Keeping our hawker culture alive

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: Should Singapore's hawker centres be run by social enterprises?

Dolly Goh CEO Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF)

SEVEN out of 114 hawker centres across the island are currently run by five social enterprises. Apart from social enterprises, formation of a co-operative for hawkers by hawkers could be a viable option.

The co-op model allows each hawker to be a member of their own co-operative/business, giving them collective ownership while still running their own individual hawker stalls. The hawkers ensure business viability and take responsibility of their own operations, thereby having full transparency on matters including the cost of outsourcing services like cleaning of tables, washing of utensils etc.

They could save without having to pay for a third party operator. As with all co-operatives, any surplus made at the end of the year is ploughed back to each hawker, who are members of the co-operative, as dividends.

The co-operative for hawkers by hawkers could also decide on the use of these surpluses, which could be channelled into giving educational awards or bursaries to children of the hawkers. This spirit of self-help and mutual help not only enables hawkers to help themselves and their fellow hawkers, it also helps keep Singapore's hawker culture alive.

Nick Jonsson Managing Director EGN Singapore

HAWKER centres represent Singapore's multiracial and cosmopolitan population and have a relatively long history. They are a source of affordable food, on which many rely, and hawker centres are also democratic in nature, with inclusive spaces shared by people of all backgrounds. Singapore's unique hawker culture would be a worthy inclusion into Unesco's heritage list.

I feel hawker centres run by private social enterprises are meant to theoretically marry the best of both worlds: Keeping food affordable for the masses and available at most times of the day, while operating according to free market competition rules with little government oversight. I do feel that Singapore's hawker centres should run by social enterprises - this will certainly bring a positive change.

Sheena Chin Country Director VERITAS Storage Singapore

SINGAPORE'S hawker food plays a significant role in keeping the cost of living in check for consumers. Regardless of the way hawker centres are run, the goals remain unchanged - keeping food affordable while ensuring a viable livelihood for our hawkers. We can all imagine the toils of a typical day for our hawkers.

The latest tweaks to the contract terms for hawkers operating in social enterprise hawker centres (SEHC) were a step in the right direction. It is important for the operators of SEHC to understand the constraints and challenges faced by the hawkers.

We certainly hope to preserve the national legacy and encourage the younger generations of hawkers to stay in this line. To do so, the SEHC model requires continuous recalibration to ensure that the needs of the key stakeholders - consumers, operators and hawkers - are well balanced.

Ian Lee CEO, Asia-Pacific The Adecco Group

THE hawker centre ecosystem supports a significant number of micro, small and medium enterprises in Singapore, which helps to make the economy resilient to external volatility.

It also provides livelihood to many. Very importantly, hawker centres employ people from diverse backgrounds - including the elderly and the disadvantaged - making our employment landscape more inclusive and helping to ameliorate inequality to some extent. So, it is important that these centres remain viable for all stakeholders.

Being run by social enterprises may very well help to achieve that, but the transition, if any, needs to be carefully managed to ensure that it does not lead to poor management and extra-overheads or loss of autonomy for hawkers.

Magnus Grimeland Founder and Chief Executive Officer Antler

HAWKERS are entrepreneurs in their own way, and no matter what form the organisational structure of hawker centres takes, we believe hawkers will be a huge part of Singapore's culture also in decades to come.

Lim Soon Hock Managing Director PLAN-B ICAG Pte Ltd

IT is a good idea to have social enterprises to manage hawker centres, complementing private operators, but not as a monopoly.

Competition is healthy and needed to keep food prices down, as well as to improve all aspects of managing the hawker centres, ranging from contractural agreements, operating hours, maintenance, etc.

Operators that are social enterprises, which are not profit-driven, are in a better position to go beyond fulfilling a basic human need to delivering community service in the best way possible. This alone is a compelling reason for social enterprises to be involved in hawker centres.

Annie Yap CEO AYP HR Group

THUS far, certain changes in management practices of the few hawker centres run by social enterprises have not been well-received by the stallholders.

Hawker centres have their own long-standing unique characteristics, and cannot be run the same way as food courts and other food joints. No system is perfect, and in order to ensure a viable (and sustainable) solution, both parties have to be involved in the decision-making process.

Social enterprises have to listen to the hawkers running the show, for their viewpoints on ways to improve the overall experience and move forward together.

Toby Koh Group MD Ademco Security Group

IT really does not matter who runs the hawker centres, whether it be social enterprise or the National Environment Agency. What is most important is that rental be kept low and affordable. And that hawker centres be clean and supplied with the basic facilities needed.

The free enterprise nature of multiple stalls will ensure prices are competitive. This is a key objective to ensure affordable eats to the general public. It also provides employment to thousands of food entrepreneurs.

Let's keep our hawker centres to their key basics. Any innovations should be trialled and tested slowly and carefully without affecting rental. For higher-end, more luxurious hawker eats, there are always commercial food courts and restaurants to fill that gap.

Let's not try to change what is already a proven model but let it morph slowly.

Helen Ng Chief Executive Officer General Storage Company Pte Ltd

HIGH rental and auxiliary costs have caused hardship for hawkers and undermined the hawker culture in Singapore.

Regardless of the management model, we should ensure that operating costs remain low for hawkers. This would in turn incentivise them to keep food costs low while giving them an opportunity to earn a decent income.

To this end, offering them a package of fixed costs, as proposed by the Chair of the Hawker Centres Public Consultation Panel, would give them the peace of mind to focus on dishing up good food at affordable prices.

David Leong Managing Director PeopleWorldwide Consulting Pte Ltd.

THE original intent and origination of hawker centres was to gather all the illegal hawkers on the streets to operate legitimately and in more hygienic environments.

In the 1960s and 1970s, street hawkers were a common sight, and were a way of life and livelihood for many Singaporeans eking a living peddling cheap local favourites.

Hawker centres have evolved over the decades, and the format of operation has also changed with time. Increasingly, they are managed by single operators including social enterprises, who bid to manage these centres. High bids translate to high food prices. This also forces individual hawkers who work outside the collective strength of single operators or social enterprises to be placed out of the scene.

The management process should not end with "the highest bid wins", but should be based on diversity of food and affordability of prices. This will give local individual hawkers a fighting chance to survive, while also promoting the diversity of Singapore's food culture. Hawker centres should not be run by a few social enterprises or single operators. Otherwise, all our wanton mee, Hokkien mee and bak kut teh will taste the same.