Singapore Spends S$9 Billion on Aged in Social Aid Boost
This article is for subscribers only.
Singapore said it will spend S$9 billion ($7 billion) on health care and other benefits for the elderly, while providing companies with more funds to increase efficiency as the economy adjusts to a tighter labor supply.
Foreign-worker growth has slowed “significantly” in the past two years, and curbs on the inflow of overseas labor have prompted companies to improve the way they do business, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his budget speech in Parliament yesterday. Such changes are needed to sustain wage increases while keeping the economy competitive, he said.