Mr Lee Yi Shyan at the Launch of Food Republic Privilege Card Initiative, 8 Apr 2011

SPEECH BY MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY AND MANPOWER MR LEE YI SHYAN AT THE LAUNCH OF FOOD REPUBLIC PRIVILEGE CARD INITIATIVE, FRIDAY, 8 APRIL 2011, FOOD REPUBLIC (WISMA ATRIA)

Mr Oh Eng Lock, Group CEO of Bread talk Group

Members of the Retail Price Watch Group

Friends from the media

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Afternoon. I am happy to join you at the launch of Food Republic’s Privilege Card.

Singapore is a small and open economy. As we import nearly all of our food and consumables, we are vulnerable to any increase in global commodity prices.

However, the government is alert to price fluctuations that impact on the day to day living of our people.

In fact, we have various measures to mitigate the effects of inflation. One of the key strategies is to strengthen the Singapore dollar. This dampens the cost of imported goods including essential food items.

Of course, we cannot strengthen Sing dollars disproportionately at the expense of export competitiveness too.

To mitigate the impact of inflation on particularly the lower- and middle- income groups, the government has rolled out the $3.2 billion ‘Grow & Share 'Package.

In fact, starting from 1 May (date), Singaporean will receive components of Growth & Share Package as follows:

1 May – Growth Dividends will be given to all adult Singaporeans aged 21 years old and above in 2011.Majority of Singaporeans will receive $600 to $800 each. Singaporeans with lower incomes or who live in smaller homes will receive a larger Dividend.

1 May – The Government will top up the CPF Medisave Accounts of Singaporeans aged 45years old and above. About 1.3 million Singaporeans will benefit from the

CPF Medisave Top-Up

, which will cost the Government $504 million.

15 May – The Government will make the first Workfare Special Bonus Payment to workers who qualify for the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme for work done in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Workfare Special Bonus will benefit about 400,000 workers each year and is expected to cost the Government about $450 million in total.

In April 2011 – Eligible households will be notified of the additional U-Save rebates, on top of the rebates that they will already receive in 2011 and 2012 under the GST Offset Package. The U-Save rebates will be given out in April 2011, July 2011 and January 2012

The other measure is the setting up of the Retail Price Watch Group (RPWG) I chair and some of the Committee members are here.

RPWG keeps a close watch on excessive price increases and anti-competitive behavior from businesses in Singapore. We also work with grassroots leaders to provide the public with information about competitive alternatives.

For example, the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore has been working closely with International Enterprise (IE) Singapore to encourage wholesalers in the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre to buy from diversified sources of supply. In that way, our consumers are always in the position to purchase food items at the world’s best prices.

While many of our wet markets and hawker centers purchase their raw materials from Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, most other consumers purchase our grocery and food items from supermarket chains. This was the reason RPWG secured the commitment of NTUC Fair price, Sheng Siong and Dairy Farm Group to maintain the prices of various house-brand food items for 6 months. In that way, price stability of key food items will benefit a broad section of the consumers.

I am pleased to note that our hawker centers and wet markets had similar expressed their support for price stability. From Kovan, Hougang, Serangoon North and Radin Mas to Bedok, many centers have come forward to voluntarily pledge to hold their prices for at least 6 months.

The response has been truly heartening. To date, more than 600 hawkers have committed to maintaining prices.

They believe, by publicizing their price assurance efforts, they can maintain or even improve their margins with greater sales volume. It will be a win-win for them and the consumers.

This afternoon, we are seeing Food court chains getting into action too. NTUC Food fare, Food Junction and Food Republic, have also come up with various initiatives to help the consumers.

Food Junction and 100 per cent of its tenants have pledged to maintain their prices for the next six months. This is across all its 13 food courts or a total of 216 stalls. The scale of participation among Food Junction’s tenants clearly demonstrates their support for to serve the community.

Food Republic is helping consumers with the launch of its Privilege Card. The prices at Food Republic’s Drinks Stall, Desserts Stall and Juice Bar will also be maintained for six months.

Together with the 600 hawker stalls which pledged price assurance earlier, we will have more than 1,000 stalls committed to price assurance. They are doing their part to help ease the pressures of inflation.

In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to thank all our participating stalls and chains for their support for price stability. We welcome creative many more creative ideas that help consumers save.

Thank you.