But still spend time talking cock and on wayang!
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published January 31, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Package for Singapore, by express delivery
The story behind the nation's most extraordinary Budget and the team that crafted it
By JAMIE LEE
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,316759,00.html?#</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,316759,00.html?#</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,316759,00.html?#</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
(Singapore)
CLOSE to midnight before the Budget was announced, the team that crafted it, including Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, tucked into steaming porridge, home-cooked by a staff member and topped with fresh chicken slices, peanuts, century eggs and fried dough fritters. Then it was back to work.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>HAPPY WITH THEIR WORK
Part of the team that worked on delivering the special $20.5 billion resilience package. The exercise took them two frantic months compared with the usual three
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>For the Budget team at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), this is an annual ritual.
But in drawing up the Budget package to help Singapore brace itself for its worst recession ever, much else was unprecedented.
The exercise normally involves three months (?) of hard work for government officials. It was squeezed into just two frantic months this time around as the Budget was brought forward to January from February this year - a reflection of the urgency behind delivering the $20.5 billion resilience package.
It was in November last year that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the Budget would be brought forward by a month to implement the measures swiftly.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ffffff>[FONT=Geneva, Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]<!-- REPLACE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS WITH YOUR OWN VALUES --><TABLE class=quoteBox cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=144 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom></TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#fffff1><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=124 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>As for tapping into reserves for the first time - something that was finalised towards the end of the exercise - Ms Lee said speech writers had to rack their brains for words such as 'prudent' and 'extraordinary' to emphasise that this was temporary.
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And the team of more than 20 found out 'not much earlier' than the public that the Budget would be brought forward, Lee Kok Fatt, director of fiscal policy, told BT, adding that it was announced on a Thursday rather than the usual Friday because of the Chinese New Year holiday. 'We also wanted to give the markets time to react,' he said.
This meant 'morning-to-morning' working hours for the Budget team, said chief tax policy officer Doreen Tan.
'It is as intensive as the other Budgets (but) because the time is more compressed, we have to achieve double impact in a shorter amount of time,' she said.
With a laugh, Mr Lee mused: 'It's not that bad. I get two to three hours of sleep a day.'
'The bottom line is that we have enough rest to make sure that we stay alert to check that the proposals we come up with are sensible ones,' he said.
For the first time, MoF officials also spoke to bankers and traders directly on the credit issues - a sticking point as tight-fisted banks have been reluctant to grant loans to companies - rather than gather feedback through government agencies such as IE Singapore.
'It was about October that this point about trade credit started to surface,' said Mr Lee. 'It became more and more apparent to us that this area needed greater attention and that's when we started to talk directly to the bankers.'
This meant daily conversations with private sector players, including traders, insurers and bankers, added Jonathan Pflug, an officer dealing with economic strategy. 'I spent about 30 per cent of the day on the phone.'
With the dramatic change in the economic situation, initial plans that were proposed in April - the time that they typically start preparing for the next fiscal package - had to be revised.
Besides making changes to existing trade financing schemes - proposals that had previously remained 'in the background' - the team quickly looked into boosting infrastructure spending.
Head of Budget policy Lee May Gee said that government agencies had to propose projects that could be brought forward.
'It was a very compressed timeline, to 'scrub' through all your pipeline projects to look at which are the projects that would be worthy to advance,' said Ms Lee, adding that all agencies had about a month to prepare the proposals. Previously, they had up to three months.
And with the shortened timeframe, there was little room for errors, said Mr Lee.
'If it was in February, we gave ourselves more buffer to check the data that came to us through the ministries,' he said. 'We just squeezed ourselves where these buffers were concerned, putting in more time to double check the numbers when they come in, and also working with other parts of the government . . . and getting their understanding that it has to be right the first time.'
But with continual changes in GDP forecasts amid a tightened deadline, the MoF team also had to decide which revised numbers were necessary to include against those which were 'immaterial' for the Budget and could be adjusted later, 'even though it was very tempting to keep wanting to change as more information came in', said Mr Lee.
As with previous Budgets, the team said that all proposals - including the ones on corporate tax rebates and CPF cuts that were eventually junked - were debated openly. The surprise co-sharing of wage costs, or the jobs credit system, emerged from that 'organic' process, said Mr Pflug.
'The Minister had a very personal interest in all the measures and in particular, the measures that were unique and broad-based,' he added. 'He drove a lot of the discussions.'
Members from the Budget team also noted the meticulous nature of Mr Tharman, adding that besides editing the speech personally, he would send e-mails in the wee hours of the morning, though they said that they were not expected to reply immediately.
The final speech - which was approved at around 3am - also went through rounds of editing to convey the seriousness of the situation while inspiring hope and confidence, said Ms Lee, who is also a speech writer.
This was why the proposals on jobs credit and risk-sharing initiatives were announced at the start, because of their impact, while the report on the economic situation was something that the speech 'got through rather quickly', she added.
'There was also a deliberate effort to highlight anecdotes,' she said, but added that despite the seeming good publicity, some firms rejected their request to be mentioned because they did not want to be seen as being too positive.
As for tapping into reserves for the first time - something that was finalised towards the end of the exercise - Ms Lee said that speech writers had to rack their brains for words such as 'prudent' and 'extraordinary' to emphasise that this was temporary.
Still, the highlight of their word play went into creating the title of the package. Playing a bit of word jumble, the team finally settled on 'resilience'.
'We considered words like recovery, but that's already used by the Americans,' said Ms Lee.
What about the other words?
'Some are unmentionable,' quipped Mr Lee.
=> "Jobs for FTs, NS for Sporns"? "Chop! Chop! Chop!"? "Up turn the downturn"? "Positive Energy Co-op"?
