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Keeping people and their jobs safe is high on Government’s priority list: PM Lee

​SINGAPORE — While it might not be the top priority for businesses, protecting lives and jobs is “very high up” on the Singapore Government’s list, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Nov 19).

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during a dialogue with Singapore Business Federation chief executive officer Ho Meng Kit at the APEC CEO Dialogues.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during a dialogue with Singapore Business Federation chief executive officer Ho Meng Kit at the APEC CEO Dialogues.

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  • Businesses may not prioritise protecting lives and jobs but the Government will, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 
  • He said there needs to be a balance between keeping people safe and keeping businesses going
  • Mr Lee also talked about when life will go back to normal and what will change in Asia-Pacific following Joe Biden’s win in the US presidential elections 

 

SINGAPORE — While it might not be the top priority for businesses, protecting lives and jobs is “very high up” on the Singapore Government’s list, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Nov 19). 

“People need to feel safe, and then they can put their energies and their attention on to their work and their businesses. 

“Their business, of course, wants to keep their business going, but from the Government's point of view, it has to be a balance, and keeping people safe, their jobs, their health, as well as their families, is a very big emphasis,” said Mr Lee during a dialogue with Singapore Business Federation chief executive officer Ho Meng Kit at the APEC CEO Dialogues.  

The pre-recorded dialogue was aired on Thursday as part of the two-day event organised by APEC Business Advisory Council Malaysia, involving business and government leaders in the region.

“I would say on Singapore's behalf, I would come down on the side of making sure that people are safe and healthy, and well-treated medically. Having secured that, I make sure that I look after my economy. But we will not forget the businesses,” added Mr Lee. 

He compared Singapore’s stance to the United States, where there is a divide between the Democrats and Republicans on what their priorities should be. 

The Democrats tend to emphasise on keeping people safe from Covid-19, while the Republicans have been focused on the economy and keeping businesses going, even at the risk of Covid-19 “bursting out and costing lives”, he said.

During the 37-minute dialogue, Mr Lee also covered a number of other topics, including whether Asia’s approach in handling the Covid-19 pandemic is better than the strategies taken in the US and Europe, and whether Singapore was able to collaborate internationally to tackle the effects of the coronavirus.  

Here are the prime minister’s views on three other topics:

1. What is missing from virtual meetings with leaders of other countries? 

Mr Lee said that while the meeting proper is “not so bad” because everyone still gets to say his piece, what is missed outside of these meetings are the informal interactions. 

“So online or not, you listen to one another. But what you miss is informal interactions, the chance to chat, a bit of corridor serendipitous meeting, when you just bump into somebody and you have a useful exchange and he picks up something useful or you share a tidbit of information,” he said. 

In particular, he said the lack of these chance meetings makes it harder to establish a relationship with leaders whom he has not met before — Japan’s new prime minister Yoshihide Suga is one such example. 

“I have met him virtually at the Asean meetings, but I have not met him in person, and you do need to engage in person for him to know what you are like, and for you to feel what he is like, and become comfortable with one another,” he said. 

2. Under the Biden administration in the US, what will change for Asia Pacific? 

Progress in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has been “very slow”, said Mr Lee.  

He attributed this in part to the US’ approach of dealing with issues bilaterally rather than on a multilateral basis. 

Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the US has also not been supportive of trade as a win-win proposition, he added. 

“The attitude of the Trump administration is that this is a win-lose proposition. If I have a trade surplus with you, that’s good for me. If I have a trade deficit with you, that’s bad for me,” he said, stressing that trade is “not like that”.

“Trade is a win-win – I may have a surplus with you, I have a deficit with somebody else, but it does not matter, as long as overall it balances out,” he said.

Mr Lee expects this approach to change under US President-elect Joe Biden’s administration and hoped for a “more constructive” approach.

“I think there will be more multilateralists. I think that they will be more supportive of the WTO (World Trade Organization) and of APEC,” he said.

3. When will life return to normal?

Mr Lee said it will take “several years” for life to return to normal, pointing out that even if a Covid-19 vaccine is available by the beginning of next year, it will probably be 2022 by the time it gets rolled out to a significant proportion of the population.

Travel is not going to return to normal next year, he said, although it may be possible to extend travel to more people “maybe in two years’ time”. 

Even after Covid-19 is gone, there will be lasting changes, he said, given that people would have gotten used to working remotely, doing businesses online, trading, buying things, making commitments online and travelling less.

Meanwhile, he said it had been “very challenging” to allow entertainment outlets to open up safely because the whole point of entertainment is to “let your hair down”.

“Even if you have rules, when you want to relax and have a drink and then sing some song, or dance in an entertainment lounge, karaoke, it is a completely different mindset altogether,” he said.

Mr Lee said the Government is trying to avoid a second lockdown and does not want to put the population on a psychological “rollercoaster”.

“People will be discouraged, maybe demoralised, certainly will be angsty and fractious,” he said of another lockdown. 

“It is not easy to maintain solidarity in the face of a threat, which keeps on being there, going away and coming again, going away and coming back again.”

Related topics

Lee Hsien Loong Jobs economy Covid-19 SBF Ho Meng Kit

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