SINGAPORE – More must be done to make the Singapore economy more equal and inclusive, with opportunities for entrepreneurs to experiment, and for households and businesses to succeed, said WP MP Kenneth Tiong (Aljunied GRC).
Moving a motion in Parliament on Aug 5, Tiong said the economy can be reshaped for the fair distribution of wealth to be built into the country’s growth strategy instead of being distributed later in the form of vouchers or rebates.
He outlined the opposition party’s ideas for Singapore’s future economy, beyond existing economic plans.
Singapore, he said, needs an updated growth model that cares about “the structure of growth” and not just headline growth figures and gross domestic product.
He said: “It is acceptable as an exigency to grow first and then redistribute by vouchers and rebates.
“But over the medium and long term, we should be building an economy where a fair distribution is produced by the growth itself, rather than repaired afterwards out of the proceeds.”
On tackling enterprise and innovation under constraints, Tiong said Singapore should market land value as a natural price for every socially productive use of land.
He suggested creating a university-centred special zone where state land is priced at development cost rather than a value based on scarcity, with a system that prioritises young people.
This includes having a place to live near where the work and the research happens, at a price that someone on a starting salary can afford, said Tiong.
He added that the Nanyang Technological University is a good choice for the experiment because it has an existing research cluster, a large number of labs on campus and room for expansion.
“A district that is both pro-worker and pro-business, built around the needs of young people and young companies. And this experiment is reversible. If it does not work, we can revert to the masterplan,” he said.
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