21 July 2016
Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said that rapid urbanisation and ageing, as well as the influx of immigrants, has caused much anxiety in many global cities.
Speaking at a forum at the World Cities Summit, Mr Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, said that people must feel that their lives can improve and that an open economy “need not be a zero-sum game”.
He said that the country needs strategies that give people good jobs as well as good lives. He also said that we have to find ways to take advantage of an open global economy in a way that doesn’t result in a zero-sum game; whilst there will always be some people winning more than others, everyone has to see their lives improving.
This requires government intervention as well as social compacts in the form of provision of training and resources to secure new jobs.
Mr Tharman also opined that at some point, Singapore’s retirement age has to be abolished.
He added that older workers must be seen an asset worth investing in.