The National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC) will increase the funding for the Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) with another $70 million over the next three years to help about 70,000 additional low-wage workers, announced Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Manpower Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Speaking at the May Day Dinner held on 29 April, he added the additional funding will increase the IGP amount to $100 million, to support upgrading of work processes and help 100,000 workers.
DPM Tharman said: "I urge employers to take full advantage of the IGP, in addition to the other funding programmes already in place, such as the Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme and other government grants for industry upgrading."
This was just one of the measures announced by DPM Tharman to overcome the challenge to help low-wage workers benefit from restructuring.
Continuing further, DPM Tharman said that more will be done to help PMEs, such as expanding the number and types of training courses.
"Fundamentally, we want to ensure that we have a Singaporean core in every industry, as our economy progresses to higher value and more sophisticated activities.
"Building a Singaporean core is about enabling Singaporeans to be part of globally competitive teams, and creating the best possible environment for them to keep learning and progressing in their careers," said DPM Tharman.
DPM Tharman also urged that as the economy undergoes a restructuring, the third challenge will be to maintain trust in the tripartite relationship.
"But the challenge is to avoid playing to the gallery, and equally to avoid advancing positions for short-term gains... We must keep our advantage in Singapore, the advantage of maintaining a frank, open and constructive dialogue, which is always aimed at the shared objective of meeting the long term interests of Singapore and Singaporeans," said DPM Tharman.
The fourth and final challenge was how the Labour Movement could stay relevant to its workers. He said that while the PMEs' interest should be looked at, the Labour Movement should also 'continue investing in its base of rank-and-file workers, not just in equipping them in skills and keeping them professionally mobile, but also re-instilling pride and dignity in blue-collar jobs as new generations of Singaporeans enter the workforce."
