More ministers at community visits as part of Government’s efforts to engage, understand S’poreans

SINGAPORE – As part of the fourth-generation (4G) leaders’ efforts to reach out to more Singaporeans, more Cabinet ministers could soon be making joint community visits outside their constituencies to give residents the opportunity to engage them on various issues such as jobs, education, and housing.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung, who spoke to reporters after his ministerial community visit to Jurong Central Division with National Development Minister Lawrence Wong and Manpower Minister Josephine Teo on Sunday (July 15), said he decided to try out a new format for their visit.

This would allow for ministers to “exchange notes”, and “give us a more holistic understanding of the issues that residents face”, noted Mr Ong.

About 10 ministerial community visits are conducted each year, TODAY understands, and previous visits usually involved only one minister.

Mr Ong said that having more than one minister on such visits will give residents the chance to raise specific concerns with the relevant ministers.

“As we were walking just now, you can see residents with children (who are in) school, they’ll come and talk to me, about their school work, about tuition, about applying for poly,” said Mr Ong.

“Those who are looking for work, they’ll talk to Minister Josephine Teo, those who are facing issues with Housing and Development Board (HDB) will talk to Minister Lawrence Wong. So I think it is useful.”

The move is part of the Government’s efforts to better understand the issues that Singaporeans face. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat had said in May that the 4G leaders and other Members of Parliament would be leading a series of discussions on charting the country’s future.

Mr Ong, who is coordinating the visits this term, said discussions with Singaporeans could be done formally or informally, such as having “more ministers walking the ground, speaking to residents randomly in a coffee shop”.

“That is also a meaningful way of having a discussion,” he added.

Asked if the Government will be ramping up its engagement efforts with residents now that they are in the second-half of their term, Mr Ong said he will look at whether he can “involve more ministers, and also intensify the visits”.

However, the number of ministers for each visit is not set in stone, said Mr Ong, who noted that as they keep busy schedules, they plan to “gather together in a very spontaneous manner and come to the ground to speak to the residents”.

While some residents have provided feedback that there are few opportunities for more in-depth discussions with the ministers during these visits, Mr Ong said “what’s important is you are on the ground” as some have problems that require longer engagement time, while others just want to “wish you well”.

Mrs Teo also said on Sunday that the new format for ministerial community visits is part of a “team approach” that the 4G leaders are trying out. The pace of visits could be adjusted to allow residents time to engage with them, and relevant ministers could visit constituencies that have certain topical interests, she added.

The visit to Jurong Central saw the three ministers interacting with residents and shop owners along Jurong West Ave 1, including some who were affected by the Jurong West market fire in 2016. They also visited some elderly residents whose homes had been fitted with a new monitoring system by the Singapore Red Cross, Aviva Singapore and the Jurong Central Citizens’ Consultative Committee. The system will alert the Red Cross response team when it detects that a mishap has occurred, for instance.

Mrs Teo also participated in an hour-long, closed-door dialogue with residents at Jurong Green Community Club.

Some of the issues raised during the session were on jobs and the workforce in Singapore, as Mrs Teo said there was a “lively discussion”, with a lot of interest around the “future of work”. The residents had asked about how those about to enter the workforce could stay skills-relevant, how older workers could stay employable, and if business owners could transform quickly enough to keep pace with today’s changes.

Amid reports of Singapore’s declining birth rates, the Government’s immigration policy was also discussed, and Mrs Teo said it is an issue that is on the “back of our minds” as “it relates to our workplaces, it relates to our neighbourhood...to the environment which we live in”.

She added: “I find them (dialogue session) very useful because we have a chance to hear from the residents what are the issues that are prominent in their minds. It helps us to think about our priorities, where to prioritise and also, what kinds of intervention are needed in order to help people make progress.”

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