Three priorities in Singapore's refreshed economic strategy post-Covid-19: DPM Heng

SINGAPORE'S refreshed economic strategy in a post-pandemic world involves three priority areas that includes remaking the country as a "global Asia" node of technology, innovation and enterprise, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in Parliament on Monday.

This means securing Singapore's external economic linkages as a a vital global node in Asia, said Mr Heng in a ministerial statement.

The second priority area involves the government's plans to redouble efforts to foster inclusive growth.

"With Covid-19 revealing vulnerabilities in our labour market, we need to better understand its structure, and upgrade jobs and skills across all segments of society," Mr Heng said.

The third area is on investing in economic resilience and sustainability as a source of competitive advantage, he said, adding that Singapore's resilience can be a source of growth at many levels - for individuals, industries, the nation and the world.

This refreshed economic strategy is enabled by Singapore's Industry Transformation Maps (ITM) framework, which were implemented from 2017 to restructure the economy sector by sector, with good progress, he said.

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Between 2016 and 2019, overall productivity, measured by real value-added per actual hour worked, rose by 2.4 per cent per year, he said, which is an improvement over the 2.2 per cent seen in the preceding three-year period.

Real median income for Singaporeans grew by 3.7 per cent in the last three years, up from 3.2 per cent in the preceding three years, he said. At the same time, incomes at the 20th percentile grew by 4.4 per cent per year in the past three years, up from 4 per cent in the preceding three years.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore's resident unemployment rate was at 3.2 per cent as at end-2019, he said.

Meanwhile, the SkillsFuture movement, launched in 2015, as well as Singapore's Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan also support Singapore's ITM work by strengthening Singaporeans' foundations of skills and innovation, said Mr Heng.