Economic growth for the country may slide into negative territory. The government has announced that it will place measures to reduce and absorb the ill effects that may occur. It also plans to fast track the approval of the 2009 Budget as early as January.
According to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon during an address at the People’s Action Party held at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall, this move will enable the government to react to the crisis quickly.
Included in the proposed budget are steps to spurt growth and employment, ensure business competitiveness and raise domestic demand. According to him this will be put in place not only to ride over the crisis but also to prepare for the stability of the future.
One problem he noted is that banks are more strict in giving out loans under the present economic conditions. This affects small and medium sized businesses which do not have enough funds although “many of these are basically sound”.
The government will therefore make more financing schemes available for them like continuing access to credit. There are also other measures to be put in place like the education and training fields. According to him it is better to train employees than retrench them. This is in line with the Skills Programme for upgrading and Resilience of the government.
He predicts that the slow down would be for a year, then maybe some years more where there will be sluggish growth before the economy will bounce back. He also cited that being a small country, Singapore depends heavily on its leaders.