“disciplined and prudent”, Mr. Heng eloquently outlined the different methods that the government will employ in order to finance spending in his Budget debate round-up speech.
“We have yet to decide on the exact timing of the GST increase and we will exercise care when doing so. We will continue to monitor the prevailing economic conditions, trends in expenditure, and buoyancy of our revenues,” Mr. Heng said, adding that there will also be a transitional package. Mr. Heng highlighted the importance of the reserves, with the NIRC – derived from returns on invested reserves – as the largest contributor of government revenue. Declining Workers’ Party MP Pritam Singh’s request for more data on the reserves, he noted that having the reserves as “a strategic asset” helped Singapore weather the global financial crisis.According to PM Lee, no single model of sustainable development works for all countries.
To sustain growth and keep up with the times, Singapore leaders have also made a conscious effort to incessantly re-invest the resources the economy has generated into the development of human capital, R&D, and the detection of new zones of growth.