Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, Sir, from a recent reply to my Parliamentary Question, we now know that residents aged 25 years old with below Secondary education have a life expectancy 5.8 years lower than that with those with post-Secondary education. I thank the Minister for Health for the detailed answer. We also learntContinue reading “COS 2021: Tackling Healthcare Inequality”
Category Archives: COS 2021: Leon Perera
COS 2021: Fossil Fuel Industry Workers
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mdm Chairman, OPEC forecasts that the green transition in shocks like COVID-19 place a big question mark over the future for oil markets. Last year, Shell announced its intent to axe 500 jobs or 38% of its Pulau Bukom workforce and aims to reduce its global workforce by up to 9,000Continue reading “COS 2021: Fossil Fuel Industry Workers”
COS 2021: Citizenship Education
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, during the COS debates in 2020, MOE announced that Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) would be refreshed, reinforcing the teaching of moral values increasing emphasis on mental health and cyber wellness, engaging students more actively in contemporary issues and being more integrated into subjects and activities. There is growingContinue reading “COS 2021: Citizenship Education”
COS 2021: Work Passes for Foreigners
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, in October 2020, I called for a mix of fixed-term and non-fixed term work passes for foreigners, to attract investments in next-generation industries and stave off job displacements. Such a mix could be offered to investors for specific projects, especially in highly desirable future-ready industries where Singapore has competitiveContinue reading “COS 2021: Work Passes for Foreigners”
COS 2021: Job Advertisements for Migrant Workers
Mr Leon Perera: Mr Chairman, migrant workers currently pay hefty agency fees to secure a job in Singapore. In 2019 migrant worker NGO TWC2 found that, for the first-timers, the average agency fee paid, especially for Bangladeshi workers, was $7,606 and the median was $7,750. For repeat workers, the average was $4,733 and the medianContinue reading “COS 2021: Job Advertisements for Migrant Workers”
COS 2021: Calibrating Incentives to MNCs and SMEs
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, Singapore provides amongst other things tax incentives for MNCs to set up regional headquarters and other investments because they contribute towards our economy. SMEs, which are the backbone of our economy, making up 72% of employment and 44% of added nominal value in 2019, also received support. But theContinue reading “COS 2021: Calibrating Incentives to MNCs and SMEs”
COS 2021: SGX Sustainability Reporting
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, the MAS-regulated Singapore Stock Exchange currently has a “comply and explain” policy on sustainability reporting for its listed companies, which was first announced in 2016. It presents a range of internationally accepted standards which companies are encouraged to choose and follow, but are not mandatory. This has resulted inContinue reading “COS 2021: SGX Sustainability Reporting”
COS 2021: Sovereign Wealth Funds and Green Investments
Mr Leon Perera: Mr Chairman, I am heartened by the growing passion and quality of debate inside and outside this House regarding our climate challenges. Our sovereign wealth funds as global players should rightfully play a leading role in the effort to decarbonise. We could kickstart this by having our Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) adopt theContinue reading “COS 2021: Sovereign Wealth Funds and Green Investments”
COS 2021: Reserves Draw-downs
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, the reserves consist of various classes of assets held by Temasek, GIC and the MAS, if we are to exclude land banks. During typical economic crises some asset value such as equities may fall on the whole. This is fairly typical. If a result draw-down is financed by liquidating assetsContinue reading “COS 2021: Reserves Draw-downs”
COS 2021: Performance of Sovereign Wealth Funds
Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, Temasek and GIC, no doubt compare their performance against various global market indices and other standards of performance internally. It would be useful for these Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) to publish these comparisons in the analysis for the reasons for better assessment of their performance. In fact, it wouldContinue reading “COS 2021: Performance of Sovereign Wealth Funds”