SINGAPORE — The Government’s fourth budget amid the Covid-19 pandemic will look at ways to help the social service sector embrace digitalisation, accelerate transformation and scale up new capabilities, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Sunday (May 24).

Mr Heng’s comments on Facebook were made after he said he received “many good ideas” during a virtual dialogue session with various members of the social service sector on Saturday.

In that session, he heard from 30 social service sector partners about the challenges they and their clients are facing and discussed how social service agencies can strengthen collaboration and capability building.

Mr Heng noted feedback that some members were facing difficulties fundraising during this period, and that the circuit breaker had revealed constraints to certain services going digital.

Without going into detail, he then pointed out that the discussion uncovered “new areas of collaboration”, and that the Government said the sector can “overcome” various common challenges if parties work in partnership.

Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah were part of the online consultation as well.

Mr Heng, who is also Finance Minister, will be delivering his ministerial statement on the fourth budget in Parliament on Tuesday at 3.30pm. It will be broadcast live on television and radio.

The Ministry of Finance had earlier said that the statement would outline the Government’s “plans to help businesses and individuals adapt and build resilience, in our continuing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic”.

During a multi-ministerial task force press conference, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said the fourth budget would benefit companies that would have to remain closed even as social and economic activities gradually resume from June 2.

Mr Heng’s three previous ministerial statements were crafted in the face of the rapidly evolving Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on the health of Singaporeans and the economy.

The first was the regular annual Budget, which was termed the Unity Budget, on Feb 18. Then came the Resilience Budget on March 26 and the Solidarity Budget on April 6, with each announcing fresh measures and spending.