Some sectors seeing productivity gains

Singapore

IT is too early to revise national targets for productivity gains, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday.

Mr Tharman, who is also the chairman of the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC), was speaking at the sidelines of a visit to two local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the precision manufacturing sector operating in JTC Space @ Tanjong Kling, one of the next-generation factories being rolled out. Firms in the precision engineering and food manufacturing sectors provide examples where productivity has increased by more than a quarter in just four years, noted the minister, even as he acknowledged that overall productivity figures are still weak.