Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Thank you, Sir, and I thank the Minister for his reply. I assume he is answering the question that I filed for tomorrow as well.
Sir, given that Singapore is such an attractive destination for marquee events, why is there even a need to give taxpayer-funded grants to attract them? And secondly, did the Government negotiate to make Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour the only blank space in Southeast Asia and did it realise that this may be perceived by some of our neighbours as being mean?
Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai: Sir, I will try not to make my answer the 10-minute version. Mr Giam filed a question for tomorrow with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on STB’s position on grants. That will be taken separately; so, I am not answering on behalf of STB.
On the Member’s two questions, well, let me deal with the second, which I think is also related to the first question. The real question is this: you have to make your calculations and work out what is in Singapore’s and Singaporeans’ best interests. If you do not have a certain economy of scale to play in Singapore over “x” number of nights for a period of time, you would not be able to reap the economies of scale. Then, there is going to be a very different balance to the considerations. The concert might take place in Singapore but for far fewer nights, or it might not even take place at all in Singapore.
So, we have got to look at the overall calculation and decide for a particular event, what is the resonance with Singapore, Singaporeans? What international, regional draw might it have? We make this calculation overall and it is not in every case that we decide that we need to make a grant, or we need to negotiate in a particular way. Every event, whether it is lifestyle, sporting, arts, culture or music, has a different consideration. We are motivated by different outcomes that we want to achieve. So, whether we shape it in one way, give a grant in another way, or organise our framework to host the event in a particular way, all that is shaped by the outcomes that we want to achieve.
In this case, we were mindful that if we looked at it holistically, if we wanted an opportunity for Singapore to be one of the stops, and then you look at the past tour history, it is very difficult to be one or two nights alone because of the set-up. So, we had to look at that as quite a material consideration for discussing with the Taylor Swift team on how long and for what duration to host it in Singapore. And then we also have to judge what is the demand that we have in the local market.
So, these, I hope, explain to Mr Giam some of the suite of considerations that we have in deciding how to approach this, which events to put a grant out to, on what terms, how to structure it and also taking into account the overall demand and objectives in Singapore.
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth
4 March 2024
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-3509
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 