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published January 31, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Package for Singapore, by express delivery
The story behind the nation's most extraordinary Budget and the team that crafted it
By JAMIE LEE
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,316759,00.html?#</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,316759,00.html?#</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,316759,00.html?#</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
(Singapore)
CLOSE to midnight before the Budget was announced, the team that crafted it, including Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, tucked into steaming porridge, home-cooked by a staff member and topped with fresh chicken slices, peanuts, century eggs and fried dough fritters. Then it was back to work.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>HAPPY WITH THEIR WORK Part of the team that worked on delivering the special $20.5 billion resilience package. The exercise took them two frantic months compared with the usual three
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>For the Budget team at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), this is an annual ritual.
But in drawing up the Budget package to help Singapore brace itself for its worst recession ever, much else was unprecedented.
The exercise normally involves three months (?) of hard work for government officials. It was squeezed into just two frantic months this time around as the Budget was brought forward to January from February this year - a reflection of the urgency behind delivering the $20.5 billion resilience package.
It was in November last year that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the Budget would be brought forward by a month to implement the measures swiftly.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ffffff>[FONT=Geneva, Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]<!-- REPLACE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS WITH YOUR OWN VALUES --><TABLE class=quoteBox cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=144 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom></TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#fffff1><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=124 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>As for tapping into reserves for the first time - something that was finalised towards the end of the exercise - Ms Lee said speech writers had to rack their brains for words such as 'prudent' and 'extraordinary' to emphasise that this was temporary.
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>[/FONT]
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD height=39> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
And the team of more than 20 found out 'not much earlier' than the public that the Budget would be brought forward, Lee Kok Fatt, director of fiscal policy, told BT, adding that it was announced on a Thursday rather than the usual Friday because of the Chinese New Year holiday. 'We also wanted to give the markets time to react,' he said.
This meant 'morning-to-morning' working hours for the Budget team, said chief tax policy officer Doreen Tan.
'It is as intensive as the other Budgets (but) because the time is more compressed, we have to achieve double impact in a shorter amount of time,' she said.
With a laugh, Mr Lee mused: 'It's not that bad. I get two to three hours of sleep a day.'
'The bottom line is that we have enough rest to make sure that we stay alert to check that the proposals we come up with are sensible ones,' he said.
For the first time, MoF officials also spoke to bankers and traders directly on the credit issues - a sticking point as tight-fisted banks have been reluctant to grant loans to companies - rather than gather feedback through government agencies such as IE Singapore.
'It was about October that this point about trade credit started to surface,' said Mr Lee. 'It became more and more apparent to us that this area needed greater attention and that's when we started to talk directly to the bankers.'
This meant daily conversations with private sector players, including traders, insurers and bankers, added Jonathan Pflug, an officer dealing with economic strategy. 'I spent about 30 per cent of the day on the phone.'
With the dramatic change in the economic situation, initial plans that were proposed in April - the time that they typically start preparing for the next fiscal package - had to be revised.
Besides making changes to existing trade financing schemes - proposals that had previously remained 'in the background' - the team quickly looked into boosting infrastructure spending.
Head of Budget policy Lee May Gee said that government agencies had to propose projects that could be brought forward.
'It was a very compressed timeline, to 'scrub' through all your pipeline projects to look at which are the projects that would be worthy to advance,' said Ms Lee, adding that all agencies had about a month to prepare the proposals. Previously, they had up to three months.
And with the shortened timeframe, there was little room for errors, said Mr Lee.
'If it was in February, we gave ourselves more buffer to check the data that came to us through the ministries,' he said. 'We just squeezed ourselves where these buffers were concerned, putting in more time to double check the numbers when they come in, and also working with other parts of the government . . . and getting their understanding that it has to be right the first time.'
But with continual changes in GDP forecasts amid a tightened deadline, the MoF team also had to decide which revised numbers were necessary to include against those which were 'immaterial' for the Budget and could be adjusted later, 'even though it was very tempting to keep wanting to change as more information came in', said Mr Lee.
As with previous Budgets, the team said that all proposals - including the ones on corporate tax rebates and CPF cuts that were eventually junked - were debated openly. The surprise co-sharing of wage costs, or the jobs credit system, emerged from that 'organic' process, said Mr Pflug.
'The Minister had a very personal interest in all the measures and in particular, the measures that were unique and broad-based,' he added. 'He drove a lot of the discussions.'
Members from the Budget team also noted the meticulous nature of Mr Tharman, adding that besides editing the speech personally, he would send e-mails in the wee hours of the morning, though they said that they were not expected to reply immediately.
The final speech - which was approved at around 3am - also went through rounds of editing to convey the seriousness of the situation while inspiring hope and confidence, said Ms Lee, who is also a speech writer.
This was why the proposals on jobs credit and risk-sharing initiatives were announced at the start, because of their impact, while the report on the economic situation was something that the speech 'got through rather quickly', she added.
'There was also a deliberate effort to highlight anecdotes,' she said, but added that despite the seeming good publicity, some firms rejected their request to be mentioned because they did not want to be seen as being too positive.
As for tapping into reserves for the first time - something that was finalised towards the end of the exercise - Ms Lee said that speech writers had to rack their brains for words such as 'prudent' and 'extraordinary' to emphasise that this was temporary.
Still, the highlight of their word play went into creating the title of the package. Playing a bit of word jumble, the team finally settled on 'resilience'.
'We considered words like recovery, but that's already used by the Americans,' said Ms Lee.
What about the other words?
'Some are unmentionable,' quipped Mr Lee.
=> "Jobs for FTs, NS for Sporns"? "Chop! Chop! Chop!"? "Up turn the downturn"? "Positive Energy Co-op"?
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
