Solidarity Budget in April.
“This is a landmark package, and a necessary response to an unprecedented crisis. A distinctive feature of this Budget is that we are setting aside a bigger contingent sum.
“We are dealing with unprecedented uncertainty, across all fronts. A bigger contingent sum will allow us to respond swiftly to fast-changing situations,” Keat said.
Together with the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets, Singapore is dedicating S$92.9 billion to support its people in the fight against COVID-19, he said adding that this is almost 20 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore is grateful for the Pioneer Generation’s “sacrifices and stewardship” to build up its reserves and giving it the means to support its people.
“The fiscal prudence and discipline of successive governments have put us in a strong position to overcome this crisis, and emerge stronger after the pandemic,” he said.
He reiterated that saving and creating jobs will be the Government’s priority, and added that it would also support frontline agencies, households and communities, and help the needy and vulnerable.
“No one will be left behind,” he said.