Capabilities of firms, workforce buffer for headwinds

Singapore

SINGAPORE is vulnerable to uncertainties in the global environment and its buffer against present headwinds are companies and workers' capabilities, which will enable it to ride the eventual upturn, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Tuesday.

"But capabilities can only be built if we have strong partners who have confidence in us, and who are willing to stick with us through business cycles," he added at the Distinguished Partner in Progress Award ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Companies such as US firm Applied Materials, which supplies equipment and software for the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, is one such…