Govt announces more programmes under SPUR to tackle economic crisis
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 01 May 2009 1735 hrs
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Singaporean office workers read newspapers during a lunch break at the financial district of Raffles Place.</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD class=update> </TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD><TABLE style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cccccc" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=240><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%"><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=topic vAlign=top align=left>Related News </TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#cccccc vAlign=top align=left>
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</TD><TD class=bodytext vAlign=top width="60%" align=left>More programmes under SPUR to tackle economic crisis</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top background=images/dotline_240.gif align=left>
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SINGAPORE: The government has announced three more schemes under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) to help workers.
At the same time, middle-income earners will get more help to tackle the economic crisis.
Speaking at the May Day Rally on Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also urged Singaporeans to plan for a prolonged downturn and prepare for a tough year ahead.
It's the most difficult May Day Singapore has celebrated, Prime Minister Lee told some 1,500 union leaders, workers and employers at the annual rally.
Uppermost on the people's minds - the state of the economy.
Mr Lee said: "There is no V-shaped; now the optimistic scenario is a U-shaped recovery, a deep U, a fat U, and if we are lucky, gradually recovering from the later part of this year or early next year.
"But if we are not lucky, it could be an L-shaped problem - economy is still shrinking, after a while it doesn't shrink so fast, it stops shrinking, but it stays at the bottom a long time before slowly picking up again, no growth or poor growth for several years to come.
"Now we have a new problem which could be serious and that is swine flu which is going to affect the global economy and push growth down further, tourism, trade, more trouble for the world."
In Singapore, the focus has been on saving jobs. And Mr Lee said both the Jobs Credit and SPUR programmes are showing good results.
He said: "The Jobs Credit has helped to lower the cost of employing Singaporeans and their companies to look at many alternatives to retrenchment.
"SPUR also has been useful because it is not just a scheme but supported by a whole comprehensive system, WDA, E2i, the CDCs, the Continuing Education Centres - all the infrastructure we have been building over the last few years so that we would be ready for a crisis like this."
Companies have responded, with some 1,300 of them training more than 82,000 workers, and SPUR will be further improved.
The absentee payroll cap will be increased from the current $6 to $10 per hour to support the training for PMETs.
A Professional Skills Programme will also be launched to encourage companies to recruit PMETs and new graduates in growth sectors.
And there's a new scheme called SPUR-JOBS to co-fund on-the-job training and job redesign, to encourage companies to recruit, retain and upgrade workers.
Mr Lee said union leaders can also play an important role in their efforts to upturn the downturn.
They can work closely with their employers to cut costs and save jobs.
They can also have regular dialogues with their members and workers to help them remain employable and also obtain training and retraining.
Mr Lee said he has also been meeting investors to persuade them to do more in Singapore.
They remain confident about Asia's prospects and see Singapore playing a bigger role as they do more in Asia.
- CNA/ir
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 01 May 2009 1735 hrs
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=260 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD width=20 align=right> </TD><TD width=240 align=right>
Singaporean office workers read newspapers during a lunch break at the financial district of Raffles Place.</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD class=update> </TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD><TABLE style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cccccc" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=240><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%"><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=topic vAlign=top align=left>Related News </TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#cccccc vAlign=top align=left>
</TD><TD class=bodytext vAlign=top width="60%" align=left>More programmes under SPUR to tackle economic crisis</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top background=images/dotline_240.gif align=left>
SINGAPORE: The government has announced three more schemes under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) to help workers.
At the same time, middle-income earners will get more help to tackle the economic crisis.
Speaking at the May Day Rally on Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also urged Singaporeans to plan for a prolonged downturn and prepare for a tough year ahead.
It's the most difficult May Day Singapore has celebrated, Prime Minister Lee told some 1,500 union leaders, workers and employers at the annual rally.
Uppermost on the people's minds - the state of the economy.
Mr Lee said: "There is no V-shaped; now the optimistic scenario is a U-shaped recovery, a deep U, a fat U, and if we are lucky, gradually recovering from the later part of this year or early next year.
"But if we are not lucky, it could be an L-shaped problem - economy is still shrinking, after a while it doesn't shrink so fast, it stops shrinking, but it stays at the bottom a long time before slowly picking up again, no growth or poor growth for several years to come.
"Now we have a new problem which could be serious and that is swine flu which is going to affect the global economy and push growth down further, tourism, trade, more trouble for the world."
In Singapore, the focus has been on saving jobs. And Mr Lee said both the Jobs Credit and SPUR programmes are showing good results.
He said: "The Jobs Credit has helped to lower the cost of employing Singaporeans and their companies to look at many alternatives to retrenchment.
"SPUR also has been useful because it is not just a scheme but supported by a whole comprehensive system, WDA, E2i, the CDCs, the Continuing Education Centres - all the infrastructure we have been building over the last few years so that we would be ready for a crisis like this."
Companies have responded, with some 1,300 of them training more than 82,000 workers, and SPUR will be further improved.
The absentee payroll cap will be increased from the current $6 to $10 per hour to support the training for PMETs.
A Professional Skills Programme will also be launched to encourage companies to recruit PMETs and new graduates in growth sectors.
And there's a new scheme called SPUR-JOBS to co-fund on-the-job training and job redesign, to encourage companies to recruit, retain and upgrade workers.
Mr Lee said union leaders can also play an important role in their efforts to upturn the downturn.
They can work closely with their employers to cut costs and save jobs.
They can also have regular dialogues with their members and workers to help them remain employable and also obtain training and retraining.
Mr Lee said he has also been meeting investors to persuade them to do more in Singapore.
They remain confident about Asia's prospects and see Singapore playing a bigger role as they do more in Asia.
- CNA/ir
